International Seminars on High Technology

Few would imagine that the first seminar on high technology held in 1996 in Santa Bárbara d’Oeste in the state of São Paulo by the Laboratory for Computer Application in Design and Manufacturing of the Methodist University of Piracicaba (UNIMEP) in partnership with the Institut für Produktionsmanagement, Technologie und Werkzeugmaschinen (PTW) of the Technische Universität Darmstadt of Germany would transform into an annual tradition. It would unite specialists, researchers and professionals on the UNIMEP campus interested in disseminating and learning about the major technological advances that have been made worldwide in the area of high speed manufacturing, technological innovations in manufacturing, integrated product development, product data management and STEP norms. Coordinated by Prof. Klaus Schützer of UNIMEP, the event is now in its tenth year, bringing together an increasingly larger number of interested people and strategic supports for national and international businesses.

The theme of the first event was “High Speed Cutting Manufacturing – Routing, Turning, Drilling.” One of the lecturers who was invited was the very Prof. Dr. Eng. Herbert Schulz who worked more specifically on the concept of “high speed cutting” with Brazilians. Other researchers of PTW complemented the approach, presenting technological principles for high speed manufacturing and the tool machines available for high speed cutting. Professionals involved in the everyday activities of industry, such as representatives of Siemens AG and Mannesmann Demag, also participated in this first event and made presentations on “Computerized numeric commands for high speed cutting manufacturing” and “Use of linear motors in tool machines.”

One year later in July 1997, the 2^nd International Seminar, also held at the UNIMEP campus in Santa Bárbara d’Oeste, adopted the theme of “High Speed Cutting and High Precision Manufacturing.” Since PTW is recognized as the principal German research center in this area, their specialists came to offer support to the debates and expositions. The engineers, Thorsten Finzer and Eckehard Kalhöfer complimented the presentation of Prof. H. Schulz on “Technological Tendencies in HSC,” by talking on “HSC Application in Manufacturing Molds” and “Dry Manufacturing,” respectively. Other professionals from Weiss GmbH., Diadur Industry and Romi Trade and Industry presented complimentary topics from the industrial area.

In 1996 the discussion and research on high speed manufacturing had still not been effectively initiated in Brazil. The seminars held in 1996 and 1997 introduced this technology, which was increasingly being applied in industries in Europe, Japan and the United States. Master’s and Doctorate theses dealing with this topic began to appear in various universities and the annals of the first seminars were and still are considered to be references.

Also in 1997 the European project, INCO-DC #96-2161- Festeval, was begun in which SCPM became one of the partners coordinating one of the areas. It is a project dealing with integrated product development, creating tools for digital integration along the product development chain. Within this context, the International Seminar on High Technology introduced a second theme for debate, which has been inserted every two years.

This is what happened in 1998 when the 3^rd Seminar developed the theme of “Distributed Product Development.” The encounter began to offer participants discussions on issues directly related to the demands of a higher quality product with less development time. Correlated to this were topics such as internal integration, client and supplier integration, single database sharing, and efficient digital data exchange between suppliers and clients. Talks were given by specialists from Germany, Italy and Brazil as well as reports from General Motors of Brazil on its experience of implementing the concept of virtual corporations and from Siemens of Germany on the adoption of a digital model.

One year later in 1999, the seminar adopted the perspective of analyzing what could be expected with technological innovations in the next century. Many of the most up-to-date professionals of PTW returned to Brazil, such as Prof. H. Schulz, Jürgen Geist and Joachim Dörr to discuss such issues as the criteria for the selection of HSC tool machines, influence of HSC parameters in NC programs, new perspectives for dry manufacturing, HSC drilling and flexible manufacturing systems.

It is important to note that the topics that were being discussed in these seminars for some years have now become integrated into the daily life of companies that have been acclaimed for their innovation and the competitiveness of their products in quality and price.

In 2000 the 5^th Seminar was held on the larger Taquaral campus of UNIMEP in Piracicaba and adopted the theme of “Technological Innovations in Product Development” in partnership with the Institut für Datenverarbeitung in der Konstruktion (DiK) of the Technische Universität Darmstadt in Germany, which is considered to be a world reference in the introduction of new concepts and technologies for product development, digital integration of the productive chain, cooperative work, product data technology, and STEP norms. One of the lecturers of the encounter was none other than the director of DiK, Prof Dr. Eng. Reiner Anderl, who talked on virtual development and product cooperative. The emphasis of the seminar was to give priority to the dissemination of new methods for cooperative development and virtual products, indicating how product data technology could be used. At the time of the seminar, such themes were relatively unknown in Brazil.

In 2001 the International Seminar dealt with the topic of “Advanced Manufacturing.” PTW, then under the direction of Prof. Dr. Eng Abele, and SCPM brought together specialists to talk about issues such as fractal production organization, new concepts in manufacturing organization, factory planning and manufacturing and logical systems, new developments in mold and die production, advanced manufacturing in hard systems, advanced tools for HSC manufacturing and the application of HSC technology in Brazil. From the perspective of industry, presentations were made by representatives of Sandvik GmbH of Germany, Lego Company, and Daimler Chrysler of Brazil Ltda.

“Technological Innovation in Product Development” set the tone for the 7^th International Seminar. New methodologies work within the demands of the global context for the adoption of digitally integrated processes along the entire product development chain, which has allowed for the development of product engineering activities for 24 hours per day with suppliers dispersed in various parts of the world. This encounter also analyzed the importance of these means for small and medium sized businesses so that they could use these methodologies in distributed product development. In bringing the most innovative tools for the reduction of the product development cycle, the seminar offered lectures that dealt with supports for the initial phases of the cycle, information and global data bank management, mechatronic analysis, geometric data conversion, CAx chain integration and management, knowledge management, life cycle management, information systems.

Expanding to include “Technological Innovation in Manufacturing,” the Seminar of 2003 continued to insist on the importance of adopting new technologies, processes and methodologies to guarantee the competitiveness of the business and its participation in the market. Previous topics were discussed again but with new focal points such as the application of HSC technology in Brazil, High Speed Cutting Manufacturing in production, industrial application of HSC technology, manufacturing of super-finishing and high speed manufacturing of light alloys. German, Canadian and Brazilian specialists offered presentations.

The most recent seminar occurred in October 2004 and returned to the theme of 2002, “Technological Innovations in Product Development.” However, it took renewed approaches such as early supplier involvement, product engineering innovations in the automotive industry, integration of physical and digital prototypes, integration and management of CAx chain, communication as a success factor in product development. Professionals connected to General Motors and Delphi Automotive Systems guaranteed their participation together with German specialists.

In these nine consecutive seminars, and now in the 10^th, the International Scientific Committee has brought together lecturers from Brazil and abroad who have been working closely with technological innovations and their successful implementation in industry.

As the hundreds of participants that have applauded the event and the frequent citations of seminar articles in masters and doctorate theses in various universities in Brazil demonstrate, the efforts taken have met the primary objective of disseminating new technologies. They also challenge the committees to continue holding high quality, annual international seminars on state-of-the-art technologies.