26 February 2020

“Are you looking for practical applications of Industry 4.0?"

Simac Masic is active in industrial automation projects already since the 1990’s. In those early days, we didn’t know about Industry 4.0 or Smart Industry. We distributed machine vision components for PPT Vision and were very successful at it. After acquisitions, we gained knowledge about factory automation and mechanical engineering. We came to care more about helping our customers improving the efficiency and quality of their production processes. In fact, we built the machines that helped Philips make displays and medical equipment.

Third Industrial Revolution

Looking back, we were part of Industry 3.0, the third industrial revolution. Computers entered the industrial scene and we used them for automation of processes. We gained experience with Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), machine vision technology and later robots. We transformed tasks performed by humans in semi-autonomous automated processes.

"We even created solutions for things that were humanly impossible"

Ivo de Rooij - Managing Director at Simac Masic

Fall and rise

We liked and still like those “multidisciplinary” projects . It was #teamnology before letters; we worked in teams consisting of specialists in vision, mechanics and automation to create machines that were never built before.

We survived the crisis of 2008, barely. We learned a lot because of it. For one, we now focus on specific industries and strive for technology leadership within the medical and pharmaceutical industry. We build automated vision inspection machines, product handling systems and we automate related processes.

Industry 4.0

Thanks to ethernet and internet our systems now perform faster than ever before. The fourth era of industry is here and if you have to use one word to describe it, it would be “data”. Our smart machines trigger actions, produce images and data, connect to databases to give valuable process insights we couldn’t imagine 20 or even 10 years ago.

"Besides our specialty, machine vision integration, we realize pick & place systems, assembly machines and even specialty laser treatment setups"

Ivo de Rooij

Robots, sensors, data and even deep learning is now “business as usual”. Future holds even more; predictive system control, data analysis to help the industry to improve manufacturing processes, material usage and life cycle management. Even as a machine builder, we already employ more software than mechanical engineers.

Take action

Is all of this puzzling you? Are you looking for practical applications of Industry 3.0 or 4.0? We’re ready to discuss your thoughts and support you. Just contact us, if we haven’t yet contacted you.