Industry 4.0 is no longer simply theoretical but is already in action in many German companies. Demands in global competition have risen rapidly in recent years. But in the innovation location of Germany, in particular, numerous companies have succeeded in exploiting the challenges as an opportunity. And the potential solutions offered by Industry 4.0 vary as greatly as the companies and their products.
The second image film on Industry 4.0 made by the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (ZVEI) shows success stories from the electrical industry, including SICK in Waldkirch.
Here, the evaluation of complex data not only saves energy, but also ensures that processes run smoothly with maximum quality standards. Accuracy in the nanometer range is often necessary during production – even a single grain of dust in the wrong place could lead to the failure of an entire plant in the worst possible case. Smart networking enables the predictive maintenance necessary for drastically reducing such downtimes: the key is the taught-in object patterns that intelligent plants compare with the workpieces produced.
