In this exclusive article, the Head of NBC (Nordic Baltics Countries) Torbjörn Lundberg from SMC shares insights on the ever-evolving world of automation and its profound impact on various industries.
This article addresses the trends within factory automation and points at some scenarios and possible threats to the development.
Background
Factory automation is mature business as the manufacturing industry itself. A lot has been done during the years but there are still much more to do. Factory automation or mechanised execution of work took off in the early 1900s, in the middle of the second industrial revolution, when manual power was replaced by chain or sequential technology to soon be supplemented with electric motors and pneumatics. The reason for this was simply that one of the most important ingredients and conditions for continued growth began to end – the availability of cheap, trained and flexible workforce.
The same is about to happen once again. The industrialised world is turning more and more towards a service economy. The newly industrials countries are manufacturing more and developing countries are leaving farming and other rural practises for their industrial revolution. An economy cannot be built on only services and the debate is high about keeping the industry jobs in our country. Almost all industrialised countries have a fertility rate below 2,1 which is the number that keeps a population stable. It means that every woman give birth to, on average, 2,1 child. If it is lower, eventually, the population will become extinct.
Until now, Sweden has managed these challenges by importing labour, mainly from less developed countries. However, one day these countries will need their labour force themselves and what do we do then? – AUTOMATE! In other words, the level of automation is very likely to increase.
A large part of the factory automation takes place with so-called industrial pneumatics. A movement; linear, twisting, gripping, etc. are created by directing compressed air on the right side of a piston in a cylinder. The difference in pressure, on the other side of the piston (differential pressure), causes the movement. Electric linear units and actuators are also increasingly creating movements.
The technology has developed rapidly and even very complicated and precise movements can be achieved. All this is a prerequisite for automating more and more applications.
Sometimes the compressed air, as a way of creating a movement has been accused for not being energy efficient. This is possibly true for old installation and some specific applications however, for most modern machines the energy consumption is not a big issue.
Below follows some examples on trends within automation in general and industrial pneumatics in particular:
Miniaturisation
Products are getting smaller and smaller. This saves material and by that saves electricity in the production of the components. To produce 1 kg of aluminium from Bauxite requires 80 kWh of electricity. To produce it from scrap aluminium requires the figure 5 – 10 kWh N.B. this includes everything around the production and not just the electrolysis. BUT one saved kg of aluminium does not consume any electricity at all!
Smaller components also enables more applications to be robotised as the weight and thereby the moment of inertia is lowered.
Another effect of smaller components is that the machine can be made smaller and therefore takes up less space. A side effect is also that the cycle time is easier to shorten, again due to less moment of inertia.
Long-term sustainability and Energy efficiency
Most companies today have a programme for and report their activities towards a long-term sustainable way of operating their business. An area where improvements are relatively easy to achieve is in compressed air systems. Sustainably produced and properly used, compressed air is a good and versatile power source. It is easy to store and transport and it is clean and harmless in its re-expanded state. Compressed air tools and pneumatic components are often lighter than corresponding powered variants and an air driven cylinder can withstand higher loads and speeds than an electrically driven actuator.
Thinking smart is thinking through the entire chain. We will produce the compressed air in a sustainable way and we will also consume it equally sustainably. It is all about reducing the leakage in the compressed air network to optimising different parts where the compressed air is used, such as blow, vacuum and cylinder applications. In addition, the pressure in the plant is often unnecessarily high and a reduction in pressure lead to several advantages from an energy perspective. That being said, it is important to analyse, measure and evaluate not only the production of compressed air but also the actual use and to have an energy thinking already at the machine design so that smart solutions are built from the beginning.
Already at the actual compressed air production, a company can make great savings by choosing the right compressor for the task. A speed-controlled compressor adapts the air production to the actual demand and consumes significantly less energy than a traditional on / off-regulated machine. With the aid of systems for water or airborne energy recovery, one can then utilize most of the energy that is needed in the production of compressed air.
A very large number of products tailored to reduce the air consumption is available on the market and more is coming all the time. The measuring of pressure and airflow in a compressed air system, with warnings for abnormal situations, enables corrective action at a very early stage. Here can also be seen a fast development towards more sophisticated systems with the use of large data collections and machine learning leading to less unplanned stops and predictive maintenance.
Integration
A cylinder is typically not only a cylinder but also a complete machine element. Especially in the field of guided cylinders. The so-called H-guide was a common solution some 20 years ago, today these guided, non-rotating cylinders are standard products. The price for a guided cylinder, although it is 4 times higher, compared to the bare cylinder, still the cost is a fraction compared to if the company should produce something similar themselves.
H-guide and two guided cylinders. They all have the same stroke and bore and both of the two complete machine elements have considerably better performance than the H-guide.
Another form of integration is the integrated valve in the cylinder. This gives a large reduction in air consumption, as the air in the tubes do not need to be evacuated. It also gives movements that are more precise.
This is especially effective for vacuum applications where an ejector is located on or very close to the vacuum pad. Again, the reason is that there are no tubes to evacuate the air from.
Wireless
In the consumer market everything gets wireless but the industry is more cautious and slow to adopt this technology. One reason is the reliability especially when using the 2,4 GHz band. But modern technologies can manage also this. In some areas, it is very easy to see the benefit e.g. field bus applications where the signal can the transmitted wireless. Some of the advantages:
-
Less cable installation cost, saves, time and money
-
Simple change of layout and even function
It is the signal that is communicated wireless the e.g. The 24 V to operate a pilot valve is still with a cable but also here a trend with better batteries is likely to change also this. Already today, there are applications with battery-operated components. In a resting position, such batteries can be charged.
On the same theme, semiconductor sensors has become very inexpensive. Cloud computing also and on top of that the communication via e.g. 3G, 4G telecom net very reliable. This will “invade” the machines in the near future, keeping track of the running conditions and the “health” of the machines. Changes in compressed air flow rate and pressure, temperature, vibrations etc. are all strong indicators of malfunction. It gives an easy way of detecting these measurements and comparing with what is normal which in turn enables a predictive maintenance and considerably less unplanned stops.
Machine safety
Rules for installation of electrical circuits are in all countries stringent and regulated by law and the state at least when consumers are involved. For the industry and other means of automating a production, the rules have been less strict. The first real attempt to do this is the EU-directive for Machines and the surrounding directives. The trend is however, at the machine, safety is becoming more and more important, and more and more regulated.
Conclusion
Automation in general will increase and the pneumatic method of achieving this will last for many, many years, it is still the most reliable and “forgiving” way of providing a movement. The digitalisation will come also here and make e.g. predictive maintenance easy to realise. The impact of a long-term sustainability pushes components towards smaller and lower weight and for pneumatics, especially, towards lowered air consumption.
Huddinge 2019-06-24
Torbjörn Lundberg
