COMMENT
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Andrew Allcock, Editor
Decade of change
You could argue that I could have written that heading every 10
years for the last 30-odd that I have been writing about the world
and technology of making things. But I think this new decade will be
very different and mark a fundamental change, which I will get to.
We are now a further eight years on from Machinery’s 100th
anniversary publication (https://is.gd/firiti) in which three decades –
80s, 90s and noughties – were described, characterised and analysed. The path is
always very clear when looking back, but in a final chapter, Machinery looked ahead,
extrapolating from the known. But that means ignoring the unknown yet significant.
Nowhere in that final chapter did Industry 4.0, Big Data or Artificial Intelligence benefit
from a mention. Increasing computer power was taken as read, yes, but only in a
general sense.
One thing we did mention in that anniversary issue was additive manufacturing
(AM) or 3D printing, saying that it was considered a game-changer. We quoted GE vice
president of Advanced Technologies Michael Idelchik from an article in The Economist.
“One day we will print an engine,” he said. This was further qualified, with the article
adding: “Manufacturers such as GE and Rolls-Royce believe that some form of hybrid
printing system will emerge. This would produce the outline of a shape, saving on
material, which would then be machined.” A rather grand claim at the time, perhaps,
but in September we reported that H+E-Produktentwicklung GmbH in Moritzburg,
Saxony, Germany, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and
Advanced Materials (IFAM) in Dresden, Germany, had developed a fully-functional,
1:25 scale model power generation gas turbine, demonstrating both current potential
and limitations of powder-bed-based additive manufacturing technologies. It was
made completely via AM (then machined as necessary), except for the shaft. AM
technology is developing apace, for sure, but it is still not a widespread metal part
production technology, and may never be.
Returning to Industry 4.0, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, these all allow for
more efficient design, manufacture and supply. In manufacturing, one way is through
connecting and enhancing the production technology we are already familiar with –
metalcutting/forming machine tools are getting smarter, more automated and more
integrated with supporting technology/systems. The technology is already available
(Machinery, November 2019, p14 – https://is.gd/ahunez), but take-up is slow in the
vast majority of UK SMEs. I believe this decade will see a tipping point on that score,
though, with the shopfloor increasingly home to automated smart machines managed
by people, rather than closely monitored, operated and nursed by them. Only 10 years
to wait to see if that’s an accurate view. ■
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