First, the characteristics of non-standard design

1. Diversity and uncertainty.

For non-standard automation design, there are many different ways to accomplish the same task. From the customer's point of view, different customers have different priorities and different needs. A plan that customers think is good may not meet the needs of customers B .. Some customers value the main performance of equipment, while others value the price. In addition, from the design point of view, the basic originality of non-standard design is relatively less, mainly based on the mature structural principle, just like building blocks to achieve the required functions through different structural combinations, and the final design depends on the experience of building block designers.

2. Customization.

Non-standard equipment needs before products. This is the biggest difference from standard equipment and other standard parts. Standard equipment is designed and manufactured by the equipment provider according to the market demand, and the function and performance of the equipment have been determined. Non-standard equipment provides personalized equipment products and services according to user requirements.

3. The development cycle is short.

For users of non-standard equipment, once the demand is raised, the delivery time will be very short. Short 1-2 months, long 6-24 months. The development cycle of non-standard automation equipment for general auto parts is 4-6 months for small projects and 5-12 months for large projects.

4. The price difference is large.

Different schemes have different prices, and the use of different spare parts and third-party equipment also affects the price of equipment. What scheme to adopt depends largely on the customer's emphasis and comprehensive evaluation, and also on the designer's comprehensive evaluation of the project's technical realization and risks.

5. The competition is very fierce

industrial automation system integration

1) The competition between channels and customer resources: it is the customer relationship that fights for the sales channel talents;

2) Price competition: bid competitively, lower each other's prices, and the lowest bidder wins;

3) Competition of technical talents: competing to dig people, winning with high value (which also caused certain recruitment chaos in the industry);

4) Competition of enterprise scale: By continuously expanding the enterprise scale, for some larger projects, the opponents are crushed to death by scale effect.

6. The risk is high.

Compared with standard equipment, the risk of developing non-standard equipment is higher. On the one hand, it depends on the technical strength of equipment providers, on the other hand, it depends on the evaluation of demand. The more adequate the assessment, the smaller the risk, and the greater the risk. On the other hand, especially for the auto parts industry, the investment cost of the project is relatively high, and a non-standard automatic production line is often tens of millions or even hundreds of millions. If it fails, the loss will be huge. Therefore, both supply and demand sides must have sufficient understanding of the technical feasibility and risks of the project.

Second, the composition of non-standard automation equipment (auto parts industry)

According to Mavericks' understanding, taking the auto parts industry as an example, non-standard automatic equipment mainly consists of four aspects: mechanical parts, electrical parts and control systems, third-party special equipment and data management systems, as shown in the following figure. If a production line is compared to the human body system, the mechanical parts are like the bones, muscles and torso of the human body, which constitute the whole main structure and are responsible for the execution of instructions; Electrical components and control systems are like human brains and neural networks, which are responsible for decision-making and instruction issuing. Special equipment is like the liver, large intestine, stomach and other functional organs in the human body, which is responsible for the implementation of local special functions; The data management system is more like the storage and communication system of human information data.

1. mechanical parts

1) machining parts

Most of the machined parts are designed by mechanical engineers and made by various machining processes. Other parts are standard machined parts selected by MISIMI platform or Jardine Matheson platform. Generally, companies recommend to choose the machined parts of the standard platform first, which can reduce errors and equipment maintenance costs.

2) Standard parts

Standard parts, as the name implies, are parts that can be purchased directly from the market. There are pneumatic components, such as pneumatic valves, pneumatic switches, cylinders or jaws provided by FESTO or SMC brand; There are transmission parts, such as electric cylinder, motor, lead screw, guide rail, etc.; There are motion modules, such as Conveyor conveying system, indexing turntable, etc.; There are other auxiliary parts, such as bearings and bushings.

2. Electrical components and control system

Electrical components are mainly composed of components. Customers in the general auto parts industry have requirements for brands: if customers are European brands, they will generally require the use of European PLC and related main components; If it is a Japanese brand (such as Japan DENSO), it is generally required to use Japanese PLC and related main components. Of course, customers will also require non-standard suppliers to select the main electrical components of the corresponding brands according to the mainstream brands used by the factory.

3. Third-party special equipment

Third-party equipment is like a functional organ in a non-standard production line, and the third-party equipment used in each non-standard project varies widely, which mainly depends on the technological decision needed to produce parts in the production line. For example, if welding is involved, it is necessary to select the corresponding welding equipment, and welding is divided into ordinary laser welding, selective welding, resistance welding and so on, and there are also metal welding and plastic welding, so it cannot be generalized. The realization of most functions of non-standard projects depends on the use effect of cooperation between institutions and third-party equipment.

4. Data management system

For example, MES system or simple traceability system can be called data management system, but not every non-standard automation project has a data management system. With the improvement of production quality and efficiency, more and more customers require the ordered non-standard automation equipment to have such a system, and the auto parts industry is naturally a very popular industry. Some non-standard automation equipment suppliers have their own MES systems, while most non-standard automation equipment suppliers use MES systems developed by third parties.

The main components of non-standard automation equipment are introduced above, which shows that the non-standard automation industry covers a wide range. It is precisely because the non-standard automation industry plays the role of "system integrator" in the manufacturing industry, so the non-standard automation industry may be the most extensive industry covering all fields and levels in the manufacturing industry.