Trafime Leads the Field with its FANUC IIoT Platform

“Evolution in business is necessary and vital, which is why some years ago we decided to introduce NC into our production cycles,” explains Luca Coffa, CEO of Italy-based automotive component manufacturer Trafime.

Today, Trafime has a broad spread of FANUC automation solutions in action at its manufacturing plants, including high-performance ROBODRILL machining centres and a variety of six-axis industrial robots, such as LR Mate 200𝑖D and M-10𝑖A models. Some robots are mounted on a seventh axis, a linear track, to tend machines situated in front and behind. 

With so many machines, robots and other systems on site at the company’s three highly automated production facilities, Trafime wanted a high-capability, shop-floor IIoT platform to manage its data effectively. After assessing the market, the company selected the FIELD (FANUC Intelligent Edge Link & Drive) system. 

“There were three reasons for our choice,” explains Trafime’s Production Manager Daniele Diliberto. “Firstly for data management: thanks to FIELD system we can manage our data both locally and in the cloud. Managing data locally gives us the advantage of accessing and processing information quicker. We benefit from the option of using the cloud because we have three plants in different cities, so we can amend data more efficiently.” 

According to Diliberto, the second reason is universality of use. FIELD system enables the company to run any application. This capability is a huge advantage because it allows Trafime, which uses many different machines and suppliers, to have a single shared platform.  

“Thirdly, the single-platform structure of FIELD system enables us to reduce management costs and migrate data securely,” he reveals.  

A practical application of FIELD system at Trafime is the use of the FANUC ZDT [Zero Down Time] app and its associated PMA app.