Owners and managers of businesses that manufacture machines and automation systems know only too well that, in order to remain at the top, they need to optimise every aspect of their production processes and also to make sure these processes are correctly structured to address emerging trends, such as modularisation, decentralisation and support for Industry 4.0, which are becoming increasingly important to their customers.
But recognising the need for process optimisation is very different from being able to put it into practice. The heart of the problem is that it takes a lot of resources to investigate which processes need improving, and to work out the details of how they should be improved.
The problem is particularly acute in the area of connectivity because this is a key part of every automation and machine-building project, yet very few companies have interconnection specialists on their payroll. It’s easy to see why. Interconnection sounds trivial – surely, it’s just about cutting wires to length, crimping connections and wiring terminals. What is there to optimise?
Actually, today’s interconnection requirements are much wider than this and are getting ever wider as Industry 4.0 creates a growing need for both vertical and horizontal integration.
But even if interconnection were limited to just terminals and crimping, it would still be worth looking at closely, because these activities represent a significant fraction of the time spent on building machines and control panels.
Weidmuller’s solution is connectivity consulting. In essence, this means that the company will use its own time and expertise to analyse the connectivity issues that are holding back your business and suggest solutions.
If you decide to adopt those solutions, the company will work with you to implement them and to make sure that they deliver the gains that are expected of them.
The connectivity consulting service is primarily about providing comprehensive solutions that will deliver both immediate and long-term benefits for your business rather than simply specifying which components you should use. The support doesn’t stop when you’ve placed your order – it’s there for you to call on for as long as you need it.
So what sort of areas can you expect the connectivity consulting service to look at?
Possibly one of the most obvious is panel wiring, where the consultant will analyse your needs and advise whether you could make significant productivity gains by, for example, switching from manual cutting and crimping tools to automatic tools or even by investing in machines that will take data from your engineering design software and use it to automatically cut and prepare every wire needed in a control panel.
It’s worth noting that even simple changes can help you to boost efficiency and product quality. Changing to power screwdrivers, for example, not only speeds up assembly and wiring but also helps to ensure that every screw is tightened to the correct torque.
Then there are the terminals themselves. Screw-clamp terminals are still very popular and are undoubtedly a well-proven solution, but push-in spring-clamp types are arguably even more reliable, especially in applications where they will be subjected to high levels of vibration, and they cut wiring time dramatically. In many applications, the latest push-in terminals, can deliver even bigger time and cost savings, with absolutely no sacrifice in performance or reliability.
Maybe you could simplify and speed up the design and assembly of your terminal rails. If it’s appropriate for you, the connectivity consulting service will introduce you to an on-line configurator that uses selection wizards to aid terminal rail design and to make sure that you never forget or incorrectly specify a component.
In addition, if you use the configurator, you can, with just a few mouse clicks, order a terminal rail manufactured to your design rather than assembling it in house.
The connectivity consultancy can also look at things like ways in which you might be able to reduce the size of the control cabinets you use and whether multipole connectors might be a better option for your application than conventional terminals. It can even provide advice on technical topics like improving the EMC performance of your products.
In practice, making use of the service is very easy. You can either formulate specific issues you’d like to address or identify areas of your business where you’d like to make improvements. The next step is to contact Weidmuller and an experienced engineer will contact you to arrange a visit to your manufacturing site.
During that visit, engineers will look in depth at your existing processes and gather detailed information about them. Subsequently, they’ll work with this information to develop proposals that could help your business.
They will arrange to visit you again to discuss their proposals and, wherever possible, demonstrate them in action so you can accurately judge for yourself how beneficial they would be and whether you want to adopt them.
For more information visit here, or email marketing@weidmuller.co.uk.
Weidmüller UK
- +44 1162 823470
- http://www.weidmueller.com
- Klippon House, Centurion Court Office Park, Meridian East, Meridian Business Park Leicester, Leicestershire LE19 1TP GB
About us
Be it automobile manufacturing, electricity production or water management - hardly any of today’s industries can do without electronics and electrical connectivity. In this internationalised, technologically changing world, the complexity of requirements is rapidly increasing due to the emergence of new markets. New, more varied challenges have to be overcome, and the solutions to them will not be found in high-tech products alone. Connectivity is the key, whether it involves power, signals and data, demands and solutions or theory and practice. Industrial Connectivity needs connections. And that’s precisely what we stand for.
Our Industries
Our industrial environment is full of connections that need to be connected, controlled and optimised. We are absolutely committed to always providing the best connection possible. This is not only demonstrated in our products but also in the human connections we maintain: We develop solutions in close cooperation with our customers which meet the full measure of all requirements of their particular industrial environment.
Industry 4.0 and Digitalisation
In the light of Industry 4.0, customised, highly flexible and self-controlling production units often still seem to be a vision of the future. As a progressive thinker and trailblazer, Weidmüller already offers concrete solutions that allow producing companies to prepare themselves for the “Industrial Internet of Things” and for safe production control from the Cloud - without the need to modernise their entire range of machinery.
Where we supply to
UK Ireland
Industries we supply to
Chemicals, Energy and Power, Pharmaceutical Cosmetics Toiletries, Water and Wastewater
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