With its deep-rooted foundation of over two decades of experience in factory automation, specialty equipment and clean-sheet design and build of custom manufacturing systems, Intec Automation is not only an early advocate of automation but a support to pioneering companies who want to automate their factories and manufacturing plants. Per Corey Marcotte, General Manager at Intec, “Intec’s services encompass—initial concept, mechanical and electrical engineering, fabrication, assembly, and installation of custom automation systems and highly specialized machinery for unique process applications and product manufacturing. We help our customers automate simple and complex assemblies, manufacturing, inspection, testing, and web conversion processes—improve quality, increase throughput, and reduce downtime or defect rates.” Intec has camped its strong foothold in multifarious industries, including but not limited to medical and life sciences, automotive, aerospace, defense, security, consumer products, and packaging.

The process begins with an assessment of the customer’s needs to ensure a clear definition of their statement of work, request for quotation or specifications. Before Intec can design a solution, they ensure they understand the outcomes desired and the parameters that impact the solution’s success. Metrics are gathered such as cycle times, outputs, quality parameters, and delivery methodology. Quality metrics may also have to be defined from scratch if the shift is from a manual process to an automated process. In that scenario, quality control may require a camera to create the “machine vision.” The camera works the same way every time, whereas the performance of the same task done by manual workforce is inconsistent, no matter how well they are trained or how conscientious they are. Intec’s machine vision systems measure throughput, cycle time, quality uptime and more, based on parameters established to ensure quality control. Vision systems are always paying attention, so if there is a machine defect, it is found immediately at the root cause of the defect and the production line can be rerouted so the manufacturing process can continue.

We can help our customers automate simple and complex assemblies, manufacturing, inspection, testing, and web conversion processes— improve quality, increase throughput, and reduce downtime and defects

In some cases, Intec’s customers have an existing internal solution, that may be semi-automated or a machine that has been built in-house, where they don’t have all the safety guarding, data collection, and quality control required. Or maybe, the vision system needs to be refined, where the customer has built a prototype that has proven the concept but isn’t refined and prepared for full production. With the support of their mechanical and electrical engineers, Intec assesses the design, quality, and regulatory requirements, and then supports implementation with full OSHA standards and safety for a production environment to yield the proper throughput. Marcotte explains, “We take our customer’s concerns and put everything in a nice, clean package including mechanical design, electrical design, manufacturability, assembly, testing, and then installation.” With Intec’s help, their customer conceptualizes the prototype and then Intec “productionizes” the prototype to meet the customer’s internal and regulatory requirements to become a reality.

Intec’s roadmap includes building strategic partnerships with leading companies in their most dominant industry verticals and enhancing American capacity to upgrade manufacturing competitiveness. These two initiatives work well to support one another and the partnerships will enable Intec to build a stronger understanding of their customers’ needs within a specific market and develop new ways to increase their value to the customers. According to Marcotte, “Automation is moving at such an accelerated rate since it is a necessity for US manufactures to stay competitive in this global market. There is real success for companies that are both in automation business and for manufacturers who implement automation. Our goal is to build those strategic partnerships, for a win-win scenario.”