The Dawn of Smart Manufacturing in Sheet Metal Processing
The Dawn of Smart Manufacturing in Sheet Metal Processing
Date：2024-02-12 16:30
The industrial sector is changing as much as the Industrial Revolution itself with the coming of Industry 4.0. While sheet metal processing has always been a field dominated by manual labor and conventional machinery, it now finds itself at the leading edge of today's current revolution. This isn't just a trend; in order to stay competitive in a fast-evolving market, we must move toward smart manufacturing systems. Three "technologies" lie underneath our smart system transformation: the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and artificial intelligence (AI).
How we gather and sift through information has changed completely with the Internet of Things. This new era of technology has provided not just a revolution but also an evolution in the way people process and obtain knowledge. When we talk about IoT, we are really discussing an unprecedented interconnectedness between the world of computers and the physical environment. In such a reality, every conceivable object—from your ordinary kitchen spoon to a massive piece of industrial machinery—can be embedded with sensors that monitor its state, processes if it were a human brain, and then interact with the internet. The mostly continuous stream of data being generated offers an unprecedented insight into the performance, quality, and spatial inefficiencies of a given object and its environment.
The analytical brain of smart manufacturing is now cloud computing, which has come to offer immense computational and storage power that was once unobtainable for many manufacturers. The platforms that these firms use now for "working smart" are overwhelmingly cloud-based. And this is the case from the very basic, such as the use of Metal Analyzer (MA)—an application that uses cloud storage and processing power to run machines in a closed loop. That is, an MA-enabled machine first scans the workpiece; the machine then compares the amount of variance detected across the surface of the workpiece with a stored ideal. When we consider all of the cloud-based smart applications that can be deployed at every stage of the sheet metal processing value chain, from design and CAM to right through to inspection, the enormity of the potential for data-driven smart manufacturing in this sector is staggering.
Smart manufacturing has a lot to owe to artificial intelligence. The promise of smart manufacturing is not only to comprehend the production process but also to enhance it, and at the very core of that lies AI. It is important to note here that AI is not a monolith; it includes a variety of tools and techniques. At its very heart are algorithms that can spot patterns within data. Those patterns give insights into the production process, which can be used to enhance it. Insights gleaned from patterns can be used to not just understand the production process but also optimize it. Indeed, AI can learn the production process; it can understand its intricacies, can comprehend its many different aspects and layers, and can mean, in many cases, the end of the era of manual optimization.
The intelligent self-improvement of the interconnected manufacturing environment is achieved by smart decisions made in real time. These decisions are made by AI using the data that IoT devices collect. The cloud is the environment where this data is stored, and when the data universe becomes dense enough, it acts like a performer on a stage. The possibilities for the interconnected, intelligent, and "self-evolving" manufacturing environment to suit our needs are almost limitless.
The transformation of sheet metal processing from a taut production line where everything is "just so" to an adaptable and flexible space where anything is possible will be as dramatic as the side-to-side movement of a sheet of metal through a series of manufactured spaces and time.
How we gather and sift through information has changed completely with the Internet of Things. This new era of technology has provided not just a revolution but also an evolution in the way people process and obtain knowledge. When we talk about IoT, we are really discussing an unprecedented interconnectedness between the world of computers and the physical environment. In such a reality, every conceivable object—from your ordinary kitchen spoon to a massive piece of industrial machinery—can be embedded with sensors that monitor its state, processes if it were a human brain, and then interact with the internet. The mostly continuous stream of data being generated offers an unprecedented insight into the performance, quality, and spatial inefficiencies of a given object and its environment.
The analytical brain of smart manufacturing is now cloud computing, which has come to offer immense computational and storage power that was once unobtainable for many manufacturers. The platforms that these firms use now for "working smart" are overwhelmingly cloud-based. And this is the case from the very basic, such as the use of Metal Analyzer (MA)—an application that uses cloud storage and processing power to run machines in a closed loop. That is, an MA-enabled machine first scans the workpiece; the machine then compares the amount of variance detected across the surface of the workpiece with a stored ideal. When we consider all of the cloud-based smart applications that can be deployed at every stage of the sheet metal processing value chain, from design and CAM to right through to inspection, the enormity of the potential for data-driven smart manufacturing in this sector is staggering.
Smart manufacturing has a lot to owe to artificial intelligence. The promise of smart manufacturing is not only to comprehend the production process but also to enhance it, and at the very core of that lies AI. It is important to note here that AI is not a monolith; it includes a variety of tools and techniques. At its very heart are algorithms that can spot patterns within data. Those patterns give insights into the production process, which can be used to enhance it. Insights gleaned from patterns can be used to not just understand the production process but also optimize it. Indeed, AI can learn the production process; it can understand its intricacies, can comprehend its many different aspects and layers, and can mean, in many cases, the end of the era of manual optimization.
The intelligent self-improvement of the interconnected manufacturing environment is achieved by smart decisions made in real time. These decisions are made by AI using the data that IoT devices collect. The cloud is the environment where this data is stored, and when the data universe becomes dense enough, it acts like a performer on a stage. The possibilities for the interconnected, intelligent, and "self-evolving" manufacturing environment to suit our needs are almost limitless.
The transformation of sheet metal processing from a taut production line where everything is "just so" to an adaptable and flexible space where anything is possible will be as dramatic as the side-to-side movement of a sheet of metal through a series of manufactured spaces and time.
Share to：
Recommend wonderful blog posts