Supporting mass customization, high quality, and sustainable operations in Industry 4.0 factories Written by: Jeff Shepard, Contributing Editor, DigiKey
Supporting mass customization with high-quality and sustainable production processes can be challenging for designers of Industry 4.0 automated manufacturing systems. Multiple sensing and control devices need to be deployed and connected across various wired and wireless networks, and their state and energy consumption need to be monitored in real-time, all while meeting established sustainability standards. To accommodate the variety of functions, networks, monitoring, and standards requirements, while also ensuring scalability and flexibility, automation system designers for Industry 4.0 don’t have to piece it all together themselves. They can instead, incorporate compact integrated controllers to implement flexible production systems with high levels of quality and sustainability. These controllers have numerous embedded control and energy management functions, digital and analog inputs, and outputs (IOs), and the secure communications capabilities necessary to implement a scalable, flexible, and highly sustainable Industry 4.0 factory. This article provides a brief overview of typical Industry 4.0 factory automation elements and requirements. It then introduces a family of compact and expandable controllers from Siemens as examples of programmable logic
controllers (PLCs), which contain integrated communications interfaces and technology functions. It closes with a review of the International Standards Organization (ISO) 50001 and related standards for operational energy management, including an example of an energy management implementation for sustainability. Key elements of an Industry 4.0 factory A typical Industry 4.0 factory application comprises devices like temperature controls, pump and fan controls, conveyor systems, and packaging machines that require flexible integration and precision to ensure high-quality production. In addition, the energy consumption of these devices needs to be continuously monitored and analyzed to support efficient and sustainable operations. Additionally, it all needs to be supported with multiple layers of wired and wireless connectivity, ranging from distributed sensors and controllers to motor drives, energy meters, and machine technicians and operators in real time. To address these diverse needs while speeding process deployment and reconfiguration, maximizing uptime, and ensuring efficient operation, automation system designers need dedicated process controllers with several key features. Such features include
secure communication interfaces, digital and analog IOs, as well as integrated control functions like high-speed counters, pulse width modulation (PWM), pulse sequence outputs, speed control, positioning, condition monitoring, and energy management. In addition, communications interfaces need to be available that support protocols like serial communication, PROFIBUS, IO-Link, actuator sensor interface (AS-Interface), MODBUS real-time unit (RTU), universal serial interface (USI), TCP/IP, and mobile wireless standards.
Industry 4.0 connectivity
To cater to Industry 4.0 connectivity requirements, the SIMATIC S7- 1200 family of PLCs from Siemens supports the connection of sensors, actuators, and motors to human-machine interfaces (HMIs) and to the cloud. It uses the OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA), a machine-to-machine (M2M) communication protocol for industrial automation. OPC UA has a platform independent, service-oriented architecture that simplifies connectivity. It supports the integration of all classes of devices, automation systems, and software applications in an inherently secure environment. It includes field extensions specified by the Field Level Communication (FLC) initiative, based on the OPC UA Framework, and specified in International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 62541.
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