EuroBLECH 2022: The universal yearning for automation in metal manufacturing

EuroBLECH, the world's largest metal fabricating and forming technology tradeshow, returned to Hannover, Germany, Oct. 25-28.

A visit to EuroBLECH 2022 in Hannover, Germany, Oct. 25-28, helps you understand that metal fabricating is increasingly a small world.

Visiting Europe 10 years ago, a fabricator from North America might get the opportunity to see shops with laser cutting and punching machines attached to automated material storage systems and load/unload systems in almost every one. Because European fabricators wrestled with high labor rates, when compared to their competitors in Eastern Europe, and the tight floor layouts of facilities in expensive metropolitan areas, they needed to invest in technology that performed functions that would free up workers for more complicated tasks.

A lot has changed over the past decade, but the thirst for automation has not. Unsurprisingly, European metal fabricators have a new motivator for pursuing process automation, and it's something that their U.S. counterparts are very familiar with: They can't find skilled workers.

Eurostat, which tracks European employment rates, reports that 3% of all available jobs on the continent are vacant, the most since statistical records of this data were first compiled in 2006. That's about 6 million jobs. Additionally, the European Union's unemployment rate fell to 6% in July, the lowest mark since 2001.

Compounding this labor situation is surging inflation, reaching 10.7% in late October, which was a new record for Europe. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has put a strain on energy and food supplies, with prices increasing just over 40% and 13%, respectively, when compared to prices in October 2021. For some nations along the Baltic Sea, inflation rates have reached 20%.

With all of this working against manufacturers in Europe, they surprisingly appear to be slightly optimistic about business. EuroBLECH was a reflection of this feeling. The tradeshow had 89,800 sq. m. of exhibition space and just over 1,500 exhibitors, both similar numbers to the 2018 event. (EuroBLECH 2020 was canceled because of the pandemic.) More than 56,300 visitors attended the tradeshow, down from 60,600 in 2018.

EuroBLECH remains the largest metal forming and fabricating exhibition in the world, with exhibitors coming from 40 countries. Attendees came from 105 countries, and these non-German visitors accounted for 49% of the overall attendance.

Alberto Martinez, chief digital officer, Bystronic, said that European metal fabricating customers are moving ahead with plans to invest in automation, even if they are not exactly sure of what's ahead. Current pressures are too difficult to ignore.

"Others are checking and then checking again before they move forward because they are cautious," he said, but even they know that they need to lean on technology to keep up with work and remain profitable.

Bystronic unveiled its new BySoft Suite software at the show, and it's notable that the new release won a EuroBLECH award in the automation and handling category. After spending four years on development, the Bystronic digital manufacturing team produced a software package that includes not just CAD/CAM functionality, but also front office capabilities, production scheduling and shop floor oversight, and business intelligence tools. The thought was that metal fabricating companies would no longer have to rely on ERP and shop management software that had roots in other industries; this product was built for the sheet metal world.

Machine tool manufacturers continue to showcase laser cutting machines with powerful fiber laser power sources.

"This covers the whole spectrum," Martinez said.

He added this approach was significant because metal fabricators, particularly in North America, need assistance in automating front office tasks so that they can squeeze cost and time out of the order-to-delivery cycle. This is particularly true in the U.S., where fabricating shops often don't have ERP functionality to help with these activities. Martinez said that European metal fabricators are a little ahead of their U.S. fabricating brethren in investing in this type of shop management software.

EuroBLECH had the product debuts that people in the industry have come to expect—high-wattage fiber laser cutting machines, press brakes with automated tool changers, and robotic press brake cells—but it was the messaging from machine tool manufacturers that really summed up the goal for all of this automation shown on the show floor: It's all about the flow. Going back to when that order for parts is first made and logged into the ERP system and at every subsequent step until the parts are loaded onto the truck for delivery, finding the optimal flow of information, material, and parts on the shop floor is the best way for a metal fabricator to maintain profitable operations.

Some exhibitors demonstrated the idea within the confines of their booths. Prima Power had a complete PSBB compact flexible manufacturing system (FMS) in operation, with a Shear Brilliance punching and then cutting a blank from a sheet and sending it along to an EBe panel bender for final forms. Salvagnini had its own version of an FMS in operation in its booth: an MD single-sheet material storage tower, an S1 laser/punch combination machine, a TML longitudinal device with two telescopic Cartesian manipulators for automatically picking up the parts produced by the S1, and a PCD destacking conveyor surface that fed the P4 panel bending machine. Salvagnini also had an automated guided vehicle moving parts from the panel bender to a nearby press brake for further bending. LVD ran a cell with a YSD LaserONE laser cutting machine and a Dyna-Cell robotic bending cell for small- to medium-sized parts, both connected with CADMAN software. All of the systems produced finished parts ready for delivery, to be part of a kit, or for inclusion in an assembly that the line operator was charged with putting together while waiting for parts to exit the bending machines.

Sometimes the product flow spilled out of a booth and into a nearby booth. ARKU, a manufacturer of deburring and part-leveling equipment, had its EdgeBreaker 6000 integrated with TRUMPF production scheduling software. By looking at the deburring machine's control software, the operator could see that several laser-cut jobs would be coming from the TRUMPF booth, only an aisle away. Once the operator had processed the jobs through the deburring process, the software was updated and notified TRUMPF personnel that the parts were ready for pick up.

On- or off-site, software gives company owners and managers the ability to run their operations more efficiently. They can identify where bottlenecks are on the shop floor, keep tabs on maintenance on machines to avoid painful downtime, determine how much capacity is available before taking on large jobs or adding a shift, review quoting activity to see job profitability, and track jobs as they work their way through the shop—just to name a few things that digital connectivity and visibility into the organization offer. Call it Industry 4.0, Industrial Internet of Things, or digital manufacturing; it's the motivation behind those efforts that has the universal appeal for metal fabricators.

"Manufacturers are always interested in making things more efficiently," said Matt Fowles, group marketing director, LVD, which debuted a new laser cutting machine and an electric press brake at the show. "If they make it more efficiently, they make more margin. That's how job shops make money."

If Europeans in general differ from their U.S. peers in one way, it's probably in the way that they view sustainability. They simply can't move away from their environmental problems because they have limited places within their own borders to which to retreat. They need to take care of their local environment because they are forced to continue to live there. Also, they have a real desire to conserve energy because, particularly this winter, they have a finite supply of fuel to keep the lights on and the heaters going, thanks to Russia's supply chain games.

The sustainability discussion was alive and well for equipment manufacturers. They discussed the incorporation of servo electric motors into their equipment, as the motors allow for highly efficient, precise operation. Even with hydraulic press brakes, variable-flow pumps have helped transform these devices from energy hogs into more efficient bending machines.

The technological developments are occurring outside of the fabricating machines as well. For instance, TRUMPF debuted an Eco Cooler to replace the conventional cooling systems that rely on fluorinated gases to cool laser cutting machines as they operate. The device, which works in the same way as a heat pump, uses water as a coolant, and TRUMPF officials report that it uses 80% less energy for refrigeration than a traditional chiller. There also are no harmful substances to worry about.

Product flow through a shop floor was a big focus for several exhibitors. In the Salvagnini booth, an automated guided vehicle shuttled parts from the panel bender to a press brake.

For many companies, the commitment to sustainability extends beyond the engineering department. Salvagnini, for example, redesigned its booth to reduce the waste that typically results from a typical tradeshow booth setup. As a result, the booth had no carpet, instead using the actual concrete hall floor or a floor of sheet metal, which could easily be recycled. The structures in the booth also were reduced in size and were constructed of lighter materials. Company officials said they were able to transport the booth materials to EuroBLECH in two trailers, not the typical eight. That's less fossil fuel burned and less trash headed to the dumpster.

One U.S. metal fabricating industry veteran said that EuroBLECH has become similar to a European car show. Metal fabricators get to see the latest and greatest technology that might be heading to North American shores. That's accurate, but it's also a chance to see the trends that might ultimately guide business decisions for U.S. metal fabricators.