Wired for production
Tucked away in the corner of Mazak’s Worcester technical centre, the company was giving a low-key
glimpse of the near future during its recent June Open House. Andrew Allcock has more
All talk in the mobile phone world is
of 5G. Yamazaki Mazak (https://
is.gd/otocah) has been part of the
Worcestershire local Enterprise
Partnership’s (LEP) 5G testbed project for
industrial applications. Early results
suggest 5G could improve manufacturing
output by as much as 1 to 2%.
Mazak’s service team took part, testing
an augmented reality (AR) headset that has
a built-in HD camera and microphone,
powered by 5G. This allowed for a two-way
communication stream between Mazak’s
service department in Worcester and the onsite
eld engineer, meaning that engineers
can receive real-time support, wherever they
may be. It will save customers time and
money, and provide a level of service that
could only be previously achieved by having
a second engineer on site (YouTube video:
https://is.gd/livane). The Worcester LEP
project concluded at the end of March, in
fact, but Mazak is continuing its own efforts.
At the Open House, Kevin Price, IT
department project manager, explained that
Mazak had applied the technology to three
use cases. Employing a new headset that
supports audio and HD video streaming, the
company’s eld-based service engineers can
contact experts as required, wherever they
may be. The headset device, Realwear
HMT-1 from Ubimax, is an Android-based
computer that replaces a touch-screen with
an articulated micro-display that
has the effect of a 7” tablet
screen. Says Price:
“We can send a live video
stream from the wearer
Kevin
Price, IT
department
project
manager,
dons the
Realwear
hi-tech gear
service engineer to the expert, with that
then returned to the headset wearer,
enhanced with augmented videos, drawings,
content or work ows, whatever we want to
insert into that video stream, such that the
receiver can see it.”
The next step in this application is for the
company to select a eld service engineer
with which to work more intensively, using
the headset to discover what the
advantages and bene ts are, and how the
service department should be resourced, he
adds. “In two or three months, we will have
some results, but in parallel with that we are
going to supply a customer with a set,
to see how they perceive the
bene ts. So, we will consider both
of those together, before we
consider a general release of the
technology.”
In addition to developing that
central idea, the company is
considering two more use cases.
One will involve one of its customers
with a large in-house maintenance
department and which knows Mazak
machines well. Explains the project
manager: “If they were to rent, buy,
servitise, whatever, one of these headsets –
the sales plan is not nalised – they could
have access to resources, such as experts,
whenever they want to for that extra bit of
help that lls the gap between what they
know and what the machine isn’t telling
them.”
A Quick Turn 250MSY served by
a FANUC TA-20: this adds 20 kg
capacity to the previous 12.5 kg
offering, with 35 kg next. Some 50
such installations have so far been
made in the UK and Europe. A sub-
£100k automation offering, this can
also serve VTN vertical machining
centres
32 August 2019 www.machinery.co.uk @MachineryTweets
Phone: bluedesign/adobe.stock.com
/livane)
/www.machinery.co.uk
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