Industry 4.0: Retrofitting of Legacy MAchines for Smart Manufacturing

Brief introduction to retrofitting of legacy manufacturing systems, along with an online questionnaire

Automation a conveyor belt furnace for annealing metals in a protective atmosphere

Abstract The paper presents the revitalization of a conveyor belt furnace for annealing metal, which included the design and implementation of a control system based on a programmable logic controller. The goal of the revitalization of the furnace is its modernization through the digital transformation of technological process variables as a new form of data availability in the context of Industry 4.0. The application of a modern control system ensures optimal control of the technological process and thus significantly extends the useful life of the machine

Asset Administration Shell as an interoperable enabler of Industry 4.0 software architectures: a case study

In recent years, the discipline of Digital Transformation in manufacturing companies turned out to be a hot topic of research debate, which allowed the design and introduction of new technologies and tools able to exploit the potential of the data produced by the shop floor assets. This increased interest in data generation and management has however highlighted a crucial issue about the lack of standardised models and structures to share these data and ensure interoperability. Among the several concepts proposed by the recent initiatives devoted to solving or mitigating this issue, Asset Administration Shell (AAS) is increasing in popularity, given its potential in providing standardised and modular information about the assets and events represented. This paper deals with a demonstration of the easiness of integration of AAS in pre-existing software architecture, allowing higher flexibility and a better understanding of the ongoing processes: a production line has been indeed entirely represented with modular AAS metamodels and it has been used to feed a Digital Model representing the line configuration. The use case proposed proves the effectiveness of the obtained solution when used for virtual commissioning operations

A digital twin framework for the simulation and optimization of production systems

Industry 4.0 has raised the expectations on productivity, automation, and resource efficiency of manufacturing systems. This paper proposes a digital twin framework for the simulation and optimization of production lines and cells that can be used in the design and operation stages. The framework is supported by an architecture that connects manufacturing and machine tool data (digital shadow), the discrete event simulation model and the optimization engine, allowing for a variety of functionalities to plan and manage the production system. A use case is provided to demonstrate this framework, implemented in an automated line for the manufacturing of railway axles

A process plant retrofitting framework in industry 4.0 perspective

none8noRetrofitting old plants is an excellent alternative to their replacement to prepare them for industry 4.0. Many papers are related to retrofitting, but few studies concerned the process industries. A framework to retrofit a process plant is presented and applied to a two-phase mixing plant providing a guide starting from the plant study and ending with the I4.0 paradigm implementation. The approach allowed to improve plant safety and maintainability conditions. The several issues arising during the retrofitting can be related to its multidisciplinarity aspects, the recursion in the definition of new variables to be monitored, and the information flow management.openDi Carlo F.; Mazzuto G.; Bevilacqua M.; Ciarapica F.E.; Ortenzi M.; Di Donato L.; Ferraro A.; Pirozzi M.Di Carlo, F.; Mazzuto, G.; Bevilacqua, M.; Ciarapica, F. E.; Ortenzi, M.; Di Donato, L.; Ferraro, A.; Pirozzi, M

Digital Twin for Automatic Transportation in Industry 4.0

[EN] Industry 4.0 is the fourth industrial revolution consisting of the digitalization of processes facilitating an incremental value chain. Smart Manufacturing (SM) is one of the branches of the Industry 4.0 regarding logistics, visual inspection of pieces, optimal organization of processes, machine sensorization, real-time data adquisition and treatment and virtualization of industrial activities. Among these tecniques, Digital Twin (DT) is attracting the research interest of the scientific community in the last few years due to the cost reduction through the simulation of the dynamic behaviour of the industrial plant predicting potential problems in the SM paradigm. In this paper, we propose a new DT design concept based on external service for the transportation of the Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs) which are being recently introduced for the Material Requirement Planning satisfaction in the collaborative industrial plant. We have performed real experimentation in two different scenarios through the definition of an Industrial Ethernet platform for the real validation of the DT results obtained. Results show the correlation between the virtual and real experiments carried out in the two scenarios defined in this paper with an accuracy of 97.95% and 98.82% in the total time of the missions analysed in the DT. Therefore, these results validate the model created for the AGV navigation, thus fulfilling the objectives of this paper.SIMinisterio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidade

Low-Cost Digitalization Solution through Scalable IIoT Prototypes

Industry 4.0 is fast becoming a mainstream goal, and many companies are lining up to join the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Small and medium-sized enterprises, especially in the manufacturing industry, are the most heavily challenged in adopting new technology. One of the reasons why these enterprises are lagging behind is the motivation of the key personnel, the decision-makers. The factories in question often do not have a pressing need for advancing to Industry 4.0 and are wary of the risk in doing so. The authors present a rapid, low-cost prototyping solution for the manufacturing companies with legacy machinery intending to adopt the Industry 4.0 paradigm with a low-risk initial step. The legacy machines are retrofitted through the Industrial Internet of Things, making these machines both connectable and capable of providing data, thus enabling process monitoring. The machine chosen as the digitization target was not connectable, and the retrofit was extensive. The choice was made to present the benefits of digitization to the stakeholders quickly and effectively. Indeed, the solution provides immediate results within manufacturing industrial settings, with the ultimate goal being the digital transformation of the entire factory. This work presents an implementation cycle for digitizing an industrial broaching machine, supported by state-of-the-art literature analysis. The methodology utilized in this work is based on the well-known DMAIC strategy customized for the specifics of this case study

Computational Thinking Assessment: Bibliometric Analysis-VOSviewer

Computational thinking is a very important ability in the transitional era of the industrial revolution 4.0 to 5.0 because it has a role in supporting problem solving, especially in the field of Education by applying computer thinking. Seeing the role of computational thinking in education, an assessment is needed to assess students' ability to apply computational thinking to solve problems, especially in learning computer science. Therefore, the aim of this study is to present a high-quality bibliometric review of various literature on assessment computational thinking. This type of research is bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer. Literature was collected from the Scopus database of 191 articles published in 2019-2023. The results of this study show that in the network visualization results there are 5 clusters, namely cluster 1 (43 items), cluster 2 (31 items), cluster 3 (27 items), cluster 4 (21 items), and cluster 5 (19 items). Meanwhile, on the results of overlay visualization and density visualization, it can be seen that the computational thinking assessment research shows that when it is associated with the themes of instrument, validity, reliability, and computer science education, not much research has been done so that there are opportunities for renewable research by taking these themes

Towards sustainable manufacturing within Industry 4.0 : a framework for the textile industry

Due to increasing sustainability demands, textiles manufacturing, an industry that uses substantial amounts of natural resources, energy and labour, are facing tough challenges in the years ahead. One of the more overlooked concepts with great potential for sustainable manufacturing is Industry 4.0. This paper addresses how the textile industry is engaging with Industry 4.0 technologies and applications in the context of sustainable manufacturing. A proposal for an implementation framework is introduced based on a literature review within this field

Diseño de un sistema de control para AGVs a utilizar en el marco de una emulación en un sistema de almacenamiento y recuperación automática (AS/RS)

En las últimas décadas, los sistemas tecnológicos han sido influyentes en la competitividad de las empresas. Estos sistemas redujeron el tiempo de ejecución. La logística automatizada, específicamente en los sistemas de almacenamiento y recolección, ha brindado una ventaja de respuesta pronta al cliente, teniendo un mejor funcionamiento dentro de las tareas de una compañía. En la industria manufacturera moderna, el tiempo empleado en el transporte de material representa casi el 80-90 % del tiempo total de verificación, incurriendo en más del 30 % del costo total del proceso. Por esta razón, este trabajo propone el diseño de un sistema de control para AGVs a utilizar en el marco de una emulación en un sistema de almacenamiento y recuperación automática (AS/RS), que realiza la recolección de los paquetes de manera que optimiza la recolección de paquetes y de mismo modo minimice el tiempo de respuesta en casos de perturbación. Para la modelación, se empleará una arquitectura de control basada en el paradigma multi-agentes, y será parametrizado con un modelo de decisión predictivo-reactivo. Específicamente, se utilizarán una herramienta de optimización para la programación de recolección, así como una modelación de control reactiva para responder a posibles perturbaciones. Se considerarán diferentes escenarios para validar la respuesta del modelo ante cada situación, haciendo una emulación del proceso en un ambiente virtual.In recent decades, technological systems have played an influential role in companies' competitiveness. These systems have reduced execution time. Automated logistics, specifically in storage and collection systems, has provided customers with prompt responses, while having a better performance within the tasks of a company. In the modern manufacturing industry, the time spent on material transport represents almost 80-90% of the total time of verification, incurring more than 30% of the total cost of the process. For this reason, this paper proposes the design of a control system for AGVs to be used in the framework of an emulation in an automatic storage and retrieval system (AS/RS), which carries out the collection of packages in a way that optimizes their collection, concurring with minimization in the response time in cases of disturbance. For the emulation, a control architecture based on the multi-agent paradigm will be used, and it will be parameterized with a predictive-reactive decision model. Specifically, an optimization tool will be used for collection scheduling, as well as reactive control modeling to respond to possible disturbances. Different scenarios will be considered to validate the response of the model to each situation, emulating the process in a virtual environment.Ingeniero (a) IndustrialPregrad