manufacturing | Industry 4.0
year the organisation introduced its Euromap 77 technical standard, which lays down an Industry 4.0 compliant interface protocol for communication between injection moulding machines and central computer-based manufacturing execution systems (MES). This first Industry 4.0-compliant protocol
Industry 4.0 has to be open: Stefan Engleder, Engel
from Euromap is based around the OPC Foundation’s OPC UA (Unified Architecture) communication protocol, which is claimed to be platform and operating system independ- ent, firewall-friendly and future-proof. Early this year, Euromap signed a memorandum of understanding with the OPC Foundation that it says will lead to the development of further communication protocols covering a wide range of plastics process- ing equipment. Many plastics machinery
makers agree on the inevitability of the adoption of Industry 4.0. However, given its relative immaturity, predictions and implementa- tions vary considerably across the plastics machinery sector. Newly incumbent Engel CEO Stefan Engleder, for example, says digital solutions such as Industry 4.0 compliant products are now one of the three pillars in the Austrian-headquartered company’s future develop- ment strategy (the other two being globalisation and systems solutions). He says Industry 4.0 has been a day-to-day reality for its development teams for some time now, adding that it shares much in common with the requirements and objectives of the company’s Inject 4.0 software solutions for “smart” factories. “Firstly the networking of machines, locations and
Industry 4.0 will change the working world: Hans Ulrich Golz, Krauss- Maffei
companies; secondly transparency through the visualisation and analysis of process data; and thirdly assistance systems, which enable the autonomous optimising of processes,” he says. “The fourth indus- trial revolution is presenting us, and indeed the whole sector, with challenges, some of which are completely new. Many of the issues go above and beyond our usual fields of expertise.” It was the realisation that the company would need additional expertise that was a key factor in its decision last year to buy Austrian software firm TIG Technische Informationssysteme, which has long been its partner in development of its e-Factory manufacturing execu- tion system (MES). Despite acquiring the company, Engleder says its strategy is to keep it independent (TIG supplies its Authentig MES software to many other
42 INJECTION WORLD | January/February 2017
Engel’s first Industry 4.0 products include its Inject 4.0 predictive maintenance system
Schematic showing Engel’s vision of a “smart factory”
machinery suppliers and directly to processors). He says it wants to see new
Industry 4.0 enabling features added to
both its own e-Factory and the Authentig software. “Why? Because we believe that Industry 4.0 cannot be differentiated by integrators – it has to be open,” he explains.
Among Engel’s first Industry 4.0 products is its new smart service predictive maintenance system. Part of its Inject 4.0 suite, the system operates via the com- pany’s new
e-Connect.Monitor to analyse the state of process-critical machine components in real time. Unlike its iQ series of process optimisation software tools, which operate at a local level,
e-Connect.Monitor requires the processor to provide access to key machine data. Engleder says that calls for mutual trust and highlights the need for partners in Industry 4.0 projects
KM’s DataXplorer system can display, visualise and evaluate up to 500 data outputs
www.injectionworld.com
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