This week’s blog is written by our guest blogger Michelle Richards, Marketing Executive- EPLAN.
With the next industrial revolution around the corner, highly intelligent connected systems are crucial in the transformation of traditional plants into smart factories.
The next industrial revolution, named Industry 4.0, is a high-tech strategy which has been adopted by the German government and now being introduced to the UK which promotes the computerisation of traditional industries such as manufacturing. The ultimate goal is to create intelligent factories that encompass cyber-physical production systems that combine communications, IT data and physical elements. Here, machines talk to products and other machines, objects deliver decision-critical data and information is processed and distributed in real time.
Despite the perceived complexity, what many people and companies do not realise is that today’s technologies, for example, bi-directional interfaces between software and machine, can enable them to become a smart factory. As a result, many UK companies are only using a small percentage of the technologies which are available to them today, ultimately sacrificing potential revenues and productivity enhancements.
With this in mind, EPLAN and Phoenix Contact are championing the concept of Industry 4.0 by working together to provide a solution which integrates dataflow between two interfaces, ultimately enabling manufacturers to take a step closer to becoming a smart factory.
Terminal data such as rail number and terminal type is transferred automatically from the EPLAN schematic into Clip Project where a DIN rail is selected and part numbers added. Clip Project only offers suitable part numbers for the terminal type and because size information is included with the part data, the programme is able to calculate the required length of DIN rail. Simultaneously, a scaled picture is created of the populated rail. The part list for the rail is then transferred back into EPLAN together with the scaled graphic image; the relevant part numbers are allocated directly back to each individual terminal in the schematic.
This integrated data flow is then further enhanced when the terminal data is transferred to a label printer offering significant time savings for users.
Industry 4.0 – the fourth industrial revolution
Join us at the National Space Centre, Leicester on 28th January 2015 for an event that will introduce Industry 4.0. Visitors to the Industry 4.0 event will learn that the key goal of Industry 4.0 is to create intelligent (smart) factories with a focus on cyber physical systems primarily consisting of communication technologies, software, senses and processes – all of which have the potential, through cloud technology, to communicate and interact with each other in an intelligent way.
The event will include demonstrations, workshops, seminars and exhibits. Topics to be covered will include robotics, cloud technology, machine safety and the future of UK engineering.
The event is free to attend. To register for the event, click here.
Find out more about how Phoenix Contact can help you work towards Industry 4.0 here
Find out more about EPLAN here
