ipsumm’s Flexible, Scalable IRIS Production Cells Revolutionize Conventional Manufacturing Processes

在风景秀丽的海港城市朴次茅斯，新罕布什尔州新罕布什尔州，新近扩展到18,000平方英尺的设施ipsummis a growing multi-divisional product development company. IPSUMM’s business units serve the manufacturing sector with equipment and services including die-cutting, capital machinery, automation support and a full service machine shop. According to company President & CEO John Kodzis, the company was built around the idea of helping customers turn any manufacturing idea into a reality.

最近，IPSUMM的创新工程部门以I2I工程名称重新组织为全面服务工程公司。重组将更好地满足其自己客户的需求，以及其他IPSUMM部门的客户。它新发布的旗舰产品 - 具有“虹膜”软件骨架的独特工作单元 - 是一种高度灵活的机器人驱动的自动化解决方案。

The IRIS backbone allows manufacturers to switch quickly among manufacturing tasks as diverse as picking, painting, assembly, packaging, vision inspection and more, on the same line, with little more than a simple change of a “plug and play” tool and picking a new recipe. In addition, individual IRIS based units can be networked so manufacturers can modify or add capacity cost-effectively as needed, without the risk of “overinvesting” in fixed capital equipment.

The challenge
根据Kodzis的说法，虹膜的愿景实际上是几年前的。“去任何工厂，您可能会看到坐在那里的设备。也许预测的需求已经减少，或者他们转移到了不同​​的产品组合，这些资产只是浪费了。”他解释说。“我认为我们可以使用不同的理念开发生产设备，从而使其几乎无限地重新配置。因此，如果您需要行执行不同的功能甚至制作全面的产品，则可以快速并有效地使用现有的设备来实现。同样，该系统将是模块化的，因此您可以在没有大量资本投资的情况下增加或移动容量 - 您甚至可以将其转动到设施中的其他地方。”

ipsummbuilt a prototype to prove out this concept of “Taktical Manufacturing,” but, he noted, it took another few years to assemble a team with the right talents to more fully realize this revolutionary vision. Once the team was in place, the challenge became finding an automation partner that had the ability and willingness to help IPSUMM turn their vision into a commercial product. And, according to Kodzis and Engineering Manager Eddie Pflugh, they found that partner in Mitsubishi Electric.

The solution
Although they would be utilizing an “off the shelf” robot, the key to the success of the product would be the proprietary IRIS software application that IPSUMM would create. “We had a very different need than most people who just buy a robot; to realize the concept, we would need to revamp the software to control the arm in ways that may not have been envisioned before,” said Kodzis. “Mitsubishi Electric was incredibly helpful in the way that they worked with us, giving us full access to the structure of their robot controller so that we could deploy a lot of the power of their coding in new ways,” added Pflugh. “In addition, if we had a question or issue, they invited us to call them, and their programmers wouldn’t just give us cursory answers — they would really dig in and give us detailed, actionable responses.”

他指出，实际上，这一过程已开始，三菱电气将一名非常熟悉机器人的程序员与IPSumm的团队并排合作。Pflugh说：“他们在整个发展周期中的响应能力确实超出了超越和超越。”“无论我们需要什么资源，他们都使我们能够与始终愿意提供帮助的三菱电气的合适人士接触。”

结果
灵活的工作单元是一个市场的成功away — in fact, according to Kodzis, perhaps even too soon for his preference. “One of the conventional rules of technology is to not sell the prototype, but we started showing the work cell prototype and a customer literally begged us to let them purchase it,” said Kodzis.

Kodzis admits that, although he didn’t love the idea, he finally relented, but not before being allowed to at least work out a few bugs so that IPSUMM could be confident that the customer at least had a “beta” version in their operation.

他说：“那个Beta单元仍在那里，仍然为他们工作。”“他们甚至都不会考虑放弃。”同时，IPSUMM已采取行动生产灵活的工作单元的完全商业化的“ Rev-1”版本，该版本现在正在全球的制造设施中运行。即将发布一个更高级的“ Rev-2”版本（具有增强的软件体系结构，甚至更大的灵活性）。

“The product is so flexible that people often ask us ‘can it do this, can it do that,’ but, honestly, a much shorter list would be what it can’t do,” said Kodzis. As much as they are enjoying these successes, Kodzis and Pflugh also have a number of new innovations in the wings. And, as they develop them, they say, they would never hesitate to call in their recent partner to help out in any way they could. “Mitsubishi Electric has a great product and great service and they’ve been fantastic at helping us meet the industry needs that we were targeting with the flexible work cell,” said Pflugh. “And there will undoubtedly be many more times in the future where they will be the clear solution as well.”