The Industrial Solutions wing of mega-conglomerate GE has just grown a wee bit bigger, opening its new Advanced Manufacturing Lab (AML) in Plainville, Connecticut. The new facility will house sophisticated robots and automated manufacturing systems in order to produce the GuardEon molded case circuit breaker (MCCB) platform, which will be released in 2015. The lab will also feature the latest 3D printers to aid the company’s engineers in design and manufacturing.
CEO of GE’s Industrial Solutions business, Bob Gilligan, said of the facility, “The new lab is another example of GE’s investment in the future of our electrical distribution business to better serve our customers. While six months ago this space was simply offices and cubicles, today, the 8,000-square-foot area is filled with hands-on, real-world innovative manufacturing design and development tools employed by a highly energized and experienced team of advanced manufacturing engineers.“
The AML is meant to bring together the company’s advanced manufacturing engineers and engineering design team to enhance production from the early design stages to manufacturing. GE is implementing what it calls its FastWorks methodology, in which design and production are dynamic processes quickly influenced by customer feedback. With the AML joining the business’s NPI Accelerator Lab, established in Plainville in 2013, the two facilities will have access to a machine shop, product tear-down area, assembling robots and advanced 3D printers for prototyping.
The first product that the AML will be working to produce is GuardEon, which GE describes as its most advanced MCCB, made in part by BAXTER, a Occupational Health and Safety Administration-approved robot that uses smart-response movements to work alongside human employees. The AML will also feature 4′ x 6′ “moonshine” tables with programmable pneumatics and logic controllers for experimental design projects. General manager of GE’s Power Components business unit, Norm Sowards, said of the lab, “It is like a toy room for engineers. Our employees are excited every day to work with the latest 3-D printers and BAXTER, our advanced manufacturing robot.”
Over the next two years, the company plans to revitalize its circuit breaker portfolio, beginning with the GuardEon in 2015. To produce the GuardEon, GE is opening the Circuit Breaker Center of Excellence (COE) in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The center will rely on the manufacturing capabilities first developed at the AML.
Robots, circuit breakers, and 3D printing? Sounds pretty exciting! Personally, I’d rather be outside admiring the wilderness, but the fluorescent lights of the AML look nice, too.
