TRUMPF
Canvas Category Machinery : Machining : General
TRUMPF - a guarantor of innovation in production technology. The high-technology company TRUMPF offers production solutions in the machine tool, laser and electronics sectors. The company is driving digital connectivity in manufacturing industry through consulting, platform and software offers. TRUMPF is the world technological and market leader for machine tools used in flexible sheet metal processing, and also for industrial lasers. TRUMPF Inc. is the North American subsidiary of TRUMPF SE + Co. KG. based near Stuttgart, Germany. The TRUMPF Group is a world leader in sheet metal fabrication machinery and industrial lasers. TRUMPF’s North American headquarters is located in Farmington, CT. “Trusting in brave ideas” – this is our promise to everyone who works for us. As a family business, we decide long-term and provide our people with the trust and stability needed to bring their ideas to fruition, even the unconventional ones. Being a market and technology leader in machine tools and lasers, we courageously shape the networked manufacturing of tomorrow, meeting every challenge with bold, fresh thinking.
Assembly Line
Scaling up high-product-mix metal fabrication
“When earlier generations of our 2D laser cutters were in use, a fair portion of our manufacturing floor space was consumed by material management,” said Jeff Bischoff, director of engineering. “Since the investment and implementation of TRUMPF’s TruStore in our blanking development, of which we have three systems, much of our material inventory has moved to a warehouse dedicated to sheet metal and tooling. Actively transferring daily material requirements allows existing plant space to be reallocated to manufacturing capital and activity.”
3-Dimensional sells its ability to respond quickly to highly variable demand from various industries, and having the right stock on hand in blanking helps make that happen. Too little inventory could starve downstream processes in a hurry. Here, laser cutting automation helps reduce the blanking footprint and, not least, allows for continuous, unattended operation.
3-Dimensional has more than 50 welding robots from KUKA, FANUC, and Panasonic, and its own cut and etch lab onsite for weld testing and process validation. Most welding robots perform gas metal arc welding, but a fair number also perform resistance spot welding and even gas tungsten arc welding. The lion’s share are traditional articulating-arm robots, but the company also makes use of cobots (from Universal Robots and FANUC) for some light assembly work as well as certain welding applications. One, for instance, positions work at a resistance spot welding station. Several cobots are stocked on shelves to assist at a moment’s notice.
TRUMPF and SiMa.ai agree on strategic partnership for lasers with artificial intelligence
TRUMPF and SiMa.ai, the software-centric, embedded edge machine learning system-on-chip company, signed a partnership to develop lasers with artificial intelligence (AI). The goal is to equip several laser systems of TRUMPF with AI technology in the near future. This includes systems for welding, cutting and marking, as well as powder metal 3D printers. Both companies bring their respective expertise to the collaboration: TRUMPF, its laser application expertise, and SiMa.ai, its machine learning system on chip (MLSoC) technology.
The joint collaboration intends to accelerate complex material processing. The powerful, compact and energy-efficient AI chips will be integrated directly into the laser systems. The AI-optimized sensor technology can monitor the quality of the laser welding process in real time and evaluate more than 3,000 images per second. In electric car production, for example, the real-time quality inspection during laser welding with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to replace separate and complex testing procedures. Moreover, battery manufacturers will be able to increase the quality of their production in real time and reduce the reject rate which could ultimately lower the price of electric cars for consumers.
Unlocking new value in industrial automation with AI
Working with the robotics team at NVIDIA, we have successfully tested NVIDIA robotics platform technologies, including NVIDIA Isaac Manipulator foundation models for robot a grasping skill with the Intrinsic platform. This prototype features an industrial application specified by one of our partners and customers, Trumpf Machine Tools. This grasping skill, trained with 100% synthetic data generated by NVIDIA Isaac Sim, can be used to build sophisticated solutions that can perform adaptive and versatile object grasping tasks in sim and real. Instead of hard-coding specific grippers to grasp specific objects in a certain way, efficient code for a particular gripper and object is auto-generated to complete the task using the foundation model and synthetic training data.
Together with Google DeepMind, we’ve demonstrated some novel and high value methods for robotic programming and orchestration — many of which have practical applications today:
- Multi-robot motion planning with machine learning
- Learning from demonstration, applied to two-handed dexterous manipulation
- Foundation model for perception by enabling a robotic system to understand the next task and the physical objects involved requires a real-time, accurate, and semantic understanding of the environment.
Norway’s deep tech firm sensiBel gets €7M from Sennheiser, others: Know more
Norway-based sensiBel, a deep-tech company developing next-generation MEMS microphones, announced that it has secured €7M led by Sennheiser. Existing investors, including TRUMPF Venture, Skagerak Capital, Investinor, SINTEF Venture, MP Pensjon, and Halden Kommunale Pensjonskasse, also participated in the round.
The company will use the funds to expand production and invest in scalability.
Led by Sverre Dale Moen, sensiBel has developed optical MEMS microphones that demonstrate a generational shift in sound quality despite their miniature size. sensiBel says its miniature microphones enable a new and improved experience in application areas such as consumer electronics, automotive, conferencing solutions, and medical devices.
Tesla Manufacturing: See how the Cybertruck HFS Panels are Blanked, Bent, and Built!
🚜 Inside John Deere Harvester Works: Think your iPhone is cutting-edge? Try driving an X9 combine.
”Supply chain was massively disrupted last year,” said Jim Leach, the factory manager in East Moline. “We had hundreds of machines that were partially complete. We still haven’t seen a return to normal yet.” One way to minimize the wait for parts is to make them yourself. The Harvester Works has eight industrial Trumpf fiber-optic laser stations turning sheet metal into combine parts, chassis components and grain tank sides, then molding them on 10 press brakes — large industrial presses — in a process that is almost totally automated. The only need for human hands is to transfer the components from the lasers to the presses. The plant turns 60,000 tons of sheet steel a year into combine parts.
As big a challenge as making the parts is then keeping track of where they go, spread across Harvest Works’ 71 acres of floor space. Two years ago, employees were manually conducting daily inventory of which parts and aborning combines were where. Now, a large, white refrigerator-sized autonomous mobile robot purrs its way through the facility, scanning the RFID chips in various components to map the inventory down to each bin of bolts.
Assembling and checking are often done simultaneously. Michael Churchill uses an impact wrench gun containing an RFID chip that talks to Deere’s central production computer system, which knows when Churchill has tightened any given bolt enough and tells him to stop.
Battery Resourcers Secures $70 Million in New Funding
Battery Resourcers, a vertically integrated lithium-ion battery recycling and manufacturing company, today announced the closing of its latest mid-round funding totalling $70 million. The company will use this latest funding round to advance and expand the industry’s most sustainable, cutting-edge closed loop material production technology that accepts mixed input of scrap batteries and end of life batteries to produce cathode material. In response to increased demand for sustainable battery production, Battery Resources will also expand commercial plants that will be operational in the U.S. and in Europe by the end of 2022.
Hitachi Ventures became the newest investor to join the world-class syndicate of strategic and financial investors already backing Battery Resourcers’ approach and technology. Existing investors include Orbia Ventures, Jaguar Land Rover’s InMotion Ventures, Doral Energy, At One Ventures, TDK Ventures and Trumpf Ventures.