"Robotic revolution" began, many companies have embarked on the "return of the road" of factory automation, the entire automated assembly line began to sporadically appear in large-scale enterprises, and the unmanned factory gradually became the future development trend of the factory. However, despite the government's efforts to promote the robot substitution policy, many companies have actively introduced technology. After the excitement, the equipment has only been “drying” in the production workshop...
Why do some companies clearly use the power of the dead or have little effect?
The following are five misunderstandings of the factory automation reform that experts have summarized. Have you seen the thunder?
Mistake 1: The introduction of robots is an automated upgrade
The application of robots is one of the most representative aspects of automation upgrades, but it does not mean that all problems can be solved. Pneumatic and hydraulic control and non-standard equipment automation is also one of the most important means to achieve automation. Especially for some special applications, robots can not solve, non-standard automation equipment is the answer. Automation upgrades must not be staring at robots. Multiple channels are the best.
Mistake 2: The robot can be bought after buying it
As a smart device, robots are not easy to install and use. If you neglect the development (or secondary development) and application of robots, many robots will not be bought back or used improperly. Taking robots and sports athletes as an analogy, a group of good athletes (robots) plus a good coach (system integrator) is the key to winning the entire team (business).
Mistake 3: Automation can be upgraded in one step
A true automation upgrade is not a simple workstation or replacement of a machine, but an extremely complex system engineering. The automation transformation needs to be able to do what it takes, starting from the more mature automation technology, starting from the site where the factory urgently needs upgrading, and gradually proceeding, and must not be pursued in one step.
Error 4: Any process can be replaced with automation equipment
Products that are produced using automated production lines should have a sufficiently large output; product design and processes should be advanced, stable, and reliable, and remain substantially constant over a longer period of time. Not all processes are suitable for automation. The use of automatic lines in mass production and mass production has significant economic benefits.
Error 5: Realizing Automation is Realizing Industry 4.0
The concept of Industry 4.0 and Made in China 2025 has been very hot recently, and many companies blindly follow suit. Manufacturing companies should pay more attention to the solutions to actual technologies and problems. When it comes to generalized management automation using information as the core technology, the era of Industry 4.0 will also emerge.
Then, if companies need to use industrial robot systems, the first thing to do is to analyze their own production processes and understand their own needs.
First, analyze and understand your own needs
Listen and understand your needs carefully
The use of automated systems to assemble production plants for manufacturing is designed to maximize the efficiency of product production and quality control. We need to go to the production department and become familiar with the production process. It is necessary to study which processes are the shortcomings of the production process and which processes can be automated to replace the artificial ones.
Combine short-term business needs with long-term goals to analyze the return on investment. Do not just look at today or a few years short-term, and decide on the equipment that needs to be purchased.
2, train and recruit talent
If it is necessary to innovate technology, it will inevitably require corresponding technical personnel. Automatic assembly workshops are bound to have a lot of equipment, the company's talent needs to have the ability to quickly learn, you can quickly become familiar with the integrator system.
3, clearly responsible party
Integrators and end users have the responsibility to ensure that the production process is correct. Integrators need to provide equipment and expert-level guidance that meets customer requirements as required. The customer is responsible for providing the relevant information needed for the production of the equipment.
Second, choose reliable system integrators
Industrial automation integration of industrial robots has not risen in China for several years. At present, there is no integrator level certification in China, so we cannot protect our own choice based on these associations or official certifications. So what kind of integrator is relatively reliable?
1, the appropriate size
As a supplier of robotic systems, the scale is very important. This is a large and complete supplier of robots, such as domestic like Xinsong, ABB abroad, system integration and robotics. It is also a small and sophisticated robot supplier with only a few employees, such as UR, such as KMT.
Greatness does not necessarily mean better. Smallness does not mean that strength is not enough.
2, professional fields
A qualified integrator is targeted at industry application integration. They are not only familiar with industrial robots, but also need to understand the industry's production standards, production requirements, and production processes. A good robot company can't make a good robot system. The integrator sold to the customer must be a robot that can produce the customer's product, not the robot itself.
3, professional engineer team and project management team
When contacting professional robot system integrators, their professional technicians or sales staff will provide detailed project management and implementation details, will listen to your needs, and suggest that you conduct a feasibility analysis or preliminary trial production. . You can try to understand the composition of the integrator's technicians, see if there are expert engineers with years of work experience, or a large number of young graduates.
4, professional documents
Professional robot system integrators generally have their standard products, as well as technical documents for their standard products. Generally for different customers, they will make independent technical documents. If it is a foreign integrator, they will also provide translation documents, which of course may generate costs.
5, promised spare parts
Although the stability of industrial robots has made great progress in recent years, they are still machines. No one in the world has ever invented a perpetual motion machine or a machine that will never wear out. Therefore, your robot will still experience some failures. Therefore, you must understand whether your supplier can provide you with the required spare parts.
6, professional services
If your company is a small and medium-sized company, the cost of training a technical service staff for this system is a huge cost, that is, you may depend on your suppliers for most of the problems.
A professional system integrator will have a dedicated service department to handle equipment service issues. They generally provide telephone support, email support, or their devices are equipped with remote support capabilities.
7, clear warranty
The last thing you need to understand is about the warranty. What must be clarified is the time limit of the warranty they provide, whether the warranty is based on three shifts, or if the warranty is limited.
Factory Automation (abbreviation: FA), factory automation, also known as shop automation. Refers to the nature of automating all or part of a product's manufacturing process: It means that the entire plant implements integrated automation. It includes the automation of processes such as design, manufacturing, and processing, as well as the automation of information flow such as internal corporate management, market information processing, and inter-enterprise information linkage.
It is listed as the six leading new technologies of the contemporary era along with information and communication, office automation, new materials, bioengineering, health care and medical technology. Its conventional method of composition is to connect various processing automation equipment and flexible production lines (FML), coordinate computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) systems, and coordinate the work under centralized management of the central computer so that the entire factory can produce Realize comprehensive automation.
In industrial production, automation and intelligence are becoming more and more popular. Let's take a look at the factory standard of an FA.
NO.1 controller: the brain of an automated factory
The controller (English name: controller) refers to a master command device that changes the main circuit or control circuit wiring in a predetermined order and changes the resistance value in the circuit to control the start, speed, brake, and reverse of the motor.
It consists of a program counter, an instruction register, an instruction decoder, a timing generator, and an operation controller. It is a "decision making agency" that issues commands, that is, the operation of coordinating and directing the entire computer system.
The controllers commonly used in automated factories include plc, industrial control computers, etc.
Programmable logic controller (PLC), which uses a type of programmable memory for its internal stored procedures, perform logic operations, sequence control, timing, counting and arithmetic operations and other user-oriented instructions, and through Digital or analog input/output controls various types of machinery or production processes.
NO.2 Robots: Performers in Automated Factories
Robot, a robot is a machine device that performs work automatically. It can accept human command, run pre-arranged procedures, or act according to the principles set out by artificial intelligence.
Its task is to assist or replace human work, such as production, construction, or dangerous work. Robots generally consist of actuators, drives, detection devices and control systems, and complex machinery.
NO.3 Servo Motor: Automated Factory Powered Muscle
A servomotor is an engine that controls the operation of a mechanical component in a servo system and is an auxiliary motor indirect transmission.
The servo motor can control the speed and position accuracy very accurately. It can convert the voltage signal into torque and speed to drive the control object.
Servo motor rotor speed is controlled by the input signal, and can react quickly. In the automatic control system, it is used as an actuator. It has characteristics such as small electromechanical time constant, high linearity and starting voltage, etc., and can receive the electrical signal. Convert to angular displacement or angular velocity output on the motor shaft.
Divided into two major categories of DC and AC servo motor, its main feature is that when the signal voltage is zero, there is no rotation phenomenon, and the speed decreases as the torque increases.
NO.4 Sensor: The Touch of an Automation Factory
The sensor (English name: transducer/sensor) is a detection device that can sense the measured information and can transform the sensed information into electrical signals or other desired forms of information output to satisfy the information. The requirements for transmission, processing, storage, display, recording and control.
It is the first link to achieve automatic detection and automatic control.
In modern industrial production, especially in the automated production process, various sensors are used to monitor and control the various parameters in the production process so that the equipment operates in a normal state or an optimal state, and the products achieve the best quality. Therefore, it can be said that without a large number of excellent sensors, modern production will lose its foundation.
NO.5 Inverter: Converters for Automation Plants
Variable frequency drive (VFD) is the application of frequency conversion technology and microelectronics technology to control the AC motor power control equipment by changing the frequency of the motor power supply.
The inverter is mainly composed of rectification (AC to DC), filtering, inverter (DC to AC), brake unit, drive unit, and detection unit micro-processing unit.
The inverter adjusts the voltage and frequency of the output power supply by breaking the internal IGBT, and provides the required power supply voltage according to the actual needs of the motor, thereby achieving the purpose of energy saving and speed control. In addition, the inverter has many protection functions. , such as over-current, over-voltage, overload protection and so on.
NO.6 Solenoid Valve: Switch for Automation Factory
An electromagnetic valve is an electromagnetically controlled industrial device that is an automated basic element for controlling fluids. It is an actuator and is not limited to hydraulic and pneumatic.
It is used to adjust the direction, flow rate, speed and other parameters of the media in the industrial control system. Solenoid valves can be combined with different circuits to achieve the desired control, and the control accuracy and flexibility can be guaranteed.
There are many kinds of solenoid valves. Different solenoid valves play a role in different positions of the control system. The most commonly used ones are check valves, safety valves, directional control valves, and speed control valves.
NO.7 Industrial Camera: Automated Factory Spectacles
Industrial cameras are a key component of the machine vision system. Its most essential function is to convert optical signals into ordered AFT-808 industrial high-definition industrial cameras.
The industrial camera is generally installed on the machine assembly line instead of the human eye to make measurements and judgments, and is converted into an image signal through a digital image capture target and transmitted to a dedicated image processing system.
The image system performs various operations on these signals to extract the characteristics of the target, and then controls the equipment operation in the field according to the result of the discrimination.
NO.8 Instrumentation: the regulating system of an automated factory
Instrumentation (instrumentation) Instruments and meters are instruments or devices used to detect, measure, observe, and calculate various physical quantities, material compositions, and physical properties. Vacuum leak detectors, pressure gauges, length gauges, microscopes, multipliers, etc. all belong to the instrument.
In the automated factory, various instruments and meters are needed. For example, measuring parameters such as pressure, liquid level, flow rate, and temperature, etc., requires related instrumentation.
NO.9 Automation Software: Heart of Automation Factory
Automation Software, due to the industrial control system's integration of management and control trends, enables industrial control systems to communicate with traditional IT management systems and the Internet. Internal software is increasingly used as general-purpose software, general-purpose hardware, and general-purpose protocols.
The more common is the SCADA automation software.
SCADA automation system (supervisory control and data acquisition) is what we call data acquisition and monitoring system. It is mainly a system supported by computer technology and automatic control of various production processes.
SCADA automation software can automate accurate monitoring of production for long periods of time under unattended conditions, and obtain valid information data from it, providing powerful evaluation references for regulatory managers.
NO.10 Control Cabinet: Central System of Automation Factory
Control Panel, control cabinet includes many kinds, including electric control cabinet, frequency conversion control cabinet, low voltage control cabinet, high pressure control cabinet, pump control cabinet, power supply control cabinet, explosion-proof control cabinet, elevator control cabinet, PLC control cabinet, fire control cabinet , brick control cabinets and so on.
Automation plants involve control cabinets for electrical, frequency, power, and water pumps, etc. Different control cabinets are selected according to different requirements to achieve different control functions.
