Wearable technology

© 2021 Picavi

© 2021 Picavi

Pick-by-vision unlocks the data

Pick-by-vision unlocks the data that arises in the logistics process with business intelligence solutions. Integrated analytics create a central point for collecting, aggregating, and visualizing all the important information. These data are collected by the sensors integrated in the pick-by-vision smart glasses and are continuously updated. Users can instantly see which process steps harbor potential for time and cost savings.

Support for human warehouse workers

As human digital twins are based on real process data, they ensure a much more realistic and better understanding of work. Objective data can be used to uncover areas for improvement. The human digital twin provides a safe environment in which to test process changes. Once these tests are successfully completed, changes can be implemented in the real warehouse. This proactively minimizes the risk of failures or downtimes in the logistics arena. It also makes training new team members easier, as the training is based on digital empirical values. Companies make life easier for employees and design in a more ergonomic manner. It is the perfect aid for human workers. v

Larry Olson

Larry Olson, Senior Sales Manager at Picavi, came to Picavi as a customer for Neovia Logistics, one of the world’s leading logistics specialists. As the company’s Director of Business Technology Solutions and Innovations, he was responsible for expanding the largest installation of smart glasses in the global intralogistics sector. He brings almost 25 years of logistics, warehouse, and distribution center experience. Picavi GmbH is an award-winning and well-recognized full-service provider with a 100 per cent dedication of its intralogistics and wearable expertise to Pick-by-Vision solutions.

News in brief

Expansion plans

Ge-Shen, a B2B leader in design, development and technology-driven manufacturing products for clients globally, has announced its intentions to double down on its efforts and meet future manufacturing demands in the medical, food and household sector by investing in a 4,863 sq. ft. facility with 18 injection moulding machines, ranging from 60 tonnes to 200 tonnes within it – destined to cater to its growing client base around the USA.

Having opened its first certified ISO Class-8 (FED STD 209E – 100K) clean room in Penang in 2019, Ge-Shen has expanded its operation with another in Johor to better cater to its US based clients, now encompassing over 30 per cent of its business.

New orders

Baldwin Technology Company Inc. has successfully landed three new FlexoCleanerBrush orders, with a total of 16 cleaning heads, from customers in the US and Germany.

“With two of the recent orders, the customers had already installed the FlexoCleanerBrush in other locations. One of them reported as much as a 30 per cent production capacity increase, thanks to the installation,” said Lee Simmonds, Regional Sales Manager at Baldwin. “Both customers have experienced insufficient results with their original traversing cloth cleaning systems, which will now be removed and replaced with the full-width, stand-alone, automated FlexoCleanerBrush technology from Baldwin.”

Industry first

Ford is continuing to drive the future of automotive 3D printing, this time teaming up with HP to innovatively reuse spent 3D printed powders and parts, closing the loop and turning them into injection molded vehicle parts – an industry first.

The recycled materials are being used to manufacture injection-molded fuel-line clips installed first on Super Duty F-250 trucks. The parts have better chemical and moisture resistance than conventional versions, are seven per cent lighter and cost ten per cent less. The Ford research team has identified ten other fuel-line clips on existing vehicles that could benefit from this innovative use of material and are migrating it to future models.

Truly tiny tech

Through its Tera 250 Micro AM technology, Nanofabrica has introduced a technology around which innovation and previously impossible manufacturing goals can be achieved. It recently produced a reproduction of a DNA helix that has astounded professionals from across industry, and which exemplifies the compelling nature of the Tera 250 for producing parts of mind-boggling size while achieving extremely exacting tolerances.

The DNA helix measures just 925 microns in length, and includes tiny features which would be either impossible to manufacture via micro molding, or would require the manufacture of hugely expensive micro tools.

And this is where Nanofabrica’s Micro AM technology finds its niche. Through the use of the Tera 250, companies requiring miniature plastic parts and components can now efficiently, and cost-effectively shift to AM from conventional manufacturing processes. OEMs can therefore benefit from the inherent advantages that AM offers in terms of promoting part complexity with no increase in cost, eliminating the needs for expensive tooling, reducing part counts and the need for assembly, speeding product development time, easy revision of part design, mass customization, reduction in waste, and reduction in energy costs.

New life for Swindon site

Honda of the UK Manufacturing (Honda) has entered into a contract for sale of its Swindon site. Originally purchased by the Japanese car manufacturer in 1985, the site will be sold to Panattoni, Europe’s largest developer of new build industrial and logistics facilities.

In 2019, Honda Motor announced a restructuring of its global automobile manufacturing operations, which included the cessation of production at the UK plant in July 2021, at the end of the current model cycle of the Civic Hatchback. Following the closure announcement, Honda committed to leaving the site in a responsible way, with a sustainable legacy for Swindon.

Jason Smith, Director at Honda of the UK Manufacturing, said: “We are pleased to have identified a capable new owner of the site. From our engagement with Panattoni and initial discussions with Swindon Borough Council, we are confident that the new owner can bring the development forward in a commercially timely fashion and generate exciting prospects for Swindon and the wider community.”

Following the end of production on 30 July 2021, Honda will immediately commence the decommissioning of the Swindon site. The site is anticipated to be legally handed over in Spring 2022, once the necessary consents have been obtained, and Panattoni will start regeneration and redevelopment shortly thereafter - Panattoni is committing to invest over £700 million into the site.