Connected CNC Machines: Real-Time Insight for Service Teams and Plant Operations
A Robustel Application Example
Application Example – Fast Facts
Industry
Industrial IoT, CNC machine builders, contract manufacturers, precision machining workshops
Product(s)
EG Series Gateway; RCMS (RobustLink, RobustVPN)
Challenges
CNC machines are critical assets, but they’re often isolated on the factory floor. When a spindle alarm or controller fault stops production, support engineers can’t see the machine state unless they are physically on site. That means long stoppages, expensive callouts, and slow recovery.
Expected Outcomes
Give each CNC machine a secure, managed data path to the outside world. Let engineers view live status, pull logs, and guide corrective action remotely. Cut downtime without sending a technician to stand in front of the cabinet.
When the line stops, the clock starts burning money
A CNC machine is a high-value asset with tight tolerances and high expectations. It blends motion control, sensing, drive logic, and programmed machining steps and when something drifts, scrap and missed delivery windows follow very quickly.
The problem is that most CNC machines sit on a production network that was never designed for remote support. Data from the controller is not easily accessible. Maintenance teams can’t pull meaningful diagnostics off the machine without interrupting operations. OEMs and integrators are often blind unless someone at the factory records screenshots and emails them.
By adding a Robustel Edge Computing Gateway to the machine and linking it to RCMS over a secure cellular or wired uplink, service teams regain visibility. The machine becomes something you can monitor, diagnose, and support without rolling a van.
Business Challenges
CNC maintenance and support teams face the same pattern in almost every facility:
- When a fault occurs, all you’re told is “the machine is down.” You don’t immediately know if it’s a spindle issue, a drive fault, cooling, a misloaded program, or operator error. Every minute lost waiting for context is production time gone.
- Access to the machine is controlled by the customer’s production IT/OT policies. External VPN access is often blocked, and local staff may not have permission to expose the controller or PLC to the outside world.
- Service is reactive and costly. An engineer is dispatched on-site, only to find a recoverable condition that could have been cleared safely if they’d had eyes on the controller at the time of the alarm.
- There’s no clean audit trail. After a manual adjustment, both sides — the machine supplier and the operator — need to prove what changed, when it changed, and whether the machine is still running in a supported state.
The result is predictable: more downtime than necessary, higher support cost per incident, and strained relationships between the machine supplier and the plant.
Solution Overview
The CNC machine is connected to a Robustel Edge Computing Gateway through a serial interface. From there, the gateway becomes the bridge between the controller on the shop floor and the people responsible for keeping that asset productive.
- Direct connection to the CNC controller: The gateway connects over RS-232 or RS-485 to the machine’s control system. Operational data — status, alarms, counters, temperatures, running program information — is read directly from the machine without altering the CNC’s core logic.
- Secure uplink off the shop floor: The gateway uses high-speed cellular (5G/4G/3G) or Ethernet, depending on what the site will allow, to create a dedicated path back to the support team. This avoids waiting for plant IT to set up special firewall rules or a custom VPN every time there’s a problem.
- Central visibility through RCMS: Data from each connected CNC machine is published to Robustel’s RCMS platform. From RCMS, service managers can see location, live state, network health, and configuration details. They can also review alarm conditions and understand what the machine was doing at the moment production stopped.
- Faster, targeted response: With live data and historical context, remote support can guide on-site staff through checks and recovery steps immediately. In many cases, they can confirm whether it’s safe to resume or whether a technician truly needs to travel.
- Scalable approach, not a one-off hack: Because the gateway and RCMS work as a combined hardware-plus-cloud solution, this is not a custom project for one plant. It’s a repeatable approach you can apply to every CNC machine you ship, anywhere in the world.
Expected Customer Outcomes
What success looks like for the customer and the machine supplier
For the machine supplier / integrator:
- You don’t start cold. Before a site visit, you already know the fault condition, the status of key subsystems, and what changed right before the stop.
- You spend less time negotiating access. The communication path is already there, under your control, and does not depend on the end customer’s corporate VPN.
- You protect service margins. Fewer unnecessary callouts, shorter time to resolution, and better data to defend SLA performance.
For the end customer / plant:
- Downtime drops. Recovery starts in minutes, not hours, because remote support can see the controller and advise immediately.
- Quality is protected. Trends and alarms can be captured and reviewed, instead of relying on handwritten notes after the fact.
- Everyone gets traceability. Both plant and supplier know who changed what and when, which reduces finger-pointing and speeds approvals.
In practical terms: when the CNC stalls, people act with information instead of guessing.
Featured Products
Robustel EG5120 Gateway
RCMS Cloud Device Management
Talk to an Expert
If you build, sell, or support CNC equipment, you shouldn’t have to fly blind the moment your machine leaves the factory.
Talk to us about adding managed connectivity and remote service access to your next build — so you can see issues earlier, fix them faster, and protect uptime for every customer.