INDUSTRY 4.0 & AUTOMATION WFL’S NEW PLATFORM SERVICE – MYMILLTURN
myCapaMax: a key area that helped spawn
the idea of the myMILLTURN portal effort
without them having to book a trip to Linz,
you know, with a ight and hotel, as well as
take extended time away from the of ce.
And then we can have follow-up meetings
and so on. This has
actually been quite
attractive for our
customers, and they have
started to use it already.”
The company is also
considering augmented
reality, with this
applicable to its service
technicians, helping them
in their work on machines,
as well as for customer
training, but issues of
both data connectivity
and con dentiality must
be taken into account at
customer sites, he says.
In-house evaluation is
underway. Again, this is not a new solution,
it having been available for some time,
he agrees, but this is another existing
technology that has been given a leg-up
because of the current travel restrictions.
Fundamentally, Sundberg agrees that this
change in attitude to online training is a
permanent one. There will still be physical,
in-person training conducted at Linz,
allowing people to both learn the theory and
then apply it onsite at the machine, but
online is a “very important complement”
to that, he states.
The nal element, myCommunity, is just
what it says, a place where WFL mill-turn
machine users can communicate, although
just as with the control of authorised users
at customer facilities, he agrees that care is
likely to be exercised, bearing in mind the
competitive nature of machining and
con dentiality of work. But that this
pandemic has accelerated the move to new
business models there can be no doubt and
past doubts and reservations are clearly
being challenged all round today. With its
myMILLTURN portal, WFL Millturn
Technologies has placed itself well in a
rapidly changing world.
Connected manufacturing from WFL
Currently, WFL machines are not connected directly to the
myMILLTURN portal but this could happen. “We’re thinking about
how to connect machine intervention data, which we have, you know,
for the individual user, to give value by making visible what is
happening over time on their machines. We have a very systematic
and complete way of logging all the interventions, you know, if it’s
online interventions or if it’s onsite intervention through our service
technicians; everything is attached to the machine history.”
WFL machines, which feature Siemens control systems, can
already be connected to Siemens Mindsphere, as well as Sandvik
Group’s Comara app platforms, however, while remote diagnostics
via TeamViewer is similarly already in existence. But the
myMILLTURN approach is seen as more customer speci c, with WFL
more in the loop and able to add value for customers, based on
their speci c situation and data gathered over time.
WFL already has other machine-connected digital solutions,
including its 2018 AMB exhibition introduction of WFL Data Analyzer,
which got a further boost just about one year ago with the addition of
‘Tool Monitoring’, which monitors individual tools and provides
information on wear, period of application and longevity, plus
‘Service Monitoring’, which takes into consideration the reality of a
machine’s usage and so regulates service intervals and prevents
machine standstills.
A completely new digital solution introduced at the same time
was the process monitoring system offering intelligent adaptive
control functions WFL iControl. With this solution, machine users can
further enhance the ef ciency of their WFL mill-turn machines. WFL
iControl protects machines even during unmanned production, as it
WFL iControl is just one
of the digital tools that
WFL can bring to bear
works with a multilevel monitoring logic and reacts when: exceeding
a collision limit; exceeding a process near limit, which has
subsequently been learned; and where signi cant fast force changes
occur (dynamic breaking control).
Digitally connected tools are another part of WFL’s digital armoury
in pursuit of metalcutting excellence. Damped boring bars of 18xD
have already been offered for the most challenging internal
machining operations for several years. Recent developments from
Sandvik Coromant include digital-supported boring bars that have
embedded sensors and smart software that has been integrated in
the control of WFL’s machine tools. This solution not only allows for
even higher productivity and quality, but also leads to an increase in
process safety. WFL and Sandvik Coromant worked closely together
to provide a continuous power supply for digital tooling, which until
this development had been solved via a battery. The latest power
solution unveiled about a year ago enables a trouble-free
manufacturing process.
26 December 2020 | www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | @MachineryTweets
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