New Partnership Advances Development of Autonomous Manufacturing Cell

Photo Credit: Trak Machine Tools

Trak Machine Tools (TMT) has entered into a partnership agreement with the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT) to support the development of an autonomous manufacturing cell at CCAT’s Advanced Technology Center in East Hartford, Connecticut.

This partnership will focus on the development and use of a fully integrated, autonomous manufacturing platform with the Trak VMC10si vertical machining center as its anchor technology. The VMC10si features a Siemens Sinumerik One controller, the first digital native CNC system offering seamless integration, which will be used in conjunction with a Siemens Edge Device to collect real-time machining data, process the data using advanced machine learning models and provide any real time corrective action needed during machining. 

Under the leadership of Nasir Mannan, principal engineer at CCAT and owner of M3DI, the cell will be integrated with a number of automated, model-based enabled manufacturing and inspection solutions. The goal is to leverage smart manufacturing technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous control to produce parts without human interaction whilst minimizing sources of production variability. This technology will enable CCAT and M3DI to continue developing and advancing their digital twin.

John Arroues, vice president of marketing for TMT, says, “We are pleased that this partnership will help TMT fulfill its mission to design, adopt, make, sell, implement and support transformative technology that fits the way our customers run their shops.”

This partnership provides a resource for manufacturing companies to witness and understand the benefits for smart manufacturing. The partners plan to develop solutions and assist small to medium-sized manufacturing companies through the adoption process. Finally, this partnership provides the platform to implement smart manufacturing technologies and push the boundaries of innovation.