We’re going to have fun today with two completely diverse topics. One of them will make the manufacturing industry better and the other could make your wallet lighter. Are you ready?
- Data Collection Standards – Siemens names TechSolve as Solution Partner for MTConnect
- The Dune Buggy that Can Fly – SkyRunner
Data Collection Standards – Siemens names TechSolve as Solution Partner for MTConnect
When do we know if something should be proprietary or follow an open standard? In Manufacturing every hardware and software vendor must weigh the advantages of what to keep proprietary and when to use broader standards. These are strategic decisions that tend to contribute to the fate of that companies product. Standards are great, they allow anyone to know how a product should interface with a given system, and in the case of Machine Data Collection it is particularly valuable. One open standard in Machine Data Collection is MTConnect. MTConnect allows machine tool and software vendors alike to develop the data collection aspects of their systems using a open standard. Everyone plays by the same rules and when they follow those rules their products will work easily together. As the community of vendors grow the sum of them benefit.
Last month there was a significant development in the MTConnect world.
SIEMENS moves towards MTConnect
At the recent MTConnect Connecting Manufacturing Conference in Orlando Florida Siemens announced that they had appointed TechSolve as a solution partner for their customers with Sinumerik CNCs. This will allow their machines to be easily adapted to software already in place supporting MTConnect (such as CIMCO MDC). Perhaps more importantly it gives MTConnect another boost because the entire ecosystem is as strong as the sum of it’s parts. When a big player like Siemens joins, everyone gets a bit of a boost. Right now a good portion of development work for an MDC software platform goes into supporting all the various proprietary standards. Those efforts can be focused elsewhere when the MTConnect standard is employed.
The Dune Buggy That Can Fly – SkyRunner
United Kingdom based Parajet International is vying for a significant wad of cash for the non commercial flight and off-road enthusiast crowd. Imagine a vehicle that can do 115mph on land and 55mph in the air. You can reserve your SkyRunner now for $119,000 USD with a currently (as of writing) estimated delivery date of Q4 2014. It’s hard not to love the concept but we’ll love it more if they are building them here in the US. We are waiting to hear back from the US affiliate to see if any of the manufacturing will be done in the US. For your viewing pleasure:
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TGIF, enjoy your weekend and we’ll see you next week for another Two for Friday!
