Kurt Atchison explains the benefits of Modulo One, Schneider’s new lab automation platform

L&T editor Andrew Karp was among the more than 150 international guests who attended SCHNEIDER's Digicon conference, held June 22 to June 25 at the company’s headquarters in Fronhausen, Germany and the Lokschuppen in Marburg, Germany, a new Schneider venue built on the ruins of a locomotive repair shop. The three-day conference program featured presentations from Schneider executives and engineers, keynotes from industry experts and live demonstrations.

A year prior, Schneider had announced their biggest product launch campaign in the company’s history: Modulo One, a technology platform consisting of 11 innovations, revealed one by one over 11 months. Digicon marked the grand finale of the launch campaign where all the individual components were combined to work together as one. Modulo One, which Schneider calls, “The Power Lab of the Next Decade,” includes warehousing, surfacing, cleaning, coating and edging.

The key elements of the platform are:

  • Lights out polisher CCP Modulo One for better quality, significantly higher throughput and lower complexity.
  • All-in-one surfacing center Modulo Center One with integrated milling, lathe turning, polishing and laser marking technology.
  • CSI Modulo One, the first fully automated cosmetic inspection system, built on sophisticated pattern recognition powered by artificial intelligence.
  • High volume in-line cleaner LCU Modulo One, offering highest throughput at smallest footprint.
  • First blocker with automated block ring change, CCU Modulo One.
  • Fully-automated warehousing system AWS Modulo One for highly efficient and space saving storage and retrieval.
  • Powerful HSC Modulo One generator—the heart of the Power-Lab of the Next Decade—representing virtually the power of two generators in one.
  • The intelligent monitoring system, Modulo Control Center, with new features for cost tracking, breakage analysis, now also available for stand-alone and classic lab layouts.
  • First fully Automated Dome Loader (ADL) for batch coating.
  • Modulo In-line Coating, fully automating the backside coating process.

Digicon guests also enjoyed an Octoberfest-style celebration complete with typical German folk music, traditional dishes and beer. The conference culminated in a day trip to the Rhine-Moselle region, including a river cruise, a tour of the famous vineyards along with a wine tasting and lunch.

To learn more about Schneider’s new lab automation concepts, watch L&T editor Andrew Karp’s exclusive video interview with company founder and CEO, Gunter Schneider and Kurt Atchison, head of Schneider’s North American business unit, at visionmonday.com.