On-Machine™ Solutions
Reduce Costs, Accelerate Start-up and Boost Reliability
If you're under pressure to reduce repair and maintenance costs, challenged by machines in adverse conditions that make repair more difficult, or trying to optimize plant-floor space, On-Machine solutions offer you significant time and cost savings through reduced installation and troubleshooting time.
By moving industrial controls and hardware closer to your application, or on-the-machine, you can reduce wiring and system costs by up to 30 percent. Leverage more than 100 years' experience in applying automation technology to boost your control system reliability and plant-wide productivity with better diagnostics, faster parts change-out with and reduced mean time to repair with easily-accessible, environmentally-hardened components.
Impact Your Manufacturing
- Ease of design
Fewer prints to draw, less layout and less customization all lead to decreased time and money to develop solutions. Using On-Machine technology is one of the most effective ways to accelerate design time. This is an area that often surprises machine builders. Most machine builders don't realize how much time was spent in this area until it is dramatically reduced.
- Re-usable solutions
Some customers compare the On-Machine approach to that of an erector set. Pull parts off the shelf, snap them together, and it's done. This allows OEMs to provide standard product offerings once considered to be customized solutions. In the material handling industry, for example, conveyors that once sold as large customized systems can now be sold in standard ten-foot sections. This allows for reduced OEM engineering, quicker delivery times and increased flexibility for the end user.
- Quicker installation with fewer mistakes
A recent study by a consortium of European manufacturers and machine tool technology groups concluded that On-Machine assembly costs are up to 30 percent less than conventional methods. This is created by both the On-Machine approach as well as product technology that is most often used in these solutions. These product features include enhanced environmental characteristics, modular designs and plug-and-play electronic capabilities.
- Re-configurability
We know the difficulties that can be encountered with change orders. The project is halfway complete and something has to be done differently. No need to redesign the panel, run new pip and re-terminate wires that have already been run. Simply add the desired component and go.
- Simplified testing
Because of the greatly reduced number of wiring terminations associated with On-Machine solutions, testing is much simpler. On-Machine designs allow OEMs to more cost-efficiently build a machine at their site, pre-test it and then disassemble it for transport to an end user's plant. Both OEMs and end users find testing quicker and with lower probability of mistakes.
- Reliability
On-Machine solutions can minimize wiring errors because wiring is pre-manufactured with quick-disconnect features. With less wiring involved, there are fewer points of failure. Some studies suggest that a large portion of system failures come from installation rather than part failures. The decrease in errors associated with pre-manufactured wiring leads to an increase in the overall reliability of the control system. In the end, this helps speed installation, commissioning, maintenance, and troubleshooting, which ultimately boosts a plant's production.
- Faster Maintenance/Repair
On-Machine architectures eliminate the need for maintenance technicians and operators to access a control panel every time they have to check a connection or make an adjustment. With the simplicity of On-Machine wiring layout and connections, end users can efficiently isolate problems and replace a starter or I/O locally, rather than sorting through a complex panel. The result is significantly easier troubleshooting and shorter Mean-Time-To-Repair (MTTR).
- Reduced Floor Space
Control cabinets can occupy a substantial amount of the production floor. The On-Machine approach dramatically reduces the need for that real estate, allowing companies to leverage more of their facility. Industries like semiconductor and pharmaceutical manufacturing have realized the benefits of the On-Machine approach for years, as their clean-room space is at a premium.