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As the manufacturing industry grows in size and capabilities, special requests happen, sometimes people want extremely precise equipment or very large elements. These out-of-the-norm requests constitute the special machinery industry.
This article will get into the details of the industry, why it needs technology to thrive and how it implements it.
The special machinery industry relates to out-of-the-norm demands. The industry often answers to custom and very specific demands, the goal is to optimize equipment in a certain way. Precision, capability, power, and size constitute most of the frequent demands.
For example, a farmer might ask for an extremely large tractor to speed up his processes. This could also be a very large crane to build extremely tall buildings. The idea of the industry is to adapt and create equipment that answers to a very specific demand. Almost always build this equipment in individual units or very small batches.
The biggest concern of the industry, therefore, is to build mechanisms that help them adapt their initial design. The field brings together a large field of knowledge, from mechanical engineering to material science, and soldering.
The industry is doing well as several industries are looking for nonexistent more capable machinery.
Let’s now try and understand why the industry relies on technology to thrive.
One of the requests clients have for special machinery is a particularly precise machine. Industries like aerospace or fields of research require such machinery to operate. As regular ones often don’t fit the special requirements of their industry, both industries are major customers of special machinery.
Technology helps incorporate electronic components in hardware to make extra precise machines, this uses sensors, motors, and circuit boards to get much more precise actions than what an entirely mechanical machine could do.
Most machines are intended for use in a room or by a human, however, there is also a vast amount of requests for both monstrous machines and very tiny ones. Technology brings elements that can miniaturize already existing components, making machines smaller, and making them huge without making them cost too much.
Small electronic systems can replace large mechanical components and technology can all the while help reduce costs by replacing large mechanical elements, this helps scale some machines up without bumping their price too much.
As almost all of these special machines are one-time requests, the process of creating them can be quite time-consuming. Technology, through software and hardware, helps companies in the business to generalize their practices, mostly through simulation software and prototyping. This helps them speed up their processes and deliver complex unique machines quite fast.
Tech also helps organizations reuse some of the parts they’ve designed for previous machines, speeding up the process, costing less money, saving time, and resources altogether.
To achieve these results, the creation of special machinery sits on a few important technologies.
The manufacturing process revolves around iterations, each one bringing and testing new features that previous iterations didn’t have. The goal is to test each iteration and compare them to what the client has in mind to reach some common ground and deliver a final working product that satisfies both the customer and the business.
This process can be quite resource-intensive as each iteration requires time, money, and materials. To speed this process up, computers offer the industry simulation tools that allow them to create a prototype and test it out virtually.
This makes it easy for creators to change components, materials, and designs without having to recreate an entire prototype. This software can also help stress test the design, and simulate all sorts of things that could be of interest to the designer.
Most of these simulations are quite resource-intensive, 3D simulations often require a GPU (Graphical Processing Unit), an expensive specialized computing unit that helps quicken certain calculations. Having one can be expensive. As most people carry laptops nowadays, such equipment is bulky and heavy.
Software as a service offers a solution, by running this software on the cloud, in a specialized server, designers can subscribe to a monthly service and have remote access to very capable computation tools.
This means that manufacturers can work remotely, almost anywhere as long as they have an internet connection without having to carry a chunky pc.
The person providing the service also benefits from this service as each one of his servers can serve multiple users. They might not use the service all at once and the service provider can use his machines to their full benefit.
Machinery as a whole, but particularly special machinery uses a variety of sensors. Each one has its own characteristics like size, weight, and precision. As special machinery often requires particularly precise sensors or ones that work in particular environments such as in the upper atmosphere or at freezing temperatures, the industry has to develop such sensors.
Technology helps create such sensors, by bringing electronic components and planning out how they’re going to work. As most of these sensors are numerical, technology also plays a huge role in understanding and decrypting what these sensors give out and the actions to take depending on their output.
As most of this special machinery has a large array of sensors, detectors, and alike, there is also a wide electronic skeleton to these machines that rely entirely on technology to function properly.
Special machinery is a subfield of manufacturing, it also builds equipment for clients, however, these machines often stand out, normal procedures don’t apply as such machines aren’t built at scale. Technology helps the industry make these special requests, by enabling both large-scale infrastructures, and extremely small components. As most of this special machinery relies on electronics and prototyping, technology has gotten very important to the industry.
"Kama unavyojua, ""Agile"" ni njia ya kuongoza ya kuendesha gari kwa njia ya usafiri wa umma, na kwa hivyo, kwa sababu ya idadi ya watu wanaohudhuria, ni rahisi sana kupata vifaa vya usafiri wa umma." Maombi haya nje ya kawaida huunda sekta ya mashine maalum. Makala hii itaingia katika maelezo ya sekta hiyo, kwa nini inahitaji teknolojia ili kusitawi na jinsi inavyoitekeleza. Sekta ya mashine maalum inahusiana na mahitaji nje ya kawaida. Sekta mara nyingi majibu kwa desturi na mahitaji maalum sana, lengo ni kuboresha vifaa kwa njia fulani. Usahihi, uwezo, nguvu, na ukubwa hufanyiza mahitaji mengi ya mara kwa mara. Kwa mfano, mkulima aweza kuomba trakti kubwa sana ili kuharakisha kazi yake. Hii pia inaweza kuwa crane kubwa sana kujenga majengo ya juu sana. Wazo la sekta hiyo ni kurekebisha na kuunda vifaa vinavyokidhi mahitaji maalum sana. Karibu daima kujenga vifaa hivi katika vitengo vya mtu binafsi au batches ndogo sana. Kwa hiyo, wasiwasi mkubwa wa viwanda ni kujenga mifumo ambayo huwasaidia kurekebisha muundo wao wa awali. Shamba hilo linajumuisha nyanja kubwa ya maarifa, kuanzia uhandisi wa mashine hadi sayansi ya vifaa, na soldering. Sekta hiyo inafanya vizuri kwani viwanda kadhaa vinatafuta mashine zenye uwezo zaidi ambazo hazipo. Hebu sasa jaribu na kuelewa kwa nini sekta inategemea teknolojia ya kusitawi. Moja ya maombi wateja kuwa na kwa ajili ya mashine maalum ni mashine hasa sahihi. Viwanda kama vile anga na anga au nyanja za utafiti huhitaji mashine kama hizo ili ziweze kufanya kazi. Kama kawaida mara nyingi si kufaa mahitaji maalum ya sekta yao, viwanda vyote viwili ni wateja wakuu wa mashine maalum. Teknolojia ya kielektroniki inasaidia kuingiza vipengele vya elektroniki katika vifaa ili kutengeneza mashine sahihi zaidi, hii hutumia sensorer, motors, na bodi za mzunguko kupata vitendo sahihi zaidi kuliko kile mashine ya kikaboni inaweza kufanya. Mashine nyingi zinakusudiwa kutumiwa katika chumba au na binadamu, hata hivyo, kuna pia idadi kubwa ya maombi kwa mashine zote mbili monstrous na ndogo sana. Teknolojia huleta vipengele vinavyoweza kupunguza vipengele vilivyopo tayari, kufanya mashine ziwe ndogo, na kuzifanya ziwe kubwa bila kuzifanya ziwe na gharama kubwa sana. Mifumo midogo ya elektroniki inaweza kuchukua nafasi ya vipengele vikubwa vya mitambo na teknolojia inaweza kusaidia kupunguza gharama kwa kuchukua nafasi ya vipengele vikubwa vya mitambo, hii husaidia kuongeza mashine zingine bila kuongeza bei yao sana. Kwa kuwa karibu mashine hizi zote za pekee ni maombi ya wakati mmoja, mchakato wa kuziunda unaweza kuchukua muda mwingi. Teknolojia, kupitia programu na vifaa, husaidia makampuni katika biashara ya generalize mazoea yao, hasa kupitia programu simulation na prototyping. Hii husaidia wao kuharakisha michakato yao na kutoa mashine tata ya kipekee haraka sana. Teknolojia pia husaidia mashirika kutumia tena baadhi ya sehemu ambazo wamebuni kwa mashine za awali, kuharakisha mchakato, gharama kidogo, kuokoa muda, na rasilimali kabisa. Ili kufikia matokeo haya, uundaji wa mashine maalum huketi kwenye teknolojia chache muhimu. Utaratibu wa utengenezaji huzunguka iterations, kila mmoja kuleta na kupima vipengele vipya kwamba iterations awali hakuwa na. Lengo ni kupima kila iteration na kulinganisha yao na kile mteja ana katika akili kufikia baadhi ya ardhi ya kawaida na kutoa mwisho kazi bidhaa kwamba kuridhisha wateja na biashara. Utaratibu huu unaweza kuwa na rasilimali nyingi kwani kila iteration inahitaji wakati, pesa, na vifaa. Ili kuharakisha mchakato huu, kompyuta hutoa zana za uigizaji wa sekta ambayo huruhusu wao kuunda mfano na kuijaribu nje kwa kweli. Hii inafanya iwe rahisi kwa waundaji kubadilisha vipengele, vifaa, na miundo bila kuunda tena mfano mzima. Programu hii pia inaweza kusaidia mtihani wa mkazo wa muundo, na kuiga aina zote za vitu ambavyo vinaweza kuwa vya kuvutia kwa mbuni. Kwa mfano, simulation ya 3D inahitaji GPU (Graphical Processing Unit), ambayo ni kifaa cha gharama kubwa cha kompyuta kinachosaidia kuharakisha hesabu fulani. Kuwa na moja kwaweza kuwa ghali. Kwa kuwa watu wengi hubeba kompyuta ndogo-ndogo siku hizi, vifaa hivyo ni vikubwa na vizito. Programu kama huduma inatoa suluhisho, kwa kuendesha programu hii kwenye wingu, katika seva maalum, wabunifu wanaweza kujiandikisha kwa huduma ya kila mwezi na kuwa na upatikanaji wa mbali kwa zana za hesabu zenye uwezo sana. Hii inamaanisha kwamba watengenezaji wanaweza kufanya kazi kwa mbali, karibu mahali popote, kwa muda mrefu kama wana uhusiano wa mtandao bila ya kubeba kompyuta kubwa. Mtu anayetoa huduma pia hufaidika na huduma hii kwani kila moja ya seva zake inaweza kuhudumia watumiaji wengi. Wao wanaweza si kutumia huduma wote kwa mara moja na mtoa huduma anaweza kutumia mashine zake kwa faida yao kamili. Mashine kwa ujumla, lakini hasa mashine maalum hutumia sensorer mbalimbali. Kila moja ina sifa zake mwenyewe kama vile ukubwa, uzito, na usahihi. Kwa kuwa mashine maalum mara nyingi zinahitaji sensorer maalum au zile zinazofanya kazi katika mazingira maalum kama vile katika anga ya juu au katika joto la baridi, sekta hiyo inapaswa kuendeleza sensorer kama hizo. Teknolojia husaidia kuunda sensorer kama hizo, kwa kuleta vipengele vya elektroniki na kupanga jinsi watakavyofanya kazi. Kwa kuwa sensorer hizi ni za nambari, teknolojia pia ina jukumu kubwa katika kuelewa na kufuta kile sensorer hizi hutoa na hatua za kuchukua kulingana na pato lao. Kama wengi wa mashine hii maalum ina safu kubwa ya sensorer, detectors, na kama, kuna pia mifupa pana ya elektroniki kwa mashine hizi kwamba kutegemea kabisa juu ya teknolojia ya kazi vizuri. Mashine maalum ni subfield ya utengenezaji, pia hujenga vifaa kwa ajili ya wateja, hata hivyo, mashine hizi mara nyingi kusimama nje, taratibu za kawaida si kutumika kama mashine hizo si kujengwa kwa kiwango. Teknolojia husaidia sekta kufanya maombi haya maalum, kwa kuwezesha wote miundombinu kubwa, na vipengele ndogo sana. Kama wengi wa mashine hii maalum hutegemea umeme na prototyping, teknolojia imekuwa muhimu sana kwa sekta hiyo.