Top-level Research up Close – on Site and Digital
Institute Tour
AWK’23’s hybrid event format once again offered its participants the opportunity to get to know RWTH Aachen University’s WZL and the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT both on-site and digitally.
On both days of the event, the gates opened and allowed visitors to tour the machine halls and experimental facilities. Experts from both institutes provided visitors with a compact and balanced overview of how the “Internet of Sustainability” can be used as an enabler for “green”, sustainable production.
Digital Guided Tours
Digital guided tours offered participants of the digital AWK’23 detailed 3D insights into the machine halls and laboratories and provided targeted information on the rich diversity of research and development topics of the two host institutes based on nine different production technology topics. All under the focus of sustainable production.
Overview of the Digital Guided Tours
The shift towards sustainable manufacturing of highly individualized products for the future requires far-reaching changes in production. At the same time, the use of digital planning tools and the exploitation of process data make it possible to predict and increase economic and ecological performance. In this context, the theme tour highlights various approaches for a sustainable production of highly stressed components from the engine to the connector.
For efficient and sustainable optimization of process chains, systematic coordination of the individual processes is required, taking into account the dimensions of economic efficiency, ecological sustainability and quality in a holistic manner. In the context of constantly increasing demands on products, the potential of process data-based analyses must be increasingly utilized. Using a process chain for the production of pinion shafts as an example, a holistic approach to evaluating the various dimensions is presented, on the basis of which data-based Operational Excellence and Predictive Quality are enabled. In addition, current contributions to sustainable manufacturing through adaptive process chains in one-off production and flexible process chains in series production will be presented.
How can metrology, AI and robotics enable an economical circular economy and closed lifecycles? Answers to this question are provided by this theme tour using data-driven automation, which connects sensors and actuators with AI algorithms on the edge cloud using a real-time capable and continuous data infrastructure, thus closing the data loop of the Sense – Think – Act paradigm. Production examples include predictive quality for zero-waste production, agile lineless assembly for remanufacturing, virtual climate control, and generative AI for machine vision. These aspects of data-driven automation demonstrate practical economic paths from linear mass production to a closed-loop economy.
This theme tour will show how resource efficiency and thus the sustainability of a production chain can be increased with the help of cross-domain production data in the environment of machine tools. The overall focus of the theme tour is the use of existing intelligent models to increase the productivity and quality in manufacturing. This directly reduces the consumption of operating resources, energy and raw materials, which not only improves the overall ecological balance of the production, but also creates monetary value for the user.
The increasing requirements of e-mobility, wind power and also aviation in the field of gear technology show the need for innovative test methods. This applies especially under the aspect of rising energy costs and the demand for sustainability. This theme tour offers an insight into the common test rigs and methods for determining gear load capacity, efficiency and NVH. These test methods provide an essential building block for the design of future gear systems.
© Martin Braun
The Smart Automation Lab presents you how data can be used in the Internet of Production in conjunction with modern automation and information technology. The aim is not only to collect data, but also to make it usable and thus use it to increase the sustainability of industrial production processes. Various aspects, from robot-based processing or smart robotics for production to data modeling, artificial intelligence applications and the industrial Internet of Things, to manufacturing control systems and human-machine interaction, will be presented in practical demonstration scenarios.for laboratory automation.
In the context of the sustainability efforts of manufacturing companies, the contribution of digitization is increasingly coming into focus. On the one hand, digitization contributes to quality assurance in production, to minimizing waste and to making production more flexible. In addition, digitization will be an essential contribution to transparency in sustainable value chains and make CO2 footprints etc. visible across company boundaries, which will become mandatory for all companies at the latest with the introduction of the Supply Chain Act. The theme tour shows important components of modern digitization, starting with the digital twin, 5G connectivity, AI and life cycle assessment (LCA).
In hardly any other area is the need for transformation as tangible as in the context of propulsion systems. Currently, the aviation, transportation and automotive sectors are witnessing a technology mix consisting of various solutions to be newly developed or optimized based on energy-efficient propulsion, battery storage or fuel cells. These technological developments are reflected in the requirements for manufacturing processes as well as in the rapidly growing production volumes for such technologies in the market ramp-up. The Fraunhofer IPT is therefore developing customer-specific solutions for the engine, battery and fuel cell production of the future.
This theme tour introduces you to the enablers of sustainable production systems along the product life cycle. At the four levels of Strategy, Organisation, Data Structures and Technology, we demonstrate solutions that empower Green Production. Experience the integration of different cycle phases from development, through supply chains to your own factory and corporate strategy.
