Die casting industry on the way to intelligent machine-machine communication

The die casting sector is preparing for Industry 4.0; more than 30 European companies are developing jointly a standardised open communication interface under the umbrella of VDMA Metallurgy and CEMAFON.

The die casting sector is a strong part of the foundry business in Europe, which is characterised by extensive experience but also by very different organisational and technological levels. With Industry 4.0, the age of the intelligent machine to machine communication has also started in this area.

Fast commissioning, detailed process monitoring, optimal productivity, reproducible product quality or complete storage of setting and process data – the market requirements on a die casting cell are constantly increasing. All these demands require an efficient exchange of information across manufacturers. A boundary condition that has only been met to a limited extent up to now. The available fieldbus technologies are only partially standardised; communication with higher-level MES systems requires manufacturer-specific solutions. This means that the die-caster must implement various communication technologies and protocols in his system for this task alone; a bottleneck in data communication and high project costs. Plug-and-play is the goal – together towards an OPC Companion Specification
In order to meet the requirements of Industry 4.0 with intelligent communication in and to a die casting cell, the representatives of the European die casting industry are jointly developing a standardised open communication interface. The open interface standard "Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA)" will be used. This provides security functions, is freely accessible and provides meta-information about the data that can be viewed by anyone.

Under the umbrella of VDMA Metallurgy and CEMAFON, over 60 experts from over 30 European companies are developing manufacturer-independent information models (Companion Specifications), the interface between components, machines and systems. These describe device and capability information so that a machine can be easily integrated into a plant network by all manufacturers and can, for example, be connected to a software system for planning and controlling production.
Among other things, the description of the manufacturer's name, the device type and the process data, such as temperatures or pressure as well as organisational information such as information on productivity and quality, are standardised.

The way to a manufacturer-independent exchange of information
The project was officially registered at the OPC Foundation in December 2018. This was followed by a kick-off meeting at the end of January 2019 and an introductory OPC UA week in March. In the coming months the contents of the interface will be defined and elaborated. The first release candidate is planned for the beginning of 2020.

Source: https://metallurgy.vdma.org/