Interviews

“Digitalisation is vital in increasing the efficiency of aluminium extrusion production,” Christian Ferman, Senior Electrical Engineer and project manager of Granco Clark

INTERVIEWEE
interview Image
Category
Interview
Date
13-Sep-2022
Source
AL Circle
Detail

Christian Ferman is a Senior Electrical Engineer and project manager with 12 years’ experience in the design of control systems, embedded systems, and safety systems for Granco Clark. He is also a certified Safety Engineer with a CMSE accreditation. He graduated from Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with a degree in Electrical Engineering.

Let us here from him his opinion on digital transformation in the aluminium industry.

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AlCircle: How do you incorporate digitalisation in every stage of developing aluminium extrusions equipment?

Christian Ferman: Digitalisation is a vital part of Graco Clark’s software development process. Our company has spent thousands of hours of intensive testing and data collection, to produce the most cutting-edge software in the industry today.

AlCircle: Which of your equipment among Press Feedline, Handling System, Ovens, and Saw Systems involves a maximum use of digitalisation?

Christian Ferman: Granco Clark has been working diligently to apply the concept of digitalisation across all our equipment offerings. We continue to further apply this concept in every iteration of our software. We are working closely with our partners in the industry to provide them with the highest quality software and equipment that is required in today’s modern industrial age.

AlCircle: Has digitalisation made the extrusion equipment development process faster? If yes, please explain how.

Christian Ferman: Digitalisation has absolutely made the development process faster. By analysing data via in-house testing, and real-time process data from our industry partners, we are able to produce equipment that exceeds even the tightest of industry standards faster than ever before.

AlCircle: Do you think the implementation of Industry 4.0 or digitalisation in the equipment manufacturing process lowers the frequency rate of maintenance?

Christian Ferman: Both digitalisation and industry 4.0 has allowed us to target and improve upon components and processes that have historically required higher frequency maintenance intervals, resulting in equipment that has both greater longevity and significantly lower maintenance costs and requirements.

Once in the field, process data is constantly being monitored, with alert systems to notify personnel of any deviation using a variety of platforms. These include push notifications via text messages and in-app messaging with visual notifications. This means maintenance personnel are alerted of potential issues before they happen. This in turn allows them to plan proactive rather than reactive maintenance procedures, significantly reducing the frequency of downtime and the amount of maintenance required.

AlCircle: Could you please share your future investment plans to increase the use of digitalisation?

Christian Ferman: We are investing heavily in digitalisation to provide an industry-leading Industry 4.0 solution to the aluminium industry. Using data from sensor communication protocols such as IO-Link, we are collecting valuable diagnostic data of all sensing devices in real-time.

Granco Clark is taking digitalisation and Industry 4.0 into account at every step in our process. We continue to look for more ways to gather and provide data to the customer with every new design.

AlCircle: Do you think digitalisation is a solution to ramp up aluminium extrusion production in line with the growing demand?

Christian Ferman: Digitalisation is vital in increasing the efficiency of aluminium extrusion production. By analysing the real-time process data of a running system, our software will “self-correct” without operator intervention to maximize the efficiency of Granco Clark equipment throughout the extrusion process. Furthermore, through our industry 4.0 interface, we provide our customer engineering and process staff an insight into potential improvements of their own internal processes.

AlCircle: How do you foresee the future of digitalisation in the aluminium extrusion sector?

Christian Ferman: Digitalisation is the next step in creating the highest quality product with the greatest efficiency via the aluminium extrusion process. It allows Granco Clark to continue to push the limits of innovation for the equipment we provide to our customers, while allowing them to produce products at tolerances and efficiencies never before seen in this industry. Our latest generation of extrusion equipment allows for the entire extrusion process to be run by a single operator. While simultaneously providing crucial data to management, engineering, and maintenance personnel to oversee and improve upon the process as is required for their individual needs.

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