Own development model for Integrated Management of Technological Innovation.
New generation of smart panel benders
The panel-bending market is typified by the production of short series of a great variety of different products, which entails long setting times to obtain the first part to specifications. On the other hand, variations caused by mechanical behaviour of the material and thermo-mechanical behaviour of the machine in a production run may lead to defects despite proper initial setting of the process. These factors cause cost overruns as well as mistakes in production planning, making the part manufacturer less competitive.
In this context, providing a panel bender with artificial intelligence to ensure a part quality to specifications is paramount to achieve a good positioning on the machine tool market. Ensuring the quality of the final part will lead to reduced costs because of enhanced process definition, setting times and less defects during the manufacturing process, as well as compliance with manufacturing times of different series. In addition to these points, cancelling out defective parts yields benefits in terms of reduction of material, energy and labour costs used during their manufacture.
This project pursues the development of a new generation of intelligent panel bending machines that secure the quality of the end part. The operation entails that the control unit of the machine extracts information from the real status of the machine and process through a real-time monitoring system. The information obtained through this monitoring system will be used to feed powerful calculation models based on knowledge of the machine and process behaviour that will automate the action to be taken to ensure a correct panel bending process. The results of the panel bending models and monitoring are used to take action to rectify any deviation from the required panel bending process using an intelligent decision-making system and to thus ensure automatic manufacturing of parts without any need for additional enclosures or suction systems.
A new range of smart panel benders will be developed which, thanks to adding monitoring, modelling and decision-making constituents, will make it possible to ensure the quality of the manufactured parts. The panel benders will incorporate a new optimised hydraulic actuator for the improvement of precision in panel bending processes.
The systems to be included in the new range of intelligent panel benders enable correction of the bending paths, definition of an optimal process for each material and part to be manufactured in order to ensure the end quality.
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