THEME SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
OPTIMIZING YOUR HIGH-TECH DEVELOPMENT AND MACHINE PERFORMANCE An increasing proportion of high-tech equipment consists of software. At the same time, the importance of utilizing software in optimizing development processes is growing. That doesn’t take away the fact that significant progress is always made in the interplay with mechatronics and electronics. “Getting the best results calls for a culture of a real machine builder.” Daniëlla van Laarhoven
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he complexity of high-tech systems has increased enormously over the last few decades. OEMs – for example in the semiconductor, analytical and digital printing industries – create machines that not rarely operate on the edge of physical possibilities. Their performance is ever more determined by software. “Creating a machine with optimal behavior, also in our high-tech world, requires a sound mechanical and electronic design,” says Laurens van de Laar, a software architect at NTS. “If that’s not the case, you can’t usually fix it with software. The laws of physics always apply. However, with the use of software, you can push the boundaries. It’s a technology to maximize results, both from the perspective of machine and process control. You can add speed, accuracy, usability, maintainability, freedom of choice, functionality, uptime and so on. In other words: there’s a difference between complexity and intelligence, and the latter always runs on software. That makes our discipline so crucial for NTS and our customers.”
Building bridges
NTS is a first-tier partner for OEMs, has extensive knowledge of optomechatronics and a strong focus on high-complexity, low-volume, 42
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high-mix markets. The company is globally active and operates as a one-stop-shop in development and engineering, component manufacturing and assembly. Van de Laar has been working at the company for 13 years now. He’s a member of the software team within the Development & Engineering division. Over
the years, in line with the evolution of high-tech machine construction, his work domain has changed substantially. In the past, software was usually applied as a final layer once the physical design was done. Now, it’s part of development processes from the very beginning of the creation process.
