Switzerland-based
GF Machining Solutions’ (GFMS), the EDM, milling, laser texturing and additive manufacturing (AM) machine tool specialist and leading supplier of advanced automation and tooling systems, has recently rolled out to its innovative ‘My rConnect’ digital service and support platform to customers.
The My rConnect service provides remote, Cloud-based connectivity between individual customers and GF Machining Solutions… anytime… anywhere, and is seamless and secure. Any GFMS machine model can benefit from My rConnect as long as a computer is linked to the same network as the machine in question; even machines lacking direct network access, but connected to the internet, can still access and use the platform’s functions.
User online safety and process security are top priorities and My rConnect has password protection as well as enhanced protection, verifying user identity via text messaging and/or email. My rConnect acts as a virtual conduit between machines and the customer, and GFMS’s service and support team often eliminating the need for on-site visits from service engineers.
Remote diagnostics and real time troubleshooting from qualified GFMS technical staff occurs when a customer, using the Remote Assist Function, creates an ‘event’. Flagging up an event ensures that machine issues are dealt with quickly thereby reducing unnecessary downtime. For non-networked machines, the process is similar with GFMS engineers connecting via Remote Assist and using My rConnect for seamless and secure communication, and speedy issue resolution.
My rConnect facilitates efficient documentation management, enabling customers to create groups for machines in differently located production facilities, enabling related documentation, such as manuals, directly from the platform.
Furthermore, My rConnect keeps customers up-to-date with new and/or enhanced digital capabilities, offering access to current and future applications to augment their machine’s capabilities. GFMS can seamlessly deploy new apps or updates directly to customer machines, simplifying app acquisition and notifying users upon login.
These apps include ‘Job Recorder’, which facilitates efficiency reports for wire EDMs and milling machines by recording job data, and ‘Machine Dashboard’, which provides real-time machine status updates and detailed job histories. My rConnect is a digital development designed to help customers maintain and increase their productivity, and improve their machine shop’s process efficiencies.