September 2020

25 www.drivesncontrols.com September 2020 “Our adoption of a robot welder has been a success from day one,”says Storth’s export manager, Julian Lopez. "We were experiencing bottlenecks within our welding process which was causing delays in schedules. The robot has helped us overcome the delays, but also helped us to continue operations at a time when some of our welders have been self-isolating, which has caused staff shortages.” Storth is now looking at introducing further automation to perform unsupervised cutting and feeding machining operations. Real-time location One aspect of the workplace that will certainly be different for as long as Covid-19 is around, will be the need to keep track of personnel. Siemens, for example, has developed a combination of hardware and software that can monitor where people and items are located in a plant, thus helping to ensure social distancing as well as improving productivity. The Simatic Real-time Locating Systems (RTLS) uses a built- in digital twin to simulate the safety of employees, to test and optimise the set-up of work areas, and to validate safety measures. The system allows companies to measure, monitor and maintain social distancing between their employees. The personnel wear transponders that interact with infrastructure devices to track their movements. A software package called SieTrace processes the location data from the transponders and determines the distances between employees. If this distance falls below a preset value, warnings are sent to the people involved via a display on their transponders. As well as implementing social distancing continuously, the system can also be used to identify rapidly any employees who are in risky situations. The real-time data can be combined with a digital twin of the production environment. If, for example, an employee contracts Covid-19, their employer can then determine any possible interactions they may have had with other workers. Any potentially risky areas can be identified, and safety measures implemented quickly in just those areas, avoiding the need for costly hygiene measures across the entire site. Hygiene robots Another change that the pandemic has brought to manufacturing operations is the need to adopt hygienic procedures in the workplace. For example, UV (ultraviolet) light can be used to kill bacteria, germs and viruses efficiently – especially on surfaces and in areas that cannot be cleaned continuously with disinfectants. UV is already used widely in applications such as treating drinking water, disinfecting ventilation systems, and producing food. However, some of the most effective UV light sources are too powerful for humans to operate safely. Mobile robots fitted with UV light attachments are therefore being brought in for disinfecting duties. They are ideal for disinfecting hospitals, shopping centres and other populated areas, including shop floors. For example, system integrators at Omron have installed UV technology on the company’s LD 60/90 autonomous mobile robots. Unlike traditional AGVs, these navigate using features in their surroundings and do not need facilities to be modified at great cost. Safety lasers and sonar allow the robots to detect obstacles in their path and prevent collisions. Panel-building In the post-Covid era we will have to rethink howwe produce and assemble items such as electrical panels. Traditionally, this has been a manual process – slow and prone to errors – and harder to justify in the post-Covid era. There are nowmachines that can take data directly from CAE systems and use it to drill or make cut-outs in sheet metalwork, such as enclosure doors or mounting plates. For example, Rittal’s Perforex 3D laser machining centres (LMCs) can be used with Eplan’s Pro Panel 3Dmodelling software to create sheet steel panels. The LMCs can performmachining to a high degree of accuracy, processing panels in a fraction of the time needed for traditional manual methods. One company that has adopted this technology is the LCA Group, based in Hawarden, NorthWales, which provides electrical engineering services to customers across the UK. Its £400,000 laser machine that produces enclosures automatically was the first of its kind in the UK and one of a handful in use around the world. Although the machine’s installation predates the pandemic, it has proved useful in coping with the new conditions. LCA’s biggest challenge when adapting to the Covid era came not from technology, but from a need to change mindsets. Even its seasoned engineers with more than 30 years of experience have had to undergo retraining, and standardisation has come to play an even more important part in the way in which information is shared, exchanged and sent to end-users. “We used to have a traditional working and manufacturing schedule and almost everyone was based in the office or on the shop floor,” explains LCA group managing director, Alan Sheppard.“The pandemic forced us to change and grow in unexpected ways; we had to adapt to making full use of collaborative project tools, rely on Zoom or Skype calls, and have a flexible approach to working hours. “Perhaps the most important ‘re-training’we all had to do was to ensure that we were using our existing collaborative platforms effectively,” Sheppard continues.“Most of the time the information we needed for production was already in Eplan models, but we weren’t extracting and sharing it. We were simply making do with our traditional ways of working. “Once we had eliminated the inefficiencies associated with not using systems to their full capacity,”he adds,“we saw contracts being delivered under budget by about 10%, an extraordinary feat given the circumstances.” As manufacturers feel their way through the post-Covid environment, they are having to learn newways of doing things. A much wider use of automation technologies is certain to play a central role in this new era, and could change the way we work forever. n Using 3D machining centres to create enclosures is much faster and accurate than traditional manual methods, and helps to maintain safe distances between personnel CORONAVIRUS n