As the technologies for Internet of Things and the Internet develop, Industry 4.0 is advancing at an unprecedentedly fast pace. At the 2016 International Exhibition for Plastics and Rubber in Düsseldorf, Germany, also known as K Show, the KraussMaffei Group presented a new electronic service platform (E-Service), which shows how processes between customer and service organization will be optimized in the future. The platform is one of the KraussMaffei Group’s newest technical solutions at K Show. The KraussMaffei Group with its brands KraussMaffei, KraussMaffei Berstorff, and Netstal is promoting the application and development of the Plastics 4.0 technologies, and providing its customers with corresponding solutions and services.
Under the name Plastics 4.0, it bundles its solutions into three categories: Intelligent Machines, Integrated Production, and Interactive Services. Intelligent Machines represents intelligent, self-optimizing machines, which improve productivity and quality. Integrated Production symbolizes seamlessly networked production, in which the individual machines and components communicate with each other and autonomously control the processes accordingly. Interactive Services must in turn be equated with systems and services based on state-of-the-art communication technologies in the environment of fast and globally active service.
Individual customer service in the future via the Internet
A situation that occurs every day worldwide: A machine urgently needs a spare part. The machine comes to a standstill. Fast action is required! What are the exact part designation and the correct product number? What is the quickest possible delivery and installation? To figure out these problems will take too much time. "With the future E-Service of the KraussMaffei Group, processes such as these will soon be able to be processed much more efficiently than before. This facilitates the processing of service cases in day-to-day business and will increase the system availability of our machines", states Renzo Davatz, CEO at Netstal and Vice President of Service in the Injection Molding Machinery segment. In the future the user will log in to the E-Service platform. His personal dashboard will offer him a detailed overview of his machine fleet on the screen. Manuals, service information, and application videos will also be stored here. "A part finder app on the smartphone or tablet computer will enable reliable identification of the required component using QR codes. Availability and price can be determined in a database, where an order function will also be integrated. A service ticket can also be opened here directly", explains Davatz. Additional buttons in the digital dashboard will offer quick access to numerous services, for example to current performance data of the integrated machines, the ticket system, and remote service. The E-Service team is working rigorously on the implementation of the E-Service. At K Show, KraussMaffei exhibited the potential and advantages of the E-Service to visitors in detail, which attracted many attentions.
APC plus with many new functions (Adaptive Process Control)
The E-Service portal falls into the important category of Interactive Services, which together with Intelligent Machines and Integrated Production form the three subareas of Plastics 4.0. "This fourth industrial revolution will radically change the working world. For instance by the self-optimization of intelligent machines, and thus achieving stable processes", states Dr. Hans Ulrich Golz, President of Injection Molding Machinery of the KraussMaffei Group. The APC plus machine functions already provide an indication. Compared with the predecessor version APC, which was successfully launched in 2014, it also offers additional functions and can thus respond even more specifically to process fluctuations triggered by changing ambient conditions, downtimes, or the use of recycled materials. For the first time the APC plus takes into account the specific property patterns of 20 basic materials – such as the melt compressibility – and then takes corrective action in the holding-pressure phase. During cascade injection molding, it controls the opening of the needle shut-off nozzles so that they always open at the same mold fill level. The result is always components with extremely consistent weights.
Complete traceability with new DataXplorer
"Integrated Production" is how the KraussMaffei Group defines this seamless networking of production over the entire process chain. For example, when an injection molding machine and dryer communicate, in order to achieve an optimal material flow and avoid idle times, or when the new DataXplorer provides an almost microscopic view of the process, thus making it possible to respond to unclear error patterns. Depending on the machine's equipment, it displays up to 500 high-resolution signal paths, visualizes the signal paths, and makes them available for evaluation. According to Dr. Reinhard Schiffers, Head of Machine Technology at KraussMaffei, an important application for the DataXplorer is also in documentation: "For safety-related components or in medical technology, it is important to be able to subsequently retrieve all quality-relevant process data for each individual injection cycle." Visitors at the K trade fair can see this by means of a FiberForm application. A QR code on the component gives them direct access to the specific production parameters, for example, the curves for heating the organic sheets or the injection pressure. This makes it possible to seamlessly trace all production and process data for each component globally, online via smartphone, tablet, or PC.
Euromap 77 – Standard interface between injection molding machines and host computer
In order to pave the way for Integrated Production, the leading injection molding machine manufacturers jointly defined the new Euromap 77 interface. The host computer interface realized via OPC-UA should ensure standardized communication between injection molding machines and a host computer system. Euromap 77 was officially unveiled at K 2016 at the exhibition stand of the VDMA (German Engineering Federation, Stand 16/F42). Data was transmitted in real-time by plants of various exhibitors in different exhibition halls. Machines from KraussMaffei are perfectly compatible with this interface. Data of injection molding machines from KraussMaffei and Netstal is visualized on the same demonstrator.
Analytics – Intelligent key performance indicators on smartphone and tablet
At its booth the KraussMaffei Group will use Analytics and present a prototype to show how added value can be generated in the future with production data of a company. The objective is to evaluate the abundance of data which modern injection molding machines already provide today and use it to optimize the production process. In order to show the possibilities of the Analytics application, injection molding machines from KraussMaffei and Netstal will send various key performance indicators and operating data to a local server. The trade fair visitors can view the generated data via a web application. This information allows the processor to work more efficiently, for example, with the early detection of faults.