Reducing manufacturing costs and maximising output are more important than ever in a challenging economic backdrop. Help is at hand from SMC – the global market leader in industrial automation technologies. Thanks to 65 years of experience in meeting its customers’ needs with appropriate solutions, SMC has developed products to help users cut costs and boost efficiency.

Provides holistic solutions

The company has developed a reputation for innovation, with more than 12,000 standard products in its portfolio and more than 700,000 overall. While the corporation is perhaps best known for that vast range of standard components, it also provides holistic solutions to benefit both OEMs and end users.

An increasing number of customers worldwide are realising the benefits from SMC’s wireless solutions and its innovative Air Management System.

There are many advantages in using a wireless communication system in a manufacturing environment; a typical set-up involves complex wiring looms and data cables for communication between manifolds and, for example, robot arms. These all increase the commissioning time and can be damaged from day-to-day wear and tear – causing downtime and incurring repair, replacement and labour costs.

SMC’s EX600-W wireless manifold removes all these disadvantages at a stroke.

Commissioning time and costs are drastically reduced thanks to removing data cables and complex wiring looms, contributing to lower labour costs and meaning machines are operational sooner than conventionally-wired counterparts, thus increasing output. 

If there are no comms cables then, quite simply, there’s no possibility of comms cable faults: the result? No downtime or lost output, and lower overall costs for machine maintenance.

Robotic cell manufacturers can gain another competitive advantage by switching to wireless communications, which could lead to increased orders. 

A robot arm with comms cable is often classed as a customised item, and so have one of the longest lead times of the whole assembly. By replacing the comms cable with SMC’s wireless system, a robot arm using just DC and air could be available on a much shorter lead time. 

An improvement which could make the difference between winning an order, or not

Some of SMC’s OEM customers have been able to reduce lead times from six months to just two weeks; an improvement which could make the difference between winning an order, or not.

Another game-changing innovation from SMC is the corporation’s Air Management System – an addition to a compressed air system to assess if it is operating at its most efficient level, and not silently wasting money on undetected leaks.

This invaluable resource allows OEMs and end users alike to have complete visualisation of their factory compressed air supply.  This allows for immediate investigation, identification and rectification of anomalies that might otherwise remain undetected or difficult to identify.

Air for automation is widely perceived as a ‘free’ resource, however the cost of running compressors – especially in large manufacturing operations – means that the sooner leaks are identified, the less money is wasted on ‘lost’ compressed air.

Meanwhile, OEMs incorporating the Air Management System at source can gain a competitive advantage by being able to offer their customers a solution to guarantee efficiency and cost reduction.