How to save with your clave!

CiMFeb20Features - premier1
CiMFeb20Features - premier1

In this Q&A session, Premier Autoclaves’ group sales manager, Scott Dyson discusses the company’s ScanSure barcode scanner system, which provides full company-wide traceability across the shopfloor.

In this Q&A session, Premier Autoclaves’ group sales manager, Scott Dyson discusses the company’s ScanSure barcode scanner system, which provides full company-wide traceability across the shopfloor.

 

Q) Can you provide some background as to why Premier Autoclaves saw a need to introduce a barcode scanner?

As with most of what we do, this has been very much a customer-centric concept. We’ve developed a solution for where the market is increasingly heading. With any Premier customer - whether it is an aerospace OEM or motorsport tier 2 supplier, efficiency and traceability are key.

Q) What tangible benefits can a barcode scanner offer when using an autoclave to cure composite materials?

As mentioned, the main benefits with ScanSure are improvements in operator efficiency and factory-wide traceability, as well as reducing the opportunity for error through automated sense-checking.

With regards to efficiency, an operator scans a barcode that is preconfigured to a works order number and linked only to its relevant cure/cook. It takes seconds to scan all parts for a full cure and the possibility for human error (loading a part into the wrong cure for example) is therefore eliminated. Customers have advised that up to ten minutes can be saved per cure. Extrapolate that over a 12-month period and the cumulative gains are considerable. The same process is taken if there is a non-conformance and a proof of process is required. It takes seconds to scan a barcode, rather than the arduous search for a cure potentially undertaken months earlier.

In terms of traceability, this system can be used either locally to the autoclave and kept simple, or tied into site-wide production control software. We already have a solution that ties in with Progress Plus (firstly because this was a request from a customer, and secondly because we see it so commonly in the industry). This enables the customer to have a central management system that monitors and records production at every stage, from layup to dispatch.

Q) Can any customer autoclave be upgraded to accept the use of your barcode scanner?

Any autoclave with Premier’s latest controls can have ScanSure added for circa £3.2k on the first autoclave and less than £1k for any system thereafter. For those without Premier’s controls, this can be part of controls upgrade works as it will be for numerous customers in 2020.

Q) How have autoclaves evolved over the years in the sophistication of the control, monitoring and data processes?

Premier work on all brands of autoclaves and have seen varied developments across the board. Automation has been the most obvious and most widespread improvement, minimising the need for operator interaction. Thermal head (though not overly new, we see as underutilised and many are unaware of the benefits) has been important for dynamic curing; increasing efficiency and accuracy of a run by allowing air temperature to increase beyond part temperature on ramp ensuring a part follows the set point accurately. Possibilities with data processing, monitoring, automated reports and so on are endless, and Premier regularly writes bespoke code for customers to enable cost-saving measures, such is the flexibility of Premier’s software.

Q) How do you see the development of autoclaves in the future? Will technologies, such as remote monitoring and other Industry 4.0 type advances have an impact?

As you’d expect, it’s aerospace OEMs leading the way for the most part. With regards to Industry 4.0 however, it is interesting to see how high-end automotive firms are holding this in increasingly higher regard. The take-up in our remote monitoring packages, display nodes for multiple clave overviews in design offices for example and similar, has increased dramatically in the past twelve months and we expect the next two years to continue in that regard, filtering down the tiers.

It’s exciting for Premier, as we work so closely with such a large of portion of the composites industry and our controls are entirely pliable to each company’s requirements. Understanding how we can help ‘at the coal face’ continues to be central to our business as we iterate our autoclave systems to stay ahead of the curve.

www.premierautoclaves.com

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