n TECHNOLOGY p Fanuc has announced that it has produced its one millionth industrial robot. The company developed its first robot in 1974 and today it has more than 200 robot and cobot models in use. Fanuc uses its own robots to make other robots, as well as controllers and machine tools. p The industrial data communications specialist Westermo Network Technologies, has formed a partnership with Eviden, a European supplier of managed security services (MSS). They will develop high-level security systems using crypto-agile OT (operational technology) and IoT (Internet of Things) devices for securing critical data communications. They are launching a joint development project in Germany in which managed industrial gigabit Ethernet switches will be equipped with pluggable hardware security modules from Eviden. p The intelligent industrial software provider EOT has signed a multi-year strategic collaboration agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to help industrial companies to unlock the promise of AI-optimised industrial plants with a no-code cloud historian and digital twins residing on AWS. They aim to transform how industrial users unlock, manage, and visualise legacy operational data with advanced analytics and machine learning. www.eot.ai/aws p Moxa says it has obtained the world’s first IEC 62443-4-2 Security Level 2 (SL2) cybersecurity certification for two of its industrial secure routers. The certification was awarded by Bureau Veritas (BV) to Moxa’s EDRG9010 and TN-4900 routers. p The German machine vision specialist IDS says it is the first to offer Onsemi’s 20 Megapixel AR2020 rolling shutter sensor which provides a 5K UHD resolution, making the smallest details on a surface visible. Potential applications include surface inspection and quality control. The sensor is available with IDS’ compact uEye+ XCP cameras. https://en.ids-imaging.com/ low-cost-cameras TECHNOLOGY BRIEFS ABB says production software will boost uptime by up to 20% ABB ROBOTICS HAS RELEASED a modular software platform that streamlines data collection, visualisation and analysis in automated production facilities. It claims that the OptiFact platform will cut data collection and analysis times by 25% and boost production uptime by up to 20%. The platform allows users to collect, manage and analyse data from hundreds of factory devices, including ABB robots, to determine KPIs (key performance indicators) including cycle times and OEE (overall equipment efficiency). Digitalisation, the acceleration of sustainable manufacturing, and the Covid pandemic, have all contributed to an increased demand for automation. The number of robots sold worldwide has almost tripled over the past decade. But the growing reliance on automation has resulted in increasingly complex production environments, driving a need for tools that allow plant managers to collect and capitalise on the data gathered from their automation systems. With the new OptiFact software, factory operators can determine the root causes of production errors and then use ABB’s RobotStudio Cloud to adjust robot programs to improve their performance. “Across industries, we see a dramatic increase in the digitalisation of manufacturing as companies seek to increase the flexibility, efficiency and sustainability of their operations in the face of changing consumer behaviours and long-term global skilled labour shortages,” says ABB Robotics president, Marc Segura. “We are enabling this shift with software products that businesses need to accelerate their growth in today’s fast-changing market.” OptiFact has already been deployed in several production facilities, including an automotive plant, where it collects and analyses production process cycle times and other KPIs, providing visibility into the factory operations and reducing the time that experts are needed by up to 25%. The unnamed end-user has now added more than 580 extra robots to its operations. Another pilot application demonstrated the software’s ability to identify bottlenecks in production lines involving up to 20 robots. The end-user integrated OptiFact into its production environment in just two months. Once running, the software simplified data collection and the visualisation of KPIs such as cycle times and PLC alarms. Production time at the facility is said to have increased by up to 20%. ABB is running a competition in which 20 winners will receive free access to OptiFact for six months, including access to customer support. new.abb.com/products/robotics/ software-and-digital/optifact ABB says that by speeding up diagnostics and decisionmaking, its new OptiFact software will increase production line uptime with less engineering effort.
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