Flexxbotics, a developer of ‘autonomous manufacturing platforms’, has announced that
Orizon Aerostructures — a manufacturer of large structural components for the commercial aerospace, defence, and space markets — has deployed Flexxbotics to ‘advance process trend intelligence, automated manufacturing compliance, and autonomous process control across its production operations’.
Rick Newell, ‘innovation manager’ at Orizon Aerostructures, said: “As we continue scaling precision production to meet the highest quality levels in aerospace manufacturing, data-driven autonomy is essential to empower our personnel. Flexxbotics provides a single digital control plane that unifies our plant floor operations, giving our teams real-time feedback and closed-loop control, which further improves uptime, quality, and capacity.”
The Flexxbotics deployment enables Orizon to ‘proactively identify’ processing anomalies, supporting reductions in rework and scrap of 40% or more using fewer resources. Improved utilisation is achieved through a 25% decrease in unplanned downtime, providing greater overall efficiency and enabling 20% additional contract capacity.
Greater machine controlRex Kelly, Orizon’s manager of program management, added: “Flexxbotics makes our plant equipment interoperate for greater machine control, allowing our teams to set performance targets and automate adjustments that sustain tight tolerances. The ability to reduce feed rates as loads increase and tie loads to individual tools and set limits is powerful and provides a foundation as we introduce greater levels of intelligence, automation, and networking into our operations to improve quality and provide affordability.
“Flexxbotics extends data capture from Modig machines, Fanuc robots, and IT business systems to create an interoperable basis for deeper process visibility and continuous processing optimisation updates. Together, these capabilities support autonomous manufacturing with process trend detection, automated manufacturing compliance, and controlled variable adjustments, which further improve quality and increase uptime.”
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Kansas City, Orizon Aerostructures’ facility covers 850,000ft
2 and employs over 900 people.