AUTOMATION JUNE 2019
WHEN TECHNOLOGY
MEETS TRADITION
Traditional, skilled manufacturing and high-tech automation can often appear to be
strange bedfellows. However, smart manufacturers should look to marry the two
BY CHRIS BECK
The Derbyshire town of Denby has been
synonymous with pottery for more
than two centuries. Over that time, very
little has changed in the manufacturing
process at the town’s factory – clay is
shaped, dried and fi red to create plates,
mugs, teapots and the like. It may not, therefore,
seem like an obvious place to fi nd cutting-edge
automation. However, clay is a raw material
that can vary greatly from one batch to the next,
meaning it’s down to the shopfl oor operators to
have a comprehensive understanding of the clay’s
physical and chemical composition, allowing
them to constantly tweak the manufacturing
process parameters and ensure a high-quality
fi nished product.
“One of the key considerations is the dry
weight of the material and its application
in recipe calculations,” says Steven Sands,
technical engineering project manager at Denby
Pottery. “Also, high accuracy and precision in
controlling the concentration of solids in liquids
are essential requirements in this process.
To control this, we have used some form of
automation for a long time.”
For Denby Pottery, though,
‘some’ automation wasn’t
enough. After struggling for
some time with an obsolete
control system, which was
aff ecting the performance
of the clay production – and
with it the productivity of the
entire plant – the time came
to fully embrace the principles
of smart manufacturing. In
particular, the company wanted
to measure the quality of the
clay ‘on the fl y’, allowing them
to fi ne-tune the manufacturing
process in real time.
To help with this, Denby
Pottery turned to Mitsubishi
Electric, who, via a technical
distribution partner, installed
a fi bre optic network into the
factory. This gave shopfl oor
staff the ability to constantly
monitor and control their
manufacturing materials,
processes, machines and lines.
In addition, a series of three
Human Machine Interfaces
(HMIs) now monitor diff erent
areas of the factory and report
into a central interface.
This has dramatically
improved maintenance and
factory operations, as Sands
explains: “The system is now
completely reliable, even during
a power cut. In the case of a
machine failure, the visual
54%
of manufacturers will
upskill sta displaced
by automation
Source: Make UK
24 www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk
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