Smart factories, factories of the future, lights-out manufacturing – call it what you will, but it’s all rooted in the same Industry 4.0 idea. At its core, Industry 4.0 refers to the integration of digital technologies into manufacturing, connecting machines and automation with powerful software to make production smarter, more connected and more autonomous.
Since its introduction into the manufacturing lexicon almost a decade ago, Industry 4.0 has gained steam in myriad ways. Equipment manufacturers have specifically developed their machines to be equipped for connectivity while sensor technology is constantly improving, feeding manufacturers with real-time actionable data. Automated material handling is available in every iteration imaginable, and over the years, it’s all become easier to use, more accessible and more affordable.
Like the other leading equipment manufacturers in the industry, Prima Power has a comprehensive catalog of the tools customers need to establish their own streamlined environments. Prima, however, looks at the end goals of Industry 4.0 in a different way. While the company’s “evolved by integration” philosophy focuses on integrating machines and software, the team there takes it a step further.
Martin Davis, Prima’s system sales engineer, says that while the Industry 4.0 philosophy is primarily rooted in the physical process of tying machines together, there is more to the story.
“For Prima Power, it isn’t just machine to machine; it has to be about the customer’s process, too,” Davis explains. “It requires a conversation about the customers’ processes and applications – not just looking at new machinery but understanding how customers are manufacturing and producing their parts today. With that baseline, we can better determine how to fold our different tools and software into their entire manufacturing process to ultimately achieve an FMS or flexible manufacturing system.
“Other companies use different terminology, but for us, the beauty of FMS is that the end goal can be many things,” he says. “Lights-out manufacturing is a great thing to shoot for, but is that what every fabricator is looking for? Many are trying to reduce man hours, run certain orders overnight or just store their materials in an easier, more organized way.”
Stepping stones
When Prima works with a customer, the first order of business is to look at their application to determine the most fluid way to get a part from the front office into production and then out for shipping. From there, Davis and his team can begin the discussion about the hardware and software that can accomplish the task.
Prima’s modular approach to machine and software design serves as the key to achieving a truly tailored solution. There is a breadth of options available, and the team at Prima is ready to help customers establish a clear starting point. To explain, Davis uses a typical high-mix, low-volume fabricator as an example.
“If I’m working with a typical job shop, we’re probably going to look at a punch-laser combo or a flat laser because they need that type of flexibility,” he says. “Given that everything is modular, we wouldn’t look at a fully automated system to start out. Instead, we might start with a flat laser with basic swapping tables.”
Six months down the line, he says, the job shop wants to change over materials even faster. And at that point, options like a tower or part sorting and stacking no longer seem so intimidating. Davis says it’s all about getting acclimated to advanced automation and then growing it as the business grows.
“It doesn’t have to be one huge investment,” he says. “It can start as simple as the basic swapping tables, and given our modularity, we can add on to that when they’re ready. We can start wherever their comfort level is and scale as needed.”
Prima’s Fast Loading (FL) storage tower, for example, could be the next stepping stone in the job shop’s automation journey. The modular tower can be connected to the flat laser and can start with just one shelving unit, which features three loading positions, where sheet bundles on cassettes can be brought in with a forklift. Material can also be inserted onto cassettes on wooden pallets.
“Most job shops don’t need a full, 20-ft. tower right away,” Davis explains. “Starting out with one place for raw material and one skid for cut parts and skeletons can offer huge productivity increases. It can also set the stage for further additions down the road. We have some machines that are 10-plus years old and we’re still adding onto them.”
New heights
The FL tower, also built to scale with customers’ needs, consists of a Fast Loading Device (FLD), shelving units with the capacity for various material positions, a safety solution as well as Night Train cassettes. Similarly, Prima’s Compact tower is available with the same features as well but specifically tailored to laser machines. Those components, specifically the loading device and cassettes, can be applied to the Night Train Genius for processing standard-size sheets or the Night Train Brilliance for processing large-format sheets, both of which represent the ultimate in Prima’s FMS concept.
The first FMS realized with Prima equipment goes as far back as 1990. Like Prima’s other tower systems, the Night Train FMS automates a customer’s material and information systems while combining individual manufacturing stages into a single – and as always – flexible process. Its modularity and wide range of configurations make it applicable to virtually any application a fabricator of any size may need. Since its conception, the company has learned that the Night Train is just as much about sharing resources as it is about running unmanned.
“When we’re sharing resources, we’re also managing those resources better,” Davis says. “When you go into a facility that is processing a lot of volume, material is everywhere – on carts and racks and on the floor. One cart might have a paper tag with scribbles on it saying what’s there, but the next one might not. Those situations make it hard to manage your inventory, so that’s actually a big benefit of the Night Train system.
“With Night Train, as soon as a truck comes in with skidded raw materials, I can immediately scan it and store it,” he says. “I know exactly how much I have, and it doesn’t get lost on the shop floor. We don’t have forklift drivers running around trying to find that piece of material at the same time it’s needed at the machine.”
Because the Night Train can be connected to multiple machines – cutting, punching and bending – it allows the same skid of materials to be shared for multiple operations and orders. And like the Compact and FL towers, as a company’s business grows and orders increase, additional shelves can be added when the time is right. The Night Train also allows an unlimited number of storage positions.
For even more flexibility, Prima’s FMS technology extends beyond the company’s own range of machines and cells. Its interface allows the integration of other suppliers’ machines, including equipment used for coil-fed processing.
Lasting connections
In terms of the powerful inventory management the FMS concept provides, users have instant access to the number of sheets they’re using and the number of parts they’ve produced thanks to the ability to feed that information back to an ERP.
“It’s yet another method for further connecting everything,” Davis says. “We have a lot of different connectivity options, but just like our machines, when we start talking about software, the conversation starts the same: What’s your application? What processes are you using?
“If a customer is using 3-D models, I know that I can import and unfold them with our software, but if all they have is DXFs, we’ll need to handle that differently,” he adds. “The good thing is that when you buy a machine, our basic CAM software, NC Express, comes with most features – unfolding, nesting, tool pathing, you name it. From there, the biggest thing is going to be training new customers to use it.”
And that’s why Prima places such high priority on training customers and starting where they need it. Initial operator and maintenance training is included with every machine purchase, and advanced training is available on-site at Prima’s Chicago Training and Technology Center (Chicago TTC). The company is also accustomed to training new customers before their machine is even installed.
“It’s totally normal for a new customer to come in to get familiar with the machine and how it works,” Davis says. “When they come to Chicago, we can give them a couple of days of light training to get an intermediate feel of how the machine works, how to turn it on, how to navigate the machine interface, that kind of stuff. That way, when they start training in their own facility with their new machine, they’re already one or two steps ahead.
“On the flip side, we can also do more advanced training, like advanced maintenance or software training,” he adds. “When we’re determining the necessary path to train a customer, we take care to understand what their current process is, so that we can point to the tools in the software that will work best for them.”
Overall, Davis says that Prima’s software is intuitive and easy to use. “If you give me somebody with a little bit of CAM experience, I can have them programming parts in a day and a half.”
From production planning, programming and CAD/CAM simulations to machine monitoring and reporting, Prima’s all-in-one software ecosystem was designed with the company’s core philosophy in mind. It was developed to grow and evolve with customers, and when it’s based on their specific applications and backed by Prima’s extensive support and customization, long-term success is inevitable.
