Machine Building

Applications

Keyence helps BIC reduce its reject rates

Keyence's XG Series vision system provides the solution to quality issues that have long plagued the complex process of razor quality inspection. BIC has been present in 160 countries on all continents for more than 60 years. The brand is one of the most recognised in the world - the BIC Cristal is the world's top-selling ballpoint pen, and the company is the leading manufacturer of stationery products in Europe, Latin America and Africa, as well as a world leader in brand-name pocket lighters. In 1975, BIC revolutionised the shaving world with its first disposable single-blade razor. Sales of its triple-blade and quadruple-blade razors are growing strongly and the company is the world's second-largest maker of disposable razors. In 2012, BIC reported net sales of 2482 million USD, of which 20 per cent was from razors.

8th February 2017

Retrofitting production line machinery with MICA

Centralised machine monitoring and process optimisation is the best way to ensure that production lines and their associated constituent part machinery operate more effectively and economically. Many machines in well-established production lines, which may be between 15 and 30 years old, can still perform their main functional tasks successfully; however, they do so much less efficiently than their modern day counterparts. For example, they don't have the same level of computing power, enough memory capacity to record and store the relevant data, or ability to communicate with their modern equivalents. In many cases, these machines also use data formats and protocols from the 80s and 90s, which are no longer used by today's PLCs and industrial PCs.

7th February 2017

FLIR thermal camera and clamp meter pass electrician's test

When self-employed electrician Gary Fisher was given the opportunity to "˜road test' a FLIR C2 thermal imaging camera and CM174 clamp meter, he saw it as a chance to see exactly how much value these advanced devices could add to his work.

6th February 2017

igus tribo-filaments take on the soapbox challenge

igus engineers have compared the abrasion resistance of 3D-printed plastic parts made of iglidur I180 and standard ABS materials. However, to make the test procedure more exciting, the engineers decided to 3D print plastic plain bearings out of each material and insert them into the wheels of a soapbox car.

3rd February 2017

BMI turns to Keyence IM Series

BMI Engineering, a UK high-volume turned-parts manufacturer, has upgraded its quality department with the addition of an IM Series image dimension measuring system from Keyence. The system has not only saved time spent using laborious shadowgraph technology, but has also negated any potential for customer disputes regarding dimension measurement.

3rd February 2017

Start up every drive decentrally with the Emparro67 power supply

Drive applications face many challenges, ranging from being far away from the power supply, to high start-up currents due to powering large loads. That's where Murrelektronik's Emparro67 comes in. This next generation power supply leads the trend towards decentralisation. But it's the power boost and current limiter that make it well suited for supplying DC drives.

2nd February 2017

Cube67 in use at sortimat Handling Systems

Limited space in the cabinet and on the machine, a desire to shorten installation times and a goal to maximise system availability - these are the challenges the sortimat Handling Systems electrical engineers are facing when designing their systems. With Murrelektronik's Cube system they have found the appropriate installation concept for their handling machines. Its modularity and flexibility during installation allows a system to be customised to meet a variety of requirements.

1st February 2017

igus bearings help Rega glide to a vinyl revival

Since Record Store Day began in 2007, the music industry has been enjoying a sustained vinyl revival, with vinyl sales growing consecutively every year since. Vinyl is now the only music format that is consistently growing year-over-year and is more popular than it has been since the late 1980s. From a low of 0.1 per cent in 2007, UK vinyl sales have grown exponentially and now represent 1.5 per cent of total music sales. Although overall sales of physical product were down by 13 per cent in 2012, vinyl bucked this trend, with sales rising by 18 per cent. More than two million LPs were sold in the UK during 2015, and these resurgent sales of music on vinyl generated more income for UK artists than 27 billion YouTube and Vevo streams last year.

1st February 2017

RARUK Universal robot helps automate SIM card packaging

Real Digital International Ltd, a specialist in digital print communications and a service provider to sectors that include retail, telecommunications, finance and healthcare, has installed a Universal Robot UR10 at its Croydon facility to help with the packaging of mobile phone SIM cards. As well as automating previously mundane manual operations, the robot, which was supplied by RARUK Automation Limited, has allowed the company to repurpose employees to more varied tasks.

30th January 2017

An excellent press mailing service: decentralised systems

Promotional postcards and flyers, membership cards, coupons and other materials fill up our mail boxes daily and encourage individually tailored shopping. Do we ever ask ourselves where all this comes from? The answer is probably from creative minds based in marketing companies. That's true, when it's about the idea. However, who produces and makes all of this? A mailing house. But how? The answer is provided by engineers and planners at C.M.C. srl with the support of Kollmorgen's decentralised systems.

30th January 2017