Industry 4.0 theme is now being adopted by manufacturing units

By OEM Update Editorial November 1, 2021 9:14 pm IST

“Artificial Intelligence is being used to improve the metal cutting process.”

What are the upcoming technology trends in metal cutting?

The ecosystem within manufacturing is undergoing a rapid change with trends like mass customisation, automation through large scale adoption of CAD / CAM, high level of technological sophistication in machine tools, improving productivity/ quality and strong awareness on environment issues. This is resulting in the introduction of modern cutting tools which work in tandem with machine tools and other elements of production systems to improve the output / quality and overall economics in manufacturing in addition to decreasing carbon footprint. 

At Dormer Pramet, our endeavour is to constantly bring a suitable product offer to the market which will meet the needs of our customers. 

Please talk about the innovations like digitalisation, robotics and AI impacting the performance of cutting processes. 

With the advent of digitalisation, these are truly exciting times for the metal cutting industry. Industry 4.0 is a theme that is now being adopted by various manufacturing units connected with metal cutting and forming. This further breaks down into subsets of various technologies like Internet of things -connected machines – sensor embedded systems AR / VR , rapid prototyping , data analytics, robotic process automations. Artificial Intelligence is being used to improve metal cutting processes, further improving their reliability and reducing waste. On other hand new technologies like additive manufacturing are complimenting the traditional metal working process in order to improve the product quality and its functionality. 

Overall Digitalisation, robotics and AI will help the industry to bring in new products at a rapid pace while maintaining the required efficiency. 

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This is a very important issue that forms a part of overall health, safety and well-being of employees. Many companies have recognised this and are making systematic efforts to improve the safety of their working environments. In fact in companies like ours (Dormer Pramet) safety measures and data are being tracked on a regular basis to build in awareness, initiating actions to prevent injuries from happening in the first place. It is certainly true that a safe work environment boosts the morale of employees and pays back in the form of increased productivity. This is why we have a safety first initiative at Dormer Pramet and set strict targets for us to achieve. More can be done in this regard across the Indian manufacturing industry by collaborating and sharing best practices. 

How do you view the impact of the worldwide energy challenge in Indian Manufacturing? 

Moving towards sustainability is no longer just desirable but has now become inevitable. With global greenhouse effects, increased carbon footprint and rising ocean temperatures, immense climate changes are taking place at a rapid rate. This creates a risk, both in the short term and long term. In order to mitigate these risks, we have to move towards having a more sustainable development. 

Currently, we have a high dependence on coal and other fossil fuels as energy sources. With the risk for the environment, growing geo-political issues and increased demand post Covid, we will have to work towards a more diversified approach to energy, through the addition of non-conventional resources for the future. India is making great strides in wind and solar energy for generating electricity and sustainable transportation systems. Many manufacturing companies are also leading in driving this initiative for clean energy and tracking usage (in the form of energy audits). 

Overall, this is one of the themes that will enable companies to be more efficient and sustainable. So, it should be looked upon as more of an opportunity rather than a challenge. 

At Dormer Pramet, we want to help make the shift by ensuring our products and packaging material are at least 90% circular, halving the amount of waste created in our production processes, reducing CO2 footprint at our production units and lowering CO2 footprint in transportation of people and products. All of these we aim to deliver by 2030.