JEC World: Zünd highlights digital excellence for the smart factory
At the JEC World 2024, Zünd will be on hand as the leading provider of complete solutions for digital cutting in the composites industry. Zünd will focus on intelligent production methods and the requirements of the future of industry. At the Zünd booth in Paris, trade professionals will have the opportunity to get a close-up view of how data management, cutting and assembly can be intelligently digitalized, automated and streamlined.
The world’s leading trade fair for the composites industry, which will be held in Paris from March 5 - 7, will showcase Zünd’s latest developments in the field of digital and modular cutting solutions. At booth S57 in Hall 5, visitors will have the chance to see for themselves how they can advance the smart transformation and automation of cutting and parts logistics.
Digital production cells offer particularly large cost reductions in materials and personnel. Zünd uses two practical examples to demonstrate how such digital production workflows for cutting composites can be structured.
One production line illustrates how easy it is to integrate a robot and all of its functions and thereby fully automate the removal and sorting of parts. The robot arm is controlled by the ZCC Zünd Cut Center operating software via the Pick&Place Interface. Thanks to central control via the ZCC, cuts of any shape can be removed and individually sorted in a flexible manner by the Zünd G3 Cutter. If the cut parts are removed by hand, the operator can mark each part with labels with printed barcodes and job information, with visual support provided via a projector. The required parameters are derived from the job metadata.
The Heat Sealing Module HSM is used when cutting thermoplastic dry-fiber materials. As the name suggests, the cutting tool heat-seals the material edge during cutting. This makes automated parts handling and downstream logistics even easier.
On a second production line, the focus is on maximum material utilization while cutting fiber-reinforced composite materials. This is made possible by a fully digital workflow. The Zünd PreCut Center – ZPC software plays a key role in the process. In particular, the ability to integrate selected metadata in the output file and transfer it to the finished cut parts via inkjet printers and label printers enables efficient and flawless kitting as well as end-to-end traceability.
Through the automated nesting of cut contours, the ZPC ensures maximum material utilization and reduces waste. When nesting, the software even takes into account material defects and irregular material shapes, such as with remainder rolls.
The ZCC Zünd Cut Center operating software has also been totally revamped and now offers new features. In Version 4, ZCC offers even more capabilities for flexible, automated file preparation and efficient digital cutting. Controlling the cutter via touchscreen makes for extremely intuitive and simple operation.