The future is cyber-physical – METAV 2020 and VDMA Forum on Clamping Technology: Digital transformation innovations

Frank­furt am Main, the 20th Jan­u­ary 2020 — Like many a suc­cess­ful TV series, indus­try thrives on inno­va­tions that build on pre­vi­ous suc­cess­es. This applies in par­tic­u­lar to the clamp­ing tech­nol­o­gy indus­try, the prod­ucts of which are cur­rent­ly mor­ph­ing into cyber-phys­i­cal devices. Vis­i­tors to METAV 2020 can check out the cur­rent state-of-the-art and the lat­est mega­trends in Hall 1 at the Düs­sel­dorf exhi­bi­tion cen­tre and in the VDMA Forum of Clamp­ing Tech­nol­o­gy on 11 March 2020.

Hel­mut Diebold GmbH & Co. Goldring-Werkzeug­fab­rik, based in Jungin­gen in south-west Ger­many, is adopt­ing a two-pronged approach at the METAV 2020 in Düs­sel­dorf. On the one hand, the com­pa­ny is show­cas­ing its lat­est inno­va­tions, such as shrink-fit tech­nol­o­gy, mod­u­lar fix­tures and the Ultra­Jet pow­er chuck. On the oth­er hand, it is using the trade fair as a forum for fur­ther devel­op­ment. “We’re cur­rent­ly invest­ing a great deal of effort in Indus­try 4.0 dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion,” reports autho­rised sig­na­to­ry Mar­ti­na Diebold. “We’ll be offer­ing a fore­taste of this at METAV 2020.”
There has been a sig­nif­i­cant increase in the demand for dig­i­tal solu­tions in recent years. For exam­ple, trans­par­ent pro­duc­tion, in which work­piece loca­tions are iden­ti­fi­able at all times, facil­i­tates the machin­ing process. “Dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion ren­ders tedious search­es super­flu­ous,” says Diebold, cit­ing a key advan­tage. “It’s also an effec­tive way of avoid­ing long down-times.”

Decen­tralised intelligence

This devel­op­ment goes hand in hand with decen­tral­i­sa­tion, which requires each indi­vid­ual machine to be intel­li­gent. As a result, clamp­ing tech­nol­o­gy is also devel­op­ing into cyber-phys­i­cal equip­ment. This process is also being influ­enced by the OPC UA stan­dard, and the asso­ci­at­ed uni­ver­sal inter­face umati of the VDW (Ger­man Machine Tool Builders’ Association).
The com­pa­ny is now also explor­ing mod­u­lar designs: this involves a cen­tral basic fix­ture that can be com­bined with var­i­ous attach­ments to cre­ate indi­vid­ual clamp­ing devices. The two-part sys­tem struc­ture ensures low vibra­tion and thus increas­es the qual­i­ty of the machin­ing process. Diebold: “Only with inno­va­tions like these will we be able to main­tain our mar­ket posi­tion in an eco­nom­ic downturn.”

Plen­ty of dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion pos­si­bil­i­ties wait­ing to be explored

The increas­ing dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion of clamp­ing devices is also a key issue at Hain­buch GmbH, based in Mar­bach near Lud­wigs­burg. This trend is cur­rent­ly reflect­ed in its smart prod­uct range, which cov­ers every­thing from stan­dard­ised quick-change inter­faces and plug-and-play clamp­ing force mea­sur­ing devices with inte­grat­ed soft­ware through to intel­li­gent clamp­ing sys­tems. “There are plen­ty of dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion aspects that are wait­ing to be explored,” says Head of Design Alfred Hillinger, look­ing to the future. “There’s no doubt in my mind that Indus­try 4.0 will con­tin­ue to gain in momen­tum.” This is also reflect­ed in the exhibits that Hain­buch is set to present at METAV 2020 in March.
The Forum of Clamp­ing Tech­nol­o­gy organ­ised by the VDMA Pre­ci­sion Tools asso­ci­a­tion cov­ers all these top­ics. The event, mod­er­at­ed by Peter Tausend (WTE Präzi­sion­swerkzeug GmbH) and Philipp Ehrhardt (Römheld GmbH), will fea­ture six talks on “Clamp­ing tech­nol­o­gy – Solu­tions for mega­trends”. Ques­tions such as whether high-qual­i­ty tool clamp­ing tech­nol­o­gy caus­es or influ­ences costs (Haimer GmbH), or how zero-point clamp­ing tech­nol­o­gy can be used in 3D print­ing (Andreas Maier GmbH) will be explored.

IFW Direc­tor Denke­na: An encounter between the past and the future?

Inter­ac­tion with sen­sor tech­nol­o­gy and elec­tron­ics will be addressed in sev­er­al dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion-relat­ed talks on Wednes­day morn­ing: these include the sen­si­tive and intel­li­gent tool hold­er from Schunk GmbH (Heuchel­heim) the intel­li­gent and seri­alised tool sys­tems for tomorrow’s net­worked pro­duc­tion (Mapal Dr. Kress) or the improve­ment of prod­uct qual­i­ty through sen­sor-based process con­trol (Römheld GmbH). Based on these met­al­work­ing and Indus­try 4.0 exam­ples, Prof. Berend Denke­na, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Insti­tute of Pro­duc­tion Engi­neer­ing and Machine Tools (IFW) of Leib­niz Uni­ver­sität Han­nover and Vice Pres­i­dent of the WGP (Ger­man Aca­d­e­m­ic Asso­ci­a­tion for Pro­duc­tion Tech­nol­o­gy), will be pos­ing a thought-pro­vok­ing ques­tion at the VDMA Forum for Clamp­ing Tech­nol­o­gy: “Met­al­work­ing meets Indus­try 4.0 – Past meets future?”

What: VDMA Forum of Clamp­ing Technology
When: 11 March 2020, 09:30 to 13:30
Where: Messe Düs­sel­dorf, South Entrance, Hall 1 (1st floor, room 15), Stock­umer Kirch­straße, 40474 Düsseldorf
Reg­is­ter by 23 Feb­ru­ary at www.pwz.vdma.org

(Size: around 4,750 char­ac­ters incl. blanks)
Author: Niko­laus Fecht on behalf of VDMA Pre­ci­sion Tools