SMEC TURNING showed NEWS two IN lathes THE ROUND
served by a
single rail-mounted Hanwha cobot –
Dugard (https://is.gd/ixuhad) is the UK
representative for both SMEC and Hanwha
Connecting the dots
With the biennial EMO manufacturing technology show having
recently closed its doors, Andrew Allcock has news of some relevant
developments that were highlighted at the event
One of the biggest pieces of Industry
4.0 news at September’s EMO show
was the demonstration of the ‘umati’
standard interface (umati = universal
machine tool interface). Altogether, 70
companies from 10 countries used umati to
network 110 machines and 28 value-added
services at the event. “Umati is opening up a
new chapter in production,” said Dr Heinz-
Jürgen Prokop, chairman of the German
Machine Tool Builders’ Association, VDW
(Verein Deutscher Werkzeugmaschinenhersteller).
While there are plenty of standard
interfaces and protocols, the actual
‘language’ employed across these is not
standardised between machine tool builders
– the same machine tool status may not be
identically signaled by different makers. That
is the purpose of umati. It is effectively a
mapping tool used by machine tool builders
to harmonise their messages. According to
Heller (https://is.gd/fapeva), which
demonstrated full use of umati, the
developing standard “already covers about
40% of the nal data record”.
Creating a connection and providing a
uniform language for machines, systems and
software are essential prerequisites for
reaping the bene ts of digitalisation in
production, the VDW says. The fact that
individual companies no longer have to
concern themselves with the correct
functioning of the network interconnection
represents a tremendous step forward,
it emphasises.
The standard uses existing interface
standard OPC UA. Says Prokop: “Choosing
the OPC UA standard for the development of
the interface will help it to spread
internationally. It ensures that umati can be
used free of charge worldwide.” Ninety
companies are contributing to further
development work in the Joint Working Group.
The release of Version 1.0 of the Companion
Speci cations, the next milestone, is planned
for the middle of next year.”
Umati has broad support. Three
international consortia from major machine
tool manufacturing countries have joined:
ProdNet from Switzerland, Edgecross from
Japan and NCLink from China. In addition, the
machine tool associations from China, the
UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria,
Switzerland, Spain and Taiwan, as well as the
European machine tool association CECIMO
(of which VDW is a member) are supporting
the project.
But the success of umati will ultimately
depend on how customers rate the added
value of the interface. For their part,
manufacturers must provide this added value
in a dependable manner, the VDW says.
“For this, we need reliable partners who can
provide the necessary components, such as
control architecture and software
components. We will achieve this through
close cooperation with the control
manufacturers and, in future, no doubt also
with extensive parts of the supply chain,”
Prokop offered, concluding: “In the future, the
umati brand should represent a promise:
anyone who buys a umati machine and has
umati interface software should be able to
get the data owing with no dif culty.”
OTHER SOLUTIONS
Yet there were others at EMO that offered
innovative machine connection capabilities
that don’t require the purchase of a new
machine having umati, but which allow for the
connection of a mix of machines, as is the
norm for most companies. Probably the most
interesting of these was South Korean
company Unomic (www.unomic.com), which
was promoting its El nOS (video: https://is.
gd/xucizo). The company was established in
2006 to develop digital twin hardware and
software and has progressed since then, with
El nOS appearing two years ago. This allows
22 November 2019 www.machinery.co.uk @MachineryTweets
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