Industry 4.0 / IIoT

Festo will be showcasing its new developments and solutions for smarter automation, at this year’s Drive’s & Controls Exhibition in the Smart Industry Expo. Festo will be presenting new developments and products in Industry 4.0 technology; as a user within their own production, as the leading provider of training equipment and courses and as an automation product manufacturer.

Loud speaker and subwoofer manufacturer, Paradigm Electronics has implemented robots to assist with product polishing. Humans collaborate with the robots but no longer perform the entire time consuming and laborious task themselves. In fact, most jobs have been altered in some way by the introduction of Industry 4.0. Jonathan Wilkins, Marketing Director of EU Automation, explains how job roles are changing with Industry 4.0.

The dawn of the mechanical machines were first, followed closely by the introduction of electricity, and then we saw the third industrial era, the advent of computers and the internet. Now we enter the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ Industry 4.0 is bouncing from buzzword to reality. It is finally here, so Martyn Williams, Managing Director of industrial software provider, COPA-DATA UK, here examines what is needed to achieve Britain’s goal of becoming an Industry 4.0 leader in 2018.

Availability of the ix Industrial range from Hirose has been announced by RS Components. The range sets a higher standard for Ethernet interfaces and responds to future challenges posed by Industry 4.0 and the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things).

The IoT starter kit C-Control 10 just released by Conrad was developed in collaboration with Elco Industrie Automation and Microtronics. The kit simplifies entry into the Internet of Things (IoT) market, Industry 4.0, and digitisation for enterprises and developers.  

Instead of me facing you with another rhetorical question about, what technology we will see in 2018, or how digitalisation is all anyone wants to talk about, let me tell you about what I learnt from semiconductor company Infineon. The big focus for the company here is robotics, and more importantly; how does robotics translate into business opportunities? Well first of all the question is not necessarily how, but why? Infineon is a company that has four types of lead applications so why is robotics such an important focus?

Real time capabilities are required for companies that employ machine-to-machine communication to streamline manufacturing. IT resources deployed in close geographical proximity ensure that latency is low, and data readily available. The Rittal Edge Data Centre provides an effective answer to this need. It is a turn-key, pre-configured solution based on standardised infrastructure. It can be implemented rapidly and cost-efficiently - paving the way for Industry 4.0 applications.

At this year’s METAV 2018, there will be a forum on sawing technology being held for the first time on 20th February. It will be showcasing the latest developments and presenting applicationally relevant solutional approaches for simple single-blank cutting in a workshop environment all the way through to mass-production blank cutting.

Production is a large part of the engineering industry, and everyone is concerned and focussed on the future; Industry 4.0 and digitalisation. Therefore, a Smart Production Tour at SPS Drives seemed very fitting and exciting. Engineering Specifier went along to the three hour event to find out from a range of companies all there was to know about ‘smart production’ from WSCAD, Beckhoff, Balluff, Bosch Rexroth and B&R.

Industry 4.0 enables custom production, cross-border networking and optimal supply chains, and the digital transformation is helping companies open up new markets. The world has become smaller, but the opportunities are growing – so how do companies find them and use them? Global Business and Markets at HANNOVER MESSE can help to show the possibilities.