Watching a Custom Automation Project From Concept to Completion
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You’ve probably checked out Engineered Automation’s home page to find that they have just completed a new project and if you haven’t taken the time to see the new Custom Automation video, please do.
While you’re watching the system in action, I’ve taken the opportunity to explain just how the folks at EAM go about doing this. As most of you will know, a machine such as this is usually many weeks in the making.
I was informed early on, that they were about to take this project, and they kept me informed of progress at various stages. When they first began working with the client, they didn’t even have a contract. It was just a good faith effort on the part of both EAM and the client to “buckle
down” and study the requirements and to fully understand even such fundamental questions as, why did they feel they needed this? What sort of schedule or urgency were they facing? Was their new product even finalized and stable as a design or was there a possibility of changes along the way?
After exploring the possible answers to all the questions both parties could imagine at the time, they proceeded to try to visualize the type of machine that needed to be built. This started with many sketches, both paper and white board. The next stage; preliminary drawings that help define the steps in the automated process, size of machine, features, etc.
It’s an amazing process folks. Meetings, phone calls, meetings, emails, changes, re-drafts, and finally! The folks at EAM know just what needs to be built, and the customer (more of a partner by now), knows what they are committing to and what to expect when it’s all done.
I had the opportunity to check in from time to time to see frames in place, people building sub-assemblies, wire bundles, controls enclosures (basically a fortified case to house the computers), and finally, the functional tests of the machine.
By the time I got there with a camera, they made it look easy; I set up the lights and they pushed the Start Button. So what you are seeing in those three minutes of video is the product of many weeks of work by both EAM and their customer, oh, and, a few hours of work on my part!
