The company has set its sights on rapid global expansion into the £100bn global industry responsible for the manufacture of parts for everything from the aircraft and automotive industries, to consumer, medical, defence, and oil and gas applications.
At the heart of the new approach is breakthrough AI software developed by CloudNC that shortens the programming time for CNC machining of parts from days or weeks of an expert’s time, to just a few minutes - with no expertise required. The software also leverages cloud computing to vastly reduce machining cycle times. These two advantages combine to enable breakthrough pricing, whether producing a single unit, or hundreds of thousands.
Factory 1, which opened in the spring in Chelmsford, Essex, is the first CloudNC factory. Using the best CNC machinery available from the likes of DMG Mori and Mazak, it also applies robotics from Erowa and embraces Industry 4.0 principles of connectivity and automation to deliver a faster, more reliable CNC parts machining experience to customers.
According to CEO Theo Saville: “CloudNC is on a development curve that has not been seen in the manufacturing space before. Just six months ago our Chelmsford site was just a couple of guys with laptops and some camping equipment. Now it is a highly efficient, highly automated facility functioning close to capacity and we are looking at Factory 2 and beyond while we continue to implement more autonomous I4 technologies at Factory 1 and apply what we learn at every step.”
CloudNC is entirely focused on building the world’s most efficient, most flexible factories, making machining faster, cheaper and at a much higher quality by applying the best practices of hypergrowth technology companies to manufacturing.
Says Saville: “Starting with a clean slate means we’ve been able to apply a digital-first approach from the outset, without needing to consider integrating existing legacy systems or technologies. Apart from our software, we’re also applying the best industry 4.0 technology available to make Factory 1 as efficient and flexible as possible – and where that technology doesn’t exist, or isn’t mature enough in our sector, we’re designing it.”
CloudNC’s ultimate mission is to provide a service that is fully automated. The pricing, the manufacture; even the raw materials will be shipped in and loaded automatically by robots in state-of-the-art factories. Inspection, verification, packaging and fulfilment will also be carried out autonomously, further reducing the time and cost of CNC parts manufacture for industry. Expert staff will take over only in the most challenging and interesting scenarios.
