“Do more with less” the catchphrase at FABTECH Atlanta

FABTECH Atlanta was a busy show for the metal fabricating, forming, and welding industry. A good indication of that were the many Canadians who made the trip. Given the increasingly insistent talk of the talent crunch, it’s important for shops to see the technology available to fill that gap, and a lot of folks were keen to get out and see what’s what.

If there was a catchphrase for the show, it might have been “do more with less”— every shop has to increase production with fewer available employees. Every company exhibiting at the show seemed to have found ways to simplify operations, from programming right through to maintenance.

On the weld programming side, I witnessed the continuing simplification of cobot programming, as well as advancements like Pemamek’s welding programming system. In fact, calling what this system does “programming” seems a misnomer when it simply tells you what welds are possible on the part, and you choose which you’d like executed. No need to indicate your start and end points.

In plasma technology, Hypertherm introduced its HPR cartridge for its HPRXD systems that replaces five standard consumables and makes for faster changeovers. It takes the guesswork out of what needs to be changed out, and those changeouts can happen faster. In a quirky detail, the company’s engineers went so far as to reduce how great of a turn was required to tighten one part of the assembly—an example of taking an understanding that time is money to the extreme.

On the waterjet side, different companies have invested in system monitoring and maintenance improvements to simplify preventive maintenance and make it easier for users to manage their own diagnostics.

In sheet metal cutting and forming, there were a plethora of examples of higher-powered lasers, smarter controls, and customer support enhancements. For instance, TRUMPF discussed an Easy Order app that uses artificial intelligence to simplify spare part orders: all you do is take a picture of the part that needs replacing and the app does the rest.

Not many manufacturers raised the issue of eco-consciousness, but increasing costs, as much as global warming concerns, are driving this need . Eco-consciousness was a theme at the AMADA AMERICA booth, where the company unveiled the EGB 6020 ATCe electric press brake with automatic tool changer. While its efficient electric drive system will interest some, the advanced AMNC 4i will intrigue all. It allows the use of voice commands to request and change bend information. It also has facial recognition software so that only approved individuals can make such changes.

There’s much more to say about this and other technology but there isn’t enough room to mention all of them here. Suffice to say that there are many routes a shop can take to simplify and improve part flow and general uptime today. It’s a matter of determining your pain points and which rollout will make the most sense for your team. Read more about the show on the website soon.