W O R K S H O P
DOWN UNDER DIGITALISATION:
FIVE TRENDS TO DRIVE THE BENEFITS OF AUTOMATION
Industry throughout Australia and New Zealand can gain huge efficiency, quality and safety advantages from emerging
trends in digitalisation and automation technology. In this article, Simon Pullinger, general manager, Lapp Australia, talks
about five trends providing signposts to the future.
Digitalisation is changing the connection technology environment
in the sense that an increasing number of products and even
individual components can and need to communicate.
This means that an increasing volume of data has to be
transmitted at increasingly fast speeds - something familiar in
offices for years is now moving into the factories. Continuous
increases in the performance of microchips is not only driving
digitalisation but also - in conjunction with efforts to improve
resource efficiency - is resulting in a move towards increasingly
smaller and more compact products and devices.
A smartphone now has the processing power of a 1990s super
computer but has a fraction of the size, energy consumption
and price. This is having a big impact on industrial connection
technology. Robots and other machines are becoming more
compact and demanding an increasing number of data
connections.
Special cable designs and technical tricks, with the insulation for
example, help to save space. As a result, we are seeing increasingly
frequent use of hybrid cables, which combine the power
cable, data cables and even hoses for pneumatics and hydraulics
in a single sheath.
Where large data volumes are being transmitted, one high-speed
Cat.7 Industrial Ethernet cable can replace several slower varieties
and one fibreglass cable can replace even more copper-based
ones.
Connectors are also having to slim down. Circular connectors
are getting leaner, and modular connector systems combine
numerous contacts for different cables in a single housing.
Special materials and optimised internal cable constructions are
also necessary for other reasons, as the standard cable types
used in offices are simply not suitable for production environments.
In those environments, the cables have to withstand
lubricants, hot vapours, millions of bends and torsion.
TREND TOWARDS
SYSTEM SOLUTIONS
Industry 4.0, Internet of things,
open innovation processes: the
tasks facing machine builders
are growing remorselessly. This
makes it even more important for
companies to concentrate on their
core competences. These do not
normally include assembling cables
- shortening cables, attaching
connectors and creating complete
energy chains.
As a result, machine manufacturers
are increasingly demanding
tailored ready-to-use assemblies
that they can easily incorporate
into their machines. Ready-to-use
assemblies are also more durable as
the supplier guarantees the quality
of the entire system, and the user
does not have to worry about installation
errors, such as forgotten end
sleeves or damage to the insulation.
With assemblies direct from the
manufacturer, customers can also
benefit from expert know-how and
always be sure the technology
they use is top notch. The
development work that manufacturers
of connection systems engage
in would not be economically viable
for users.
Which does not mean, however,
that the challenge is less significant
for the manufacturers. They have to
introduce efficient, ideally automated
processes and must be capable of
quickly delivering highly complex
customised one-off solutions.
This requires more than just
changing priorities in the traditional
quality, cost and time framework.
Today’s optimum processes bring
about improvements in all three
dimensions.
TREND TOWARDS
INTENSIFIED NETWORKING
AND MINIATURISATION
74 April 2018