Lk Metrology Launches Modular Range Of Change Racks For Cmms

industry week

Many Engine Launches, Much Retooling At CumminsAnna Dibble can testify to the staying power of manufacturing careers. The operations leader of Cummins Inc.’s engine business unit, Dibble has spent 33 years with the global engine and power systems company. She started at the Jamestown, New York, plant when she was 19, a summer hire on break from Pennsylvania State University. “I grew up in Jamestown, and I happened to walk in,” she recalls. “And then after that summer, I came back as an intern.” Since then, “I’ve just had different opportunities that have led me to stay with the company and continue to build a career.” Tuition reimbursement from Cummins led her to ultimately earn an MBA and also a master’s in manufacturing management and engineering from General Motors Institute, now Kettering University. Today, Dibble manages the 998,000-square-foot Jamestown engine plant, as well as engine plants in Rocky Mount, North Carolina; Columbus, Indiana; Darlington, England; and Sao Paulo, Brazil. “I do get to the other sites pretty often,” says Dibble. “Luckily, we have a lot of advancements in communication that are extremely helpful.” Recently, Dibble and her teams have been preparing launches of several new engines at the plants she oversees. In September 2024, after undergoing more than $450 million in improvements, the 50-year-old Jamestown plant launched production of the X15N natural gas engine, the first iteration of Cummins’ fuel-agnostic ICE platform for lower-carbon fuel. IndustryWeek talked with Dibble about the teamwork behind readying plants, people and processes for new launches, practical applications of Cummin’s “Destination Zero” zero emissions energy reduction strategy and more. Dibble: Right now, we’re launching [the new B-6.7 engine for the Dodge Ram] at the Columbus plant. There are two plants in Columbus. We have the engine plant and a plant where they actually push blocks and heads for our heavy-duty product, which are shipped to the Jamestown plant. We've made investments at both of those sites. So the way Cummins has established a vision for the future, we talk a lot about our product strategy, which is around what we call our HELM platforms. HELM stands for higher efficiency, lower emissions, multiple fuels. It’s a platform that we use for our fuel-agnostic platform strategy, and as part of that, we talk about how our product strategy is used and flexible across the range of fuels within our Destination Zero strategy. There's the product side of it, but there's also the facility readiness side. Destination Zero includes improvements in our facilities that allow us to improve our communities, and we do that through improvements in water, waste, energy, pollution prevention. We are just starting on the product-introduction side. We've introduced the first 15-liter natural gas engine, the first on-highway heavy-duty live haul application, at the Jamestown plant. That is the same platform that will be introduced with advanced diesel, and then the same base engine platform, which can also be used for future engine development for hydrogen or other alternative fuels. Right now we're in production with the natural gas engine. The advanced diesel version will come out later, and then the other fuels will follow. We’re investing in the plants for readiness for these products and advanced equipment machining processes—but we’re also investing in the plants for Destination Zero. We have targets that we put out towards 2030 and track all of the sites related to the major environmental initiatives on how we're doing on waste reduction. We track our energy usage and energy efficiency. We track our water usage. We’re doing a lot around water and recirculating systems so that we reuse water into our process systems and our equipment, and then we're doing a lot around pollution prevention. We are investing in new equipment for products and making sure that the new machines that we purchase and install are at the latest standards—and from an efficiency standpoint, are the latest and greatest. But we're also investing in some of our older equipment to bring those up to the same standards and actually reduce our footprint and our impact of older processing equipment as well. At most of our plants, we have our assembly processes, but we also have heavy-machining equipment, and we produce both cylinder blocks and cylinder heads. We have some equipment that's been in place for 40, 45 years, and some brand-new equipment where the technology and tooling have advanced significantly. We've been able to retool lines, and we're taking away things from high-energy usage machines that would have to run 24 hours a day, to those machines where we can actually reduce our water and energy impact—recirculate as well as having as-needed, on-demand capability [rather than constantly running machines]. It's allowing us a lot of flexibility in the new product programs that we're investing in heavily, and that's allowing us significant improvement as we take out both lines. As they sunset, we're redoing old equipment and trying to upgrade at the same time. Assembly processes are another area where our plants are upgrading to produce new products. We need new tools and technologies to do so. So, we will do things like reduce compressed air usage and improve our lighting systems in the plants. We ask things like, “Is there more that we can do around dunnage? And how do we recycle the more returnable dunnage?” Those types of initiatives are where we're reducing our environmental impact. Right now, our business is really strong. We're running really high demand, particularly at the Jamestown plant. We often refer to this as “trying to change some wheels on the buses.” We're going down the thruway. We’re trying to make these investments and changeover while continuing to support the current needs and demands for the plant. In a couple of cases, we've been able to clear out areas, and we're installing new machines into greenfield types of areas that we've been able to clean. In other areas, like the 15-liter engine block line, we have a current block line that we’re going to shut down for a small period of time and retool it. And so depending on the product, we are taking multiple approaches. We're installing new where we have space to do so. In some cases, we will shut down ... and then in a lot of our assembly areas, we're actually upgrading as we're continuing to run. During downtimes of holidays, weekends and between shifts, we're using the opportunity to convert and upgrade lines. There are lot of pieces that do have to come together, but it is really exciting, and the biggest investment that we've seen at the plant level in our career. So the employees are excited, the leadership teams are excited and our communities are excited. There are certainly some cases where we're bringing in new tools and have to train operators on the technology. So we are seeing upskilling as well as, “How do we get the support levels to understand how this new technology works?” Certainly, we try to make sure we commonize our approach on the equipment that we buy, so that we can streamline, so that we don't have as much specialty type of equipment. We try to make sure that we stick with certain control systems or certain tools so that we can gain that experience across the plant. But you're absolutely right. We also have to train operators as well as our apprentices, our skilled trades and our mechanics, our electricians, our controls engineers, on how to interact with this new equipment and technology. It is exciting, but it is also a lot of work to make sure that at the end the equipment's ready, the processes established and our people are also trained at the same time. We have a lot of demand, so I would say the hardest roles to fill are our skilled apprentice positions. Especially for machine-repair electricians. It seems like those apprentice positions are in a shortage everywhere. We run an internal apprenticeship program as well, so that we can put people through the schooling. It's about a five-year program. But we're continuing to see needs beyond that. So we're also hiring externally in addition to developing internal skills to fill those critical roles. We are looking at expanding what disciplines we have, and reviewing both the quantity, as well as what disciplines we need. The technology has changed, so certainly we're seeing, our control system is a lot different than what we’ve historically used. So we're also looking at variations, and what are the disciplines that we need in those apprentice programs, versus some of the historical programs that we have run. The Jamestown plant started working on that several years ago. At the back of the plant, we actually have a reverse-osmosis system that the water we use goes through and allows us to reuse as processed water. With a lot of our machining and engine-test processes, we use water as a coolant, and we will put some chemicals in to treat the water. This allows us to clean the water and reuse it so that we aren't just putting it back into the waste stream. We've seen a significant reduction in our water waste stream since we've had this reverse osmosis system. From 2021 to 2024, the system has recycled 15.5 million gallons of water. The good news is we're really busy and we're making significant investments. And the difficult thing is, we're really busy and making significant investments. So I’d say the biggest challenge is just trying to balance all of that—running really strong demand, meeting our customer needs, while continuing to make these investments and doing it all at the same time. It's a balancing act, and there's not one solution that fits everything. And so we just try multiple ways and evaluate what solution works best in each case. We're really blessed to have employees that have been very flexible with us. Our teams are extremely flexible. We'll have people working over the holiday breaks and are really appreciative that they're giving their time and being flexible so they can get in when we’re shut down and do some of the work that's needed. [Converting and upgrading lines] continues to be one of our big challenges. Flexibility is one of our core concepts—both for what the business needs, and for what the employees need. Cummins allows employees to adjust work hours and schedules to accommodate personal needs when possible, take on new or different roles to gain experience or support development opportunities and cross-train to help during periods of high demand or staffing challenges.

factory

13 March 2025

manufacturing net

Q&A: Dolphin Labs Captures Energy One Wave At A TimeDolphin Labs is a four-person startup based in Oakland, California that is pushing the boundaries of wave-generated power with a prototype of their key product, the xNode Wave Energy Converter. The xNode is a renewable energy solution geared towards offshore operators that can produce up to 1 kW of persistent power. In this exclusive interview conducted at 3DEXPERIENCE WORLD in Houston, Texas, Dolphin Labs Chief Engineer Chris Rauch talks about what it took to get the startup's prototype into the water, the importance of powering remote data systems, and the creative power of SolidWorks and AI. Devon Verbsky (DV): Give me a rundown of Dolphin Labs, its creation and what's happening today. Chris Rauch (CR): Dolphin Labs is a spinoff from a company called Cal Wave Power Technologies. Cal Wave was founded in 2014. They are working to solve grid scale or utility scale power using wave energy with a good percentage of communities being within whatever their distance is from the shore. With their focus being on grid scale, their customer base is different than what Dolphin Labs does, and the size and scope of their projects are different. We'd love a smaller system that can be used remotely. We don't need a cable back to the beach. Cal Wave always has a big cable back to the beach. But they have a patent that covers what we call the xNode, which is the key product for Dolphin Labs. There are two ways to tell us apart from Cal Wave. Cal Wave is 100 kilowatts and above and a cable back to the beach. Dolphin Labs is less than 100 kilowatts and not necessarily a cable. A lot of our applications are fully remote sensing types of applications. What we're doing at Dolphin really has to do with enabling sensing in remote locations, and what's great about it is we use renewable power to power these at energy densities that are greater than what you get out of wind and solar. DV: You're the chief engineer of Dolphin Labs, but I know you have experience with L3Harris Technologies and the Navy's MUUV program—and you have a background in both marine and defense instrumentation. How has that previous experience helped you at Dolphin Labs? CR: I went to school for naval architecture, pursuing an engineering discipline that's focused on the ocean. Early career work, I was in Hawaii designing boats on the water. I did a lot of test engineering on the water. I left there to join Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution working on autonomous underwater vehicles—robots you’d pre-program to dive to the ocean depths. All of my personal interests and professional experience have now come together as an opportunity presented to team up and join a wave energy conversion company. DV: What's the importance of powering data solutions with a platform like xNode? CR: Dolphin Labs started in 2022 with an emphasis on the customer discovery side. Talking to people in the Navy, both civilian and uniform sides. Talking to people in oil and gas. In those customer discovery interviews, one of the things that was discovered, NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, have this network of buoys around the world that are gathering meteorological data. Most of those buoys, the sensors are only at a 10% duty cycle. They're on six minutes for every hour. The main reason that happens is because of the amount of power they have on board—they can't operate any more than that. Now, you don't necessarily need a 100% duty cycle to be able to predict the weather, but I've never met a scientist who doesn't want more data, so we give them more power to be able to gather more data. In the case of the Navy or defense, you can see certain things with satellites, which is great looking down, but having a view from the surface, looking out or gathering data underwater, is a whole other problem. It gives you a much different view than a satellite view. DV: How does SolidWorks benefit you at Dolphin Labs? CR: Professionally, I've been using SolidWorks for 20 years. SolidWorks allows us a CAD tool that we can do all of our mechanical design in; some level of simulation; and then—with the recent adoption of 3DEXPERIENCE—having our team on both coasts of the U.S., we're able to do file management in an easy way. I can be working on a file, I can have it checked out; my colleagues on the west coast can come right in and be working on assembly that has that file and they're not impacted. With 3DEXPERIENCE, you have a PDM solution, but you don't have to have an on-premise system. You don't have to worry about firewalls and people at remote locations being able to get into your PDM network. DV: Do you think the work of Dolphin Labs falls under the same industry trends as Industry 4.0 or even Industry 5.0? CR: The marine technology space is a low volume, high mix world. With the xNode, we have this core platform that can produce energy and that can store energy. It has a processor or a capability to do some behaviors. The value is, we can have different customers come to us and say, they have a sensing need. They need to integrate sensors that can do X, Y, and Z, so we will integrate OEM level packages of those sensors. That being said, with the versatility, it’s hard for us to have a fully automated manufacturing line. DV: What kind of expansion are you looking for or could you potentially expect with Dolphin Labs? CR: We're currently four and we have job recs out for two more spots right now. We are trying to be smart, and I don't want to say constrain our growth, but be mindful of our growth. We're taking a very methodical approach, and the marine tech industry is very niched. We do have growth plans, we do have hopes. When we hit a certain revenue level, we expect to have X number of employees, and we have that all mapped out. We are still very much in the prototyping phase. DV: Would you consider Dolphin Labs at all as a startup? CR: Absolutely. The definition I like the most of a startup is “A startup is an organization seeking a repeatable business model.” We right now we have ideas, but until we have customers buying on a repeated level to know what that repeated business model is, we'll be a startup until then. DV: So what about your AI impact? CR: We're gathering data, and though we haven't fully implemented this yet because we're still prototyping, but because of our power levels, we can have edge computing on board. This means that we can have a processor on board that's processing the data which is great, but then requires more power, which reduces your endurance and how much data you can collect. Because the xNode is at sea and it won't be brought up on a ship every day for a data download, we then need to send data back to the beach. By using AI tied in with our edge computing, not only can we then process the data at sea, but then we're only going to send the data back to the beach that's of interest. We'll use AI to help identify those anomalies. DV: What's next for Dolphin Labs? CR: We're actively working hard right now to get to our first sea trial. Our first sea trial is planned to be three months, looking to start towards the end of Q3 or beginning of Q4 2025. We are working very hard on a lot of design details, pulling that all together. Our focus is really on getting this thing in the water. It'll be on the West Coast, California, and we have a couple sites. The West Coast Pacific Ocean has longer period waves, and that's really important. It makes a lot more sense from a logistical standpoint to build the prototype out there.

factory

13 March 2025

Lk Metrology Launches Modular Range Of Change Racks For Cmms

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