Advanced Automation by Calvary Robotics

Technology is continuously developing and improving production, especially within the food and beverage industry. Automations have increased within the last 20 years for a variety of reasons. A stark labor shortage, the need to enhance productivity to keep up with the booming industry, and new and needed safety conditions for employees are all possible factors to consider when incorporating automations. It comes down to how much time and money a company can realistically spend.

How does a food processing company decide when to include automation in their production and at what level?

On today’s episode of Calvary Robotics’ Advanced Automation podcast, host Josh Gravelle talks with Mathias Konne, Food Market Leader at STAÜBLI Robotics, about automation and best practices for companies interested in food and beverage applications.

The two discuss…

Konne’s career history with B2B marketing, his experiences with working as a Food Market Leader, and an overview of STAÜBLI Robotics

Step-by-step advice on integrating automation with food and beverage, and the early process that companies need to be aware of

The stages and methods of the food and beverage industry, and how automation benefits each section

“Start with low hanging fruits,” Konne said. “Look at something that is going to be easy, not too complex. Get your feet wet. Get your people planted and on board with the new solutions and new technologies. Go for something that is safe and sturdy in terms of automation and technology. And then you’ll graduate from that first and then you can move on to the more complex.”

Mathias Konne is the Food Market Leader at STAÜBLI Robotics. Previously he was a Business Development and Marketing Coordinator for the same company. Konne has been a Brand and Project Manager, Marketing Communications Coordinator, and Marketing and Communication Assistant for EuroKera. He received a Bachelor’s Degree from Ecole Pratique Hautes Etudes Commerciales (EPHEC) and played on a college rugby team.

On this episode of Advanced Automation, host Josh Gravelle spoke with Scott Pask, VP of Sales and Marketing for Minuteman Empire Automation Systems. Scott talks about what makes the company a leader in selling automation products, along with how he brought his many years of experience to the role and how the company always strives to assist their customers first and foremost.

With a variety of products and a dedicated team of customer service representatives, sales people, engineers, and marketing specialists, Scott proves that Minuteman Empire Automation Systems is “really are committed to the success of our customers.” On top of knowing more about the company, Josh asked Scott how they are able to stay informed about new products and technology. “We work very closely with over a hundred different key manufacturers or partners,” says Scott, “and they range in products from robotics, safety, motion control, pneumatics and vacuum, to vision.”

Scott also emphasized that they want to learn about these new products and technology and how they can bring them to their customers. “We try to understand…the market, and what our customers are asking in order to meet their needs, and then therefore, we either try to bring this technology from our existing partners or if there is something that we’re missing in the industry and we do not have it in our product portfolio, then we will go out and look for a manufacturer that has that product to fit a certain market need.” It’s all part of what makes Minuteman Empire Automation Systems an industry leader.

Between January 16-18, 2023, a record number of people working in the automation field attended the A3 Business Forum in Orlando, Florida. The annual forum hosts events relating to robotics, vision and imaging, motion control and motors, and the newest addition: artificial intelligence. The three-day forum is also a major networking opportunity for professionals in the automation industry and a chance for them to meet face-to-face with their current or potential clients. So, how was this year’s forum different from previous ones and what advice did seasoned attendees takeaway?

Calvary Robotics’ Vice President, Michael Marseglia, is a veteran attendee at the A3 Business Forums, having been an annual guest for seven years. He talked about his experience at this year’s forum and detailed the highlights of the event on the latest episode of Advanced Automation with host Josh Gravelle.

Marseglia and Gravelle also discussed …

1. Marseglia’s background in automation and his current role as a Vice President

2. The A3 Business Forum’s attendance growth and Marseglia’s experience of what draws him to the forum

3. Why the Forum’s ITR Economics presentation was a standout delivery

“ITR Economics has a very, very high accuracy rate in terms of predictions and they were able to tailor an economic forecast that very, very specifically addressed what we in the automation would be interested in, the trends, things that are going to affect our industry either today, over the next coming years, and even out until like past beyond 2030,” said Marseglia.

The presentation, led by ITR Economics’ Alan Beaulieu, offered some great advice and information about what he and other automation professionals can look forward to in the future of their industry.

Michael Marseglia is the Vice President at Calvary Robotics. He began his career in automation at a young age and entered the industry immediately out of high school. Marseglia self-described himself as having worked “every job” relating to automation and today holds the senior position he operates in. He’s been at the company for almost four years.

The industrial automation industry is expected to continue growing by over 9% between now and 2029. As the market matures, so do its customers’ needs. What are some of the newest products on offer in the industry and how are companies working with client needs?

On this new episode of Advanced Automation, host Josh Gravelle chats with Bill Eppich, expert and Vice President of Weiss North America, a motion-control solutions company about new products that have the end-user in mind. Gravelle and Eppich chat about…

1) Weiss’ three newest products, including the LS Hybrid, Flex-Dial Chassis, and multi-access linear motor actuated systems

2) What sorts of challenges the manufacturing industry is facing now and into the future

3) How Weiss uses their unique approach to customer partnerships to help build better products for end-users

“There’s a large resource issue that’s going on right now for most companies, and with that, what we’ve tried to do is partner even closer with our system integrator customers, like Calvary, to be able to offer more of a complete chassis system versus just a component system as we have in the past,” said Eppich.

Eppich is the Vice President for Weiss North America, where he has worked for over 18 years. Prior to Weiss, Eppich worked as a Regional and National Sales Manager for ASG and Pace Incorporated. He is a graduate of Cleveland State University.

Weiss Group is a manufacturing technology company which is headquartered in Buchen, Germany but has operating centers in over five countries, with 700 total employees.

Josh Gravelle tapped a leader in AI robotics for expert insights on how AI is making an impact on robotics today and into the future. Eric Danziger, Co-Founder and CEO of Invisible AI, a company driven by the principle of building state-of-the-art AI solutions for manufacturing.

The goal behind invisible AI technology is to be a new stream of information, a place to get operational details inside a manufacturing facility Gravelle said. “Our first products are around manual assembly. This has been an area traditionally with little digital information. Any time you want to understand something in manual assembly, you literally have to go walk and look and see.” Invisible AI provides visibility to those areas where it all came down to a physical person checking.

Creating solutions for these hard-to-solve areas in manufacturing is part of the DNA of Invisible AI. “We made a decision early on as a company that we were going to tackle some of the harder problems that no one else was really looking at,” Danziger said. “Some of that is around moving assembly lines. These traditionally have been hard from a computer vision perspective because, as you can imagine, things happen at different periods while things are moving. People are getting in and out of vehicles; there’s a lot of complexity.”

The innovations Gravelle’s company is building are all three-dimensional representations of the physical manufacturing environments. They then use computer vision to pull out the relevant information. And with every project, learnings transform into future innovations to improve technology.

Invisible AI’s manufacturing solutions are edge-compute, with device-driven data and an onsite database. “Everything stays in their facility,” Gravelle said. “It’s a lot more secure; there’s very little network bandwidth required, allowing us to install thousands of cameras instead of just dozens on networks that may not have been upgraded.”

From a technology standpoint, Invisible AI is still recognizably young, and their work is generally tied to customers directly. Their focus ties into making sure their product is a solid customizable platform that is easier to install, and does the tasks needed at hand.

“To actually penetrate the manufacturing market, it’s really only possible through systems integrators, long-term. That is something that we’re absolutely going to do but we need to make sure we have things in place,” said Danziger, reassuring just what is next for Invisible AI in time to come.

Güdel is the prime example of quality in European design, a Switzerland based company that’s had its fresh start in gear racks and pinions in the early 1950s. Flash-forward to today, they’ve expanded their platform into linear modules and robotics, offering a full range of single and multi-access platforms.

Güdel has since differentiated from their competitors with innovations in linear axis systems with multiple axes – XYZ, upside down, sideways, hanging off the diving board, and that offers a maximized ROI for their platforms in multiple areas: welding, painting, cleaning, and prepping machine surfaces.

Their new product line, “Track Motion Vertical” offers the capabilities of taking pre-engineered products, and moving the robot as Brian Engelking, Senior Account Manager for Güdel, states, “an elevator, it’s basically like a fancy elevator.”

As we gear towards the future, robots are getting larger with payload and strokes becoming increasingly demanding. Güdel’s solution to that is a 7th axis to achieve capabilities in heavier payload and longer reach.

“We’re seeing a lot of robots, gantries and technology being deployed in those really nasty environments,” said Engelking. Difficult applications and the need for worker safety is a concern that can be alleviated with Güdel’s unique bearing systems.

So, what is it like to receive such praise from the industry? Cal-TV’s Joe Gemma brought along Jeff Burnstein, President of A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, to talk about this high honor with three past recipients; Martin Beuhler, CTO of Wavemaker Labs; Catherine Morris, Retired Former Director of Auto Sales at ATI Industrial Automation; and Rory Cooper, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Research for Health Sciences and STEM Collaboration at the University of Pittsburgh.

The Engelberger Award, first presented in 1977, recognizes high achievements in robotics from leadership to technology, education, and application across the globe. “When I call people to tell them they have been selected to win the award, people who have been in this industry a long time are just floored,” Burnstein said. “They can’t believe they’ve been selected. And I think that’s a great testament to how important this award is.”

Morris, Buehler, and Cooper agreed on how special and honored they felt receiving the call. It is an honor that follows them in the industry.

The honor was extra special for Morris, as she was the first woman in North America to receive an Engelberger Award. “My first reaction was disbelief,” Morris said. Morris did not have a robotics or engineering background. She accidentally found her niche in sales working at ATI and quickly fell in love with the industry. Her tireless leadership received recognition with an Engelberger, and the distinction touches her to this day.

Companies are embracing ever-evolving technology almost as quickly as it is becoming available. With increased technology and automation, innovation comes with new ideas which leads to new projects and initiatives being created. Who can handle the job? One of the most important roles in any organization: the project manager role. Project managers possess a variety of set skills and oftentimes wear many hats to oversee a specific project from start to finish.

Growing up in the Finger Lakes region of New York, Erik Weber, Senior Project Manager at Calvary Robotics, has spent more than 20 years in project management. His background is in Machine Design, has taken on leadership roles over the years, PMP certified and manages small to large scale projects. Weber explained how he has always had an interest in building, assembling, and understanding how systems worked so being at Calvary has been an exciting journey. He addressed that being a project manager wasn’t his ideal career path from the start. He explains that though sometimes people wind up on different career paths, project management is overall rewarding because you can see all aspects coming together like a finished puzzle. The key to being successful is being flexible in where the career takes you and with that, you gain many skills.

For those that are wanting to posses into project management, Weber shares that, “you need to be willing to learn all the aspects of the process and you must truly know the industry you are in.” Being a project manager allows you to be the expert and to speak up when necessary. Since project managers have to keep things moving along, they have to be expert problem solvers and communicate clearly so that all understand.

To keep current on the advancement of technology, Weber shares that he learns the most from their own customers since they are the ones innovating with prototypes and pilots. There is a constant exposure to what’s new and upcoming in the industry.

What does the future of project management look like? Weber explains that quality Standards will continue to become important, embracing technology advancement like Machine vision, machine learning, and AI. The overall goal will still be to bring project management costs down. A strong emphasis for tech-skilled project managers will be the most ideal.

Project managers play key roles in ensuring that jobs stay on track, on time and on budget; and the supply chain challenges over the last two years have made their job even harder. Advanced Automation Host Josh Gravelle welcomed Jeff Smith, project manager of Boulter Industrial Contractors, to share how his company minimizes the strain. Boulter, an industrial contracting company since 1892, provides transportation, rigging, steel fabrication, custom crating and packaging, and more.

At Boulter, Smith manages logistical projects for just about any customer needs and enjoys the variety, planning and coordination involved. Reciprocatively, customers appreciate the partnership with Boulter since they only work with one contractor to handle any project needs.

However, the pandemic has thrown a wrench in the supply chain, and Boulter immediately felt the pains. “Materials for crating and packaging have been an issue with lumber shortage. The steel shop has, too,” Smith explained. “Things we could get next-day now could have a lead time of eight weeks.”

Smith described how many projects, like a brewery in Rochester, came to a halt: “The project was underway, and then the pandemic hit. The job site wasn’t ready, so we received the tanks and stored them until they were ready.” Thankfully, once construction began, Boulter could finish the project, delivering and installing the catwalks successfully.

Smith continued to talk about how Boulter is taking measures to minimize the supply chain issues, such as:

• Ensuring superior internal and external communication

• Logging accurate paperwork

• Accounting for delays in scheduling

• Ordering early and extra resources

• Investing in new technology

For more information on manufacturing, storage, shipping and transportation needs, contact Boulter today or connect directly with Jeff Smith here at https://lp.boulterindustrial.com/jeffsmith

Edwards holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University. She has served as the principal investigator on fundamental and applied research projects, focusing on oxide materials for fuel cells, batteries, thermoelectric devices, environmental remediation, and solar energy applications. They talked about her career and how science can change the world.

Growing up on a ranch in South Dakota, what got Edwards interested in engineering was her attraction to math and science courses in school. According to Edwards, when people like those courses, they tend to get pushed into careers in science and engineering. She also lived close to a college with an engineering and science school, so that possibility was always on her radar. In college, she ended up majoring in Chemistry.

“I can trace that interest back to a fascination with the idea of atoms and molecules,” Edwards said.

She recalled a story from the third grade when a teacher told her a desk was filled with atoms moving at an incredible speed. She was in awe. With her fascination sparked, she moved into her career after her undergrad years. The spark she found in her early years hasn’t withered, either.

“One reason is the potential that science and engineering have to change the lives of people,” Edwards said.