First of Holroyd’s new ‘smart tech’ rotor milling machines about to ship

The machine, a 3EX-R rotor milling machine, valued at £1.4 million, is currently undergoing pre-acceptance trials

Only a few months after announcing the introduction of a number of advanced ‘smart technology’ performance and connectivity options for its rotor milling and rotor grinding machines, Rochdale-based Holroyd Precision is about to ship one of the first models to incorporate the new features.
 

Read more: Holroyd Precision brings new levels of intelligence to helical rotor manufacturePublished: 05 February 2020

Purchased by one of Japan’s leading manufacturers of refrigeration compressors, the £1.4million machine is currently undergoing pre-acceptance trials at Holroyd’s UK-based machine technologies centre. It will then be shipped to Japan, ready for commissioning in late October 2020 and will be used to manufacture helical rotors of up to 350 mm (13”) in diameter.

Regional Sales Director, Steven Benn said: “Holroyd machines are renowned for their uncompromising levels of accuracy and build quality, as well as their ability to simplify even the most complex of manufacturing processes. Through features such as advanced RFID tagging and IO-Link communication technology, we are now also providing future-proofed manufacturing capability, regardless of an organisation’s individual Industry 4.0 strategy.

“These are significant features that our Japanese customer was keen to take advantage of.”

Holroyd Precision believes its RFID tagging capabilities will prove invaluable. The system has been developed to offer a fool-proof solution to quality control by ensuring that manufacturing cannot commence unless the correct component –  or tooling item that needs to be switched between manufacturing cycles – is in place.

The machine is also the first from Holroyd Precision to incorporate single-cable IO-Link  communication technology.

Mr Benn added: “We selected IO-Link for its ability to handle vast amounts of data, its recognised capability in providing powerful opportunities for industrial automation and its capacity to communicate at every level, right down to the simplest automation.”

He continued: “For this customer, and hopefully many others going forward, the real benefit will be the opportunity to learn from incredible levels of rich, real-time production and performance data ­– in order to make comparisons that can benefit efficiency, accuracy and quality, and determine trends.

“Similarly, from our perspective, gaining a much better understanding of how a particular machine performs in quite different manufacturing environments, will enable us to deliver even higher levels of support.”