Manufacturing sector is witnessing a paradigm shift due to latest automation technologies. In welding industry, interconnectivity among welding power sources, software, and manufacturing decision makers is making Weld 4.0 (in line with Industry 4.0) a possibility. The term ‘virtual factory’ will be heard frequently over the next 20 years as computer modelling and simulation tools become common place in welding operations, says Aniruddha Vilekar, Chief Technical Officer & Head- Marketing, Ador Welding Ltd (formerly Advani-Oerlikon Ltd). In this interview with Rakesh Rao, he analyses the effect of automation and robotics on welding industry and how the industry is gearing up for Industry 4.0.

 

How is Indian welding industry adopting automation? Is it ready for Industry 4.0?

Intelligentised welding (Weld 4.0) is a part of the latest industrial revolution Industry 4.0.Interconnectivity among welding power sources, software, and manufacturing decision makers makes this possible. This involves intelligent power sources, robots, specially configured data collection and storage systems and a weld monitoring software that can feed the information to various platforms either on a smartphone or on a flat screen TV in the engineering office. The software used will have to be flexible to be able to sync with the equipment in the process flow and provide a complete flow of the entire welding process. 

 

In Asia, India is way behind its developed counterparts in South Korea, Japan and Singapore and even behind China in terms of industrial automation. In terms of robot density in Indian factories, for every 10,000 factory workers, there are only 3 installed robots. The automobile industry, where the number of installed robots is 58 for every 10,000 workers, is nearly 19 times more than the nation average of just three. 

Though the government has been pushing for more indigenous production, the biggest problem in India is the lack of skilled workforce. The number of trained people that can understand the sophistication of seamless integration, which collects/analyses data, right from the shop floor to the enterprise level, using it to improve manufacturing in real time, is far too low as compared to its developing and developed counterparts. Promotion of local production and start-ups would help bring about a meaningful change.Government of India’s Make in India initiative will encourage Indian manufacturers to look at technology enhancements and evolve rapidly to meet the evolving requirements of the market.

 

What’s the level of automation at your company?

Ador Welding has automated several manufacturing processes. Our clean room has a fully automated assembly line for the assembly of inverter welding equipment - the only such clean room in the country. Our fully automated ready dry mix flux units dispense through a fully automated setup very accurately the exact quantities of minerals and alloys of varying densities giving our products unmatched quality.

Automated spool dispensers, conveyor lines for subassemblies, automated wet drawing lines, QR codes for equipment (as we move towards industry 4.O implementation), automated edge winding equipment, multipoint auto greasing arrangement interlinked through PLCs, etc have been implemented at our plants and many more are in progress.

 

What will be the effect of Industry 4.0 on the manufacturing sector? How it can benefit the welding industry?

Manufacturing has emerged as one of the high growth sectors in India. Attracted by India's market of more than a billion consumers and increasing purchasing power, global giants have either set up or are in process of setting up manufacturing plants. 

 

In India, the adoption of Industry 4.0 is still at a nascent stage. High investment outlay will have to be planned in order to implement it as Industry 4.0 requires the utilisation of wide set of technological platforms. It also needs to address the requirement of appropriate infrastructure and education to handle such technologies. Penetration of Industry 4.0 will vary as per sector needs. Seamless end-to-end communications ensuring greater flexibility will aid industries with large product portfolios such as the automotive industry, while industries which demand high quality such as pharmaceuticals will benefit from the churned data, enabling improvements that reduce error rates.

While capital-intensive sectors such as automotive are already gaining from adoption, other industries in order to actively shape the transformation and reduce the total cost of ownership have developed optimal solutions through forming common platforms and alliances with many different partners.

 

As the industry uses smart materials by 2020 there will be significant opportunities to program and control subsequent welding operations. This new technology will be exploited by product designers, manufacturers and welders to improve the entire manufacturing cycle. The virtual factory is a term that will be heard frequently over the next 20 years as computer modelling and simulation tools become common place in welding operations. Welding will move from being an ’art’ to a manufacturing science with the help of computers.

 

What are the challenges in the implementation of Industry 4.0?

In India, various industries are still in the dilemma of identifying the right technology that can best address their needs. While high cost of digital technology is a major concern, what exactly do they hope to transform is still an uncharted territory. Lack of infrastructure, both physical and digital, have further dampened the scenario. The lack of knowledge with new age technologies such as IoT, data analysis, etc - both at the plant and leadership level - have further added to the crunch currently faced. Significant contributions will be a key factor in up-skilling the workforce capable of handling digitalization creating a more adaptable, responsive and unified environment empowered in making more informed decisions.