Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Automation: OUR PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE

Koganei is leading innovation when it comes to valves and other pneumatic components in #automation and #manufacturing. Here is the evolution of our products based on the automation used in manufacturing.
Robotics wasn't around many years ago. Manufacturing automation began with assembly lines and many people manually assembling/building products. With the use of compressed air, work flow processes could improve efficiency. That is where manual mechanical valves were needed. The great news is still today, manual & mechanical valves are needed in the very applications from the past.
The next advancement was air logic, or the ability to design a circuit that was based on fill and exhaust timing to introduce the foundation of an "automated process."
With air pilot valves and to assist with creating the "timing" for this advancement in automation, more components were developed to support the pneumatic circuits are repeatable in performance.
As manufacturing continues to advance, innovation with electricity in the form of solenoid valves has brought us to modern automation as we know today.
The future....is filled with many possibilities. Presently, it is all about i/o networked communication advancing capability of networks within a facility all being controlled from one central unit. EtherNet and EtherCat seem to be the leading communication globally but like our distributors, we are always keeping an eye out for what is next.
Rumors in the industry believe that one day, there will be wireless communication that will process all the operations data faster with remote access. Regarding components the drive toward lower power, smaller size is also the trend that we, as a manufacturer are driving towards. We now make components for robotics in manufacturing. A change we recognized and reacted to.
Ultimately, we know that we will be successful only if we innovate as we listen to those we proudly serve.

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