No Machine Left Behind
Modern Machine Shop – December 22, 2011 – The article Understanding MTConnect Agents and Adapters looks under the covers at how MTConnect, a manufacturing communication standard, helps shops use a digital, Web-based network to gather and analyze data generated by machine tools and other shopfloor equipment in real-time. But what about older machines and devices that generate little or no digital data on their own? Many shops would find it handy to get that old manual knee mill, band saw, coolant chiller or legacy CNC on, say, a shop-wide monitoring system—if only to capture whether it was in cycle or not.