B&R tracks and other Adaptive Machine offerings for production flexibility: See it at IMTS 2018

At this year’s International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) — September 10 to 15 in Chicago’s McCormick Place — B&R Industrial Automation Corp. will introduce track technology to support Adaptive Machine concepts. Adaptive machines can change on the fly and reconfigure with different production modules using one base machine platform.

This new generation of production machinery is also adaptable to constant size and format changes. Plus it’s reconfigurable to unforeseen changes through corresponding equipment changes — to convert welding modules to forming modules, for example. Such modular design unifies robotics with advanced automation to improve overall OEE, ROI, and TCO.

Adaptive machines from B&R include individually controlled modules with multidirectional movement, tight synchronization with other (often robotic) devices, and production flexibility. Adaptive machinery also helps end users deliver smaller lot and batch sizes even while increasing throughput (lead time and volume). Visit B&R Booth E-134111 where the manufacturer will show this technology and track technology that supports adaptive machine setups for profitable production … even down to batches of one.

Also on display will be field devices for OPC UA and a new X20 I/O system bus controller (which enables implementation of OPC UA communication from the sensor layer to the ERP layer without any interfaces).

Still other technologies on display at IMTS will include:

An expanded portfolio of mapp software components (including mapp RoboX and mapp Technology); H L5-based HMI development via mapp View for web-based HMI solutions without the need to learn H L5, CSS or JavaScript.
SafeDESIGNER library for press applications; set of function blocks specified in PLCopen Part 4 for easier setup of safety-critical press applications; a live TSN test bed

If attending IMTS, also check out a presentation by B&R business development director John Kowal — Beyond the Brown-field: How the Adaptive Machine makes IIoT a Practical Reality — on Tuesday, September,11, 2018 at 3:15 PM in the West Building – Level 1 of McCormick Place, IAMD. For more information, visit www.br-automation.com.