Manufacturing Technology

Nintex unveils major enhancements to Workflow Cloud

Nintex, the global standard for process management and automation, announced significant enhancements to its cloud-first process automation solution, Nintex Workflow Cloud, including a market first offering – the ability for customers to quickly and easily create workflows that include robotic process automation (RPA) bots. This new feature within Nintex Workflow Cloud called Nintex Gateway, provides two-way, drag-and-drop interaction between workflows and bots. In addition, Nintex subscription-based workflow customers now have access to RPA bots included with their current service. With Nintex Gateway, customers utilise bots to achieve end-to-end automation across a much broader set of process scenarios. Process workflows can also delegate tasks to Nintex RPA bots that mimic human keystrokes and mouse clicks to interact with apps, systems, services, and websites through their existing screens and interfaces. This results in less work being assigned back to the user and helps organisations leverage cloud workflow capabilities while protecting their on-premises investments. Nintex Workflow Cloud enhancements accelerate configuration, results and compliance Additional new features within Nintex Workflow Cloud include easy testing of workflows as they are built. This helps workflow designers get quick feedback to ensure their workflows are correctly configured before they are published. Workflow designers can also activate new “task authentication” features to require the person assigned to execute a task to first log into Nintex Workflow Cloud, ensuring that only authorised users may take that action. Existing Nintex Workflow Enterprise customers will now have full access to attended and unattended RPA bots within their current workflow subscriptions to enhance the value of their automation with Nintex RPA bots. Nintex customers can create and train RPA bots to execute specific automation tasks – called botflows – just like they create workflows today with Nintex. This means that Nintex customers can allocate existing workflows towards deploying botflows, providing enormous automation […]

New subscription model offered with FARO CAM2 software

Latest release provides performance enhancements and new features including an updated statistical process control tool. FARO Technologies Inc. a global leader in 3D measurement and imaging solutions, announces the latest iteration of its CAM2 2020 Software. The release includes a variety of performance and user interface improvements, new features and a new subscription licensing option. Users can now achieve greater control over their full manufacturing process at a lower up-front cost in this latest iteration of the metrology software platform. The new subscription model empowers users to benefit from CAM2 with a lower initial investment. It offers scalability through a flexible licensing model and ensures users always have access to the latest and most up to date version of CAM2. FARO CAM2 is a powerful, intuitive and application-focused 3D measurement platform designed to help users efficiently fulfil their quality assurance and inspection tasks. FARO CAM2 2020 is helping users get the most from their manufacturing processes, with an intuitive, streamlined and application-focused platform. Through a continuous improvement process, user feedback and requirements are continually collected, integrated and deployed. FARO CAM2 2020 is the culmination of these efforts, which lead to a variety of new features, including an enhanced measurement experience and an updated statistical process control tool that assists users in identifying production data trends that may indicate when a process is moving out of a specified parameter. Being able to predict this kind of error reduces wasted time, scrap and rework, and helps keep production capacity at full strength. As part of an established line-up of smart features, this release represents a fully realized solution for the everyday production tasks of the customer.

How Omron keeps your production flowing

Flow sensors have been used throughout industry for many years. However, Omron’s new E8FC series introduces dual parameter sensing, where a single meter measures the temperature of a liquid, as well as its flow. The simultaneous monitoring temperatures means many more abnormalities can be detected than when only flow is measured. Typical applications are measuring cooling water used in moulding and welding. The water must not only flow, it must also be below a certain temperature to be effective. Faulty or substandard products could result if either is incorrect. Three different models are available, analogue only or analogue + IO Link (both with COM2 and COM3 baud rates). All models have a digital output for external alarm detection, which allows for easy replacement of existing units. The meter uses its IO Link channel to return the flow rate, temperature and a host of configurable alarm bits, set by threshold values. This allows users to keep a close eye on proceedings and even perform preventative maintenance functions if required. A four-digit high luminosity 7-segment display on the meter shows flow rate, temperature or percentages of what’s expected. It also has a large indicator that changes colour to alert users of potential flow and temperature problems. As the meter often needs to be mounted into a small or awkward space, it can be rotated up to 330° on its mounting. The display also has an “upsidedown” mode for when the meter needs to be mounted this way.

3-Finger electric gripper handles cylindrical objects

OnRobot’s 3FG15 three-finger gripper with a 150mm stroke is a powerful alternative to bulkier and less-flexible three-finger grippers currently on the market – a unique solution. The new gripper excels at heavy-payload machine-tending applications that require high precision and flexible handling. The 3FG15 makes previously hard-to-automate precision handling of cylindrical parts easy to program and deploy and provides flexibility for a wide range of part sizes. It was developed as a response to existing pneumatic three-finger grippers that are bulkier and less flexible. OnRobot has long defined the market for electric parallel grippers with the RG2 and RG6 series, and this three-finger gripper allows users to deploy applications faster with highly accurate, fixed positioning. The 3FG15 gripper has a maximum stroke of 150mm that can easily handle multiple processes. The innovative three-finger design with a 15 kg (33 lb) payload provides a strong, stable grip for both form fit (internal) or friction fit (external) gripping, adding flexibility to any implementation. Ideal for CNC machine tending The gripper’s design, specifically developed for machine-tending tasks, automatically centres workpieces, resulting in a strong, stable grip and precise placement in machine chucks. With a gripping force from 10 N to 240 N, the 3FG15 competes with much less flexible finger grippers. The gripper is also ideal for packaging and palletising applications, and is seamlessly compatible with any major collaborative or light industrial robot arm through OnRobot’s new award-winning One System Solution, the platform that provides a unified mechanical and electrical interface between the robot arms and any OnRobot end-of-arm tooling (EoAT). 3FG15 Features: Precise stable grip with automatic centring Large 150mm stroke for parts from 20mm to 150mm Form fit (internal) and friction fit (external) gripping 15kg payload Weight 1.15kg, gripping force 10-240 N Fast, flexible deployment The EoAT market in Asia Pacific, excluding […]

AI can’t solve everything

The hysteria about the future of artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere. There seems to be no shortage of sensationalist news about how AI could cure diseases, accelerate human innovation and improve human creativity. Just looking at the media headlines, you might think that we are already living in a future where AI has infiltrated every aspect of society. While it is undeniable that AI has opened up a wealth of promising opportunities, it has also led to the emergence of a mindset that can be best described as “AI solutionism”. This is the philosophy that, given enough data, machine learning algorithms can solve all of humanity’s problems. But there’s a big problem with this idea. Instead of supporting AI progress, it jeopardises the value of machine intelligence by disregarding important AI safety principles and setting unrealistic expectations about what AI can really do for humanity. AI solutionism In only a few years, AI solutionism has made its way from the technology evangelists’ mouths in Silicon Valley to the minds of government officials and policymakers around the world. The pendulum has swung from the dystopian notion that AI will destroy humanity to the utopian belief that our algorithmic saviour is here. We are now seeing governments pledge support to national AI initiatives and compete in a technological and rhetorical arms race to dominate the burgeoning machine learning sector. For example, the UK government has vowed to invest £300m in AI research to position itself as a leader in the field. Enamoured with the transformative potential of AI, the French president Emmanuel Macron committed to turn France into a global AI hub. Meanwhile, the Chinese government is increasing its AI prowess with a national plan to create a Chinese AI industry worth US$150 billion by 2030. AI solutionism is on the rise and it is here to stay. Neural networks – easier said than done While many political manifestos […]

Miniaturised “warehouse robots” for biotechnology applications

UCLA engineers have developed minuscule warehouse logistics robots that could help expedite and automate medical diagnostic technologies and other applications that move and manipulate tiny drops of fluid. The robots are disc-shaped magnets about 2 millimetres in diameter, designed to work together to move and manipulate droplets of blood or other fluids, with precision. For example, the robots can cleave one large droplet of fluid into smaller drops that are equal in volume for consistent testing. They can also move droplets into preloaded testing trays to check for signs of disease. The research team calls these robots “ferrobots” because they are powered by magnetism. The ferrobots can be programmed to perform massively parallelised and sequential fluidic operations at small-length scales in a collaborative manner. To control the robots’ motion, electromagnetic tiles in the chip pull the ferrobots along desired paths, much like using magnets to move metal chess pieces from underneath a chess board. “We were inspired by the transformational impact of networked mobile robot systems on manufacturing, storage and distribution industries, such as those used to efficiently sort and transport packages at Amazon warehouses,” said Sam Emaminejad, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and the study’s corresponding senior author. “So, we set out to implement the same level of automation and mobility in a microfluidic setting. But our ‘factory floor’ is much smaller, about the size of your palm, and our goods, the fluid droplets, are as small as a few tenths of a millimetre.” The “factory floor” is an index card-sized chip, designed by the researchers, with internal structures that help manipulate fluid droplets transported by the robots. In the same way that mobile and cross-collaborative Amazon robots transformed the logistics-based industries, this technology could transform various biotech-related industries, including medical diagnostics, drug development, genomics, and […]

Emerging technologies this year

The emerging technologies positively disrupt the existing order, are attractive to investors and researchers, and expect to achieve considerable scale within the coming five years. These are the top 10 emerging technologies for 2019: Bioplastics for a circular economy Less than 15% of the world’s plastic is recycled, with the rest incinerated, abandoned or sent to landfill. Biodegradable plastic offers a solution but lacks the strength of conventional materials. A breakthrough idea promotes the circular economy by using cellulose or lignin from plant waste, which increases material strength without using crops that could otherwise be used for food. Social robots Today’s robots can recognise voices, faces and emotions, interpret speech patterns and gestures, and even make eye contact. Droid friends and assistants are becoming part of everyday life and are being used increasingly to care of the elderly, educate children and undertake all sorts of tasks in between. Metalenses Making the lenses used by mobile phones, computers and other electronic devices smaller has been beyond the capabilities of traditional glass cutting and glass curving techniques. But advances in physics have led to miniaturised, lighter alternatives to established lenses, called metalenses. These tiny, thin, flat lenses could replace existing bulky glass lenses and allow further miniaturisation in sensors and medical imaging devices. Disordered proteins as drug targets “Intrinsically disordered proteins” are proteins that can cause cancer and other diseases. Unlike conventional proteins, they lack a rigid structure so change shape, making them difficult to treat. Now scientists have found a way to prevent their shape-shifting long enough for treatment to take effect, offering new possibilities for patients. Smarter fertilisers Recent improvements in fertilisers have focused on their ability to slowly release nutrients when needed. However, they still contain ammonia, urea and potash which damage the environment. New fertilisers use more ecologically friendly sources […]

SkyDrive launches test flights of first-ever cargo drone

SkyDrive Inc., a leading flying-car developer, has successfully launched test flights of a cargo drone which could revolutionise the way heavy goods are transported and speed up the movement of equipment in remote locations. The first operational testing took place Toyota. It was carried out to test the technology by moving heavy equipment in remote locations. This new technology has been tested with a load capacity of 30kg–utilizing SkyDrive’s world-leading aircraft development technology to achieve high safety standards. There is the potential to develop this further and achieve greater capacity loads of up to 50kg and 80kg, according to demand. The cargo drone also has the potential to change the way products are moved from manufacturers to warehouses and onto depots. SkyDrive is developing the cargo drone for use in industries that carry heavy materials on complex terrain such as slopes, mountain valleys, overpasses, power transmission towers, civil engineering/construction sites, agricultural fields, etc. Usage of cargo drones will help avoid dangerous works, save personnel and shorten the term of works. SkyDrive can contribute to responding to labour shortages and improving labour productivity sagging. Cargo drone can be used by companies for transporting materials to hard-to-reach places such as slopes, mountain valleys, overpasses and sites of steel tower maintenance. The total length is 1.3m x total width 1.7m x total height 1.0m -Recommended payload: 30kg -Flight speed: 40km/h -Flight time: 15min. Winch mechanism to move up and down without landing.

University takes quantum leap in race to build first super battery

A South Australian university has recruited a leading quantum physics expert in a bid to win the race to build the world’s first quantum battery. Dr James Quach has joined the University of Adelaide’s School of Physical Sciences for four years under a Ramsay Fellowship. He will work within the Precision Measurement Group in the University’s Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS). The new super battery, with the potential for instantaneous charging, could replace conventional batteries in small electronic devices such as a watch, phone, iPad or computer or any other product that relies on stored energy. Eventually it is hoped larger quantum batteries could provide opportunities for the renewable energy sector. Dr Quach, who has previously been a researcher at the University of Melbourne and the ICFO Institute of Photonic Sciences in Barcelona, said that unlike ordinary batteries, quantum batteries would theoretically charge faster the more you have of them. Dr James Quach will work under a Ramsay Fellowship to develop a quantum battery. “If one quantum battery takes one hour to charge, then two would take 30 minutes, three would take 20 minutes, and so on. If you had 10,000 batteries, they would all charge in less than a second,” he said. This is possible thanks to a feature of quantum mechanics known as entanglement. “Quantum mechanics deals with interactions at the very smallest of scales, at the levels of atoms and molecules – at this level you get very special properties that violate the conventional laws of physics,” said Dr Quach. “One of those properties is ‘entanglement’. When two objects are entangled it means that their individual properties are always shared – they somehow lose their sense of individuality. “It’s because of entanglement that it becomes possible to speed up the battery charging process.” South Australia is a global renewable energy […]

Very smart Australian manufacturing

Solar-powered furniture offers off-grid connection South Australian outdoor furniture brand Sedi has developed bespoke benches and shelter options for smart cities and regional areas. Bronte Modra, the director of Adelaide-based modular engineering company Specialised Solutions, created the Sedi range of park benches, parklets and bus stops in February this year. The smart shelters are built from sustainable timber and steel and have solar-powered lighting, integrated charging ports, WIFI and informational screens that all run off a battery. Modra said he created Sedi to fill a large hole in the Australian manufacturing market created by the burgeoning smart city movement. “People want to be connected to the furniture and to the web, and the greater society,” said Modra. “Everyone talks about smart cities but no one is really delivering a piece of smart furniture here. “We just saw a real need and something that we could make out of our existing facility.” The Sedi office is located at the Tonsley innovation district alongside technology companies such as SAGE Automation, which, together with JPE Design Studio, helped develop the furniture. Modra decided to make the units “off-grid” to attract buyers who couldn’t connect to a power source. “It being solar-powered gives us a lot more flexibility to where the Sedi is placed,” he said. “With Sedi we can go to regional, remote locations and open up connectivity there. “It’s also cost-saving measure for councils to install in the park [as] service connections are fairly expensive.” Modra said they weren’t “reinventing the wheel” with the furniture’s individual technological features, however these add-ons were compounded to develop a new brand of smart furniture fit for a multitude of environments. “We would like to see them absolutely everywhere: the typical bus stops on your streets, your typical parks, council parks and reserves,” he said. “But we’re really trying to tap […]

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