May 2019

More than 30 volunteers from the drives-maker Control Techniques and the UK elevator industry last month abseiled down the UK’s tallest testing centre, the 127.5m-high National Lift Tower in Northampton, to raise funds for Crohn’s & Colitis UK, a charity that supports around 300,000 people in the UK with Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and other forms of inflammatory bowel disease. One of the volunteers was Gareth Jones (left), CT’s UK country leader, who says that the event was an opportunity to bring the elevator industry together to support sufferers of these diseases. MICROSOFT ANDTHE car-maker BMW have launched an initiative aimed at speeding up innovation in the manufacturing sector and making it more cost-effective. The Open Manufacturing Platform (OMP) is designed to break down barriers caused by proprietary systems, and to create an open technology framework backed by a cross-industry community. Microsoft and BMW are hoping to recruit other manufacturers and suppliers, including companies from outside the automotive industry. By the end of 2019, they want to create a broader community of up to six partners and to roll out at least 15 use cases in selected production environments. The two companies argue that the proprietary systems used in factories today are creating data silos and slowing productivity, hindering production and profitability. They hope that their initiative will lead to smart factory systems that can be shared by OMP participants across a variety of manufacturing sectors. The aim is to accelerate industrial IoT developments, shorten time-to-value and drive production efficiencies, while addressing industrial challenges. The OMP will deliver a reference architecture based on Microsoft’s Azure industrial IoT cloud platform, with open source components that use open industrial standards and an open data model. As well as facilitating collaboration, the aim is to unlock and standardise data models that enable analytics and machine learning – data that has traditionally been managed in proprietary systems. Using case studies and sample code, community members and partners will be able to develop their own services, while maintaining control over their data. BMW plans to contribute use cases to the OMP community based on its experience with more than 3,000 machines, robots and AGVs that are connected to its IoT platform, which is built on the Azure cloud, IoT and AI capabilities For example, at its plant in Regensburg, Germany, BMW is using the IoT platform for a second-generation autonomous transport system. The centrally coordinated system has enabled the car-maker to simplify its logistics and improve their efficiency. In the future, this and other use cases – covering areas such as digital feedback loops, digital supply chain management and predictive maintenance – will be developed further within the OMP community. Regensburg is one of 30 production and assembly sites that BMW operates worldwide. “Mastering the complex task of producing individualised premium products requires innovative IT and software solutions,”says BMW board member, Oliver Zipse.“The interconnection of production sites and systems as well as the secure integration of partners and suppliers are particularly important. We have been relying on the cloud since 2016 and are consistently developing new approaches. “With the Open Manufacturing Platform as the next step,”he adds,“we want to make our solutions available to other companies and jointly leverage potential in order to secure our strong position in the market in the long term.” The OMP is the next step in a long-standing technology partnership between BMW and Microsoft. It will address challenges such as machine connections and systems integration. It will facilitate the re-use of software among OEMs, suppliers and other partners, reducing implementation costs. Microsoft and BMW want to open up manufacturing tech An autonomous transport system at BMW’s Regensburg plant has enabled it to simplify logistics and boost efficiencies n NEWS 4 May 2019 www.drivesncontrols.com p The global market for electric motors will expand at a CAGR of 7.4% in the six years from 2018, to reach a value of $175bn by 2024, according to a new study by KBV Research . The fastest-growing region will be Asia-Pacific with a CAGR of 7.8%, followed by Europe on 7.1% and North America on 6.7%. www.kbvresearch.com p Leamington-based Mills CNC has created a new division, Mills CNC Automation , to drive sales of its industrial systems and collaborative robots from the Korean manufacturer, Doosan Robotics , for which it is the exclusive UK and Ireland distributor. Doosan has a family of four cobots with payloads up to 15kg, reaches up to 1.7m, and ±0.1mm repeatability. p Sweden’s HMS Industrial Networks has acquired 74.9% of the German company WEBfactory , which provides Web-based software for the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things). WEBfactory employs 27 people, has a subsidiary in Romania, and is expected to have sales worth €2.5m in 2019. The remaining 25.1% of shares will be held by CEO Bernhard Böhrer, who is staying on as MD. p IMO Group , the German manufacturer of slewing rings and self-contained slew drives, has opened a UK and Ireland sales office in Huddersfield to be closer to its customers. John Loonam will head the operation as technical sales and marketing manager. p The bearings and power transmission manufacturer Timken has acquired The Diamond Chain Company from Amsted Industries for an undisclosed sum. US- headquartered Diamond Chain supplies high-performance industrial roller chains. In the 12 months to March 2019, it posted sales of more than $60m. Founded in 1890, Diamond Chain has manufacturing operations in the US and China, and a subsidiary in the UK. It employs around 370 people. p The Italian controls and energy management company Lovato Electric has acquired the Croatian manufacturer of rotary cam switches and switch disconnectors, Koncar NSP . Koncar, which employs 64 people and exports to more than 40 countries, becomes Lovato’s fourteenth foreign subsidiary. p ABB has named Yorkshire-based Betech as its first authorised UK supplier of low-voltage motors built to the North American Nema standard. Betech worked with Baldor before ABB bought the US motor-maker in 2011. p Universal Robots has launched a global network of authorised training centres for its collaborative robots, expanding its existing UR Academy online training service. New hands- on courses run by certified trainers will teach programming skills to cobot users regardless of their robotics experience or background. UR expects to have 50 of the centres running around the world by the end of 2019.