CONTROL | INDUSTRY 4.0
Another project at JKU is its own LIT Factory, a pilot-scale operation conceived to develop and demonstrate the use of Industry 4.0 tools in plastic processes including extrusion, injection moulding, and recycling. Leistritz is one of the industrial partners in the project. Institutes at RWTH Aachen have been collabo-
Above:
Knowing what data to collect will be a big challenge for compounders as they move to Industry 4.0 systems
safeguards need to be put in place to protect data so that it is shared as intended. Within the EU, upcoming data privacy regulations are creating uncertainty over the industrial data sharing that is a hallmark of Industry 4.0. Some are concerned that personal data, such as operator names, connected to equipment data could restrict sharing.
Future thinking Despite the clear challenges, research into cutting- edge Industry 4.0 tools continues. At the Linz Institute of Techology (LIT) within the Johannes Kepler University (JKU) at Linz in Austria, the Institute for Polymer Extrusion and Compounding (IPEC) is bringing together industry and academia to investigate several Industry 4.0 concepts. One of the projects, PRO2Future, is equipping a sheet line in a technical lab with sensors that will record up to 700 data points while the line is running. Research- ers will use this data to create a “digital twin” of the entire line, from the raw material input to (in the case of the sheet line) the winder. The digital twin is a model, based on actual process data, that simulates the process. Experiments can be run on the model to optimise recipes or processing conditions or to speed commissioning time.
rating on improving production systems for the past 14 years, but are now planning a new collabo- ration to research issues related to the “internet of production,” says Hopmann. “What we call the ‘internet of production’ will be a socio-technical environment of interconnected machines and devices from all over the world that provide access to a huge amount of production data analysed in various ways. The digital shadow of a production system that is formed in this way, will thereby support both research and industry with smart data to generate reliable models of real production processes,” he says. The challenge for plastics compounding will be
to generate process models and to identify the right data. “Data access is no longer the challeng- ing aspect as we have plenty of sensors and systems monitoring every single condition change of a production system, but interpretation is,” Hopmann says.
CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: �
www.ikv-aachen.de/en/ �
www.aimplas.es �
www.leistritz.com �
www.jku.at/ipec/ �
www.colvistec.de �
www.riverdaleglobal.com �
www.maguire.com �
www.piovan.com �
www.coperion.com �
www.entek.com �
www.jku.at/linz-institute-of-technology/ �
www.rwth-aachen.de
http://www.mecoseal.com/
PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
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