WEBVTT 1 00:00:17.360 --> 00:00:23.680 We know from talking with our customers that their needs for improving accuracy and reliability 2 00:00:23.680 --> 00:00:27.080 are going to increase still further in the future. 3 00:00:34.600 --> 00:00:41.560 What we found and what our customers told us was there was a need to design flexibility into our product. 4 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:56.100 We're not trying to develop new machine elements, but rather to make a better functioning machine. 5 00:01:01.320 --> 00:01:08.140 We believe that the work we have done developing the iLine technology will meet the needs of our customers for the future. 6 00:01:20.660 --> 00:01:27.320 One of the key things of course when you're introducing new technology is that no customer wants to have a prototype. 7 00:01:27.320 --> 00:01:40.520 And so when we were designing the system, we thought that it was very important that we did not go out on a limb with any brand new unproven technology. 8 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:51.140 Well our customers have been facing really many new problems as a result of the competition that they've seen from Japan, the energy crisis, etc. 9 00:01:51.140 --> 00:01:58.020 And the 25 year old technology that we and others had been offering really was just no longer applicable. 10 00:01:58.880 --> 00:02:08.280 And so in order to try to meet specific customer requirements in the process, and this includes the requirement for better quality, 11 00:02:09.300 --> 00:02:17.480 requirement for higher efficiency which really translates into productivity, requirement for energy savings in the manufacturing process, 12 00:02:18.280 --> 00:02:32.160 requirement for labor savings, and a myriad of other requirements really meant that we needed to go back to the drawing board and take a look at our technology to see how it would relate to those products. 13 00:02:33.240 --> 00:02:38.460 We've gone at this through the development and availability of the microprocessor. 14 00:02:39.020 --> 00:02:42.460 Prior to this time the improvements were made in very small increments. 15 00:02:43.360 --> 00:02:50.160 With the microprocessor we suddenly had a whole new opportunity to make significant improvements in a short period of time. 16 00:02:51.100 --> 00:02:54.460 We're talking about a concept that's in response to customer needs. 17 00:02:55.200 --> 00:03:01.300 And when we talk about that we're not talking about just hardware, but it's the integration of a complete operating system. 18 00:03:01.960 --> 00:03:05.180 The iDrive is a brushless AC motor. 19 00:03:06.160 --> 00:03:07.580 It is a true servo drive. 20 00:03:07.580 --> 00:03:08.840 It is simple. 21 00:03:09.240 --> 00:03:14.140 It can be readily programmed by the user to perform his specific function. 22 00:03:14.940 --> 00:03:23.900 We can probably best describe it by utilizing the models to talk about what we call the technology chain reaction. 23 00:03:24.920 --> 00:03:30.400 This model represents the old or the current technology, the slide and slide base. 24 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:37.240 For 25 years we and others have been building according to the building block principle, 25 00:03:37.620 --> 00:03:43.420 which involves putting a slide base on a wing base, attaching it to a center base. 26 00:03:44.480 --> 00:03:48.420 And that result was a portion of a working station of a transfer machine. 27 00:03:49.660 --> 00:03:50.200 All right. 28 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:59.680 When we were able to apply the iDrive to this portion of the technology and eliminate the motors, the belts, the brakes, 29 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:03.240 we also eliminated the limit switches, which took space. 30 00:04:03.940 --> 00:04:07.740 We also eliminated the need to provide space for a hydraulic cylinder. 31 00:04:08.860 --> 00:04:14.920 And that result or the first step in the chain reaction was really what we call the low profile slide. 32 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:23.440 As you can see, this is much thinner than the old style because it no longer has the requirement for these other devices. 33 00:04:24.520 --> 00:04:32.380 Once the low profile slide was in effect in our stable of standards, 34 00:04:33.340 --> 00:04:43.440 we then found that the wing base had to be raised to bring the slide in the proper position and in fact come up to the same height as the center base. 35 00:04:44.500 --> 00:04:51.800 This then opened up the second step in the chain reaction, the potential for creating what we call a through base. 36 00:04:51.800 --> 00:05:01.620 This is a rigid steel structural member that is a minimum of eight times stiffer than the old style construction. 37 00:05:02.200 --> 00:05:10.560 It is also much less subject to distortion due to foundation movement or other changes in the customer's plant. 38 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:16.300 When we put the iDrive in the low profile slide on top of the through base, 39 00:05:16.300 --> 00:05:22.020 we then in effect have the basis structurally of the new technology. 40 00:05:22.760 --> 00:05:32.680 This then represents two steps in the chain reaction from the iDrive to the low profile slide to the through base. 41 00:05:33.260 --> 00:05:39.620 The first area that we addressed ourselves to was the control of the feed slide motion. 42 00:05:39.620 --> 00:05:46.960 Feed slide motion has the requirement for a variety of feed rates and a variety of set points. 43 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:59.320 The iDrive addresses itself to that by giving the flexibility to be able to make changes in both feed rates and speeds when the machine is on the shop floor. 44 00:06:00.100 --> 00:06:05.640 Previously we could only do that in the engineering department and then those decisions were cast in concrete. 45 00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:08.320 Now we have the chance to change them later on. 46 00:06:08.320 --> 00:06:12.860 The second area that we addressed ourselves to was the transfer mechanism. 47 00:06:14.460 --> 00:06:20.300 The transfer mechanism has some complex acceleration and deceleration requirements. 48 00:06:22.760 --> 00:06:27.320 Previously they were solved through mechanical linkages. 49 00:06:27.540 --> 00:06:37.700 They required very special gearboxes and cam mechanisms that were first of all difficult to make and then of course quite difficult to maintain. 50 00:06:38.480 --> 00:06:48.540 What the iDrive does is it moves those mechanisms, those cams and cyclotal mechanisms, into software rather than into mechanical gearboxes. 51 00:06:49.260 --> 00:06:51.000 So it totally eliminates the gearbox. 52 00:06:51.700 --> 00:06:57.260 The third area that we addressed ourselves to was the savings in floor space. 53 00:06:58.280 --> 00:07:07.880 Whenever a customer is making this kind of investment for a new transfer line, he's obviously thinking of floor space because bricks and mortar is a part of his investment. 54 00:07:08.500 --> 00:07:14.380 So the more floor space that we can save in our transfer line, the less he has to invest in a new building. 55 00:07:14.380 --> 00:07:22.140 And so the things like the Compact Pro have addressed themselves to the savings in floor space. 56 00:07:25.340 --> 00:07:44.480 Another area that we addressed ourselves to help with the customer's problem of floor space was in the area of moving some of the controls from what was previously a dedicated large controller to distributed processing at the machine stations. 57 00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:56.820 What this does is by dividing that space up into a number of different locations, it actually reduces the overall area that's required for the transfer line. 58 00:07:59.280 --> 00:08:05.700 If you look at some of the hardware that makes up this iDrive, the first element that you look at is the microprocessor. 59 00:08:05.700 --> 00:08:16.100 Its purpose is to provide the interface to the outside world and maintain control of the slide axis or the transfer mechanism, whatever it's being used on. 60 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:20.820 It does this by giving a reference command to a motor controller. 61 00:08:21.400 --> 00:08:28.120 The motor controller's function is to take this reference signal and transform it into the controlled energy that's required. 62 00:08:28.120 --> 00:08:38.640 This electrical controlled energy then is transmitted to the motor and the motor provides necessary rotary motion to power the slide axis or the transfer mechanism. 63 00:08:39.540 --> 00:08:57.040 The microprocessor is programmed offline through a remote programming unit and a cycle EPROM chip, which is a non-volatile memory device, is placed into the microprocessor itself to provide the necessary retained memory so that the slide function knows what it's supposed to do. 64 00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:14.080 One of the unique features about this programming method using the cycle EPROM chip is it allows programming both in the plant or in an office environment where the process engineer may have the necessary materials that he needs to program this chip. 65 00:09:14.760 --> 00:09:25.820 This offers a unique advantage that it offers a level of security to the system. Whoever is in control of the CRT display then is essentially in control of the process. 66 00:09:25.820 --> 00:09:35.000 The replacement of the cycle EPROM chip in the controller is a simple matter of taking the process unit out of the control box itself. 67 00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:43.280 And there's a small metal door that the engineer would open and make accessible this EPROM chip. 68 00:09:43.980 --> 00:09:47.420 The EPROM chip is in an easily loosened socket. 69 00:09:49.060 --> 00:09:57.000 The information that's contained on the chip is the part program that is required for that particular machine function. 70 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:08.000 The microprocessor then provides the input output command signals to the rest of the line's logic and also provides the interface to the motor controller. 71 00:10:09.980 --> 00:10:21.580 Our eye line is done in modular form so that once a problem has been diagnosed rather than repairing it on the machine we can remove the offending unit, 72 00:10:21.820 --> 00:10:28.140 replace it with a new one and get the machine back into production and then do our repair work offline. 73 00:10:29.320 --> 00:10:36.960 We serve virtually every industry that requires the need to cut metal, milling, boring, drilling, reaming and tapping. 74 00:10:36.960 --> 00:10:52.440 This range is through the diesel engine business, tractors, trucks, buses, locomotives and we find that the iDrive seems to have practical application in virtually every type of machine that we've built. 75 00:10:54.340 --> 00:11:06.580 If you look at the basic features of the through base and realize how strong and rigid it is in order to resist normal deflections that might come from foundation movement, 76 00:11:07.380 --> 00:11:13.260 it's important to realize that the entire strength of the machine is within the base itself. 77 00:11:13.260 --> 00:11:24.260 A customer could actually raise the machine in a crane and operate it without any of the support that normally comes from the foundation. 78 00:11:29.720 --> 00:11:38.260 I'm sure that nobody would do that but it would be a good way of demonstrating the fact that when the accuracy is built into the machine at Ingersoll, 79 00:11:38.540 --> 00:11:46.660 the machine is lifted on a crane when it is shipped, it's put in a container, it's lifted in a crane when it's set down on the customer's floor 80 00:11:46.660 --> 00:11:53.380 and if he knows that it's rigid enough to operate in the air, he knows that when it hits the deck in his plant, 81 00:11:53.620 --> 00:12:00.800 it is still going to have the accuracy and the quality built into it that was originally built in at Ingersoll. 82 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:06.360 The machinery that we have built, I believe, is just the beginning of a new era. 83 00:12:07.640 --> 00:12:13.540 It's a technology that has been needed for some time and it is now here. 84 00:12:13.960 --> 00:12:20.600 And when we talk about the technology chain reaction, one link in the chain really stimulates other links. 85 00:12:21.240 --> 00:12:27.040 One of the technological spin-offs of the iLine system is what we now call the iCheck system. 86 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:39.440 This allows us to measure the tolerances of our machines in our customer's plant, 87 00:12:41.500 --> 00:12:45.360 transmit that data by a phone system back to the computer in Rockford, 88 00:12:45.920 --> 00:12:52.260 and through the interactive computer it generates a graphic readout of the actual position of the spindles 89 00:12:52.260 --> 00:12:58.000 and compares them mathematically of where they should be, calculates the best fit for the correction, 90 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:01.980 and tells the operator which direction to make the adjustments. 91 00:13:03.720 --> 00:13:06.300 A different example might be the laser alignment system. 92 00:13:07.040 --> 00:13:13.260 The iBeam, or laser alignment, is a means of providing a check on machine accuracy. 93 00:13:13.980 --> 00:13:23.080 Essentially, the function of the laser alignment system is to install a laser light emitting unit into the master part, 94 00:13:23.080 --> 00:13:30.200 which generates a light beam that corresponds to the geometric axis of the hole that is to be machined. 95 00:13:30.500 --> 00:13:37.080 A target assembly is put into a spindle and it gives an indication of the rotational axis of the spindle. 96 00:13:37.940 --> 00:13:43.680 By utilizing those two bits of information, you can determine the overall accuracy of the machine. 97 00:13:44.280 --> 00:13:50.100 The output, or the display, of this information is in the form of a graphical representation. 98 00:13:50.100 --> 00:13:55.380 The laser alignment system essentially gives you a bullseye to shoot for as you're making adjustments. 99 00:13:57.080 --> 00:14:02.940 One of the key features is that it gives you real-time information so that as adjustments are being made, 100 00:14:03.400 --> 00:14:06.920 you have the indication if you're going in the right direction or not. 101 00:14:07.500 --> 00:14:11.360 There are many more future improvements to be made. 102 00:14:11.980 --> 00:14:16.160 The first major goal is the total elimination of hydraulics from the machine. 103 00:14:17.160 --> 00:14:22.940 A second major goal is the incorporation of a data highway system into the transfer line. 104 00:14:23.820 --> 00:14:28.700 This will allow the improvement of the management information systems, 105 00:14:29.180 --> 00:14:33.940 which will allow the customer to monitor and optimize the transfer line. 106 00:14:35.560 --> 00:14:44.040 A third and very major development goal is the establishment of a tool management system. 107 00:14:44.040 --> 00:14:48.820 This means that instead of changing tools at haphazard intervals, 108 00:14:49.620 --> 00:14:57.040 the machine tool will be able to tell the operator or the foreman that the tools are worn and are ready to change. 109 00:14:58.060 --> 00:15:01.140 This will result in tremendous cost savings for the customer. 110 00:15:03.280 --> 00:15:07.920 What Ingersoll is announcing at this time is unique. 111 00:15:09.740 --> 00:15:12.460 Nobody else in the industry at this time can offer it. 112 00:15:12.460 --> 00:15:17.460 As far as Ingersoll is concerned, however, this is nothing but the foundation. 113 00:15:23.380 --> 00:15:31.960 The theme that threads through the whole organization at Ingersoll is that Ingersoll will respond. 114 00:15:32.620 --> 00:15:39.820 By this we mean that we will listen to the marketplace and make products and services for that marketplace. 115 00:15:39.820 --> 00:15:46.820 The iLine technology is a dramatic example of the theme Ingersoll responds. 116 00:16:12.220 --> 00:16:13.620 Thank you.