FOCUS ON DIGITALISATION
Sustainability in action
A project consortium headed by TRUMPF and including thyssenkrupp Materials Services and the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA is investigating ways of reducing carbon emissions in sheet-metal processing . The goal is to create a freely accessible online platform that companies can use to accurately determine the carbon footprint of any component .
“ Digitalisation is the key to mitigating the climate impact of industry ,” said Jens Ottnad , TRUMPF project lead . “ As a leading supplier and user of digitally networked production systems , we have everything it takes , together with our project partners , to make the world of sheet-metal processing more sustainable .”
The project was launched in June 2023 and will run for three years . Germany ’ s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action ( BMWK ) is providing funding of 8.3 million euros .
An online platform will enable companies to identify which measures , implemented at which stage of production , will result in the greatest reduction of carbon emissions . For this purpose , TRUMPF and thyssenkrupp Materials Services will connect their own IT systems to the platform .
“ To reduce emissions , companies must first know the size of their own carbon footprint ,” explained Sebastian Smerat , project lead at thyssenkrupp Materials Services . “ The new online platform will give them the transparency they need for that . In turn , this will simplify compliance with regulations and lay the foundations for a circular economy .”
Using machine and production data , the project partners will be able to determine the impact of measures intended to increase sustainability . This includes the concrete reduction in carbon emissions that companies can achieve when they produce a greater number of components from a specific amount of metal or avoid unnecessary shipments of materials .
“ One specific feature of de : karb is that it aims to cut carbon emissions by making optimisations along the entire value chain ,” added Marco Huber , project lead at Fraunhofer IPA . “ For this , artificial intelligence ( AI ) and machine learning will play a central role .”
According to the BMWK status report on climate action , the production of steel and sheet metal is responsible for around onequarter of all industrial emissions in Germany .
In particular , production of the raw material consumes a large amount of energy . A project priority will therefore be to improve the utilisation of materials in production . To this end , TRUMPF is working on new nesting technologies that use AI to increase the number of parts that can be cut from each sheet of metal .
At the same time , the project will focus on the optimisation of production scheduling . Here , Fraunhofer IPA is looking at how AI can be used to factor in ecological considerations during the production process . This might
The dual PFO expands TRUMPF ’ s laser system technology .
Left : The Dual PFO from TRUMPF is particularly suitable for processing large components such as welding hairpin stators on electric motors .
Laser cutting on TRUMPF systems .
involve scheduling energy-intensive steps , such as laser processing , for times when maximum electricity from renewable resources is available . In addition , such production strategies are intended to give companies the freedom to process orders flexibly .
Thyssenkrupp Materials Services has been tasked to coordinate material flows , value streams and data streams by using a digital platform that is still to be developed . This will provide full traceability of input materials and their characteristics . The use of uniform standards will ensure the requisite connectivity .
Manufacturing ’ s ecological footprint is becoming an increasingly important competitive factor . As such , this project also responds to the changing needs of customers and companies .
ISMR September 2023 | ismr . net | 97