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Industrial Automation and Motion Control Blog | The Knotts Company

Transforming Manufacturing with CT Effects

Posted by Mark Guida on January 8, 2013 10:00 AM

The key to reducing production costs is found in 'CT effects'. So what exactly are 'CT effects?'  There are two types of CT effects: Cycle Time and "Choco Tei"

Cycle time can be an obvious culprit for increased production costs.  The old adage of, "Time is money," spells it out simply: The longer something takes, the more money it wastes.  Cutting down on cycle times can't always be an easy thing with conventional air based systems.  Pneumatics are fast and cheap, but with speed comes increased noise, lower control, and decreased life of mechanical parts.  There are times when going faster won't help cycle time improvements but actually increase them!  Trying to stop an air cylinder at an accurate position is nearly impossible so increasing the airflow creates more problems than good.  To hit a spot accurately, you need to run slowly and control the air very precisely.  This rapidly increases cycle times.

A minor stoppage, or “Choco Tei” in Japanese, is an “intermittent, short stop of a production line.” To be more specic, it is a stoppage of a production line caused by a minor failure of a machine part or electrical component of an automated machine. It can be repaired in a short time and the line can be recovered quickly.  Pneumatic systems have many individualy sensors and valves that can each be a point of failure due to their exposed nature in a system. 

Click the button below to download Transforming Manufacturing by CT Effects by Intelligent Actuator to get a better understanding on how electric cylinders can help you decrease your cycle times and Choco Tei.

Download CT Effects Whitepaper

Topics: cost savings, manufacturing, cost effective, automation solutions, robotics