Amada HD held its biggest event this year(1/2)

New products show off on the theme of evolution

Amada Holdings (HD) held the Amada Innovation Fair (AIF) 2018 at the Solution Center located at the head office of Isehara City, Kanagawa Prefecture.  Amada introduced the Internet of Things (IoT) service “V-Factory,” which began to be offered in May 2018, and a new type of laser processing machine with enhanced output.

V-Factory finally gets into practical stage

“Customers can going to buy V-Factories as a real product. It finally gets into practical stage,” said Tsutomu Isobe, president of Amada HD, on May 11, 2018, on a press day, ahead opening of the biggest event AIF2018.  This year AIF was held on every Friday and Saturday from May 12 to June 23, a total of 13 days.

The main themes are “EVOLUTION” and could be divided into three categories: (1) Start of provision of IoT service “V-Factory”; (2) Launch of fiber laser processing machine “ENSIS Series” with increased output at 6 kW; and (3) Launch of diamond band saw “DBSAW-500”, a strategic product for new market entry.

In particular, V-Factory, which has been presenting concepts and overall designs since 2015, began offering services on May 1st, 2018.  Specific usability has been confirmed at the venue.

The V-Factory consists of “My V Factory”, a web-based application that provides real-time visualization of the operational status of equipment, and “Internet of Things Supports,” an optional maintenance service.  It is a service to clarify factory problems and take measures to improve production efficiency.

The Amada Group’s FY17 results were strong, with sales up 7.8% y-o-y to ¥300.6 billion and operating income up 14.9% y-o-y to ¥37.9 billion.  The company says it is currently receiving good orders and users’ willingness to invest remains high.  The launch of V-Factory is well suited to customer’s investing motivation.