13 minute read
FLUID CONTROL & PUMPS
FLUID CONTROLS AND PUMPS
New Lampo emergency response unit serves many purposes, using one vehicle
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A new class of emergency response equipment has just been introduced by Hydro Innovations. Called the Lampo, from Euromacchine, the units are trailer-mounted multi-purpose machines designed to simplify the deployment of equipment for municipalities, emergency services and contractors.
The aim of the Lampo is to enable owners to deploy multiple pieces of machinery, using only one vehicle.
At the heart of the unit is a diesel driven generator complete with variable frequency drive (VFD), which powers a lighting tower and a Gorman-Rupp pump unit. The units also come standard with an air compressor, discharge hose reel and suction hoses.
The “heart” of the unit (generator/ VFD/ lighting system) is manufactured by quality equipment manufacturer Euromacchine in Italy, and housed in an acoustically rated enclosure. It is then mounted on an Australian built trailer and fitted with a self-priming Gorman-Rupp trash pump.
The cleverly designed unit can light up a work area while operators set up the pump or operate numerous electric tools the generator can drive. The VFD allows for soft starting electrical equipment, including the pump, and can vary the speeds of these machines to suit the duty at hand. While all this is happening, the compressor can be driving air nibblers, air operated nail guns, wrenches or tyre inflators.
The units are available in seven sizes. The smallest unit has a 11kVa generator, 5.5kW VFD, 61,400 lumen lighting system, 6 litre compressor and GormanRupp T2A60-B self-priming pump. The largest unit has a 100kVa generator, 55kW VFD, 61,400 lumen lighting system, 24 litre compressor and GormanRupp T8A60S-B self-priming pump.
Units will come with a standard specification, inclusive of a six metre high lighting tower and robust tool box, but they are also able to be custom configured to suit individual needs/ applications, including different size and type of pumps, higher powered lighting, different size compressors, and different sorts of optional equipment.
Hydro Innovations 02 9898 1800 www.hydroinnovations.com.au
(02) 9898 1800
sales@HydroInnovations.com.au www.HydroInnovations.com.au
Guiding the Way
Bonfiglioli explains the growing demand for Automatic Guided Vehicles in the Logistics realm
Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs) refer to a range of driverless transportation robots – for example, computer-controlled materials handling vehicles. These vehicles are programmed to transport materials through designated pickup and delivery routines within a facility.
The AGV sector is constantly expanding, and these machines are commonly used in fields such as logistics and intralogistics.
Martin Broglia, Managing Director for Bonfiglioli Australia New Zealand, explains: “AGVs answer to the call by modern manufacturers. Rather than using team members to transport goods and materials, AGVs are now entrusted as a fluid, efficient, safe, and precise way to do so.”
The vehicles are programmed to transport materials through designated pickup and delivery routes within a facility.
Too soon for AGVs?
While the term ‘driverless’ may seem ahead of our time, Martin says that this is simply not the case. “This technology is advanced however it is easily accessible, scalable and modular – making it suitable to a range of applications, companies and sectors” he adds.
Logistics (and centralising logistics) is integral to the success of almost every business. Explains Martin: “Moving products along the supply chain is the most important aspect of any productdriven business. By doing so efficiently, businesses improve their profitability, customer satisfaction and productivity.”
COVID-19 continues to accelerate the need for reshoring and shorter supply chains, putting strain on a business’s bottom line. “Bringing manufacturing home (and improving logistics) requires careful planning. One would need to hire more resources, invest in more technology, and dedicate a significant amount of time to the process. Based on this, we anticipate an uptick in the demand for AGV’s; staff can focus on adding value to the business, whilst AGVs seamlessly handle the transporting of goods.”
AGV advantages include:
• Shorter and faster product cycles. • Increased manufacturing flexibility. • Increased ergonomic and safety. • Reduced labour costs. • Increased accuracy and productivity. • Easily expandable layout and system capacity. • They enhance workplace safety by eliminating related accidents caused by human error. • They perform tasks in dangerous environments such as handling hazardous substances, working in extreme temperatures, and moving heavy materials.
As companies continue to invest in automation, and in many cases AGVs, Bonfiglioli delivers innovative solutions to match. “Over the past few years, Bonfiglioli has developed many AGVs solutions on the international market.”
These solutions are developed with the highest levels of customisation, which requires - right from the initial design phases - in-depth interaction between the customer and Bonfiglioli’s team to ensure that all the required specifications and variants are known.
“Internationally, our company is integrating various technologies and product classes like motion control, HMI, new generation inverters, synchronous reluctance motors, permanent magnets motors and precision planetary gearboxes. This represents only a part of our complex reality” comments Martin.
Bonfiglioli’s AGV System is a highly flexible and modular platform for a wide spectrum of applications including warehouse and logistics, parcelling, material handling, automotive, chemical and plastic, food and beverage as well as pharmaceutical.
“Currently these solutions are imported from head office in Italy and comes with the backing of a technical team. We are monitoring the market demand and will respond accordingly with local stockholding, should our customers have this requirement” concludes Martin.
Martin Broglia - Managing Director for Bonfiglioli Australia New Zealand
Bonfiglioli Transmission 02 8811 8000 www.bonfiglioli.com
Absolute Filters is a leading supplier of both general and specialised filtration systems.
Our design team can customize to any application whilst our manufacturing facilities can provide equipment to API 614 & 618 lubrication filtration standards.
02 6260 1888
sales@absolutefilters.com.au
Absolute Filters offer a large range of Simplex Type Filters in a number of different materials.
• Pipeline Protection Strainer
Removes solids from liquids & gas
• Quick Release Cover • 25-30 Year Design Life • Heavy Duty Cast Construction • 1 – 12” NB range #150 & 300
Bespoke systems up to 48” NB • ASME 8 / ATEX / Welding
Norsolk / 3mm CA / CE PED on request
Meeting special engineering requirements
Vast range of cast and fabricated filters.
De Bortoli wines
The De Bortoli Wines journey started over 90 years ago when Vittorio De Bortoli emigrated from Northern Italy with dreams of building a better life. Vittoria purchased a fruit farm near Griffith, Australia, in the New South Wales Riverina region and turned unwanted Shiraz grapes into wine for family and friends – those were the beginnings of one of Australia’s largest family-owned wineries. Following these humble beginnings, De Bortoli Wines has grown to become the sixth largest winery in the country, exporting to 75 countries around the world with bottling plant operations in Europe and distribution in the UK. Operating estates across five Australian winemaking regions, De Bortoli Wines has also demonstrated a strong commitment to sustainability and views this as a key philosophy of leaving a positive legacy for future generations. De Bortoli Wines operates a complex vertically and horizontally integrated business model that encompasses wine production and distribution from grape to glass.
The challenge: a complex supply chain means flexible systems are required to maintain grape to glass traceability
“De Bortoli is a vertically integrated business that is involved in every part of the wine industry and can be thought of as not just one company, but as a collection of quite distinct businesses. We have businesses that grow grapes, make wine, package wine, warehouse wine, transport wine, and sell wine, including direct to consumer via our own physical and online
retail presence,” said Bill Robertson, CIO, De Bortoli Wines.
“One of the things that De Bortoli has managed to do over the years by working with QAD has been building agribusiness just-in-time scheduling and incorporating that into our winemaking process. The focus of this was around quality, compliance and optimization. These pieces interconnect. So, when we do just-in-time scheduling of grapes, it not only optimizes our deliveries for our growers and for ourselves, it also improves the quality. When we do things like the online spray diaries, that not only helps with our compliance, but it also helps with the efficiency. When we have traceability through our blends, that also helps with our compliance. It also helps with our quality. So, all of these pieces have really provided a basis for a sustained, competitive advantage,” said Robertson.
" The real value of an integrated solution across multiple business units is visibility - across grapes, wine-making, bottling, logistics, and all the way to the consumer" Bill Robertson, CIO, De Bortoli Wines
The solution: collaboration with qad for a just-in-time scheduling solution to improve quality, compliance and traceability
As De Bortoli looks to the future, the company plans to integrate QAD’s next generation Adaptive UX. “QAD’s Adaptive UX is going to support De Bortoli’s vision of sustainability by bringing all the disparate pieces of information and software into one cohesive ERP that we’ll be able to leverage for a long time,” said Shane Dunn, business analyst, De Bortoli Wines.
“We’re also really excited about where QAD is going with its new user experience. The application programming interfaces (APIs) will allow us to integrate with things like manufacturing execution systems, our constraint-based scheduling systems and our supply chain integration,” comments Robertson.
“The ability to deploy on multiple devices is going to be critical. There are so many pieces to where QAD is going, not just in the immediate future but the long-term, that aligns with what we want to achieve.” Dunn adds, “We’re using QAD to track all wine specifications from grape to bottle. The current feature set is highly configurable, and we’re using this to print a certificate of analysis form for the customer, which shows all the specifications that they have asked for and how they match.”
“We’re really excited by where QAD is going with its Adaptive UX. If we had a wish list of the roadmap for our ERP solution, QAD ticks the boxes, “concludes Robertson.
To get full story and video, please scan the QR code or visit: www.qad.com/industries/foodbeverage-erp
QAD Australia 9857 3027 hjk@qad.com
Laser-cutting quotation time slashed in half with new software
New cloud-based laser cutting quotation software from ipLaser typically more than halves the time and manual input required by laser cutting companies to prepare precise estimates for world industries using their services.
The ipLaser cloud-based technology suite – which can automatically process three-dimensional engineering and production graphics provided by customers – not only automates business processes and saves time, but also transforms and expands business opportunities for the huge and rapidly growing number of laser service providers.
“It does this by enabling laser cutting businesses to respond to customers’ needs more quickly and to reach many more prospective customers than previously in a given time,” says ipLaser Managing Director Ivan Cooper.
“This technology is a game changer across multiple industries, because laser cutting is one of the world’s fastest growing industries, with the machine market alone expected to exceed $US7 billion (almost $9 billion AUD) by 2024, as major industries adopt this fast and accurate technology that flexibly responds to the digital revolution of industry 4.0.” ipLaser’s new technology differs from conventional 2D-based laser quotation technologies in that it can be fed full 3D schematics of a product and sift out precisely all the 2D sheet metal surfaces required to be cut by a laser workshop of any size and complexity.
The new automated 3D process eliminates many previous obstacles to the use of 3D encountered by laser cutting companies, whose services are delivered in a 2D sheet metal environment, using surfaces that must be extracted from 3D drawings. Mr Cooper says previous challenges in the conversion included high cost and time demands: “3D packages are expensive, trained operators are expensive and finding the time to train people (if they have no prior experience) is hard too.”
Simplifying the process makes it more accessible for any operator without 3D experience, in both large and small laser shops. This means businesses can scale up to handling 3D models as a customer quoting source quickly, driving opportunity and growth ahead of their competitors, says Mr Cooper.
The new 3D software complements and extends the worldwide success of the ipLaser time saving and revenue growing software developed from practical laser shop production floor and quotation management experience over more than 30 years.
The new technology taps into the experience and needs of thousands of ipLaser software users globally, who have contributed their ideas, catering to the needs of laser cutters servicing the world’s major industries, including automotive, aviation, architectural and construction products, engineering electrical, manufacturing, metals, mining and energy, shipbuilding and textiles. ipLaser’s latest software ties in seamlessly with a job shop customer’s existing 3D drawings and automatically breaks down their complexity into the myriad of simple 2D shapes that require laser cutting.
“No job shop customer wants to be asked to provide differently formatted drawings. In most cases, they’ll just seek to work with someone who can more easily meet their needs. With the latest ipLaser software, job shops can automatically extract their customer’s parts from a 3D model, effectively breaking down roadblocks to getting the job done most efficiently,” says Mr Cooper.
“With ipLaser’s product suite, any operator can produce quotes from a 3D drawing, with no 3D experience required, allowing them to meet customer requests efficiently without investing heavily in 3D technology,” he says.
The new technology also enhances accuracy and customer service by automatically using rules involved in the job for consistency. Customers get faster, more accurate and more complete quotes from anyone in the business.
Ivan Cooper and his business partner Peter Olle have been involved in profile cutting job shops for more than 30 years. They base their new suite of ipLaser technologies (different parts of which are suitable for different laser shop tasks) on research and practical experience in developing a business management solution to ensure effective control, efficiency and accuracy of the quoting, order processing and reporting aspects of their own laser cutting business and those of their worldwide user base.
The result is the ipLaser cloud-based platform, which is designed to meet the requirements of busy, modern laser job shops, by enabling accurate, consistent and timely quotations for complex parts requiring multiple processes. ipLaser seeks to address the following opportunities: • Quote turnaround times, enabling customers to receive instant quotes with the ipLaser online quoting portal. It also enables staff to prepare quotations more efficiently for
customers from simple to complex parts with quote turnaround times from minutes to hours – not a day or days • Pricing consistency. The
Administrator-controlled rules of ipLaser ensure consistent quantitybased pricing to the customer, regardless of which customer service staff member prepared the quote or the location in which the quote was prepared • Process improvement. ipLaser promotes business growth by timely delivery of quotes to customers, either via the online store or direct with service staff. The simplicity of the ipLaser system enables a broader selection of company staff to assist with quotes and therefore releases more multi-skilled staff to address wider business opportunities, says Mr
Cooper. ipLaser is trusted by job shops in North and South America, the United Kingdom and throughout Europe, and within Australia and New Zealand. It is expanding into the growing industries of the Asia-Pacific, which are vigorously embracing the laser cutting industry’s role in Industry 4.0.
For a tour of ipLaser’s quoting process, or to book a free trial, visit https://iplaser. com/tour/
ipLaser’s new 3D quotation software takes a customer’s 3D model and automatically identifies all component parts. It separates them out and generates a quote based on materials, labour and any customised pricing.
ipLaser www.iplaser.com
