Industry 4.0 | Foundry digitalisation
The central issues in the digital foundry are near real-time, reliable communication between different devices and systems and decentralised evaluation of process data in real time. Thanks to our ELECTRONICS measuring system, these elements of digitalisation are possible today.
The future offers completely new possibilities for process analysis. A combination of OPC-UA interface and IO-Link will become an integral part of process mapping. In the near future, for example, it will be possible to predict the remaining service life of a sensor, enabling downtime for sensor replacement to be prevented because the work can be planned. With IO-Link sensors, it is possible to set the application-specific configuration of the sensor with user-friendly applications. This saves time and money for replacement.
Process optimisation and process automation are further important aspects of digitalisation. Whereas previously the caster or a person responsible for the process had to stop the casting cell manually as soon as a defective product was detected, our ELECTRONICS measuring system now does this for you. For safety reasons, the manufacturers of die casting machines do not yet allow active intervention in the production process and correction of the casting parameters via the measuring system. However, it is possible to set the system to a defined state via signals from the measuring system. Real-time software intervention and the graphic display of individual process parameters which exceed tolerances enable appropriate action to be taken to effectively prevent the production of further rejects. This leads to significant cost savings.
With our evaluation software installed on their computers, process engineers can analyse process data in detail to identify the processes that can be optimised. Optimisation of reaction speed is an increasingly important aspect here, as productivity requirements continue to rise despite increasing demands on quality.
Contact us and we'll be pleased to advise you on the application possibilities for our products. Functions have already been implemented in the measuring software to enable the stored measurement data to be analysed with the help of statistical representation. For example, it is possible to identify whether a problem reoccurs cyclically within a certain period of time. Short peaks can also be easily detected and analysed in this way. In addition, statistical functions such as the calculation of CP, CPK values or a Gaussian bell curve can be displayed for each individual process variable.
Pareto charts show at a glance what percentage of the parts were OK, test parts or rejects.
The trend display enables you to clearly see when a process parameter is drifting in a certain direction (either towards the lower or upper tolerance limit). This allows targeted countermeasures to be implemented, effectively helping to prevent rejects or rework.
Thanks to unique identification with a time stamp and shot number, each dataset in the measurement database can be assigned to a specific part. This ensures traceability of the individual products at all times.