• Advanced Manufacturing

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Which cutting technology is the most suited to your plant?

  • Nesting
Thirty years ago, the global distribution of sheet metal cutting machine-tools was dominated by the oxycut variety (large thicknesses) and, to a lesser extent, the plasma variety (small thicknesses). There was a niche for punching machines along with water jet and laser machines. The latter were aimed at thicknesses less than 5mm and were expensive. Since then, the trend has shifted, shrugging oxycut in favor of other technologies according to thicknesses.

Machine Communication Standards

  • Advanced Manufacturing
We all know that our goal is to achieve online connectivity between our IT systems and the real processes taking place in our factories. However, in reality, nowadays there is no single communication standard which allows us to communicate our IT solutions (ERP/MRP/MES) to any given machine from any given manufacturer and, of all these terms, it is not easy to understand which are important in each case.

Rob Powell, Commercial Director, Lantek UK talks about Industry 4.0 for sheet metal manufacturers

  • Digital Transformation
Industry 4.0 is the next stage on from the automation systems that many companies within the sheet metal industry are already embracing. We have supplied many CADCAM systems in the UK and we see that manufacturers understand the need for sheet handling systems such as stacker systems for the automated loading of multiple sizes and specifications of material and the unloading, stacking and sorting of finished parts using automated handling systems such as chutes and robots.