We know from talking with our customers that their needs for improving accuracy and reliability are going to increase still further in the future.
What we found and what our customers told us was there was a need to design flexibility into our product.
We're not trying to develop new machine elements, but rather to make a better functioning machine.
We believe that the work we have done developing the iLine technology will meet the needs of our customers for the future.
One of the key things of course when you're introducing new technology is that no customer wants to have a prototype.
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.
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.
And the 25 year old technology that we and others had been offering really was just no longer applicable.
And so in order to try to meet specific customer requirements in the process, and this includes the requirement for better quality, requirement for higher efficiency which really translates into productivity, requirement for energy savings in the manufacturing process, 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.
We've gone at this through the development and availability of the microprocessor.
Prior to this time the improvements were made in very small increments.
With the microprocessor we suddenly had a whole new opportunity to make significant improvements in a short period of time.
We're talking about a concept that's in response to customer needs.
And when we talk about that we're not talking about just hardware, but it's the integration of a complete operating system.
The iDrive is a brushless AC motor.
It is a true servo drive.
It is simple.
It can be readily programmed by the user to perform his specific function.
We can probably best describe it by utilizing the models to talk about what we call the technology chain reaction.
This model represents the old or the current technology, the slide and slide base.
For 25 years we and others have been building according to the building block principle, which involves putting a slide base on a wing base, attaching it to a center base.
And that result was a portion of a working station of a transfer machine.
All right.
When we were able to apply the iDrive to this portion of the technology and eliminate the motors, the belts, the brakes, we also eliminated the limit switches, which took space.
We also eliminated the need to provide space for a hydraulic cylinder.
And that result or the first step in the chain reaction was really what we call the low profile slide.
As you can see, this is much thinner than the old style because it no longer has the requirement for these other devices.
Once the low profile slide was in effect in our stable of standards, 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.
This then opened up the second step in the chain reaction, the potential for creating what we call a through base.
This is a rigid steel structural member that is a minimum of eight times stiffer than the old style construction.
It is also much less subject to distortion due to foundation movement or other changes in the customer's plant.
When we put the iDrive in the low profile slide on top of the through base, we then in effect have the basis structurally of the new technology.
This then represents two steps in the chain reaction from the iDrive to the low profile slide to the through base.
The first area that we addressed ourselves to was the control of the feed slide motion.
Feed slide motion has the requirement for a variety of feed rates and a variety of set points.
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.
Previously we could only do that in the engineering department and then those decisions were cast in concrete.
Now we have the chance to change them later on.
The second area that we addressed ourselves to was the transfer mechanism.
The transfer mechanism has some complex acceleration and deceleration requirements.
Previously they were solved through mechanical linkages.
They required very special gearboxes and cam mechanisms that were first of all difficult to make and then of course quite difficult to maintain.
What the iDrive does is it moves those mechanisms, those cams and cyclotal mechanisms, into software rather than into mechanical gearboxes.
So it totally eliminates the gearbox.
The third area that we addressed ourselves to was the savings in floor space.
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.
So the more floor space that we can save in our transfer line, the less he has to invest in a new building.
And so the things like the Compact Pro have addressed themselves to the savings in floor space.
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.
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.
If you look at some of the hardware that makes up this iDrive, the first element that you look at is the microprocessor.
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.
It does this by giving a reference command to a motor controller.
The motor controller's function is to take this reference signal and transform it into the controlled energy that's required.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
And there's a small metal door that the engineer would open and make accessible this EPROM chip.
The EPROM chip is in an easily loosened socket.
The information that's contained on the chip is the part program that is required for that particular machine function.
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.
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, replace it with a new one and get the machine back into production and then do our repair work offline.
We serve virtually every industry that requires the need to cut metal, milling, boring, drilling, reaming and tapping.
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.
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, it's important to realize that the entire strength of the machine is within the base itself.
A customer could actually raise the machine in a crane and operate it without any of the support that normally comes from the foundation.
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, 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 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, it is still going to have the accuracy and the quality built into it that was originally built in at Ingersoll.
The machinery that we have built, I believe, is just the beginning of a new era.
It's a technology that has been needed for some time and it is now here.
And when we talk about the technology chain reaction, one link in the chain really stimulates other links.
One of the technological spin -offs of the iLine system is what we now call the iCheck system.
This allows us to measure the tolerances of our machines in our customer's plant, transmit that data by a phone system back to the computer in Rockford, and through the interactive computer it generates a graphic readout of the actual position of the spindles and compares them mathematically of where they should be, calculates the best fit for the correction, and tells the operator which direction to make the adjustments.
A different example might be the laser alignment system.
The iBeam, or laser alignment, is a means of providing a check on machine accuracy.
Essentially, the function of the laser alignment system is to install a laser light emitting unit into the master part, which generates a light beam that corresponds to the geometric axis of the hole that is to be machined.
A target assembly is put into a spindle and it gives an indication of the rotational axis of the spindle.
By utilizing those two bits of information, you can determine the overall accuracy of the machine.
The output, or the display, of this information is in the form of a graphical representation.
The laser alignment system essentially gives you a bullseye to shoot for as you're making adjustments.
One of the key features is that it gives you real -time information so that as adjustments are being made, you have the indication if you're going in the right direction or not.
There are many more future improvements to be made.
The first major goal is the total elimination of hydraulics from the machine.
A second major goal is the incorporation of a data highway system into the transfer line.
This will allow the improvement of the management information systems, which will allow the customer to monitor and optimize the transfer line.
A third and very major development goal is the establishment of a tool management system.
This means that instead of changing tools at haphazard intervals, the machine tool will be able to tell the operator or the foreman that the tools are worn and are ready to change.
This will result in tremendous cost savings for the customer.
What Ingersoll is announcing at this time is unique.
Nobody else in the industry at this time can offer it.
As far as Ingersoll is concerned, however, this is nothing but the foundation.
The theme that threads through the whole organization at Ingersoll is that Ingersoll will respond.
By this we mean that we will listen to the marketplace and make products and services for that marketplace.
The iLine technology is a dramatic example of the theme Ingersoll responds.
Thank you.
