A new IS training section at the futronic Training Centre can provide developers and engineers with the possibility of training, as well as playground and test laboratory.
The production machine is designed to be adaptable to the real conditions prevailing at the customer’s facility, making a perfect complement to computer simulations and test set-ups.
Developers and engineers can now take advantage of a new IS training section at the futronic Training Centre. The machine is intended not only for customer training but also as a playground and test laboratory. In future, futronic hopes to take on a more active role in process development.
The production machine is designed to be adaptable – at least approximately – to the real conditions prevailing at the customer’s facility. It makes a perfect complement to computer simulations and test set-ups. The advantages are undeniable: “For one thing, we can now offer customers taking part in external training the kind of environment with which they are familiar from their own companies,” explains Wolfgang Lachmann, managing director of futronic with responsibility for development and production. “For another, if an advanced user wants to be taught certain details about the machine, for example how to programme special cycles, we will be able to reproduce them more easily in future. In other words, our engineers will be better placed to understand the problem and find a quick solution.” The machine is also used for internal training to provide a deeper insight into processes.
A further objective is that developers and engineers should have access to a “playground and test laboratory,” as it were, in which they can “investigate the interaction of the machine and the control system under authentic conditions,” Lachmann continues. In the medium term, futronic hopes to take on a more active role in process development in collaboration with customers and engineering companies.
Although the training section is not absolutely new, it is as good as because it has never been used to actually produce. With its triple gob function and parallel closing mechanisms for the moulds and the servo proportional valves, it certainly conforms to the latest state of the art.
futronic GmbH is one of the world’s top three suppliers in the field of complex automation solutions for plant and equipment manufacturers in the glass production industry. The company has grown considerably in recent years: a team of 61 staff currently support around 900 installations worldwide.