MTConnect® Institute Announces Legacy Machine Tool Connectivity Working Group

Chicago, Il. – Today at the International Manufacturing Technology Show the MTConnect® Institute proposed the establishment of the Legacy Machine Tool Connectivity Working Group (WG). This group will be essential in addressing the very important issue of providing best practices and overall guidance for the physical connectivity of the thousands of legacy machine tools in manufacturing shops around the globe.  The group will be lead by David McPhail, President & CEO Memex Automation Inc., and John Turner, Director of Technology for FA Consulting and Technology, as the co-chairs and consist of manufacturing equipment providers, ISVs, consultants, and users.

Dave Edstrom, President and Chairman of the Board for the MTConnect Institute stated, “This proposed working group is critical for enabling MTConnect on the countless number of manufacturing’s legacy machine tools and I fully expect our MTConnect Technical Advisory Group to approve this new working group. We want to see an array of hardware options to enable MTConnect for both small and large installations.” David McPhail, President & CEO Memex Automation Inc., stated, “I am excited to participate in an industry leading group dedicated to empowering productivity improvement on the shop floor for all machines.”

John Turner, Director of Technology for FA Consulting & Technology stated, “Bringing the capabilities of MTConnect to existing machine tools will allow manufacturers to increase productivity of their existing assets, driving down costs and increasing plant output. I am excited to co-chair the MTConnect Legacy Machine Tool Working Group to help bring the benefits of MTConnect to the existing installed base of machine tools.” The Institute encourages all members of the Technical Advisory Group to join in on making success of this important Group.

MTConnect® Institute

MTConnect Institute is an organization that develops and provides open standards intended to foster greater interoperability between manufacturing controls, devices and software applications by publishing data over networks using the Internet Protocol (IP). The standards offer a solution to the exchange of data from shop floor devices to higher level systems. For membership information visit www.MTConnect.org.

Memex Automation

Memex Automation Inc. brings 18 years of experience in manufacturing connectivity solutions. Memex delivers shop floor to top floor connectivity, automating the process of communicating information between business systems and the machines on the shop floor to increase productivity and decrease costs. More information can be found at www.memex.ca or by email to sales@memex.ca

FA Consulting and Technology (FAC&T)

FA Consulting & Technology (FAC&T), located in Charlottesville, Virginia, provides an array of control system and process automation solutions for the manufacturing industry. Their mission is to maximize the productivity from existing manufacturing assets through the integration of existing and emerging technologies to reduce errors, improve maintenance practices, and increase the overall productivity of manufacturing processes.