Archives

The contribution by the manufacturing industries to the Gross Domestic Product in Sri Lanka in the last three years averaged at 17%. Value addition through manufacturing has been the key factor and the local industry benefited by the increasing use of technologically advanced machines.

With the opening of the economy in the seventies, it became evident that there were visible signs of consumer presence for product variety and market pressures for new products.

The advances in microelectronics and cheap computers gave a tremendous boost to the hitherto available Numerically Controlled (NC) technology of operating machines to change over to the Computer Numerically Controlled technology.

The increasing use of Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) Machine Tools is a common phenomenon in the modern manufacturing industry. The new technologies triggered by developments in microelectronics facilitated not only CNC but CAD/CAM and Robotics which have become an integral part of modern manufacturing.

One can recognise two major thrust areas in the form of automation and precision manufacturing emerging out of the technological change of the last century.

These two are interwoven in that automation requires higher precision and high precision is achieved through automation. The two thrust areas lead to responsive and highly capable systems, which could meet the present day market demands such as shorter product life, product reliability and the much desired flexibility in manufacturing as per fast changing customer specifications.

Design and manufacturing, planning and scheduling, handling systems, inspection procedures and quality were areas where the impact of technological change on most activities associated with manufacturing was witnessed.

The ability of the manufacturing system to integrate information flow with actual processing has enabled flexible fixturing (part and tool clamping), quick change of tools, tool monitoring, on-line inspection, part handling, part transfer, storage and retrieval of parts, and the development of experts systems and comprehensive databases. They paved the way for the development of Flexible Manufacturing Systems and Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM).

Like most developing countries Sri Lanka also witnesses a gradual increase in the use of CNC technology, particularly the CNC machine tools required for metal cutting.

Although it is not estimated how many such machines are being used in the country, many private sector industries and a few public sector institutions are exploiting this technology. At least three out of the four faculties of engineering in the universities are also equipped to varying degree of sophistication with CNC technology and CIM.

The country's aspiration to revitalise its economy demands increasing growth in the Industrial sector. Hence, the need of the hour is to increase productivity in the local industrial sector and in particular that in the manufacturing sector.

The only contact the machine tools need with humans is when there are major maintenance problems. There also exist many other control systems equipped with present day CNC machine tools.

However, Fanuc - India responded swiftly to the call from Sri Lanka to arrange a training program on the maintenance of CNC machine tools. An engineer from Fanuc - India, a company based in Bangalore will be arriving in Sri Lanka to conduct this program.

Although the raining program was originally intended for a team of engineers and technicians from the Loadstar (Pvt) Limited, considering the importance of the manufacturing sector to the national economy and as a gesture of goodwill the management of Loadstar decided to provide an opportunity to those others in Sri Lanka using CNC technology and also the institutions engaged in the training of engineers and technicians in the use of this technology in Sri Lanka.

The workshop so designed to train about 35 engineers and technicians will take place at the Loadstar Training Centre, Ekala, Ja Ela from today till January 24.

This is the first such program to be conducted in Sri Lanka.

During the workshop participants will be given training in key ares of CNC maintenance and hands on training is expected to be given using the facilities available in the Metal products Division of Loadstar factories in Ekala.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager