During the last months of 2020 we have been busy designing a mechanical assembly equipment for high-precision product components. The customer chosing us for this task is a French company in need to create a hydraulic pressing machine to assemble high-quality elements. This type of activity involved us on several fields, starting from the mechanical design up to the commissioning of the machine, through automation, prototyping, customization of the solution based on customer’s needs, the CE marking of the machine and functional tests on the components. The common denominator is the technological search for innovative solutions which belongs to our modus operandi every time we start a new project.
What was the customer’s main need?
The customer needed high precision in assembly and found in Brentech a valid partner for the development of new equipment with a high level of customization.
How did Brentech respond to his request?
After numerous analyses, in-depth studies and technological scouting, we proposed an innovation to the French company which consisted in replacing the traditional hydraulic pressing system by an electric cylinder system.
From hydraulics to electric cylinders: here are the advantages brought by Brentech
Equipment manufacturers very often use hydraulics for pinning components. The transition to linear motor technology was not only seen as an interesting innovation but also allowed considerable advantages and developed further potential: greater control over the processing was obtained by being able to regulate the forward speed, the working position of the cylinder and the force applied. All these parameters allow not only the improvement of the production process, but above all greater precision and safety in the use of the machine: the force control, for example, allows to check the success in the assembly process and record the trend of force parameters /position throughout the cycle. Furthermore, speed control together with integrated security systems have improved the safety for the operator.
The customer now has more precise and safer equipment available that can be easily integrated into the company’s management system to improve the quality of the process and fall within the Industry 4.0 perscription.
The innovation brought by Brentech meets the requirements of Industry 4.0
When we talk about Industry 4.0, also called the fourth Industrial Revolution, we are referring to the process that is leading to fully automated and interconnected industrial production. New digital technologies lead towards four development drivers:
- the first concerns the data use, computing power and connectivity for the centralization of information and its conservation
- the second is analytics: once the data has been collected, value must be obtained from it
- the third concerns the interaction between man and machine, which involves “touch” interfaces and augmented reality
- finally there is the whole context dealing with the transition from digital to “real” and which includes additive manufacturing, 3D printing, robotics, communications, machine-to-machine interactions and new technologies for storing and use energy in a targeted way, rationalizing costs and optimizing performance.
Faced with this rapidly evolving scenario, Brentech, a mechanical design studio in Vicenza, is well organised to collect the benefits and translate them into opportunities for the companies with which there is a collaboration.
We can translate the innovation that we have brought to the French company into concrete benefits meeting the requirements of Industry 4.0, such as:
- Greater flexibility
- Greater speed from prototype to series production
- Greater productivity through shorter set-up times, error reduction and machine downtime
- Better quality and less waste
- Greater product competitiveness.
