Industry 4.0 / IIoT

One of the world’s leading automation companies Mitsubishi Electric is hosting a national event where visitors can explore the very latest technology being applied in smart manufacturing and discover how leading companies from a variety of industrial sectors are navigating their path towards digitalisation.

Industry 4.0 is a hot topic for everyone in the industry at the moment, and it is no different for SICK. The sensors company are inviting PPMA Total Show visitors to gain an exclusive behind-the-scenes insight into its pioneering new Industry 4.0 smart sensor production facility in Freiburg, Southern Germany.

As Industry 4.0 turns into a reality, businesses that are introducing more robots into the production environment will be able to benefit from increasingly efficient maintenance regimes. As with any asset, these critical machines will run at peak efficiency when operators have access to predictive maintenance tools. The latest predictive analytics solution supplied with Mitsubishi Electric industrial robots uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a key feature for optimisation.

With the EMO Hannover show just around the corner, it was interesting to see at the recent preview event what is to be expected, and what some of the exhibiting companies had to say in the run-up to the leading metalwork trade show. From the component, tool and machine tool industry, 38 exhibitors from across nine countries came to pitch their company and latest products and solutions.

Arrow Electronics has joined forces with ADLINK and Microsoft to launch an IoT solution to help industrial customers reduce costly unplanned production shutdowns by enabling machine condition monitoring. The solution is a continuation of Arrow’s IoT aggregation program that helps industrial companies quickly, securely and cost-effectively deploy and scale projects.   

The new EROWA Robot Easy 800 will be on show at this year’s EMO Hannover 2019 show, and you can find the automated system that opens up new horizons in machine loading located in Hall 12 on Stand E83. With the new robot parts, which measure up to 850x1,000mm with a maximum weight of 800kg, reliably can be delivered to the machine tools working envelope.

The era of Industry 4.0 heralds a model where individual production systems will no longer work in isolation but will be connected to business systems and be able to quickly adapt to changing needs. So, is there a place for SCADA in this emerging picture? Carl Nash, the enabler for the Smart Factory of the future, also known as a Technical Director at Products4Automation, explains, SCADA.

Smart factories and connected supply chains are presenting manufacturing companies with opportunities. Sophisticated automation and self-optimisation through machine-learning and AI are promising highly optimised processes and increased production efficiency – hence more productivity with the same input. By Anasthasia Westphal, Product Marketing Manager, Digital Security Solutions, Infineon Technologies.

Wireless communication is driving Industry 4.0 and 5G is at the forefront, with billions of machines, devices, and sensors just waiting to be connected. 5G plays such an important role that it is being designed with the industry’s needs specifically in mind. The thing with Industry 4.0, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), the connected industry – whatever you want to call it, one thing is undeniable: it is growing, and fast.

Startups are sought after. Many established companies are looking to make contact and cooperate with them and/or invest in them. Thomas Staufenbiel, one of the three founders of Gestalt Robotics GmbH in Berlin, is just such a sought-after businessman. At EMO Hannover, the company is presenting its tailor-made automation and artificial intelligence (AI) software on the startup stand of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology in Hall 9.