FDT Benefits Facility Operations, Maintenance and Engineering Stategies

Gary Mintchell with Manufacturing Connection interviews Glenn Schulz, Managing Director of The FDT Group.

Jun 11th, 2013

Listen to this podcast and learn how FDT Technology can improve your facilities device integration strategy with lifecycle benefits in operations, maintenance and engineering!

Click here to view the podcast interview.

FDT Group

In fall of 2019, Columbia/Okura and Universal Robots developed the miniPAL, a mobile palletizing cobot integrating Universal Robot’s UR10e.

Robotics Special Report: Cobots Continue to Advance

According to a PMMI robot report, cobots accounted for about 3% of all robot sales in North America in 2017; by 2025, that number is expected to increase to 34%. Here are some of the new cobot technologies driving that growth.

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Augmented Reality for Machine Troubleshooting

A look at how workers in Schneider Electric's Batam, Indonesia, factory use Aveva’s Augmented Operator Advisor to perform equipment troubleshooting by focusing on color-coded points of interest on each piece of equipment.

Premier Tech has developed the PSR robotic solution to speed the sorting of nuts at the final stage of the conditioning process.

Robotics Special Report: Addressing Labor Shortages can ‘Help Feed the World’

Robot manufacturer develops a system to alleviate the lack of labor in the nut industry that can sort nuts at the final stage of the conditioning process.

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How COVID-19 is Impacting Automation Decisions

The pause in many ongoing projects as the pandemic hit gave companies more time to think about how to move forward with their automation projects. The result is an increased use of remote access and data analytics.

Quest developed a flexible robotic system to load meat and poultry into an Ossid ReeForm E40 thermoformer.

Robotics Special Report: Food-Safe Solutions Emerge

New opportunities for the direct and indirect handling of foods emerge as manufacturers begin developing robots for handling unpacked goods.

Kawasaki Robotics Trend Manager failure prediction software is designed to help companies avoid unexpected downtime by allowing them to predict failures and fix issues before loss of production.

Robotics Special Report: Big Data is the New Currency

New software systems for robotics collect and analyze data to increase OEE, protect against cyberattacks, and predict failures.

At PACK EXPO Las Vegas in fall 2019, Syntegon’s Pack 102 horizontal flow wrapper with three Fanuc robots was demonstrated loading meal kits.

Robotics Special Report: Vision for the Future

New vision systems for robotics, including 2D and 3D machine vision, enable broader packaging applications.

Technology Matters: OEE, BMW's AI Robots, Cloud Cost Factors

In this episode we look at OEE and its potential role in industry's digital transformation; why BMW developed its own artificial intelligence powered robots; and seven critical cloud cost factors.

The Spider 200i from BluePrint Automation uses a multi-axis robot to pick snack bags on-the-fly and vertically case pack them into a cassette that forms a vertical pack pattern.

Robotics Special Report: Mass Customization Demands Flexibility

A growing omnichannel environment requires that CPGs have the flexibility to produce a range of package sizes and styles. Automation provides that capability.

The SmartGuardUV autonomous mobile robot at work in a warehouse facility. Source: Fetch Robotics

More Disinfecting Robots Come to Market

Increasing numbers of autonomous mobile robots are being developed to help facilities address the need for repeated disinfecting in response to COVID-19.

The MSP-200 features semi-automated changeover, which allows it to convert to different case configurations in less than 10 minutes.

Robotics Special Report: Case Packer for Croutons Saves Dough on Corrugated

Specialty food products manufacturer installs a robotic case packer for croutons that can keep pace with the rest of the packaging line, while saving costs on shelf-ready packaging, as well.

The well-known trunk-and-spur configuration will serve as the general topology for Ethernet-APL. Source: Profibus & Profinet International.

OPC Foundation Joins APL Project; Announces OPC UA Motion

Highlighting its role in the development of new industrial process and discrete communications, the OPC Foundation has joined the advanced physical layer for industrial Ethernet project group and is working with ODVA and Sercos on a new motion technology.

The Cobot Expo will take place online July 28-30.

Cobot Deployment Shines in COVID-19 Pandemic

Leading up to its virtual Cobot Expo this week, Universal Robots highlighted several cases where small companies have been using collaborative automation to keep production going amid the crisis.

Timothy S. Matheny, P.E., president of ECS Solutions.

The Importance of Material Tracing

Traceability on a processing or production line is incredibly important, especially when it comes food products, where having the ability to track every ingredient down to the source is crucial to the health and safety of the consumers.

Can Robots Help Restore Manufacturing During the Pandemic?

In this episode, we connect with Joe Campbell of Universal Robots to learn how manufacturers are deploying collaborative robots to help with social distancing, line reconfiguration, and production flexibility.

The future of manufacturing can't be imagined in a present-forward mindset. Innovation comes from the future-back.

Reverse Engineering the Organization

A new book reveals how “future-back” thinking—defining what the company will look like decades from now and working backwards—can encourage innovative ideas that will create breakthrough growth.

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Hitachi Vantara Expands Its Digital Manufacturing Portfolio

To help manufacturers accelerate Industry 4.0 initiatives and safely restart production during the COVID-19 pandemic, Hitachi Vantara has expanded its Lumada portfolio to address health, safety, and environment issues.

Fine-grained 3D spatial reasoning with semantic and kinematic understanding, plus Instantaneous closed loop future state projection and decision-making. Source: Veo Robotics

Collaborative Robot Safety

How Veo Robotics uses speed and separation monitoring to make industrial robots collaborative.

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Lean Digitization System at Schneider Electric Factory

This video shows how Schneider Electric uses Aveva’s Lean Digitization System to display Andon notifications, line performance, work order management, Kanban, workforce interaction, and quality metrics.

Honeywell’s Jason Urso releases a range of remote capabilities during the Honeywell VTech event.

Remote Technologies From Honeywell Enable Continued Operations

Encouraged by the COVID-19 pandemic to push remote capabilities out to a wider swath of industries, Honeywell Process Solutions has released products and services geared toward remote operations, safety, commissioning, lifecycle services, and more.

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Vibration Mote3

Smart Sensor for Variable Speed Equipment

Petasense releases its Vibration Mote Model 3 smart sensor that detects speed, vibration, and temperature.

Will Aja, vice president customer operations, Panacea Technologies

Protect Your Staff, Protect Your Clients

As COVID-19 continues to shift the way organizations and manufacturing facilities operate, system integrators have the task of finding new ways to ensure that businesses are operating safely while protecting staff.

Technology Matters: 5G, Augmented Reality, and Virtual FATs

In this episode we look at 5G wireless in manufacturing, Emerson Automation Solutions' augmented reality update to Plantweb Optics, and best practices and leadership guidelines for executing virtual factory acceptance tests.

Dr. Frank Melzer (middle) and Marcus Stemler (right) of Festo discuss how digital pneumatics can save energy.

Festo Explores How Digitization Affects Energy, Education

From digital pneumatics to bionic birds, the automation supplier discusses the technologies that will shape the factory of the future.

Application of Hirschmann switches and routers with Forescout.

Belden and Honeywell Expand Cybersecurity Protections

From Belden’s focus on network segmentation to Honeywell’s cybersecurity suite update, technology vendors highlight improved capabilities to secure industrial networks for remote access.

COVID-19's Impact on Industrial Automation

In this episode, we connect with Dan Malyszko of Malisko Engineering to get insights from the front lines of manufacturing about how industry is responding to the production challenges created by the coronavirus pandemic.

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Siemens and SAP Integrate Software Applications

To deliver software that can address asset management, supply chain, and product lifecycle operations, SAP and Siemens have created a new partnership to help drive industry’s digital transformation.

Screwdriver B Bit Qc

Plug-and-Play Intelligent Robot Screwdriver

OnRobot releases its Screwdriver product with precise torque control for repetitive assembly applications.

Brian Fenn is vice president of operations, at Avanceon

Manufacturing Data: “Like a Mule with a Spinning Wheel”

Data storage is cheap, but not all data is valuable. Being able to collect, breakdown, and analyze any and all potentially valuable and actionable information is integral to any manufacturer.

With more than 1,000 disks on each sheet, disk picking by hand was extremely time-consuming.

Delta Robot Eases Encoder Disk Production

US Digital operators can focus on more important tasks while a new robotic workstation handles disk-picking duty for the company’s new optical kit encoder.

Dr. Ananth Seshan, member, International Board of Directors, MESA International

Digital Transformation for Small and Medium Manufacturers

Small and medium manufacturers have largely been hesitant to make the transition to a smart manufacturing system due to concerns over the cost and time investment. However, those hesitations may not actually be true when the implementation is done right.

Larry White, executive director, Resource Consumption Accounting Institute

Effective Manufacturing Analytics Need Finance and IT

As digital manufacturing continues to expand, and the associated advanced analytics capabilities, organizations need to align information technology, finance, and manufacturing resources to ensure that the business is successful.