Fond Farewell

here’s a big difference between a design on paper and a design that works. Collaborating with an experienced custom fabricator can help architects understand the capabilities and limitations of a design early in the process, eliminating waste later on.

The team at Fabricated Products Group, Frankfort, Illinois, led by President Dan Shields, comprises experts in architectural systems and components, including sunshades and screening, grills and decorative louvers, and custom brackets. “We design and engineer our products, and we are custom fabricators,” Shields says. “We pride ourselves on working closely with the design intent from the architect in a collaborative environment and bringing it to reality.”

an you add digital transformation to my quote? The term “digital transformation” keeps popping up over and over—in the media and webinars, in technology vendor presentations and other literature, but what does it really mean? And how does it impact materials supply shortages and staffing to support growing demand?

Digital transformation represents the aggregate of digital initiatives that take offline processes to create an online experience and take existing online processes and make them more efficient to deliver a differentiated, value-added experience. Buyers don’t ask their supply chain to add digital transformation to the list of product offerings—they ask them to access, deliver and support their businesses in a digital format that “works for them.”

utomated technologies that can improve quality, reduce overhead and solve difficult problems have always been in demand,” says Mike Josefiak, mechanical engineer for Greenerd Press & Machine Co. “We are seeing a new class of small to mid-size manufacturers taking advantage of these technologies by relying on equipment OEMs to give them solutions that are tailored to their production requirements.”

ontext is important. Data by itself does not help resolve manufacturers’ problems like the bottlenecks or production process missteps that result in unnecessary waste. At Wintriss, ShopFloorConnect (SFC) software helps users efficiently access data that is easy to interpret to be used for increasing productivity.

t’s no longer either/or for many fabricators when cutting thick or thin alloys. Fabricators want to be able to take on any job that comes through the door. “Versatility—a customer doesn’t always want to stick to thick or thin cuts, so we’ve introduced a plasma model that will let them do any combination quickly and reliably,” says Rashad Galloway, fabrication product manager at MultiCam Inc.

glass recycler poses a unique air filtration challenge, says Rick Kreczmer, president of Sterling Heights, Michigan-based RoboVent, a designer and manufacturer of ventilation and filtration systems. “It is the stickiest, smelliest place ever.”

Many glass bottles, jars and other containers are coated in residue from the beverages and foods they once held—wine, beer, pickle relish—and they have to be crushed, which generates a lot of glass dust. “Think about employee retention,” Kreczmer says. “If you go into one of these facilities, your clothes smell so much that you don’t want to get into your car. And, at times, local municipalities can get involved instituting odor restrictions.”

he science of sintering first emerged in the 1940s. The technology has since matured. Today, the heat treatment is used to increase the strength and structural integrity of materials. Salem, Indiana-based GKN Sinter Metals—an expert in powder metallurgy—uses sintering to produce precision powder metal products for a broad range of markets that include automotive, industrial and consumer applications. To meet the evolving demands of customers like General Motors, Ford Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., GKN has married its sintered metal processing skills with IIoT practices in a digitized production environment. That included installing a fleet of almost 30 Yaskawa Motoman 6-axis robots.