Industry 4.0 Award for Arburg
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Industry 4.0 award for Arburg
· "100 Centres of Industry 4.0 Excellence in Baden-Württemberg" award
· Example "smart luggage tag" application demonstrates flexible high-volume production of single-unit batches
· State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Katrin Schütz emphasises Arburg's innovative strength
Lossburg/Stuttgart. On 22 May 2017, Arburg was honoured with the "100 Centres of Industry 4.0 Excellence in Baden-Württemberg" award. This award was initiated by the "Industry 4.0 Alliance for Baden-Württemberg" network initiative to honour special achievements in the Industry 4.0 sector. At the award ceremony at the Neues Schloss in Stuttgart, State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Katrin Schütz, emphasised the outstanding innovative strength of the Lossburg-based machine manufacturer: "The production of 'smart' luggage tags offers impressive proof of how Arburg products can be used to implement Industry 4.0 in practice, customising high-volume parts in batch sizes down to a single unit and thereby adding value during the manufacturing process."
A total of 16 Baden-Württemberg-based "flagship projects for manufacturing of the future" were honoured on 22 May. State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Katrin Schütz said: "Industry, small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups in Baden-Württemberg are leading the way in implementing Industry 4.0, as is impressively demonstrated by today's award-winning solutions. Our aim with this award is to promote tangible solutions from the region, which create added value. The aim is to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises in particular to actively exploit the real opportunities offered by Industry 4.0."
Arburg wins with "flexible high-volume production of single-unit batches"
Katrin Schütz pointed to Arburg as a perfect example of a company that has distinguished itself for decades through its innovative strength and, thanks to its 30 years of experience in IT-networked production, counts among the pioneers in the implementation of "Industry 4.0". Arburg's demonstration of "flexible high-volume production of single-unit batches" convinced the panel of judges and received the "100 Centres of Industry 4.0 Excellence in Baden-Württemberg" award in the "New Software/Networking Solutions" and "New Production Process" categories.
With its flexible, automated, IT-networked and spatially distributed production of "smart" luggage tags, Arburg recently showed how high-volume production can be combined with the customisation of individual plastic parts at the Hannover Messe 2017 in April. This example shows the future of modern business models, with the aim of integrating customers and their requirements in the value chain and individualising high-volume parts.
Economically efficient production of "smart" luggage tags
The "smart luggage tag" shows how such "mass customisation" can be achieved relatively simply by combining injection moulding and additive manufacturing without sacrificing the efficiency and cost-effectiveness offered by high-volume production. An Allrounder injection moulding machine, a Freeformer for industrial additive manufacturing, as well as automation and IT solutions from Arburg form a flexible cyberphysical production system.
Using an individual NFC chip, the injection moulded product produced on an Allrounder becomes the data and information carrier and controls the further production operations to become a one-off part. It communicates with the machines at the various production stations, knows its own history and current status, as well as navigating its own path through the process chain. The individual plastic design is applied in an additive process using the Freeformer.
A central element here is integration with Arburg's proprietary ALS host computer system. This records the product, process and quality data and transmits it to a web server. In the "luggage tag" example, each part has its own website. The data for each component can be retrieved and traced at any time, even after many years. Digital networking through the host computer system promotes transparency and consistency and facilitates the optimum utilisation of the full production capacity, particularly in the case of smaller unit volumes and frequent product changeovers.
"100 Centres of Industry 4.0 Excellence in Baden-Württemberg"
The aim of the "Industry 4.0 Alliance for Baden-Württemberg" network initiative is to pool expertise in production technology, as well as information and communication technology, to bring together all key players and to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises in industry to move towards Industry 4.0 through innovative information-sharing initiatives.
The "100 Centres of Industry 4.0 Excellence in Baden-Württemberg" competition seeks to identify innovative concepts in industry that have succeeded in the intelligent networking of production and value-added processes. As well as examining the level of innovation, the panel of expert judges also assesses specific practical relevance with regard to Industry 4.0. To date, a total of 84 companies, institutions and other organisations have been presented with a certificate and a glass plaque in five award rounds. This number is to reach 100 over the course of 2017.
Photos
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The "100 Centres of Industry 4.0 Excellence in Baden-Württemberg" award was presented to Susanne Palm, Team Manager Public Relations at Arburg, by the State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Katrin Schütz (left).
Photo: Martin Storz / Graffiti
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The "smart" luggage tags and their flexible serial production in batch sizes down to a single unit impressed the expert jury through the combination of injection moulding and additive manufacturing.
Photo: ARBURG
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Arburg received the "100 Centres of Industry 4.0 Excellence in Baden-Württemberg" award because its products enable flexible high-volume production in batches as small as a single unit.
Photo: ARBURG
About Arburg
A German family-owned company, Arburg is one of the leading global manufacturers of plastic processing machines. The product portfolio encompasses Allrounder injection moulding machines with clamping forces of between 125 and 6,500 kN, the Freeformer for industrial additive manufacturing and robotic systems, customer and industry-specific turnkey solutions and further peripheral equipment.
The company places the topic of production efficiency at the centre of all its activities, taking into account the entire value-added chain. The objective is to enable Arburg customers to manufacture their plastic products, whether one-off parts or high-volume batches, with optimal quality and at minimum unit costs – e.g. for the automotive and packaging industries, communication and entertainment electronics, medical technology or the white goods sector.
An international sales and service network ensures first-class customer support at the local level: Arburg is represented by fully owned organisations at 33 locations in 25 countries and by trading partners in more than 50 countries. The machines are produced exclusively at the parent company in Lossburg, Germany. Of a total of around 2,700 employees, about 2,200 work in Germany. About 500 further employees work in Arburg's organisations around the world. In 2012, Arburg became one of the first companies to gain triple certifications: ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environment) and ISO 50001 (energy).
Further information about Arburg can be found at www.arburg.com.
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