Modernise your operations and improve the safety of your processing equipment with a management and control system, suitable for autoclaves and vacuum furnaces.
Sod’s Law dictates that the moment you look away is the moment when a process fails. The cost of a scrapped load has kept many an operator awake at night, wondering what they could have done differently, but there are only so many lines you can monitor before you lose sight of one process or another. It is then, when your back is turned, that the machine will break or production will fail or the process slips into non-compliance.
Even the most meticulous of maintenance managers are only human. But when processing equipment fails, the costs can be far greater than that of wasted product. The pressures, temperatures, and mechanical processes involved in heat treatment and autoclaving can threaten the health and safety of everyone around them when something goes wrong.
You might only be human, but recent advances in manufacturing process monitoring technology mean you no longer have to let that stand in the way of your due diligence.
In fact, many of the best systems available today go much further than simply monitoring your processing equipment, giving you control and management capabilities at the touch of a button. Read on to find out how, and what this means for the safety of all your machines.
Advanced manufacturing process monitoring and control
We’ve written before on the advantages of using autoclave control systems and the benefits of upgrading to management and control systems for vacuum furnaces. In either case, equipment safety – and its impact on the safety of your operators — is business-critical.
As well as the condition monitoring and reporting you need to access critical information and take a more proactive approach to equipment safety and maintenance, modern control systems integrate with your existing production management software, giving you the ability to act on those diagnostics and address faults before they lead to production failure.
- The ability to monitor for, and respond to, machine faults or dips doesn’t just improve efficiency and output; it helps you to reduce health and safety risks.
- Operators can work with greater confidence and assurance that they are safe, even with older/less familiar machines.
- The ability to automate certain processes/checks reduces the risk of human error.
- Enhanced traceability makes it easier for you and your quality managers to prove compliance.
You and I both recognise the benefits of upgrading to such a system, yet communicating this across business levels to secure buy-in and investment can be challenging. Read on for several scenarios in which a modern management and control system will help you to keep your operations running. Each one would make a good starting point for a business case.
Related read: Extending the Life of Your Vacuum Pump Through Planned, Preventative Maintenance
Consider a modern management and control system if…
- …your current system has reached the end of its life and/or no longer functions
- …an upgrade would result in significant energy savings
- …the software/hardware is being discontinued and will become unsupported in the future
- …you need to meet new industry standards to stay compliant
- ...your machine KPI/performance monitoring is getting the better of you
- …you want to better monitor the health and condition of your assets and predict any faults before they occur
- …you need to comply with updated or enhanced quality and traceability requirements
In our experience delivering management and control systems for advanced manufacturers throughout the UK, sites benefit most from upgrading their systems when they meet one or more of the above criteria.
Each of these scenarios makes a compelling business case for a control system investment and in each case, the ROI of the control system can be accurately measured.
VFE’s management and control systems
If you recognise one of the scenarios listed above and control system upgrades sound like a suitable solution for your operations, consider our in-house systems, written and developed by VFE with our extensive understanding of production across many industries.
VFE’s management and control systems are available for both autoclaves and vacuum furnaces. Each system is our own hardware and software solution for managing and controlling autoclaves, ovens and furnaces across your site. They are easy to use and can be integrated with a variety of industry-standard production management software.
As well as helping you to minimise faults, reduce downtime, and improve safety:
- conduct quality assurance (QA) processing (including automated cycle costing/buy-off reports), individual part QA reports (even on multiple-part loads), quick response (QR) barcoding facilities and out-of-process alerts by email or SMS live as they occur
- maximise output through faster processing times to increase production
- reduce energy wastage, improving energy efficiency at a site level
- restart equipment where it left off following an outage with dynamic recovery
- increase the transparency of your operations through greater data capture/sharing and digital trails, helping you to stay compliant and providing you with insights/diagnostics that further your future continual improvement processes
Compliant with AMS2750F and NADCAP, our systems are already being used in aerospace production and extensively within the composite manufacturing and motorsport industries.
Download the autoclave management and control systems or vacuum furnace management and control systems product specification sheets now.
Improve the safety of your process equipment with a management and control system
Manufacturing machine monitoring solutions can provide the visibility you need to stay on top of your process monitoring duties, but if you’re considering investing in an upgrade to keep your operations running, why limit yourself and your operators to monitoring systems?
We frequently talk about the importance of planned, preventative maintenance in helping you to spot and address potential machine faults before they occur. When it comes to equipment safety, management and control systems operate by the same logic, giving you not just visibility over machine health but the ability to act quickly when you need to.
If it saves you even one load from being scrapped, the system will have proven its worth — not to speak of the health risks you’ve eliminated and the operators you’ve kept safe.
When talking about advanced manufacturing management and control, and helping to keep your operations running long-term, what could be more important than that?
To find out more about our management and control systems and how your operations could benefit from these leading-edge solutions, get in touch by clicking the image below.
