To help avoid unexpected loss of data and minimize downtime, Mitsubishi Electric Automation will now offer its customers remote access to a backup of their CNC machine tool information.
The new service includes the creation and maintenance of a comprehensive set of backups of a manufacturer’s CNC machine tool data stored in a secure, remote location. “Adoption of cloud data storage is increasing because of its capacity and availability. CNC data is an ideal candidate for the cloud,” said Derrick Jordan, technical support engineer, Mitsubishi Electric Automation. “This service will be especially useful for those in the machining, drilling, aerospace, automotive, electronics and medical device industries, as well as for job shops and general manufacturing. Those companies that don’t currently have a backup storage solution of their own can take advantage of our servers to securely store their data and access it 24/7.”
The need for a backup can be caused by a number of factors. If a physical backup is lost or was never created prior to planned or unplanned downtime, a service engineer must research what data should be in the machine, then reprogram it and reset the parameters. A remote backup of the CNC data would eliminate this time-consuming process, and could prevent a service call altogether.
Mitsubishi Electric Automation provides a link to the backup information stored on its servers. Backing up machines in advance of catastrophic, unplanned and planned downtime gives manufacturers the opportunity to readily and more efficiently support the repair of controls and the installation of new control parts and functionality. Consequently, the new service gives peace of mind to plant managers, maintenance managers, machine operators and other manufacturing professionals responsible for their CNC equipment’s efficiency.
Depending on the complexity of the data, service engineers at Mitsubishi Electric Automation estimate that remote CNC data backups can save companies a few hours to a day or more per occurrence of routine maintenance or machine downtime. Factory automation professionals can calculate the true cost of downtime and how much they can potentially save by accessing the downtime cost estimator.
