At the special purpose machinery manufacturer Mössner, six prospective technicians are engaged with the subject Industry 4.0 and the progress in the range of 3D prints of metals. Currently, they are trained to become certified technicians at the technician school in Aalen. Training takes 2 years in full time. In the second year they write their degree theses. For this, the six technicians meet once a week at Mössner in Eschach, where the necessary hardware, design and programming software are provided. The technicians in the field of electrical engineering and mechatronics are engaged in the subject Industry 4.0. The prospective electrical engineers are involved with the modernisation – the so called retrofit – of an existing test bandsaw at Mössner. This bandsaw is to be made fit for the topic Industry 4.0 and also serves as a pilot system later on. Especially the subjects networking and visibility present a key project requirement of the technicians. In the new system concept all sensors and actuators are linked together with bus systems. Furthermore, the energy consumption of the system is recorded. The purpose of the newly gained data is to recognize coherences, create forecasts and enable self-optimizations of systems in the future.
The area of responsibility of the mechatronics includes the design and development of a robot cell. Equipped with an ABB robot and the newest automation technology this robot cell is intended to be a training system for robot programmers as well as for research purposes for the subject Industry 4.0 and digital twin. The digital twin is a virtual system model, which is completely identical with the real system. In the future it is plant to virtually put the special purpose machinery into operation with the assistance of the virtual twin. Hereby the commissioning time is to be reduced and possible mistakes in the development process detected. A further central subject is the interlinking of a robot cell. Integrated in the company’s network, all important functions can be controlled via a computer workstation or mobile devices, such as tablets or smart phones. The system is also interlinked with the internet. A remote maintenance concept enables Mösser to access the complete system, read relevant process parameters and the live streaming of a network camera. As a result, reaction period and travel time can be minimized.
The technicians in the field of machine technology concentrate on 3D printing. 3D printing of metals requires the separation of the workpiece from the so called building platform after printing. For this, Mössner’s precise band saws represent an alternative to cost-intensive wire cutting. Based on customer requirements, which were determined by the technicians, a fixture was developed, which can be integrated in Mössner’s band saws. Further important parts of the task were the calculation of production parts, cost management and an ergonomic design of the fixture for the system operator. After completion of their training, three of the six technicians will be hired by Mössner to work in the fields of software development of robot systems, mechanical design and research and development.
All technical theses were publically presented on June 29th at the technician school in Aalen.
The group photo shows (from left to right): Christian Kunz und Stefan Hieber (supervisors of prospective technicians), Sebastian Haas, Hannes Hilbert, Florian Rehle, Florian Windschüttl, Martin Angstenberger und Christoph Ziebart.