In order to monitor and improve quality in press shops through digitalization, ifm and the Schuler Group have now entered into a cooperation agreement. The aim is to offer customers more transparency and increase efficiency in sheet metal forming.
Presses for sheet metal forming are among the most important machines in all industries in which sheet metal is processed. The Schuler Group has 180 years of experience in forming technology and is the global market leader. With digital solutions such as Track and Trace, Visual Die Protection or DigiSim®, the company offers a variety of tools that support digitization in the press shop. With ifm SmartStamp, this range is now being expanded to include a software tool that detects tilting and off-centeredness as well as the resulting tilting torque on forming presses within milliseconds.
"If the ram is tilted too high, the guides of the press are excessively stressed and damaged in the long term," says Christoph Schneider, Vice President Product Management Applications at ifm. As a result, the tool protects the press from excessive wear and damage and contributes to improved availability. SmartStamp is seamlessly integrated into the moneo IIoT platform – and now also into the Metris platform from ANDRITZ, Schuler's parent company. "By combining it with the data from our cloud-based Digital Solutions, customers benefit from interoperability and thus even greater transparency in the press shop," emphasizes Rohitashwa Pant, Chief Digital Officer of the Schuler Group.
The cooperation agreement that has now been signed provides for cooperation in sales. By using SmartStamp from ifm and Digital Solutions from Schuler, the customer can only benefit. For customers who are starting to digitize, it doesn't matter which system they start with. You can expand the digitization solution with the other system at any time. "In this way, we can provide all customers with the optimal solution for the digitization of the press shop," says Florian Siebert, Senior Manager Systems and IIoT at ifm.