B&R Automation held its 2017 Innovation Day in Pune on 13 January 2017, where a variety of ideas were exchanged among some important industry leaders over the half-day program. There were speakers from companies like Hitachi, Gudel India and Windsor Machines, among others. Among the speakers from B&R were Peter Gucher, general manager international and chairman, India and Sivaram PV, managing director. The event opened with the launch of the latest edition of automation India, a B&R technology magazine, comprising of various customer success stories.
The underlying theme of the event was how automation software can provide higher business value to customers. Manufacturing across the globe and across industries is witnessing greater automation. There has been a convergence of information technology and operational technology with Industry 4.0 being the buzz word. To gain business value, it is inevitable to extract information from the generated field data, which is facilitated by software- and vendor-independent communication technologies.
Peter Gucher focused on the trend and future of industrial production, sharing how software is changing the rules of the game and engineering becoming the major competitive factor. He further stated about stronger emergence of internet of things and said that going forward, there will be a tremendous rise in the number of connected devices. He also opined that in future, robotics will play greater role in manufacturing. He added that robot installation in the next few years is expected to double.
Audience at B&R Innovation Day 2017in Pune. Photo PSA
Sivaram PV delivered a small talk on how automation software drives business value and said that software survives longer than components and that automation acquires character through software. He emphasized that software provides longevity of developed application across generations of hardware, reducing the application effort and investment for newer hardware platforms.
Nitin Chowdhary of Windsor Machines gave a user insight about the importance of machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity in the plastic industry. He talks about M2M connectivity from the point of view of manufacturing processes of machines for injectional molding, blown film and pipe extrusion. Windsor is a global plastics processing machinery manufacturer based in India and is one of the few domestic companies engaged in manufacturing injection molding, pipe extrusion and blown film machineries under one roof.
Apart from the discussion, B&R displayed a variety of innovations from its portfolio such as mapp View: web-based HMI, mobile automation: automation solutions for outdoor applications, motion technology for next generation machines, virtual commissioning and secure remote maintenance. This year’s Innovation Day witnessed a 35% rise in delegates.
