The Future of Metal Fabrication & Manufacturing and How KMK is Getting Ahead

With the rise of trends like Industry 4.0, IoT, smart technology, and sustainability, metal fabrication, manufacturing, and automation have changed significantly over the past decades. And looking ahead, they’re likely to change even more. 

A Few Trends to Watch

Industry 4.0

These days, almost everything has been digitized, from internal and external communications to data collection and sharing. And as technology has advanced, so too has the equipment across metal fabrication and manufacturing. Self-monitoring systems for quality control, improved machine-to-machine communication for smoother production, and Cloud storage for better and more secure access to technical data–all of these and more continue to define the industry now and its projections in the future. 

IoT: Internet of Things and Cloud Storage

Speaking of improved communication, the integration of IoT (internet of things), has become more prevalent across the metal fabrication and manufacturing sectors. IoT refers to any network of interconnected devices, which could include various types of equipment, monitoring systems, tablets, computers, even handheld devices. Not only does IoT allow for easy communication, it also improves the storage and accessibility of important information.

Sustainable Operations

Sustainability has long been a major driving force behind a lot of innovations in the fabrication and manufacturing industries. Whether that’s just improving the efficiency of production, reducing material waste and energy consumption, or even opting for cleaner and more advanced equipment, there are many different and practical ways that fabricators have been improving the sustainability of their shops. 

How KMK has been Improving

Going Fully Paperless

One of the practical and simplest ways that we’ve not only improved our efficiency and communication, but also our environmental impact, is by making all of our data collection, communications, and other related processes entirely digital. We use little to no paper throughout the entire KMK facility, and all of our documentation has recently been fully digitized for easier storage, sharing, and accessibility. 

Advanced Equipment to Support Our Fabrication Capabilities

Recently, KMK added an MSS nitrogen generator, also known as a NitroCube, which provides us with the ability to generate and store all of the nitrogen that we need for laser cutting. The machine not only stores nitrogen at a much higher purity than we could otherwise purchase, and it’s entirely automated and monitored too so that it only produces as much nitrogen as it can store. The NitroCube has overall lower energy consumption than the more traditional ways of sourcing nitrogen, so it decreases both our production costs and our environmental footprint. 

Cleaner Energy for a Better Environment

KMK also has a field of 1440 480-watt solar panels, which power a significant portion of our facility, including our metal fabrication, manufacturing, and automated powder coating machines. Thanks to this addition as well as several other smaller improvements across the shop, our energy consumption today is just a little higher than the amount of energy our solar panels produce. 

Are you looking for a partner in metal fabrication?

KMK is a metal fabrication company dedicated to ensuring our customers’ success. If you’re interested in working with us, head over to our website to request a quote.