贡献者:Francisco Perez,Lantek 的 OEM 渠道总监解释了历史和未来的计划。
中立的全球支持
该政策的关键是 Lantek 对其 OEM 合作伙伴的中立立场,使他们能够有信心,把与各方正在开发的个别技术进步相关的信息交托给Lantek。 为了促进这种工作方式,Lantek 成立了一个专门的部门,专门管理它现在支持的所有不同的超过150家 OEM 厂商,给予每个厂商对他们项目的单独关注,并在他们的实施和市场推广中支持他们以确保技能够按照预期的运行,并且确保他们的客户对结果感到满意。 这一过程成功的一个重要因素是 Lantek 在 14 个国家/地区设有 20 个办事处,并拥有遍布 100 个国家/地区的经销商网络,Lantek 可以将其置于其 OEM 合作伙伴的支配之下,以提供行业所期望的专业支持。 韩国HK Laser的首席营销官Park Jung-sik举例说:“Lantek韩国工程师深受客户欢迎,他们提供技术支持,将智能工厂系统与HK设备全面对接。 最近,我们发现越来越多的韩国中小型钣金加工企业对MES和ERP的连接非常感兴趣。”
到 2021 年为止,与 2020 年相比,Lantek 的 OEM 合作伙伴数量大幅增加,这在意料之中。 然而,重要的是,与 2019 年和疫情前的水平相比,OEM 合作伙伴关系也有所增长,增长达 16%,导致同期通过 OEM 渠道的销售额增长了 41%。 长期的经验和努力是钣金软件开发的关键。 任何参与过软件开发的人都会知道,这是一个漫长而复杂的过程,需要经过多次迭代才能获得功能强大且可靠的解决方案。
Lantek 开发钣金 CAM、ERP 和 Lantek MES 已有 35 年的历史。 偶尔会出现可以快速创新的突破,但大多数情况下,它的创新来自与钣金制造商和机床制造商的长期合作,并在预测行业发展方向的同时结合他们的要求。 要能够提供真正为客户增加价值的功能和创新,先决条件是全面的行业知识和经验。 这些知识和经验只有在与机床制造商合作多年后才能获得。 博世力士乐 CNC 系统产品经理 Karsten Kreusch 说:“我们一直在与 Lantek 合作,为激光市场提供完整的解决方案,机床制造商可以拥有控制新机器所需的硬件和软件。”
特别合作项目
多年来,Lantek 开发了支持许多新设备和技术的软件,包括倒角、钻孔、喷墨/激光打标、托盘处理等。 随着这些技术在市场上变得越来越普遍,Lantek 实施了通用解决方案,因此只需配置后处理器以满足每台机器的要求,就可以从 Lantek 的标准软件驱动一系列具有这些功能的不同机器。
总的来说,我们与 OEM 合作伙伴合作开发了数百个这样的功能。 许多这些功能现在是标准 Lantek Expert 系统的一部分;随着新机器模型的开发,无论是哪一个 OEM,我们都为每个模型定制了后处理器,这使 Lantek 可能拥有业内最大的后处理器库。 最近的项目包括与原始设备制造商在光纤激光器上避免碰撞方面的合作。 我们的合作伙伴 Danobat 就是一个例子,我们帮助它对线圈激光切割机进行编程。 Danobat 技术经理 Xabier Peñaranda 解释说:“众所周知,移动板材在切割应用中一直具有挑战性,因此当我们开始开发激光线圈机时,板材移动是机器定义的基础,很明显需要特殊的切割程序来避免碰撞。 多亏与 Lantek 的合作,我们已经能够创建一个可靠的切割解决方案,用 Lantek Flex3d 和 Expert CAM
将切割轨迹和板材推进相结合,在数百米的卷材加工过程中不会出现碰撞,完全没有人为干预编程步骤。”
钣金机械自动化现在非常普遍,也是我们与 Euromac 合作的一个领域。 Euromac 的销售总监 Ferran Villanueva 说:“Euromac 正在继续改进其冲压和弯曲系统,提供新的开发和自动化选项,以提高我们客户的生产力。 我们与 Lantek 就基于龙门设备和视觉系统机器人的新型码垛系统的联合合作,实现了钣金零件冲压和卸载过程的完全自动化。” 管材切割现在是钣金行业中快速发展的一种技术。 同样,Lantek 在与大族激光等行业领先公司合作开发先进技术方面拥有丰富的经验,可实现材料使用的经济性、处理新 4X/5X 切割头的能力以及用于管理新管材和光束格式的新卡盘装置。 大族激光 CEO Flame Chen 表示:“多年来,我们一直与 Lantek 合作,他们确实提供了帮助、支持和创新。 他们的产品和解决方案以强大的性能提供了极大的灵活性和开放性。 此外,他们提供的服务展示了特殊的专业知识和专业精神。 Lantek 与大族激光的合作一直牢固而稳定,我们愿与他们共同努力,使这种关系尽可能保持牢固和稳定。” 迈向智能工厂
在其软件开发历史的大部分时间里,Lantek 一直在评估和努力实现 工厂智能化管理的概念。 现在,随着工业 4.0 的发展和疫情带来的挑战,这项技术正在成为主流。 各种规模的公司都在研究如何将其用于其应用程序。 Lantek 凭借其成熟的产品,包括 Lantek MES 和专为钣金行业设计的 Lantek Analytics,为钣金制造商带来明显的优势。 对于原始设备制造商而言,这些市场变化同样重要,因为钣金制造商希望将他们的机器与客户的业务系统集成。
与 Lantek 的合作现在对 OEM 来说更上一层楼,因为我们可以提供更深层次的集成工具和技术,将机器性能与制造商想要监控的 KPI 联系起来。 现在,Lantek 进入了一个新阶段,完全致力于这些 OEM 关系和未来技术的软件开发,以更快的速度推动它们。 源源不断的新想法和不断增强的资金实力确保了该行业的快速发展之路。 这些进步包括人工智能和机器学习,它们将彻底改变整个行业的工作方式。 毫无疑问,过去的封闭软件系统现已经不符合实际用途的需要,而开放技术才是未来的所在,这使得与尽可能多的原始设备制造商合作对于行业的未来和迈向智能工厂至关重要。, is an example where we helped it in programming its coil laser cutting machines. Xabier Peñaranda, Technical Manager for Danobat explains, “It is well known that a moving sheet has always been challenging in cutting applications, so when we started the development of laser coil machines where sheet movement is the base of the machine definition, it was clear that special cutting routines were needed to avoid collisions. Thanks to the collaboration with Lantek, we have been able to create a reliable cutting solution where the cutting trajectories and sheet advancements are combined in a such a way that no collisions appear during hundreds of metres of coil processing, with no human intervention at all in the programming step.”
Automation for sheet metal machinery is now very common and is an area where we collaborated with Euromac. Ferran Villanueva, Euromac´s Sales Director, says, “Euromac is continuing with the evolution of its punching and bending systems, offering new developments and automation options which improve productivity for our customers. Our joint collaboration with Lantek on new palletisation systems based on gantry devices and vision system robots has enabled total automation of the punching and unloading process for sheet metal parts."
Tube cutting is now a rapidly growing technology in the sheet metal industry. Again, Lantek has extensive experience collaborating with leading companies in the industry such as Han´s Laser to develop advances which deliver economies in material usage, the ability to handle new 4X/5X cutting heads and new chuck devices for managing new tube and beam formats. Flame Chen, CEO of Han´s Laser says, “For all the years we have been working with Lantek, they have been truly helpful, supportive and innovative. Their products and solutions offer great flexibility and openness with powerful performance. Also, the service they´ve provided exhibits particular expertise and professionalism. The cooperation between Lantek and Han´s Laser has been strong and steady, and we would like to work together with them to keep this relationship as strong and steady as possible.”
Move towards the Smart Factory
For much of its history of software development, Lantek has been evaluating and working towards the concept of a Smart Factory. Now along with the evolution of Industry 4.0 and the challenges created by the pandemic this technology is becoming mainstream. Companies of all sizes are examining how it can be used for their application. Lantek has a clear advantage here for sheet metal manufacturers with its mature products which include Lantek MES, and Lantek Analytics designed specifically for the sheet metal industry. For OEMs these changes in the market are equally important as sheet metal manufacturers will want to integrate their machinery with their customers´ business systems.
Collaborating with Lantek is now going a stage further for OEMs as we can supply the tools and the technology for integration at a much deeper level, connecting machine performance with the KPIs that manufacturers want to monitor.
Now, Lantek enters a new phase fully committed to these OEM relationships and to software developments for future technology, moving them on at a faster pace. A continuous stream of new ideas and increased financial muscle assures a rapid development path for the industry. These advances include artificial intelligence and machine learning which are set to revolutionise working practices across the sector. There is little doubt that closed software systems of the past are now not fit for purpose and that the future is for open technology, making collaboration with as many OEMs as possible crucial to the future of the industry and the move towards the Smart Factory.