Industry 4.0 in shop floor digitally connects men, machines, equipment and process

January 3, 2022 4:06 pm

Human workers will not become completely obsolete, but their roles will be completely different.

Technological growth towards I4.0; the way towards higher productivity 

Talking about the industry readiness on the technology front of the new gen machine tools, Rajashekara says, the CNC machine tools includes all sorts of metal cutting, including turning milling, drilling, grinding, whether they are compatible to work in an environment called Smart factory or industry 4.0. The new gen machine tools are ready to fit in metal cutting or Industry 4.0 to make the factory completely the smart factory. So, when I talk about the smart factory of the machines, the process of the people and the manufacturing, the productivity, overall equipment efficiency are key factors to work collaboratively through using Internet of Things or Industry Internet of Things. 

Smart factory system 

Machine tools will become a part of this smart factory system and Industry 4.0 will change them in a range of ways and through them change the manufacturing entire domain and this is where we look at few aspects of that. So, fundamentally the industry 4.0 in a shop floor digitally connects all resources like men, machines, equipment and process. All processes located are digitally monitored continuously in the real time. There is no delay between the shop floor to the top floor, moments of material through the shop floor are tracked in real time; the information is collected from each machine and each process and each tool and each person will be displayed in visual form for management – that is for the top management. So, smart factories bring real time monitoring and improve efficiency as well productivity in the manufacturing unit. 

In today’s scenario every machine tool OEM customers are looking at how the machine is productive, how the machine can be prevented from going for any kind of a breakdown. How we can eliminate the non productive times in the machine which arises out of various reasons in the shop floor. That would be looked at in order to increase the productivity of their products. Looking at these, machine tools are now ready for the smart factory systems or smart factories. Industry 4.0 will change them in a range that I really believe. Few factors I would like to highlight on the key benefits of what we are going to draw out from this Industry 4.0 on the machine tool front. 

Machine Tools sensors and predictive maintenance 

One is we are looking at preventive maintenance of metal cutting machines or metal forming machines. We look at the main tenets of Industry 4.0 which is a data collection that we are aware of. Machine tools will have sensors absolutely apart from the sensor which are built to monitor internal tool breakages, but we are also monitoring the real time data providing all the sensors which are compatible for Industry 4.0. By collecting these data missions could be to work when a component needs a replacement well in advance. This is what we call predictive maintenance. Normally we follow the preventive maintenance but Industry 4.0 helps or facilitates the assessment of any possible component which may be under failure because of any unpredicted loads or forces which are coming into this. This helps a lot in reducing the downtime of the machine. The second part is to improve utilisation of the equipment, this is a major factor we call it OEE (overall equipment efficiency). How do we make this machine more compatible and more productive? That is another measure which brings a lot of benefit to my customer. For instance, many times we found that machines are typically actively cutting the metal, maybe not more than 40 percent. Those and the rest of the things are going with idle time change of tool and many other aspects including the downtime. So, how we can plug this with the real time data that we are capturing from the various sensors not only for the hardcore of the metal cutting process around the machine. Many aggregates also will contribute to less efficiency. So, this is another factor that we take as a data. 

Green machine and energy conservation 

Third and very important is energy. Today every machine needs to be built for energy conservative mode. Machine tools are going to be built now; most call it a green machine, that’s what I would call but however, these smart machines and factories can also collect the data on energy efficiency or energy conservation. To optimise we conserve energy. This is another factor that we look at from Industry 4.0 and we are working on that. Sometimes it so happens, machines are built with the maximum limits, but there is insufficient knowledge or maybe greediness. Sometimes, customers may go for improper use of the machines in such scenarios, it may damage the accuracy of the product, of the machine, it may also damage the life of the components in terms of the expected life in such scenarios, these sensors will send the data with respect to such environment to the cloud and we assess them and real time data is available in front of the decision makers. So, that helps a lot in making the life of the product much more intended. 

Improving quality Assurance 

A factor that improves quality assurance, manufacturers spend a lot of time on resources on quality assurance and care, not to let any faulty products slip through the massive amounts of data, which is coming from smart machine tools that could help them to spot potential quality and issues. If a machine operates, it typically will show up the invalid data. So this is where the Industry 4.0 data we are collecting related to the quality would also help in terms of bringing the more quality products to my customers. However, last but not the least is a change in the role of humans. We cannot stay back the way that we were a decade ago. Now we need to uplift ourselves in terms of the roles and responsibility to suit the new environment. That means human workers will not become completely obsolete, but their roles will be completely different. We need to do something much more than what the system is doing. So that is a level of future expectations from all our end engineers who are going to work in such an environment called smart factories. 

Digital backbone: Industry 4.0 made more futuristic 

When you look at a model of a smart technology centre, many equipment, machineries and metrology equipment are connected digitally within the shop floor. The real time data that we’ll be able to draw out from every machine and digital input of production process material is also brought into that. Many sensors are incorporated not only within the machine but also on the aggregates like coolant system, lubrication system, including the electrical control cabinet. 

So let’s calculate the connection of all resources to the internal server as well as to the cloud wireless communications being installed in every machine. The devices communicate the data from devices to the server as well. So, with real time collection, analysis and display of production status, resource utilisation, overall equipment efficiency and productivity could be easily measured out of this. All data is taken as real time data and production analysis, measuring the accurate OEE and its components in the real time and equipment precisely identifying the machine stoppages and other losses, improving the cycle times by reducing in cycle losses. 

Process monitoring is another factor We would measure in terms of the energy of every machine being consumed, whatever may be their format, kilowatt or a power factor or various aspects which helps in reducing the energy losses. Also, we look at the visual factory that provided a lot of displays at the shop floor for the operators that display at the top floor for the top management at various inputs that would come across from these machines. After getting the data, analysing the data, what needs to be brought in front of different levels of people. These are some of the applications that are incorporated in the shop floor that is a machine connected to acquire the rich accurate production data. And also we have brought a lot of IO link masters to connect from sensor to the devices or the server through the internet of things. And also these are some special sensors that we have installed, incorporated in machines like lubrication flow sensor, air pressure monitoring system, electrical panel temperature measuring system, which also plays an important role, when we have the electronics drivers and controls. 

At the same time the coolant flow also makes a huge sense when we are cutting the metal in terms of the flow or in terms of the level that should also come for reduction of productivity. These are examples of some of the sensors which are physically installed in machines. So energy monitoring systems on every machine are installed on top of that. RFID trackers identify in terms of the traceability of that particular component in real time, where it is, why it is, and how it is. This helps in more traceability of solutions. These are all typical benefits that we are drawing out. However, Industry 4.0 is not a standard that needs to follow the same, we need to identify as a manufacturer where and how the time is being lost and where the rejections are happening. And how do we plug all these gaps and how we bring that more productivity is the key factor. 

So data or real time data, helps in taking the decisions to address if something is going wrong and how we can address prediction well in advance to sort out that problem. Concluding from the last sentence is that Industry 4.0 is definitely doable and it is not expensive, though it can be done to any floor. Even if we have a conventional machine still the data can be collected through the sensors and it can be analysed through a lot of software that is available and brought to the top floor for better utilisation of equipment.