FOCUS ON DIGITALISATION
The cobot embodies the collaboration between human and robot .
this connection of the real and virtual worlds as a “ cyber-physical system ( CPS )”.
The economy is hoping for several advantages from the digital transformation of industry . The flexible factory of the future will make it possible to manufacture according to customer preferences and make production changes ranging up to the integration of new machines at any time without substantial effort . Machine utilisation levels will be higher , the consumption of resources will drop and there will be fewer rejects .
Determine your digitisation objectives
“ Digital technologies are transforming manufacturing . While you may not know exactly where you want to end up or what digitisation means for your organisation , it ’ s important to identify the kinds of business objectives that digitisation can support ,” commented software specialist , HSO .
“ Digitisation is all about transforming manufacturing operations using the latest technology — and it often starts with connecting factory floor equipment . Over the past few years , the cost of components that support connectivity has fallen dramatically . Consumables , such as RFID tags , now cost very little to include in products . Sensors are becoming more affordable , increasing the amount of new equipment sold with sensor capabilities built-in , while older equipment can be retrofitted , or IoT-enabled , at lower price points . At the same time , it is now possible to collect and analyse massive quantities of sensor and device-generated data , thanks to technologies like the cloud and advanced analytics ,” it continued .
Digital transformation means harnessing capabilities like these to gain insights that you can use to make manufacturing operation faster , more efficient and more flexible . HSO highlighted the following benefits of digitallyenabled manufacturing below :
■ Improved visibility across your manufacturing operations — make more informed decisions with a real-time picture of operational status .
■ Improved utilisation — maximise asset performance and uptime with the visibility required for central monitoring and management .
■ Reduced waste — take faster action to reduce or prevent certain forms of waste , thanks to insight on key production metrics .
■ Targeted cost savings — benchmark resource usage and identify inefficiencies to support operational improvements .
■ Improved quality — detect and prevent quality problems by finding and addressing equipment issues sooner .
“ In addition to understanding the possibilities , it is important to determine target business objectives . This helps provide the foundation for a business case and serves as a benchmark for proving value ,” added HSO .
A common machine tool language
Another important prerequisite for smart factories is the ability of machines to communicate with one another , with higher-level IT systems and even with the workpieces and production workers . However , the networking of existing facilities quickly reaches limits , since machines from different vendors usually communicate using different data interfaces and protocols .
However , several solutions to this have been investigated , including Fraunhofer ’ s own Plant Adapter . This is an industrial data gateway for universal connection of machines and other components in manufacturing and production infrastructure . It collects a wide variety of production and machine information and prepares it for reading and processing on a platform-independent basis .
A universal solution , known as UMATI , is also under development . UMATI ( universal machine technology interface ) is an initiative and a community of the machine building industries and their customers for the promotion and adoption of open , standardised interfaces based on OPC UA . It facilitates data exchange between machines , components and installations and their integration into customer- and user-specific IT ecosystems . It wishes to exploit new potential for manufacturing of the future by :
■ Simplifying the machine connection to customer-specific IT infrastructures and ecosystems .
■ Simplifying machine-to-machine and machine-to-device communication .
■ Reducing costs through faster realisation of customer-specific projects .
The publication of a new ‘ OPC UA for Machinery ’ specification has moved industry closer to the goal of a global ‘ production language ’ for machine tools .
UMATI also aims to produce OPC UA Companion Specifications to define globally applicable semantics for machinery ; Communication Default Requirements for the implementation of an OPC UA environment ( to allow plug-and-play connectivity between machines and software ) and Quality Assurance through testing specifications and tools , certification and by serving as ombudsman for supplier-client disputes .
The long-term aim is for this to be established as a product label to signal trust and reliability to end customers . The initiative has been jointly supported by the VDMA and VDW since April 2020 .
16 | sheetmetalplus . com | ISMR December 2021 / January 2022