Hybrid Institute Tour
Top-level Research up Close
For the first time, the hybrid event format of the 30th Aachen Machine Tool Colloquium offered its participants the opportunity to get to know the WZL of RWTH Aachen University and the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT both on-site and digitally.
On both days of the event, the doors were opened for visitors to tour the machine halls and test facilities. Visitors were given a compact and balanced overview of digital process chain analyses or data-based automation solutions and many other topics in the context of sustainable production during guided tours by experts on-site. In addition, a virtual 3D tour offered a unique look behind the scenes and a wide range of information about the research activities and networks of the two host institutes.
Thematic Tours
Digitization, individualization, electrification in the context of sustainable production? Or Industry 4.0, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and 5G? For the first time, visitors to AWK’21 were given a sorted, compact and balanced overview of the key research areas that really interest them along ten thematic tours that linked the visions presented in the lectures with the future already realized at demonstrators.
Concentrated pitches by trained and experienced experts offered a perfect introduction at selected test stands and demonstrators in order to apply the potentials and challenges to one’s own production and business models within in-depth discussions. Guests at the digital event were able to take a virtual tour of the machine halls captured in 3D models within the »Let’s get digital« event platform. Information on machines, test stands and current research projects could be accessed via interactive and informative dashboards and contact could be made with employees.
Overview of the Thematic Tours
The increasing electrification of drive technology requires an increased manufacturing quality of transmission components in order to meet the requirements regarding NVH and power density. For the first time, process chain-wide manufacturing aspects are considered in this theme tour through consistent acquisition of machine and component data and aggregated within a digital twin. The analysis of the data enables the detection of cause-effect relationships and the evaluation of productivity, quality and sustainability.
The shift towards sustainable drive concepts for the mass mobility of the future, such as e-drives or fuel cells, 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 component quality. In this context, the theme tour highlights various approaches to the efficient production of highly stressed components for the drive technology of the future.
Data-driven automation is the starting point for moving away from rigid, rule-based to autonomous, goal-based production systems. Starting at the sensor level, production examples are used to show how quality prediction, line-less assembly and sustainability cockpits contribute to increasing the resilience of manufacturing companies and how flexible automation can also be realized beyond mass production.
Automated data acquisition and processing in manufacturing technology are the core of economic production in the context of Industry 4.0. The theme tour will use the example of ECM to present how process design can be efficiently designed using customized simulation models and how online process monitoring can be used to evaluate component quality while the EDM process is still running.
As part of the Production Analytics in Machine Tools theme tour, we will link the findings of the Data Science in Production session with the AWK guiding principle of Turning Data into Sustainability. The added value of sharing cross-domain production and test bench data will be presented in the machine tool environment in various live demonstrations. The overarching focus of the tour is to manifest the potential of intelligent use of existing digital approaches from artificial intelligence to map contexts that were previously not immediately apparent to humans. This knowledge creates a new benefit in the context of direct analysis and holistic optimization of machine tools. This benefit is demonstrated concretely on the topics of live machine and process monitoring, virtual quality monitoring, prediction of the remaining service life of machine components, and productivity increases using Smart Expert. In addition to application and business-related issues, we will also address pragmatic challenges such as the infrastructural implementation of our approaches and the trustworthiness of digitally determined optimization proposals.
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 theme tour offers an insight into the common test rigs and methods for determining gear load capacity, efficiency and NVH.
The Smart Automation Lab shows you how data in IoP can be harnessed in conjunction with modern automation and information technology. For this purpose, practical use cases on human-technology interactions, robot applications and model-based automation solutions are presented in the Smart Automation Lab. Flexible automation for machine tools and additive manufacturing are another focus of the theme tour. We will also show you current technologies for laboratory automation.
Tomorrow’s mobility requires new concepts for drives and the PowerTrain and poses particular challenges for production technology. Only the consistent implementation of approaches to digitizing production will enable companies to make their production sustainable. Along the theme tour, various approaches for established and new manufacturing processes and products will be presented. The focus will be on digitized process chains and networking technologies for targeted increases in efficiency, adaptivity and technological performance. Approaches from the aerospace and automotive sectors will be presented.
Especially in growth industries with their short product development cycles and technological innovations, the sustainable implementation of new technologies is a particular challenge. Classic and new manufacturing processes must be adapted quickly to new developments without loss of productivity and with improved sustainability at the same time. To implement these conflicting requirements, technical innovations are just as necessary as new approaches in innovation and technology management. Along the theme tour, different approaches to manufacturing, their digital representation and the management of innovations will be shown. Approaches from the fields of optics, energy storage and electronics will be presented.
Realize the value chain through innovations! Learn about approaches to shaping radical innovations and designing technological transformations. Try out specific Industry 4.0 solutions during production and the use of tools and operating resources. Experience innovative production processes and systems for the vehicle production of the future. Experience variable powertrain topologies of electrified trucks, support systems and agile, decoupled assembly systems. In the future, use the potential of innovative methods to design economically and ecologically optimized process chains.
This theme tour combines innovative applications from the field of digitalization into a coherent, data-driven overall concept of production systematics. To show you tried and tested I4.0 solutions, the theme tour will take you to the demonstration factory in Aachen and bring digital added value from research and practice to life, from strategy to factory planning and production.