RESEARCH NEWS
Bundled competence for battery production
The official kick-off meeting has now taken place for the “ ENLARGE – Interoperable Production as Enabler for a Data-Driven Battery Value Chain ” project at Schuler ’ s facility in Göppingen . The project is publicly funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research ( BMBF ) with the official funding code , 03XP0539A . The aim is to pool the expertise of German and European companies to better serve the growing market for battery cell production equipment and to create a counterweight to established suppliers , especially from the Asian region . The project is scheduled to run for three years .
“ The goal is flexible , networked and adaptive battery production ,” explained Dr . Hermann Uchtmann , responsible for corresponding solutions at German stamping specialist , Schuler . “ This is the only way that mechanical and plant engineering in Germany and Europe will be able to bid for equipment for the gigafactories that are being set up around the world .”
Partners of the “ ENLARGE ” project are advancing the digitalisation of the battery production process chain . Image courtesy of Schuler .
The ENLARGE project therefore aims to create uniform interfaces for data exchange . Based on existing standards such as EPCIS , ISO / IEC 19987 , OPC UA and associated Companion Specifications ( CS ), a kind of meta-standard for battery cell production is being created in this way which will facilitate the entry of suppliers and enable the networking of systems with each other . The project focuses on the use cases of traceability , battery passport and process optimisation .
In addition to Schuler Pressen GmbH , project partners are FFT Produktionssysteme GmbH & Co . KG ; European EPC Competence Center GmbH ( EECC ); Elabo GmbH ; the German Engineering Federation ( Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau e . V .); the Fraunhofer Research Unit Battery Cell FFB ; the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA ; the wbk Institute for Production Engineering of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Chair of Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components ( PEM ) at RWTH Aachen University .
Associated project partners include Siemens AG ; SAUERESSIG Group ; NanoFocus AG ; SICK AG and Maschinenbau Kitz GmbH . Project Management Jülich ( PtJ ) represents the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research ( BMBF ) in this function . n
www . schulergroup . com
Umati : linking old machines to new systems
What is the best way to connect old machines to new systems ? This was the question that spurred umati , the connectivity initiative of the mechanical and plant engineering industry , to organise a hackathon in cooperation with the international United Grinding Group . A total of 30 digitalisation experts from 17 companies attended the networking event in Steffisburg , Switzerland . The main focus of the hackathon was on bringing together experts to enable the exchange of data between existing ( so-called brownfield ) machine and software systems .
Umati ( universal machine technology interface ) is the global initiative for open communication interfaces for the machinebuilding industry and its customers . Machine makers , software manufacturers , component suppliers and users have joined forces to create a strong community aimed at promoting the use of open , standardised interfaces based on OPC UA Companion Specifications . Umati enables the exchange of data between machines , components and systems , and their integration into customer and user-specific IT ecosystems simply , seamlessly and securely . Dr . Alexander Broos , Head of Research and Technology , VDW ( German Machine Tool Builders ’ Association ) and the umati project manager , is pleased about the effective continuation of the work .
“ We were able to build on the successful launch in 2022 and also welcomed many new participants on board . The hackathon has attracted three further partners to the umati community . This shows us that there is still plenty of work to do in bringing about the intelligent networking of machines . More and more experts are recognizing how we need to collaborate across corporate boundaries , and which opportunities umati can offer in achieving our common goal ,” he said .
The participants formed a total of five teams and were able to test the implementation of OPC UA for Machine Tools for connecting up older machines . They were supported by United Grinding Group , Grob-Werke GmbH & Co . KG from Mindelheim and Wago GmbH & Co . KG from Minden which provided components for retrofitting .
In addition , one of the groups was able to
pre-test use of the soon-to-be-available OPC UA for Power Consumption Management Companion Specification for machine tools , gaining valuable insights that will be fed back into the standardisation process . The same applies to the participants of the hackathon .
Contributing to the further development of OPC UA specifications with practical experience from the field and supporting rapid implementation are some of the core tasks of umati . Ten mechanical and plant engineering subsectors have already joined forces in umati with their own individual OPC UA Companion Specifications .
“ The results from the individual working groups showed that umati allows even existing machines to provide standardised data . This was a textbook case of turning theory into practice ,” explained Christian Josi , Head of Digital Engineering & Digital Solutions , United Grinding , summing up the hackathon . Umati is set to continue this series of events to drive forward the development work and to network the industry . The next event is planned to coincide with EMO Hannover in September 2023 . n
https :// umati . org
https :// umati . app
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