03.08.2020

The Industry 4.0 Box in practical use at Kunststoffverarbeitung GmbH in Falkensee

The 4th Edition of the Industry 4.0 Box is in use! With an industrial housing and a new interface board it is currently being tested at Kunststoffverarbeitung GmbH in Falkensee.

Retrofitting on Industry 4.0
The Industry 4.0 Box offers a safe and simple subsequent connection of existing machines and plants to the Industrial Internet of Things. As an intelligent data source, it provides information that enables, among other things, holistic process monitoring, preventive maintenance, seamless documentation of manufacturing processes or for monitoring the machine park. 

Starting position of SMEs
Industry 4.0 requires a high degree of communication abilities and the networking of production resources such as machines, robots and higher-level control systems. This is an ability that a large proportion of the machinery and plant technology used in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) does not possess or only to a certain extent. In medium-sized companies, the machinery and plant inventories that have evolved over time often represent an important corporate asset that is maintained with great commitment and only replaced successively in the long term. Networking and communication abilities thus remain limited and technological innovations stay inaccessible to the company.

Upgrade to the smart factory through the Industrie 4.0 Box
The Industry 4.0 Box enables the integration of proven machines into digital networks through communication technology. This eliminates the need for costly new acquisitions and "old stock" can be integrated into Industry 4.0-oriented infrastructures seamlessly. The goal of the box is to improve the communication ablities and networking of existing machinery and plant inventory that has grown in the company over the years. The integration into cyber-physical systems is based on a connection technology that acts as a link between the individual machine and the cyber-physical architecture (hardware and software).