Newly expanding to an 18,000 sq. ft. facility in the scenic, bustling seaport city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, IPSUMM is a growing multi-divisional product development company. IPSUMM’s business units serve the manufacturing sector with equipment and services including die-cutting, capital machinery, automation support, and a full-service machine shop. According to company President & CEO John Kodzis, the company was built around the idea of helping customers turn any manufacturing idea into a reality.
最近，IPSumm的创新工程部门在I2I工程名称下重新组织为全方位服务工程公司。重组将更好地满足自己客户的需求，以及其他IPSumm部门的客户。其新发布的旗舰产品 - 具有“虹膜”软件骨干的独特工作单元 - 是一种高度灵活的机器人驱动的自动化解决方案。
The IRIS backbone allows manufacturers to switch quickly among manufacturing tasks as diverse as picking, painting, assembly, packaging, vision inspection, and more, on the same line, with little more than a simple change of a “plug and play” tool and picking a new recipe. In addition, individual IRIS-based units can be networked so manufacturers can modify or add capacity cost-effectively as needed, without the risk of “overinvesting” in fixed capital equipment.
The Challenge
根据科泽斯的说法，伊利斯的愿景实际上是几年前开发的。“去任何工厂，你可能会看到坐在那里闲着的设备。也许预测需求是关闭的，或者他们转移到不同的产品组合，这些资产只是浪费，“他解释说。“我认为我们可以使用不同的哲学开发生产设备，使其几乎无限可重新配置。因此，如果您需要线路执行不同的功能甚至制造整个产品，可以快速且经济高效地使用现有设备。同样，系统将是模块化的，所以您可以在没有大量资本投资的情况下添加或移动容量 - 您甚至可以在其他地方转动它
in the facility.”
ipsumm建立了一个原型，证明了这一概念的“战术制造”，但他指出，它又花了几年来组装一个与合适的人才的团队更充分意识到这一革命性的愿景。一旦团队到位，挑战就会成为一个自动化伙伴，有能力和愿意帮助Ipsumm将愿景转变为商业产品。根据科迪斯和工程经理Eddie Pflugh的说法，他们发现了三菱电气的合作伙伴。
解决方案
尽管他们会利用一个“现成” robot, the key to the success of the product would be the proprietary IRIS software application that IPSUMM would create. “We had a very different need than most people who just buy a robot; to realize the concept, we would need to revamp the software to control the arm in ways that may not have been envisioned before,” said Kodzis. “Mitsubishi Electric was incredibly helpful in the way that they worked with us, giving us full access to the structure of their robot controller so that we could deploy a lot of the power of their coding in new ways,” added Pflugh. “In addition, if we had a question or issue, they invited us to call them, and their programmers wouldn’t just give us cursory answers — they would really dig in and give us detailed, actionable responses.”
事实上，他指出，该过程被激发了三菱电信，发送了一位高度熟悉机器人的程序员，并排使用Ipsumm团队。“他们在整个开发周期的响应情况都非常高于和超越，”Pflugh说。“无论我们需要什么资源，他们都让我们访问
在三菱电机的合适人士总是愿意帮助。“
The Results
The flexible work cell was a market success right away — in fact, according to Kodzis, perhaps even too soon for his preference. “One of the conventional rules of technology is to not sell the prototype, but we started showing the work cell prototype and a customer literally begged us to let them purchase it,” said Kodzis.
Kodzis admits that, although he didn’t love the idea, he finally relented, but not before being allowed to at least work out a few bugs so that IPSUMM could be confident that the customer at least had a “beta” version in their operation.
“那个测试单元仍然存在，仍然为他们工作，”他说。“他们甚至不会考虑放弃它。”与此同时，IPSumm已移动以生产完全商业化的“REV-1”版本的灵活工作单元，该版本现在正在全球制造设施中运营。更先进的“Rev-2”版本 - 以增强的软件架构为特色甚至更大的灵活性 - 即将发布。
“人们经常问的产品如此灵活us ‘can it do this, can it do that,’ but, honestly, a much shorter list would be what it can’t do,” said Kodzis. As much as they are enjoying these successes, Kodzis and Pflugh also have a number of new innovations in the wings. And, as they develop them, they say, they would never hesitate to call in their recent partner to help out in any way they could. “Mitsubishi Electric has a great product and great service and they’ve been fantastic at helping us meet the industry needs that we were targeting with the flexible work cell,” said Pflugh. “And there will undoubtedly be many more times in the future where they will be the clear solution
也是。“
Mitsubishi Electric
us.mitsubishielectric.com/fa/en
提起：Product Design & Development
