The sheet metal fabrication sector is enjoying a revolution, led by our old friend, the robot. The use of robots in the shop has driven new levels of productivity and efficiency, even as we maintain the use of some historic manual practices. Recent developments in these new helpers mean that light and heavy works are split more intelligently, boosting what we can expect from our human and robotic counterparts. At the same time, some developments have made the use of CNC tools more natural and efficient. Let’s look at what’s happening with robots, what’s going on with CNC, and a developing practice we call light robotic automation.
The sheet metal fabrication industry is being completely transformed by robotics. Today's robotic arms, which are equipped with sophisticated sensors and artificial intelligence, carry out amazing tasks with unbelievable precision. If you think about it, the robotic tasks in the automotive industry (a major user of sheet metal) must be performed very accurately to ensure that the assembled vehicles operate correctly. GBI's robotic welding system performs those tasks, but doing so requires precise control over not only the robot itself but also the entire system of parts being welded (because, as you might expect, the robot can't exactly "see" what it's doing without a lot of help).
The marriage of the Internet of Things (IoT) and data analytics has revolutionized the sheet metal fabrication industry. IoT devices embedded in shop floor machinery are constantly gathering data—lots of it, in fact—that is being put to good use. By and large, the data are being used to make the operations of the average sheet metal shop more seamless. Quality control is getting an expectational boost as well from the data. So-called adaptive automation is the next big thing in metal fabrication, and it is powered by artificial intelligence (AI). AI algorithms are being used to make better decisions for the human operators. They are also being used to make better decisions in real time on the shop floor.
Sheet metal fabrication is moving toward cooperative human-robot interaction, and the co-robot is at the forefront of this shift. Cobots work alongside humans in what has often been termed "the next safety revolution" on the shop floor. Because they are inherently safe, cobots allow the human operator to continue doing what humans do best—using cognition to solve complex problems. The human brain and the co-robot together are a powerful engine for completing the kinds of tasks that require not just the semblance of thinking but actual thinking and, in some cases, actual feeling. What is often unrecognized is that all this energy put into brain and brawn working together in sheet metal fabrication—on the order of approximately 200 human figures per firm—means something, figuratively and literally, for the industry.
To conclude, the push toward automation in the sheet metal fabrication industry represents a fundamental rethinking of what manufacturing can and should be. The merged components of this automation trend—robotics, CNC technology, and IoT integration, led smartly and precisely by AI—herald a truly "smart" factory. Yet this current moment also finds us at the nexus of a more humanistic vision of what industry can be, where humans working alongside robots and smart tools craft their own "American Dream" by recalibrating the vision for sheet metal fabrication and, thus, for manufacturing in America.