Marc Baumgartner, Christian Breitenbaumer and Christian Josi (from left).

The UNITED GRINDING group's customer range includes small businesses, large corporations, automotive industry, aerospace industry, tool and die, and precision mechanics. Along with the company's machines, other technologies and machines from third-party are used for manufacturing complex parts. umati (Universal machine technology interface) enables easy aggregation of data from this machine park.

The networking of machines from different manufacturers and ages was demonstrated in the production at STUDER, the group's cylindrical grinding machine. Additionally, the machine tools from DMG Mori and WALDRICH COBURG were networked using umati followed by the merger of data in the Production Monitor of UNITED GRINDING Digital Solutions™ which showed umati's utility in networking older existing machines along with the new machines.

Christian Josi, Head of Digital Engineering, UNITED GRINDING Group perceived the WALDRICH COBURG machine, which was in production at STUDER for over a decade, suitable for the project for an apprentice. Josi received support from Marc Baumgartner, who is responsible for training automation technician apprentices at STUDER.  Christian Breitenbaumer,  (fourth year automation technician apprentice at STUDER) after analysing the machine's diagram provided support for evaluating a suitable IoT device for the interface communication.

The productivity figures of the WALDRICH COBURG machine and the data from the other production systems at STUDER can now be displayed in real-time on the shop floor dashboard, the PC, or even on a smartphone using the Digital Solutions mobile app. The UNITED GRINDING Group is an active member of the umati core group.

Christian Josi, Head of Digital Engineering, UNITED GRINDING  Group, said, "We were able to show how easy it is to network older machines using umati. The fact that new machines can easily exchange data and forward it to our Production Monitor thanks to umati is well known and has proven itself. The integration of older existing machines, which are more than 15 years old, had not previously been realized at the UNITED GRINDING Group using umati."