13 December 2018 Developing the industrial assembly station for Industry 4.0 environment

Friday 16 November was the date for the ninth edition of PMI Day, held in Vicenza. The national event, organised by the Piccola Industria Committee [Small Business] of Confindustria Vicenza, focused this year on the fight against counterfeiting. Fiam began taking part in this initiative a few years ago, to help promote the business culture in its local area.

We often take it for granted that all products available in the European market meet the requirements of EU safety directives, but this is not always the case and hazardous situations are frequently encountered, even in the industrial arena, putting operator safety at risk.

For instance, when we talk about electric tightening systems, it is worth remembering that any such systems put on the European market are required to meet the following directives:

EMC directive: 2014/30/EU relating to electromagnetic compatibility (EMC);
Machinery Directive: 2006/42/EC relating to product safety.

“Developing the industrial assembly station for Industry 4.0 environment” is the title of the new seminar to be held by Fiam at its premises in Vicenza on 5 December.

The seminar, sponsored by the Veneto Region, is part of the planned activities for business internationalisation and aims to offer industrial partners knowledge and experience on themes associated with the concept of Industry 4.0 within the framework of strategies for competitive development in globalised environments.

Ergonomics and safety have always been vital and indispensable themes for every productive reality since safer, well-ordered productive lines and plants with proper spaces and lower risk work stations bring to greater added value operating methods with more competitive labor and finished product costs, besides to a work quality fundamental to the worker’s health.

The machines for the packaging sector are numerous, they can perform multiple functions and differ according to the application sector. Consequently, also the manufacturing features of the internal components, such as moving parts, i.e. pneumatic motors – must respect certain characteristics.

The Italian magazine Soluzioni di assemblaggio & Meccatronica speaks about us and our electric revolution. Efficient, easy-to-use, eTensil is the Made in Italy response to Industry 4.0 demand for green, reliable, versatile and intelligent tools, programmed to be integrated in a smart production organization: from precision mechanics to automotive, from electronics to household appliances assembly.

In the production field of thermo-hydraulic material components to be tightened, for example valves and pumps, are often of small dimensions and the tightening points are positioned in depth or in extremely reduced spaces.

In these cases, there are numerous critical aspects to take into consideration to ensure precise and continuous assembly operations, so as not to compromise the required production rates, for example in automatic production cycles.

Industry Days Budapest, which took place this year from the 15th to the 18th of May at the Hung Expo Budapest Fair Center, is an international exhibition for industrial technology and automation. This year Delta Robotics, our business partner for Hungary and Romania, was also exhibiting. Delta Robotics exhibited  Fiam solutions for automatic tightening: the EasyDriver MCA auto feed tightening modules.

Who is in charge of the maintenance or of the cost management control knows well how important is the TCO, the “Total Cost of Ownership”, that is the total cost of ownership of a good.

This methodological approach, based on the consideration that the total cost of ownership of an industrial equipment does not only depend on the initial costs of purchase, but also on all the costs that occur during its entire life cycle – including disposal, represents a great method to measure the total costs, by identifying all expenses that may or must be incurred, in clear and measurable terms.