SMAC NEWSLETTER Vol.129 SMAC Distributor Meetings 2018
Early in May went on a quick trip to Europe. Usually trips begin Monday evening after starting the week in the factory. This trip began with a visit to Ireland. There first met a company that makes food sorters, very high volume. They use 80K air cylinders a year, actually for 3 months, and then toss them. Their base technology is a scanner that can track many different objects that jump of a conveyor towards pneumatic flappers. Quite impressive. They can actually detect size mass and also can track in 3D the ballistic path of all these objects.
We went through the usual process of finding out what problems they had that we could solve. Found the key one. Breakdowns. If an air cylinder fails, during the harvest season, the cost to the customer is up to $10K an hour! The machines are used all over the world and service calls take time, mostly to get there. They want 2 things;
1.A way to get early warning of a failure.
2.A way to let all the customers make quick field repairs themselves.
So, we went through the KS LAR31. This has had the basic capability they want,-and we have been making these for 20 years.
A.The EOB, electronics on board, tracks heat, cycle rate, etc and re-ports these continuously.
B.A. very precise doweled bayonet quick change mounting that lets a unit be swapped in less than 1 minute. (Problem could be our unit or the camera or the laser).
We also went through the changes we made over time to increase the MBTF. Built in lube on the linear guide -encoder disc built onto the motor shaft -vacuum through the motor -etc.
We also showed them the SMAC Stack concept with magnet housing and cover that rotates up on bearings and allows easy access to the linear guide -piston and encoder. And the sub-plate that these are all mounted on. By removing 2 screws and unplugging 1 plug the unit can be removed and a new one can be mounted. Takes 1 minute.
That puts us at step 4 -convincing them to try a sample. Our Euro sales are working on that.
Also met the Ireland IDA. They want to get high tech companies to come to Ireland -and they want to EXPORT. Like Singapore they said. I checked and Ireland has no home based Robot or actuator makers. We told them SMAC is interested in setting up a motor manufacturing base there and maybe other products as well. That generated enthusiasm as well as an offer to introduce us to many local manufacturers and machine builders -including those in Sligo. (That’s the real old Mountain Dew).
Then off to Italy. First visit to one of the leading packaging makers in the world. This was fun. Going into the meeting -was told by our Euro guys that there was one engineer who was really sold on Linmot. So this would be a difficult challenge. We met them and were told there is a 2 year process a new product must go through before it can be accepted. OK -then we went through the new LBL -the lower price -the SMAC Stack -the very high speeds.
The very serious engineer who was supposed to be hard to convince looked at us and stated -“SMAC is a standard linear motor. We agreed. She then said since it is a standard it can be considered as simply competitor to what they have been using so it does NOT need to go through any trial period or process.
Turns out her biggest problem is high speed eject divert and Linmot cannot cycle that fast. So we got the chance.
Last stop was at Marposs. They had just shown their new gear measurement station at a show in Germany. This has 2 LAS300. Replaces Festo pneumatic slides which had 2 problems. No soft land so gear teeth were chipping. And the station actually has 8 ? different probes which are indexable. This means a number of different sized gears can be inspected using the same system. So the change over is automatic with our product. It is not with the pneumatic slide.This is the first application and the first order for 10 300s is on its way in they said. They have another application using a LAR 35 to scan a curved surface. They also asked about our XY15x15. How did we get the speed? We move the 2nd axis piston but not the magnet housing. Can they get a larger stroke? Yes -particularly now that we have flat coils. So picked up the third application. Looks like another $1 M + a year OEM.
While in Italy was also able to visit the technology museum in Bologna where we will have our Euro Distributor meeting. Very interesting and neat place with all sorts of machines. Tour guide was very knowledgeable and -luckily for me -he could speak French. (No English). Will be a good place to have a meeting.
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LAR31 、 LAS300 、 LAR 35 、 LBL25-050 、 LBL50-050 、 LBR50 、 LAR95 、 LCA50 、 LBR 、 HT 、 LCA25 、 LAR55 、 LBL |
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Supplier and Product Introduction |
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Please see the document for details |
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English Chinese Chinese and English Japanese |
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May 2018 |
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