PROFACTOR Group | PRODUCTION

L E A D I N G I N N OVAT I O N S

INNOVATIONS IN PRODUCTION

www.profactor.at

A manufacturing enterprise is a complex orga-nism: its most important key data are performance and productivity. Increasing flexibility and the wil-lingness to develop make it stronger and faster – fit for the changing demands on today’s markets.

And this is a benefit when all’s said and done: evolution makes you superior. All of this is driven by ideas, knowledge and the ability to improve workflows, create innovations and achieve best-of-breed results with minimum overhead: redu-cing costs, improving quality and productivity, achieving new goals and growing into the future.

PROFACTOR ThINkS AheAd Of ITS TImeS.

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The PROFACTOR Group’s multidisciplinary teams of specialists help our partners and customers to achieve a technological advantage with tailor-made manufacturing solutions: No matter whether you are a large corporation or a small to mid-sized company. After all, the opportunities that research and development offer are not linked to the size of a business.

Our partners benefit from a variety of application-oriented solutions due to:

the stability and safety of production processes

the reproducibility and precision in manufacturing

the assurance of quality requirements and improved product quality

the flexibility and optimisation of production workflows

www.profactor.at

INNOVATIVe STAbIlITy: beNefITS ThANkS TO effIcIeNcy

Monitoring machines by camera often results in a flood of information with the danger of failing to detect critical events in good time. Innovative systems filter video images of malfunctions for operating staff. All of this with the utmost reliability and under changing ambient light. On top of this, each event is logged in a database to sustainably prevent future errors and avoid losses.

But cost efficiency is also supported at another le-vel in mechanical processing: by an optimum inter-action of strategy, material, tools, cooling lubrication and machinery. Whether this is High Speed Cutting (HSC) or High Performance Cutting (HPC) - the main focus is on cost-efficient processing of new materials, or materials that are not easily machined. Analytical approaches such as cutting force measurement, vi-bration measurement and thermography support a systematic and targeted investigation of the machi-ning process. Besides selecting the right tools, it is also vital to monitor their deployment.

At a superordinate level, the adaptability of agile con-trol systems is vital to stable operations. In the past, the only approach was to completely replace the many control units in a distributed system – a com-plex and time-consuming process: now PROFACTOR substantially facilitates this process with modern engi-neering tools: replacements are selectively restricted to the program components that need replacing, thus avoid downtime.

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OVerVIew Of PrOfAcTOr SOluTIONS:

Process analysis with a comprehensive range of measuring technologies

Optimisation of parameters to improve lifetimes; minimisation of non-productive time

Creation of machine and processing concepts

Process monitoring of handling and assembly procedures in automated plants

Automation and real time control systems

www.profactor.at

INNOVATIVe PrecISION: eVeryThINg uNder cONTrOl

The increasing demand for increasing miniaturisation of technical components in electronics, medicine, bio-chemistry and automotive applications calls for special solutions and developments in assembly technology. Highly innovative, fully automated precision assem-bly requires extremely sensitive grippers and sensors; highly complex tasks necessitate founded process development.

In the production workflow itself active noise and vib-ration suppression supports high-precision processing. PROFACTOR is the competency leader in this area with practical experience from the automotive and me-chanical engineering industries. This helps us to deve-lop solutions for any branch of industry:

for manufacturing process optimisation,

active vibration and noise suppression and

early detection and/or prevention of damage.

OVerVIew Of PrOfAcTOr SOluTIONS:

Precision assembly, handling systems for complex components

Automated micro handling and assembly

Micro-adhesion and micro-dosing

Active suppression of mechanical vibrations, noise suppression

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INNOVATIVe quAlITy: INfOrmATIONeN mAcheN SIcher

Quality is a question of detail: This is why inline ther-mography is used for contactless, fully automated mo-nitoring of internal characteristics of the results within the production cycle. A compact image processing system, which is capable of monitoring the surface of cylindrical mass products at a speed of up to two meters per second to provide a seamless 360 degree view, is also integrated.

More complex controls in piece goods production are provided by customised, self-teaching image proces-sing systems. These systems adapt their decisions to match those made by a quality inspector and achieve consistent, automated quality after a short “learning curve”. The versatility of these options makes them sui-table for a wide variety of requirements and guarantee minimal reject counts in production.

OVerVIew Of PrOfAcTOr SOluTIONS:

Surface inspection in piece goods production

360 degree quality control of cylindrical objects

Inline quality controls by means of industrial thermography

Completeness checks for assemblies thanks to an intelligent combination of various inspection processes

www.profactor.at

INNOVATIVe flexIbIlITy: SuPerIOr “All-rOuNderS”

Requirements change and solutions have to accom-modate them flexibly: in the shortest possible time, with the least possible cost, and with the aim of avoi-ding production downtime. Production solutions by PROFACTOR thus program themselves in just a couple of seconds; adaptation for new products is possible on the fly. All tasks are per-formed, decisions taken and planning effected auto-nomously. This allows for ongoing optimisation of part provision and logistics.

And talking of logistics: transport networks can also be optimised in a holistic way with respect to load or scheduling. The algorithms developed for this pur-pose are modified to reflect the customer’s special requirements on the one hand, while taking specific production scenarios and workflows into considerati-on. This results in best-of-breed efficiency.

Simulation-aided factory and logistics planning is an important tool that helps decision makers to ascertain complex relationships (for example in material flow systems) and to identify contributing parameters: the complete system is modelled and optimised. Simula-tion of various operating states helps to identify critical states at an early stage. This means that appropriate remedial measures can be taken. The results: best-of-breed operative safety and economy accompa-nied by substantial reductions in commissioning and tooling times.

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OVerVIew Of PrOfAcTOr SOluTIONS:

Simulation, assurance and optimisation of technical and organisational logistics processes

Granular production planning and controls

Automation of small batch sizes down to one-offs

Self-teaching, robust 3D image processing systems for object identification

Automated process planning and robot programming

www.profactor.at

PrOfAcTOr grOuP: fIT fOr cOmPeTITION

The PROFACTOR team guarantees the applicabi-lity of state-of-art scientific findings resulting from intensive contacts with national and international universities and research institutes: for small to mid-sized enterprises and for global players.

Since the PROFACTOR Group was founded in 1995, the group’s innovative technological solutions have helped it grow from a 4-man production research team to Austria’s No. 1 in the field of applied production research: today, more than 120 staff works in multidisciplinary teams at several locations to guarantee the success of our partners and customers.

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HOLISTIC PRODUCTION SOLUTIONS PAy DIVIDENDS!

PrOfAcTOr fOr A SuSTAINAble cOmPeTITIVe AdVANTAge.APPLIED RESEARCH FOR A HEALTHy ECONOmy.reSeArch: mId-SIzed eNTerPrISeS SPeAk Of wIN-wIN SITuATION.

PROFACTOR RINGS IN A NEw INDUSTRIAL AGE!

PROFACTOR GmbH

Im Stadtgut a2 | 4407 Steyr-Gleink | austria | tel. +43(0)7252 885-0 fax +43(0)7252 885-101 | [email protected] | www.profactor.at

This project is sponsored by the EFRE (European Fund for Regional Development), the Republic Austria, the State of Upper Austria and the City of Steyr.