Tales from chips

It is something special with an industrial workshop floor where engineers and machine operators work together. Almost like they are dancing to the symphony of metal cutting CNC machines. The ability to cut in metal like you would stick a butter knife in the buttercup, has been essential for the development of our modern society. To process metal is the very core of more than 100 years of production efficiency. The vibration and sound of the machines is almost like an industrial symphony, where different machines and processes plays their own tunes. Together it is an absolute harmony. It is like they speak their own language. It is a language we do not master, yet!

My first time at a proper workshop floor, I was stunned by the smell of freshly cut metal and a mix of oil and coolant blended with deep knowledge and the urge to learn more. A bunch of engineers bending over a pile of chips and swarf’s like it was a pile of sparkling diamonds! Did I just enter the heaven for industrial nerds or was it actually diamonds…I glanced back over my shoulder. No, it was the metal waste in the chapes of tiny chips. Who would have thought that this metal waste, the chips and swarf’s, would be of such value!

I quickly learned that each chip carried a story from the rhythmic symphony played continuously in the workshop floor. The fascination was contagious and I was hooked. My own competence was within the domain of organizational and people development so I was intrigued by the enthusiasm of the employees and their eager to learn more. Most of my career I have been within different industrial businesses and even grown up within an industrial family company. This experience was different, this was a plant for testing with close connection to R&D.

I was fascinated by the fact that from a single chip or swarf some of the more experienced engineers could tell me what had happened within the cutting process by just looking at the chip. Like a tale from distant times where a seer could see your future by looking in your empty cup or read the life line in your hand. I later learned that this was a skill that not everyone possessed. Well, the basics most of the engineers knew but there is a depth within this phenomenon that require deep knowledge. The more you know and understand about this process, the chance to solve a challenge increases dramatically. Like the machines symphony or language if you prefer, there is still lots of things to learn from reading the stories from chips and swarf’s.

Today decades later, I am still fascinated of this symphony played by the machines. It is like an untangled language puzzle that is beyond any language known to any of us on this planet. It requires a special skill to know when the notes aren’t exactly right executed. Because, it is not always a perfect symphony even though we might not be able to hear this. Within the material cutting operations things happen and sometimes the cutting process is not correct or at the expected quality. Sometimes it ends with a bang and there is a costly tool breakage. Our questions arise like, how can we control that phenomenon, can we communicate with the process and machines to learn their language?

We don’t understand everything yet but still, it is intriguing. Our journey started many years ago and the last couple of years has been about asking the right questions! An answer is never the final destination, suddenly new differentiations of this language emerge and new questions has to be formulated. Since we don’t operate in the traditional areas to control the cutting process with feed and speed, we need to ask different questions. This symphony is our engine that makes our solution a sparkling one. Even thou we have been working with our idea for some time now we are only in the beginning of our journey. Please follow us on our quest to create a groundbreaking solution for real-time monitoring, predicting the immediate but still distant future.

Authors of this article; Stefan Magnusson