Manufacturers using plasma, laser, and waterjet cutting machines are all looking for next-generation performance. New or upgraded machine purchases should provide capabilities that allow faster, more reliable production of higher-quality products. The reputation and success of a machine builder depends on demonstrating the best performance, design, and integration.

Optimizing the motion system improves all three. Five key opportunities for improvement include the fieldbus architecture, control loop bandwidth, servo motor design, feedback selection, and cabling.

Choose the right fieldbus architecture

Modern material forming systems almost universally employ some version of Ethernet for ease of use and performance. But within the Ethernet family, performance is relative, and choosing the wrong bus architecture can significantly reduce the execution speed, degrading cut quality and precision.

Whether using an industry-standard controller such as Hypertherm or a custom controller, the position points that define the cut are streamed from the controller to the drive deterministically. The time intervals between each X/Y set of points are strict and undeviating. Additionally, for highly dynamic applications such as precision cutting, these time intervals are very short – typically within the 500 microseconds to 1 millisecond range. Longer time intervals mean a less precise cut, while varying time intervals mean a distorted cut.

Ethernet connectors look the same, but various versions behave differently, so it’s essential to choose the right option (see Table 1, bottom left). Any drive’s fieldbus ports, however, must support a version of industrial Ethernet, and all devices on the bus must be compatible and correctly configured.

At Kollmorgen, we recommend EtherCAT for its fast, real-time performance as well as its support for CANopen, FailSafe over EtherCAT (FSoE), and other characteristics.

Optimize bandwidth

Higher bandwidth is intrinsically related to higher speed. Increasing control loop bandwidth stiffens motor behavior, decreases error, and improves transient response times. The result is more responsive control of position, velocity, and torque. For many everyday cutting applications, these factors may not be critical, but for next-generation cutting machines, control loop bandwidth is essential to performance.

However, while high bandwidth enables high performance, it also requires high-performing motion components. Higher frequencies might cause instability if the drive and motor aren’t able to take advantage of the rapid changes in the control loops. For example, a motor with high inertia may not achieve the required acceleration, and those limitations feed back into the control loops.

Another common issue is bandwidth-matching. A multi-axis application needs sufficient bandwidth to perform the required moves on each axis. But if the bandwidth doesn’t exactly match the different axes, the axes could respond at different rates to the control loop feedback, distorting the cut’s shape. While not directly related to bandwidth, applications incorporating a gantry also need cross-coupling between the axes on the two parallel sides to ensure coordinated motion.

Drives should provide simple, highly accurate tools for matching bandwidth across axes. When deciding on a servo motor, look for low-inertia designs to provide the acceleration and torque response needed in high-bandwidth, high-performance applications without creating disturbances in the system.

Select, size motors appropriately

Another common mistake is undersizing a motor or selecting the wrong motor design without considering the risk of voltage or current saturation. A motor’s torque constant (Kt) can’t be higher than what the bus voltage will allow. If the drive can’t supply the necessary voltage or current, you may not be able to get the motor to perform required movements.

Incorporating electrical calculations up-front as part of the motor selection process prevents these problems. With a precise understanding of the available current and voltage, you can objectively evaluate the motor design and size needed.

You may need to move to a bigger motor. Alternatively, you can consider the same motor with a different winding that balances voltage and current requirements. It’s highly probable you can get the performance needed without upsizing the motor or gain the ability to downsize.

Partners with motion engineering and product selection expertise can eliminate voltage and current saturation problems and ensure optimum performance given the realities of your electrical supply.

Match feedback devices to application requirements

Feedback devices provide information to the drive or controller to ensure that the motor or load reaches the required speed and position at the right time. Such devices can significantly influence cost, speed, and accuracy.

Incremental encoders provide two output signals indicating movement and direction, tracking only relative position, so users need digital interfaces to calculate absolute position. During a power interruption or application failure, the axis must be returned to a home position before restarting since the encoder doesn’t track absolute position. In some applications, this can be a safety issue. Incremental encoders are also somewhat susceptible to electrical noise interference and may require input filters and other measures to ameliorate the problem.

Absolute encoders generally cost more than incremental ones but provide several advantages. They generate digital codes representing the motor shaft angle, providing exact position and speed information without requiring further processing. If power is interrupted, an absolute encoder reports the correct position upon restart without needing to return to a home position. These encoders are also capable of very high resolution, provide excellent noise immunity, and are available in single-cable options.

Resolvers are another option. These analog devices are designed around an electrical transformer, using voltage comparisons between rotor and stator windings to provide absolute position throughout a turn of the motor shaft. Resolvers are rugged devices often specified for use in harsh environments, but typically don’t provide the resolution needed for high-precision cutting.

Each feedback type has its own use, but it’s essential to choose the most appropriate technology for the machine performance desired. Be aware that inexpensive feedback devices have hidden costs, such as difficulties in tuning motion to reliably meet requirements.

Choose cables for reliability, performance

It’s easy to overlook the importance of cables, but this isn’t an area to scrimp or treat as an afterthought. Undersized wire gauges in the cable will create problems with efficiency and reliability. If cables aren’t properly grounded and shielded, electrical noise can cause feedback errors and reduce system performance. Substandard insulation and connectors can cause failures throughout long-term use.

The cable number, size, weight, flexibility, and layout can also make a difference. In a gantry system, cables are part of the load, causing drag, weight, and compliance issues that the servo system must compensate for. A single-cable design may be useful because the cable and connector are easier to route and lighter than a two-cable system.

A gantry driven by a larger motor may benefit from the flexibility of two cables instead of a thick, stiff, single cable. As with all aspects of machine design, cable selection requires balancing properties without compromising quality.

Kollmorgen

Photo illustration credit: Dassault Systèmes

Business success is often defined by companies that can first spot new technology, integrate that technology into the organization through the required hardware and training investments, and then use the new technology to differentiate from competitors. From the telegraph, to Ford’s assembly line, to establishing a dot-com presence, businesses with the budget and resources to invest in new technology before their competitors have reaped the benefits.

We’ve reached a tipping point where transformative technologies are coming to market far more frequently, each requiring a much lower investment. This means nimble startups with modest amounts of capital are suddenly comparably equipped to compete with deep-pocketed enterprises. Instead of having an advantage with world-class technology that startups simply can’t afford, established industry leaders are forced to prioritize agility and speed-to-market more than ever before.

The cloud, the storm

The biggest equalizer is the cloud. All industries can see beyond using the cloud to host business tools and are now embracing its power to drive true business transformation. Research and advisory firm Gartner notes the fastest-growing segment of the market is public cloud system infrastructure services, a segment that experienced huge growth in 2019. And, by 2022, 90% of organizations that use cloud infrastructure services will demand platform-as-as-service capabilities from their provider. Driving this increasing appetite for cloud-based platform capabilities is a growing desire to execute digital transformation projects. If the predictions are correct, every aspect of product design and manufacturing is about to undergo a dramatic shift.

While all industries are ripe for cloud- fueled startup disruption, the aviation sector stands out thanks to a few compelling factors brewing to create a perfect storm. Technological breakthroughs in aircraft and propulsion designs have produced prototypes that are exciting, but never seen as commercially practical before the era of digital transformation. And, established aviation leaders are reeling from the global pandemic crippling the travel sector. As the aviation industry re-aligns in the coming years based on new consumer travel demands, industry disruptors may be able to bring their products to market.

David vs. Goliath

Without requiring expensive upfront infrastructure investments, startups and small- and medium-sized businesses can quickly embrace transformative technologies previously available only to the largest competitors, scaling up as needed. This is significant for highly regulated industries with large barriers to entry – such as aviation – where startups have been effectively walled-off for decades. It’s not enough to build a disruptive product, but it must be documented, manufactured, and inspected in ways that are anathema to small organizations.

Now, companies such as Vertical Aerospace and Boom Supersonic can access tools to fulfill stringent regulatory requirements so they can focus on their core business of creating game-changing aircraft. Boom Supersonic is bringing faster-than-sound air travel back to commercial aircraft, using powerful cloud-based design and simulation tools to overcome challenges that 1960s-era design technology could not. Vertical Aerospace is on the verge of launching a winged eVTOL that is significantly quieter than a helicopter, allowing it to travel more freely over areas where noise regulations can restrict aircraft access. Technical challenges such as weight reduction and aerodynamic simulation are offered by world-class design tools available via the cloud in ways that weren’t possible even 10 years ago.

Fast mover advantage

Cloud-based product innovation platforms foster agility and collaboration in small and large organizations. The talent needed to create the next breakthrough product probably isn’t located in the same city as your physical headquarters, and new design concepts and technologies require new ways of collaborating with colleagues. File-based approaches, such as sending email attachments or uploading the latest version of a document to a server, don’t allow a business to move quickly enough.

With a single, central repository of data that gets updated in real-time, teams can collaborate more effectively and boost time to market, or make a quick pivot when circumstances require a new approach. For businesses that rely on a global supply chain, a cloud-based business platform allows internal team members and external stakeholders to have a single source of information. When the product development team makes a change, it’s immediately cascaded throughout the worldwide organization, from the design team, to the manufacturing team, to the packaging team, and to all the external suppliers and distributors.

Another electric aviation pioneer, Eviation Aircraft, selected Dassault Systèmes’ cloud-based innovation platform for its design and simulation solutions and for the inherent collaboration benefits of a cloud-based business. With a global supply chain involving hundreds of sub-contractors, Eviation can streamline its product development process by having its stakeholders working from the same dataset.

The transformative benefits of the cloud are clearly a game-changer to startups, but a company of any size beginning its digital transformation should closely examine the benefits. Define company goals before starting the journey and look at the tools industry leaders are using. The best way to ensure the success of such a massive undertaking is to embrace technology that breaks down information silos, allows teams to leverage talent from anywhere in the world, and converts your supply chain into a value network. Combining the power of a product innovation platform and the cloud is the key to success.

Dassault Systèmes

About the author: David Ziegler is vice president, Aerospace & Defense Industry at Dassault Systèmes. He can be reached at 1.855.696.1125.

Taking the next giant leap in space exploration, NASA’s Artemis Program will land a woman and man on the moon by 2024. Critical to this mission will be supportive technologies and robotics to explore the lunar surface, including the Cold Operable Lunar Deployable Arm (COLDArm) robotic device that can function in extreme cold without the heating or insulation required on traditional space arms.

A collaboration between Motiv Space Systems and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the design benefits from Motiv’s motor control capability used for robotic applications, developed as part of a NASA SBIR effort. The SBIR technology demonstrated a path for avionics that can work at cryogenic temperatures without heaters. Meanwhile, JPL was working on actuation technology, specifically bulk metallic glass-based gears that can operate at cryogenic temperatures.

All photos courtesy of NASA
and NASA Jet Propulsion
Laboratory

“Several years ago, we talked about finding an application for each of those respective technologies because they interact in the real world on a regular basis,” says Tom McCarthy, VP of business development at Motiv Space Systems. “We had an opportunity to propose together to the NASA [space technology mission directorate] STMD office for a lunar technology, payload development. The solution was the fusion of bringing both of our technologies together to deliver more of a system application.”

Design components

A primary goal of the Artemis program is to deploy systems that can survive and operate during the lunar night when it gets extremely cold, and support the lunar habitats or laboratories intended to be built on the moon. That’s where the COLDArm comes into play. The technology being developed for the lander uses electronics and lubricant-free mechanical components that can function in environments as cold as -279°F. The design will reduce the power needed for a rover or lander’s operations, enabling robots equipped with the arm to extend missions. The robot arm is also adaptable, potentially supporting a variety of rovers and landers the space agency has planned for future missions, McCarthy explains.

The electronics and actuation system are core pieces of the robotic arm, and the team is exploring technologies to address a unique challenge for the arm’s interconnect hardware. In cold temperatures, harnesses tend to stiffen, making flexing and bending more difficult. There’s also some early testing on different approaches to ensure a compliant harnessing system to provide an interface with the instruments or any of the sensing devices that need to get information back to the computer.

The team is also paying attention to the environmental details throughout their design approach, considering how these factors may affect the robot’s thermal and mechanical cycling.

“There has to be compliance built into the system and the mechanical levels, as well as the electronic levels, or at least an understanding of how many thermal cycles these systems can survive in these early demonstrations,” McCarthy adds.

The hope is that knowledge gained from the testing phase will lead to more robust systems. For early missions, the robot will need to be operable for only a few days, but ultimately the team anticipates the device being functional for hundreds of cycles and many years of operation.

“That accumulated knowledge through the testing campaign, the analysis, and the design campaign, will give us great intuition about how to extend the life of these systems, and therefore, extend the missions themselves,” McCarthy says.

Capabilities

Once built, the team will test the completed system in a thermal vacuum chamber at cryogenic temperatures and take it through its paces – making sure it can turn on, start up, and go through all the robotic motions and perform functions such as scooping and manipulating payloads.

As McCarthy explains, scientists hope to use the COLDArm as a geotechnical survey instrumentation tool of the lunar regolith. Throughout testing, the team will determine the poses applicable for scooping materials and seeking out possible life-sustaining resources available on the surface. They’ll also look at other scientific instruments with a few different payload opportunities. The arm could be used as a pointing device to deliver a camera or a spectrometer application on the end of the arm. There’s also potential for the arm to be used as a utility tool for the lander itself.

“If there was a little rover or a small payload that resided on the lander but needed to get to the surface, depending on where it was stowed on the lander, the arm could pick up that item and deliver it to the surface,” McCarthy says. “It would be an aide to another payload provider. Each of those modes will be tested to give us confidence that the system will work when eventually it’s integrated into one of the landers and makes its journey to the moon.”

Deeper exploration

Robotics will continue to be key technologies as missions continue for finding new discoveries and habitable environments beyond Earth. As more environments are explored, with each posing unique challenges, these devices will allow people to safely and quickly collect significantly more data.

“For a lot of these cases, there aren’t habitable environments for humans to operate, or they’re too distant,” McCarthy says. “Robotics allows us to have that up-close and personal approach and feel to understand more about a planet’s creation.”

McCarthy predicts that robotics will take the lead in ensuring sustainable missions.

“It’s very exciting,” he concludes. “Robotics don’t just help us get there, but they help us, in some cases, return material from these foreign worlds back to our labs for study. There are great opportunities to learn and expand our knowledge, and robotics is the way to do it.”

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Motiv Space Systems Inc.

About the author: Michelle Jacobson is the assistant editor of AM&D. She can be reached at mjacobson@gie.net or 216.393.0323.

Recovery in commercial aircraft demand depends on controlling the coronavirus pandemic. Discretionary air travel drives most transport aircraft needs, and until people feel confident in traveling and governments allow it, the commercial aerospace supply chain must focus on survival. Despite federal plans to boost COVID-19 vaccination production, President Joe Biden says it will take until late summer to treat most Americans, leaving the possibility of some resumption of air travel demand later this year. Domestic air travel will lead the way, as demonstrated in Asia-Pacific nations and in the U.S. in late 2020.

Air cargo traffic volumes were down 12% through Q3 2020, due to fewer planes flying. However, Boeing analysts reported yields were up more than 40% and overall air cargo industry revenues were up more than 15%.

Defense and commercial space business offer alternative revenue for companies in those sectors. The U.S. Department of Defense and NASA continued to award contracts through 2020, and there are no immediate signs this activity will be curtailed under the new administration.

Boeing’s Q4 2020 results offered a path to its recovery as 737 MAX deliveries resumed in December following the plane’s ungrounding in November. In a vote of confidence, Alaska Airlines management announced plans to buy 23 more 737-9 airplanes, bringing the airline’s 737 MAX orders and options to 120 airplanes.

Cancellations far outnumbered gross orders for the year (net -454), but as of Nov. 30, 2020, Boeing’s unadjusted backlog stood at 5,053 aircraft, of which 81% were single-aisle jets.

On the defense ledger, Boeing delivered 71 new and remanufactured AH-64 Apache and 30 new and renewed CH-47 Chinook helicopters, 4 F-15 and 20 F/A-18 fighters, 14 767-derived KC-46 tankers, and 15 737-derived P-8 maritime patrol aircraft.

Forecast International reports Boeing will increase 737 MAX production to 31 per month by early 2022, down from 42 per month before production halted in May 2020. Boeing is reducing 787 production from 14 per month (at the start of 2020) to 6 per month throughout 2021 while also addressing manufacturing quality issues. Boeing plans to move all 787 production to South Carolina by mid-2021. Combined 777/777X production rate will decrease to 2 per month in 2021. No changes in production rates have been announced for the 747 and 767 programs.

Embraer ended Q3 2020 (the latest figures available) with a firm order backlog of $15.1 billion.

For the year, the company delivered 16 commercial jets and 43 executive jets (33 light jets and 10 large jets), compared to 54 commercial jets and 63 executive jets delivered during the first nine months of 2019. Boeing terminated its government-approved joint venture with Embraer early in the pandemic, leaving the Brazilian company to re-establish its global marketing efforts.

In its 2020 Market Outlook, Embraer Commercial Aviation President and CEO Arjan Meijer foresees global passenger traffic will return to 2019 levels by 2024 and a need for 4,420 new regional jets through 2029: 75% to replace aging aircraft.

Accenture’s global aerospace and defense industry lead John Schmidt offers a few resolutions for the aerospace and defense industry.

Cash management – Companies must focus on their financial strategies. Data and analytics can provide models that can be updated in near real-time to explore scenarios and develop insights that guide optimal actions.

Future sustainability – The pandemic is forcing the industry to accelerate its investment in technology. Be more data-driven, deploy more automation and artificial intelligence (AI), use the cloud, or create a collaborative culture – digital is the answer.

While commercial aerospace faces challenges in 2021, the defense sector is expected to remain stable and weather the pandemic’s disruption, according to Deloitte’s 2021 Aerospace and Defense Outlook. Robin Lineberger, Deloitte’s U.S. and Global Aerospace & Defense leader, notes the industry is likely to take advantage of the pandemic and drop in demand to transform supply chains, as well as pursue mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to build scale and capture greater value so that long-term growth prospects remain strong. Some highlights:

• Global commercial aircraft deliveries are estimated at 900, a decline of 44% from peak year 2018. New orders will likely remain subdued this year.
• The International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects passenger traffic to rebound but remain about 40% below pre-pandemic levels. IATA doesn’t expect a return to pre-pandemic trip length levels before 2025, potentially driving higher demand for narrow-body aircraft.
• Industry is likely to shift toward transforming supply chains via onshoring, vertical integration, and increased cyber defenses. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers should leverage digital tools, including automating internal processes and streamlining workflows, implementing smart management systems, and using data analytics.

Talent isn’t getting easier to come by. Getting people into good manufacturing careers is a systemic challenge that will require systemic investment. Manufacturers know Industry 4.0 is coming, but most have yet to invest in smart manufacturing and automation. Now is the time to make those investments.

To come out of COVID-19 stronger, manufacturers must form a technology strategy and invest in upskilling their talent. Automation and remote technology will keep people safe and keep production running through the pandemic, and they’ll also set manufacturers up for the future. When demand returns, we’ll need technology to meet it.

• Defense markets are completely unaffected. This is true for the all-important U.S. defense budget and for export markets.
• Returning Boeing 737 MAX to service, and to production, ensures some kind of single-aisle recovery this year. Some of this recovery will be due to deliveries of aircraft already built, but considering that only Airbus delivered single-aisle jets in 2020, we’ll see a respectable recovery this year.
• The overall economic picture is surprisingly positive, and COVID-19 vaccines appear more effective than anticipated. This, coupled with the China air travel recovery experience, implies a very strong air travel recovery starting in the second half of this year. We expect a full recovery to the 2019 air traffic peak by Q4 2022.
• Business jet demand seems to be recovering quickly, in line with business aircraft utilization. While deliveries have dropped significantly, we expect them to recover quickly starting in 2022.

A small optimization in design can have a surprising impact on overall system performance. Ultra-advanced cooling architectures designed into the external skins of hypersonic systems enable capability previously considered impossible.

Letting recursive machine algorithms dynamically analyze and engage in structural design iteration is generating complex structures lighter and stronger than anything possible with traditional approaches. Exploratory side projects are becoming standard methods of design and manufacturing, and we expect to see AM become a primary go-to for state-of-the-art optimization.

Jim King

President and COO, Okuma America Corp.

It’s time to take inventory of what we’ve learned and what technologies will enable us to be more competitive in post-COVID manufacturing.

• Virtual communication tools increase the speed of business. It’s not only possible to evaluate technology without sending staff on the road, it’s sometimes more desirable. Even machine runoffs can be accomplished virtually.
• Artificial intelligence (AI) has a place in the machine tool industry. In early stages we’ll see some of the obvious applications becoming commonplace, such as predicting unplanned maintenance events before they occur.
• The digital twin still needs development to achieve significant market adoption. This technology will have an impact in the not-too-distant future.
• Blockchain for manufacturing will provide secure communications amongst teams in a world where cyber-attacks are becoming increasingly pervasive.
• Automation will become a must in most shops. It can take many forms; it’s not just robots. Bar feeders, pallet pools, and flexible manufacturing systems are a few that increase productivity.
• In times of accelerated change, it’s important to resist the urge to overcomplicate things. Get back to basics and ensure your foundation is sound. Control the things in your control.

Focus on where you are in the continuum of automation, using data, and understanding the drivers in your business. 2021 will be a transitional year, preparing manufacturing to once again lead our economy to prosperity.

Timothy Wachs

Dr. Charles Krueger