ABOUT US
EDI was founded with a singular mission: to embrace efficiency and leverage our passion and expertise in automation
Our goal today is the same as it was in 1998; to create a platform for highly precise manufacturing of both standard and customized products. This concept of combining automation and customization in particular provided the challenge and the opportunity that EDI was looking for. While the larger players in this space were working on a distribution model, with high volume, low variance manufacturing, EDI believed it could compete without inventory, by creating a build-to-order model, and sell straight to OEMs. It set out to do just that and created a new category in the space; high accuracy, low-latency custom enclosures fabricated using proprietary manufacturing techniques and equipment to produce ready-to-wire enclosures that compete with standard boxes on all-in costs but outperform on every other metric.
This was the dream upon which EDI was built. Its story is one of an obsessive drive towards better efficiency through innovation. And it started with an automation engineer who had worked for GM, but had a calling for something different and chose to follow that call. After a few years as an industrial control agent, consulting on automation and efficiency, the idea of creating something tangible from scratch based on all the principles and modern automation practices, became clearer and more pressing. That journey of innovation began there.
| 1998 |
EDI is founded and gets CSA approval and the core machinery to begin production. EDI grows its client base for 10 years based on a wholesale distribution model to secure the necessary funding for the required capital expenditures to move the originally intended business model. |
| 2006 |
EDI partners with IRAP (Industrial Research Program,) on a machine learning and vision for robotics research program that leads to an in-house vision program that is more accurate than anything that came before. |
| 2007 |
EDI/IRAP project is completed and EDI establishes that parametric programming of industrial robots for scalable operations is indeed feasible. |
| 2008 |
EDI focuses on customization and automation and reduces its reliance on the distribution model. Revenue doubles over the next 2 years. EDI begins the integration of industrial robotics based on their research program for use in welding and metal finishing. |
| 2009 |
Additional R&D on the welding and grinding systems takes place with the aim of completely eliminating manual welding and metal finishing. A real-time vision based kinematic error correction system is integrated as well as a robot positional data generation system from a CAD file. |
| 2010 |
A new real-time kinematic error correction system is applied to MIG welding and grinding further improving performance and quality, and reducing manual input. A spring based end effector compliance system was also developed to provide incremental improvements. |
| 2011 |
EDI switches from MIG welding to spot welding, and completes the initial development of the position and orientation data generation from CAD file system for spot welding. |
| 2013 |
EDI elicits the help of a University of Carlton Professor of Mechanical Engineering to improve the robotic positional calibration and related mathematical models. The system is theoretically upgraded with laser mounts, 2 extra cameras and a light beam splitter that increase accuracy. Additional development is initiated for automation of sheet metal folding of components as well as the nesting of sheet metal parts. EDI also continues development of a factory equipment control system based on product design and sales order data. |
| 2014 |
Continued collaboration with Carlton University academics further improves the system’s accuracy and flexibility. Image analysis algorithms are improved, the development of the vision system using structured laser light cast on a folded sheet metal component continues, and a prototype end effector utilizing 14 vacuum cups is integrated to allow manipulation of the entire size range of sheet metal components fabricated at EDI. Additional innovations are ramping up as quality and accuracy continue to increase. |
| 2015 |
A new end-effector was developed to improve the performance of the company’s belt sander used on the welding robot. A sanding belt pressure control system and second belt were also added providing significant improvements to the weld bead finish quality while reducing manual input. |
| 2017 |
Development of new algorithms for a flexible software platform for motion planning and the operator interface for robotic applications is also undertaken. This will allow specific data to be derived directly from customer CAD files and fed to the robotic platform without the need for human intervention. |