Industry 4.0 involves the deployment of ‘industrial internet’, or digitalisation and automation of the industrial process. Within this context, both the vertical and the horizontal value chains are to be integrated and the connection of people, machines and systems in real time, highly automated systems. Industry 4.0 is networking of all relevant technologies in an Internet of objects, services and data. This integration aims to meet the overall goal of improving production to be able to provide customers with fast and efficient responses to customer demands.
The PwC research also found that investment into the transformation of the value chain across European industrial companies will be €140 billion per year until 2020. Following these high levels of investment in the digitalisation of the value chains, the companies surveyed by PwC will see much of their transformed into an 'industrial 4.0' standard in the coming five years. Information and communication companies are now at 27% digitalisation and moving towards 80% by 2020.
Electronics and electrical systems will see the greatest digitalisation of their value chain, at 89% by 2020. In terms of companies by size, larger companies with revenue in excess of €5 billion will see the biggest growth, at 92%. Across all industries the average by 2020 is 83%.
Transforming the industry
For the plastics industry, Industry 4.0 is not new as big players have embarked on high-tech production and automation prior to the launch of this latest industrial revolution. “Smart manufacturing” has become a buzzword and a growing number of companies have been moving towards this goal by innovating and launching new technologies that will raise overall production efficiency through digitalisation and automation.
Wittmann Battenfeld manufacturing plant in Kottingbrunn, Austria took the limelight in a recent tour where the concept of Industry 4.0 was brought to the fore in a number of seminar presentations. The Wittmann Group has been designing and acting as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all the equipment needed in an injection moulding cell, automation, materials handling, temperature control and other related equipment in the plastics production process.
At its event, MacroPower Days, the big-tonnage injection moulding machines of the company were demonstrated along with other special products and services of Wittmann Battenfeld GmbH. The company also stressed the benefits of Wittmann 4.0, its version of Europe’s Industry 4.0 — where all machinery, production and quality information is linked seamlessly together, integrating and containing relevant data so that the equipment can self-adjust. Wittmann has spent years developing its interface – a special requirement to enable efficient performance of its injection molding machines, robots and other equipment. The company is set to make Wittmann 4.0 available in October.
Wittmann 4.0 links seamlessly together machinery and production information for efficient performance.
Networked machines and processes
With its automated Allrounder injection moulding machines, the freeformer for additive manufacturing and own IT solutions such as the ALS host computer system, Arburg is also embracing Industry 4.0 as it evolves into a system supplier for networked production in the digital factory. Industry 4.0 is now directly affecting Arburg, its customers and the entire plastics industry. The networking of all technical components and production data required for a manufacturing process as well as end-to-end production traceability play an important role.
Arburg is to present itself beyond machine technology as a production system supplier for plastic part production at the Fakuma trade fair. One highlight is the customisation of mass-production parts by combining injection moulding and additive manufacturing, including integration with Industry 4.0 technologies. "We have been working on the subject of Industry 4.0 for some time now. With automated allrounders, the freeformer for additive manufacturing and IT solutions, we are increasingly developing ourselves into a production system supplier for integrated production in the digital factory", stresses Arburg's Managing Partner Juliane Hehl.
The Arburg host computer system (ALS) seamlessly documents all relevant process parameters and forwards these to a web server. A web page displaying all the relevant process data can be opened via the unique code using mobile devices. Each individual part can be seamlessly tracked in this way.
Arburg evolves into a system supplier for networked production in the digital factory.
Read how Industry 4.0 is transforming the operations of leading players in the plastics industry in the latest issue of International Plastics News - Middle East and Africa.
