Increasing digitalisation in metal cutting

For Industry 4.0 the produced data must not only be recorded, but also transmitted on a non-proprietary basis. Standardisation is the only way to clear this hurdle. It will be one of the topics in the new special “Digital Way” show and congress during AMB, International Exhibition for Metal Working, which will be held in Stuttgart from 18 to 22 September 2018.

Machine tools have now already reached a high level of perfection. However, anyone still wanting to make significant economic improvements and therefore gain advantages in future can only actually do this through interaction with the other components in the complete system and even by means of cross-company cooperation. According to the study "Industry 4.0 in small and medium-sized companies" conducted by the management consultancy Deloitte in 2016, for example, 90 per cent of small and medium-sized companies primarily associate the term Industry 4.0 with digitally networked systems.

VDW initiative will pave the way
This has also been recognised by the German Machine Tool Builders' Association (VDW). With its recently announced industry initiative, the VDW presented a specific timetable on how machine interfaces are to be standardised. "The objective is to develop a standard for connecting many different machine control systems to a common interface – a connector – and implement it using software," said Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Prokop, Chairman of the VDW, during the presentation of the industry initiative. First of all, an interface specification will be formulated. A connector stack will then ensure that the signals from different control system interfaces are translated into the open format OPC UA (Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture). Finally, a gateway will be implemented through which different computer systems and Clouds can be connected via a standard protocol.

A core team comprising the companies DMG Mori, Emag, Grob, Heller, Liebherr-Verzahntechnik, United Grinding and Trumpf, all of whom are AMB exhibitors, is participating in the first project phase. According to the United Grinding Group, standardisation and a common language for the systems are definitely the key to the current Industry 4.0 visions. Christian Josi, Project Manager for Hardware/Software Engineering at the group member Fritz Studer AG: "Industry 4.0 can really be implemented in technical terms.

However, if the standards cannot be unified due to individual interests, the machines will continue to remain isolated solutions.”

DMG Mori also regards networking of the installed basis as a still relevant barrier at present to the implementation of Industry 4.0 projects. The VDW project will make it easier for machine tool manufacturers to connect machines and evaluate data systematically and in real time. Connectors could also help to network machines from different third-party suppliers in order to realise data driven services and/or IoT applications.

Interfaces: one topic in the “Digital Way”
The initial results of the initiative will be announced in the first quarter of 2018, and further advances will probably follow during AMB. As a precursor to Industry 4.0 in practice, they will certainly play an important role during the new special “Digital Way” show and congress. An expert conference and an accompanying exhibition will also be staged. Interactive showcases will explain the interaction between networked processes in companies and their value-added.

Thomas Hösle, Managing Director of Elabo, a subsidiary of the Euromicron Group, stated clearly that standardisation will be a key topic. He wants to overcome prejudices that digitalisation standards are not available, that the implementation costs are too high and, in particular, that small medium-sized companies do not have the necessary manpower: “These prejudices must now be banished and this trend must not be ignored.” This can be experienced live in Elabo's smart factory and through the participation of numerous AMB exhibitors at the East Entrance.

In particular, manufacturers of control systems must support the flow of data into and especially out of the machine tools. These manufacturers do not always do this enthusiastically since a large amount of product know-how is involved here. Michael Marzluff, Deputy Division Manager CNC Europe Mechatronics CNC at Mitsubishi Electric Europe, has a different opinion. He explicitly welcomes standardisation:
"End customers, i.e our customers' customers, say that they can connect the machines more quickly based on a standard. We must be able to use this standard because it is a customer requirement." We therefore already have an IoT gateway module in our product portfolio.

Machine manufacturers also benefiting
According to the machine tool manufacturer Emco, standardised interfaces offer considerable advantages for customers when networking machines in heterogeneous machine parks. For Emco itself - the company uses control systems from Siemens, Fanuc and Heidenhain – "a common interface makes it easier to carry out development work and also sell machines," explained Dr. Christian Klapf, Head of Research and Development.

This is the reason why Emco has already implemented the research project entitled “OPC4Factory” together with the Institute for Production Engineering and Laser Technology (IFT) at Vienna Technical University. An OPC-UA server, including an information model for the WinNC control system from Emco, was developed during this project. Klapf: "We will superimpose the results of the project and the VDW industry initiative, and therefore plan the next steps." During AMB 2018 there are plans to show how different Emco machines can communicate with different control systems via a standard and how they can be networked with other heterogeneous machine parks.

The positive effect of a standard is confirmed by Jonas Ruesch, Manager Software Development Digital Transformation at GF Machining Solutions: "A standardised interface for machine control systems is a basic precondition for the implementation of flexible applications which our customers in the Industry 4.0 environment are demanding." A connector stack, as envisaged in the VDW initiative, would also significantly reduce the costs of developing solutions independent of the control system. Incidentally, another important precondition for producing individualised products with a batch size of one since, "for example, the retooling time could be reduced considerably." GF wants to find a way to "link as a common representation" the data model of the machine control system with the other data which are processed in the machine.

Standard corresponds to the customer's requirement
Kasto must now already be able to "easily integrate its saws in a digitalised and uniformly controlled material flow," said Sönke Krebber, a member of the Board of Management. Unnecessary interfaces should therefore be avoided if possible – this is the reason for "actively supporting" the industry initiative. Kasto is already a member of a consortium of leading manufacturers of sawing machines and tools and various research institutes in order to develop a networking concept in sawing technology. "The basis is a common communication standard which takes account of all important process data and permits controlled reading and writing access for every participating production partner."

Precision tools are also benefiting from digitalisation and networking. Dr. Niklas Kramer, Product & Industry Segment Director at Sandvik Tooling Deutschland: "Generally speaking, digitalisation represents an opportunity for our company to provide our customers with application know-how in a direct and purposeful manner." According to Dr. Kramer, however, the initial state must be known in order to be able to provide proper advice.

“Specific context data from the machine tool are a huge step forward in this respect. The easier and more uniform the data are available to us, the greater the user benefits.”

The robot manufacturer Kuka is moving towards networking via the Cloud. “The robot, the machine tool and other production equipment can be connected to the Kuka Cloud in order to collect and analyse data there for the purpose of optimising production processes,” explained Business Development Manager Winfried Geiger. During the next AMB Kuka will show how this can be implemented in practice by means of a fully automated, networked robot cell in which two Heller machining centres are integrated. All active components are connected to each other and to the Kuka Cloud via the Kuka connectivity box.