The past 30 years have witnessed astonishing technological developments. In 1979, before the days of the Internet and email, who could have forecast laptops, mobile phones and SatNavs becoming off-the-shelf commodities? While it would be an exaggeration to claim that automation products have had anything like the same social impact, it is interesting that similar drivers have shaped today's automation market.
Where have consumer demands led automation developments? Well, firstly there has been a constant focus on cost reduction of both materials and installation. Recently this has also strongly embraced operating costs, especially in terms of energy consumption. Again, this mimics pressures in the consumer markets - after all, who buys a washing machine or car nowadays, without checking its energy consumption?
The steady development of materials means that many automation products are considerably smaller and lighter than they were 30 years ago; solenoid valves, for example, typically weigh 2.5 times less. Yet they are as robust, reliable and safe as their predecessors - and provide much higher levels of performance. Aside from better materials and improved production processes, the advent and growth of CAE/CAM has enabled automation component designers to cost-engineer, by trimming unnecessary material out of products. We are, though, reaching a plateau - there is only so much material that you can nibble away before affecting structural integrity!
One particularly interesting area of materials cost reduction concerns the use of technopolymers. Festo, for example, recently launched a range of technopolymer-based pneumatics products for high volume markets. The product line-up includes cylinders with technopolymer end caps, which have a list price some 30% lower than their all-metal counterparts.
Looking to the future, Festo recently revealed some ideas from its Bionic Learning Network. Many people will have seen Festo's 'bionic penguins', which have featured extensively in magazines, as well as online and on Channel 5's The Gadget Show. A visually arresting spectacle at exhibitions, the penguins showcase new sensing and control opportunities, demonstrating autonomous and collaborative techniques that pave the way for the robot and production systems of the future. They also highlight new materials, mechanics and manufacturing processes.
To create very lifelike movement of their bodies, the penguins employ an innovative Finray* structure, which utilises two flexible plates meeting at their tips to form a triangle, interlaced with regularly spaced links. Festo is incorporating this structure in a new gripper; manufactured using the latest rapid prototyping techniques, it weighs just 10% of its equivalent metal counterpart, yet is capable of gripping pressure-sensitive work-pieces of varying shapes and sizes very efficiently.
This example illustrates the way rapid prototyping is crossing over into rapid manufacturing techniques - enabling customised products to be produced from scratch as 'product-on-demand' services.
A further parallel between automation and consumer products lies in industrial design. Previously, functionality and performance were key; today aesthetics are also important, to the point where a good-looking product can enhance the saleability of OEM machinery, not only being fit for purpose but also being seen to be fit. Some of this might be subjective - beauty is in the eyes of the beholder - but compliance with directives is driving clean uncluttered lines in markets such as pharmaceuticals and food processing.
Automation is also undergoing a sea-change in terms of embedded electronics. The demand for mechatronic automation products that incorporate a combination of mechanics, pneumatics, electrical drives, sensors and controls to deliver optimum cost, space and performance is increasing significantly. The trick now is to make this simple - simple to select, specify, install and operate. Features such as built-in auto parameterisation and diagnostics facilities are seizing the 'plug and play' philosophy of the consumer world, and transferring it into a genuine 'plug and work' ethic for the industrial automation sector.
Steve Sands is marketing manager at Festo UK.