Visitors to Engel’s exhibition can try out the function and effect of Inject 4.0 solutions in real-time, get to know the latest products, and discuss questions and ideas with the Engel experts.
Gero Willmeroth, President Sales and Service at Engel Machinery, said: "Over the last one or two years, China has experienced a great deal of 4.0 hype. The subject has been and still is all the rage. We are now entering the stage of maturity here.
"The stage of maturity means that the major pioneering companies are starting to prove successful, and now smaller companies are also working on concepts with which to concretely implement the new opportunities. Many of our customers are astounded at just how easily the entry into digitalisation and networking can become a reality, and at the high degree of benefit already being offered by individual solutions. Smart factory, step by step – that is the motto.”
Engel believes one of the major strengths of its Inject 4.0 programme is its modular approach. Today, the injection moulding machine builder and system expert, headquartered in Schwertberg, Austria, is already offering a whole range of mature products and services for all areas of the smart factory. In the factory of the future, production processes will continuously self-optimise, allowing for highly flexible responses to ever more rapidly changing requirements. At the same time, this increases the efficiency, availability and productivity of manufacturing, as well as the quality of products.
ENgel
Engel at Chinaplas E-motion TL series
To achieve these goals, inject 4.0 relies on the networking and integration of production systems, the systematic use of machine, process and production data, and the use of decentralised, intelligent assistance systems. The inject 4.0 products and services by Engel cover all three areas of the smart factory: smart machine, smart production, and smart service.
During the four days of the exhibition, with the production of Inject 4.0 logos on an Engel e‑motion 80 TL injection moulding machine, Engel will tangibly demonstrate the potential of smart machine. The CC300 machine control is capable of simulating process fluctuations; the automatic readjustments by the intelligent assistance systems can then be tracked on the display of the machine. While iQ weight control maintains consistent injected melt volume throughout the entire injection moulding process, iQ clamp control monitors the mould breathing and continuously readjusts the clamping force. This way, fluctuations in the environmental conditions and in the raw material are automatically detected and compensated for within the same shot, thus preventing rejects.
At Chinaplas, Engel will present the areas of smart service and smart production in several Expert Corners.
The smart production Expert Corner is focused on the topic of MES (Manufacturing Execution System). Tailored to the specific requirements of the injection moulding industry, Engel’s solution achieves an especially deep vertical data integration, down to the level of individual cavities. The MES creates transparency, for example to optimally use the available capacity of a machine park, or to correlate productivity ratios with economic goals. It becomes especially interesting when, rather than just the production cells of a single site, an entire worldwide production network is connected. This allows company headquarters to also monitor processes at other sites, and to provide support even to far-away colleagues. The MES has a modular design. The solution can thus be adapted precisely to the individual requirements of the producer, and can be flexibly expanded as needed. For Asian producers, the new energy module may be especially interesting. It distributes pre-defined amounts of power to the individual consumers, thus helping to avoid performance peaks. “It is becoming clear that more and more producers here in China are relying on a MES for the optimisation of their processes,” says Willmeroth.
A new smart service solution for condition-based, predictive maintenance is also contributing to high availability. E-connect-monitor makes it possible to analyse the state of process-critical machine components, e.g plasticising screws, during operation, and to generate a reliable failure prognosis. This way, the service life of critical machine components can be fully used without risking unplanned system downtime.
Chinaplas 2017 Hall 4.1, Booth J4.