"Smart manufacturing" gradually penetrates all major markets, and foundation building is very important

As the main body of the real economy, manufacturing is the main battlefield of technological innovation and one of the key areas of "Intelligence +". Recently, the "Rockwell Automation Global Roadshow" was held in Tianjin to discuss the impact and driving force of "connected enterprises" on industry development and share the application process of industrial intelligence and digital technology in various industries, covering automobiles, tires, mining, metallurgy, cement, oil and gas and chemicals, life sciences, semiconductors and fast-moving consumer goods.

Deeply empowering various industries through intelligent technology is a new stage in the development and upgrading of digital technology. Rockwell attaches great importance to the deep integration of intelligent manufacturing and industry - this is the author's most intuitive feeling.

Five major trends attract attention

With the development of China's economy, technological innovation and social changes, what trends are emerging in the Chinese market as a whole? What market opportunities will follow?

Shi An, president of Rockwell Automation Greater China, said that the first trend is the growth of the middle class, followed by the continuous improvement of consumption capacity. In such a process, the upgrading of fast-moving consumer goods is a huge opportunity for the industry.

The second trend is aging. Especially in factories, the aging of the workforce is putting increasing pressure on the manufacturing industry.

The third trend is the integration of IT and OT, which aims to achieve a complete combination of services and technology.

The fourth trend is that the cost of computing and connectivity has been greatly reduced, making it easier to implement smart manufacturing at a lower cost.

The fifth trend is that the upward momentum of the industry remains strong. Many equipments have been in use for more than 20 years and require the next round of replacement, which brings huge opportunities.

An Shi, President of Rockwell Greater China

Deep penetration of "intelligent manufacturing" into the Chinese automotive market

China has become the world's largest automobile manufacturing country, and the automobile industry has become an important pillar industry of the national economy. At present, automobile products are accelerating their development towards new energy, lightweight, intelligent and networked. Automobiles are no longer just a means of transportation, but are transforming into large-scale mobile intelligent terminals, energy storage units and digital spaces, realizing intelligent interconnection and data sharing with infrastructure. The production method of automobiles is also evolving towards a fully interconnected and collaborative intelligent manufacturing system, with R&D and manufacturing efficiency greatly improved, and personalized customized production will become a trend.

Rockwell has been in China for 31 years. In the early days of its involvement in the automotive industry, it mostly cooperated with joint venture brands. However, in the past five or six years, the technology of independent brands has been continuously improved, and large-scale new factories have been built. Rockwell has reached many project cooperations with many independent brands, such as SAIC, BAIC, and GAC. The scope of cooperation includes the control system of the entire field, from the earliest provision of only PLC to the later PLC, inverter, HMI, switch and security products under the entire integrated architecture, realizing full-series product cooperation. In addition, there is also cooperation in information technology, such as MES manufacturing intelligent system, data acquisition system, energy control management, etc. From being only a PLC provider at the beginning to a full-dimensional three-dimensional system provider of control systems, information systems, and industrial Internet of Things.

Zhang Peng, sales manager of Rockwell Automotive Industry, said that they are introducing independent magnetic levitation conveying system into the domestic market and expect the system to develop rapidly. The system is a new and revolutionary intelligent conveying system, which was first developed by MIT in the laboratory to solve the problem of personnel transportation. It was later promoted by Rockwell's MagneMotion to the automotive and power battery cell assembly industry. It is very suitable for welding assembly lines, workshop conveyor lines, power battery assembly, engine assembly, etc. Magnetic levitation conveying can transport 680 kg of weight 6.7 meters in 3.2 seconds, which is 5 seconds faster than traditional conveying and improves efficiency by 45%; in terms of energy consumption, the same load can reduce energy costs by 25% on the existing basis.

Zhang Peng, Sales Manager of Rockwell Automotive Industry

This technology has been widely used in the global automotive industry. For example, the Grand Cherokee plant of Chrysler in North America has been in operation for 4 years without any production line downtime caused by system failure. The entire welding workshop of Jaguar Land Rover's Slovakia plant in Europe, which has been in operation for more than a year, uses this technology from the main line to the sub-assembly. Compared with previous similar factories, the area of ​​the welding workshop has been saved by 8%, the number of welding robots has been reduced by 12%, and the number of fixtures has been reduced by half, but the production capacity and models remain the same, and the total investment has been reduced.

Zhang Peng introduced that this technology has been applied in China. It is used in the transportation of soft-pack batteries between battery stacking machines, solving the stability and safety issues of high-energy density batteries during transportation. Not only in the automotive industry, but also in the pirate ship of Shanghai Disney, this technology is also used. Other industries such as logistics distribution, food and beverage packaging, etc. have broad market prospects.

Regarding the battery traceability management of electric vehicles, Zhang Peng said that since the implementation of traceability management in August last year, more and more battery manufacturers need to track and trace the entire production process of batteries. Rockwell's industrial Internet of Things platform IoT can meet this demand and realize the full process tracking and tracing of production, supply, sales and research of power batteries.

Big data, AI , and 5G - jointly promoting "intelligent manufacturing"

What is the essence of intelligent manufacturing? In short, it is to use advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data to understand and control the uncertainty and non-fixed pattern problems in the manufacturing system to achieve higher goals.

Academician Li Peigen

Academician Li Peigen explained the above problem through a practical case. He mentioned that grinding machines are a very common thing in factories. Sharpening knives on grinding wheels makes a lot of noise. Experienced masters can control the quality of grinders based on the sound. How can we replace manual experience with intelligence in the future? He emphasized that many common problems in manufacturing can be solved with the help of data and intelligent technology. Tunghai University in Taiwan collects and analyzes data, learns the changes in the sound of feeding and the current value, and establishes an AI model through convolutional neural networks and deep learning, so as to realize automatic prediction of the good and bad feeding situation.

Academician Li Peigan emphasized that intelligent manufacturing is also inseparable from the technical support of 5G, whether it is real-time communication needs or the construction of a full-range information system.

Lay a solid foundation for "intelligent manufacturing"

What is the foundation of intelligent manufacturing? Shi An said there are two key points: data and interconnection. He emphasized that "big data" is reflected in the industrial field, and more importantly, "accurate data" and "effective data". How to use stable data sources, conduct stable data analysis, and develop an effective standard platform to help intelligent manufacturing lay a solid foundation is the current focus.

Rockwell provides a full set of solutions, from layer 0 to layer 5; builds an industrial IoT platform in the upper OT field; and ensures openness, scalability, and security in the middle network architecture. These three key factors ensure the openness and sustainability of user cooperation.

Just as Rockwell released its new brand promise "Expanding Human Possibility" on the same day, Shi An said that Rockwell will make full use of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, industrial Internet of Things, big data, virtual/augmented reality and edge computing to expand the new portfolio of smart connected products, explore new scenarios for industrial applications, deconstruct new trends in industrial applications, and develop new business models to help customers unleash new productivity potential.