Industry 4.0: Are you ready for online, automation, big data, and intelligent technology?

We all very often hear the term Industry 4.0 but have seldom bothered to look beyond the jargon trying to figure out ‘what’s in it?’ Why should anyone be interested in it?

Industry 4.0 has been claimed to be the fourth revolution of the manufacturing industry.

The three previous revolutions being:

1.0 when mechanization and steam power changed the whole concept of manufacturing?

2.0 happened when assembly lines easing mass-production with electrical power ushered in and

3.0 brought automation, computers and robots marking super enhanced efficiency in production

The evolutionary changes thus brought in to the competitive landscape of industrial processes is legendary

It has been in discussion for some time as to how connected devices and sensors with IoT (Internet of Things) digitalization and big data can transform the landscape of core industries in the coming years.

Here we are, today it’s no longer a fiction or fairy tale but bare possible truth unfolding in the name of Smart Manufacturing??

Smart is all about: increase production efficiency, reduce waste and minimize manufacturing costs.

The industry 4.0 manufacturing concepts should benefit from in-process measuring technologies coupled with AI and assist autonomous smart controls adding value to smart processes.

Benefits of embracing Process and Automation Solutions on path to implementing Industry 4.0

Payback on investments depends on the level of enhancement in productivity, savings accrued out of reduced waste and improved yield.

Smart processes will increase sustainability through real-time monitoring of vital production and process parameters thus enabling autonomous control systems.

This in turn will enhance agility of production, providing crucial competitive edge to companies embracing Process and Automation Solutions.

Industry 4.0 is no longer futuristic but already in action. Competitive pressures will redefine the entire industrial landscape going forward.

A study claims that 25% of companies aiming to achieve >30% cost reductions over coming 5 years by embracing digitalization. Numbers are even higher for Asia, where 33% believed to get significant competitive advantages in manufacturing costs over next 5 years. Over 60% companies said they would invest 2-10% of their revenue in digitalization, which is astonishingly high proportion of their R&D spend. Surely, the investments are expected to be ~ US $1000 billion annually until 2020 and keep growing thereon.

Surprisingly, most of the companies expect Industry 4.0 investments to pay back within two years!

Malvern Panalytical’s Sensors in Industry 4.0

1.????CNA Online cross-belt elemental analyser for solids

2.????X’Flow Online elemental analysers for liquids

3.????INSITEC and Parsum probe for Online / Inline Particle Size Measurement

4.????QS7000 NIR Online cross-belt phase analyser for solids??

Example: Integrated Steel Plant

Ore and Raw Material Handling Plant

• Quality check of incoming raw materials viz. Iron Ore, Limestone, Dolomite
• Placing the CNA directly on the belt conveying material after the wagon-tippler or unloading point
• Multicalibration to handle sequential movement of various minerals on one analyser

Sinter Plant

• In-situ basicity monitoring and control of the sinter raw mix
• Precise measurement of CaO and SiO2 from the raw mixture of Iron Ore, Coke-fines and Lime

Coke Oven Battery

• Feeding right quality and blend of bituminous coal to the met-coke plant
• Ensure precise measurement of fix Carbon and control of ash, VM, Sulphur and total moisture??

Example: Integrated Cement Plant

Integrated cement plants equipped with a whole gamut of solutions viz. CNA for monitoring limestone pile chemistry and blend optimisation in raw mix with INSITEC for online particle size monitoring and control in grinding are a step ahead in digitalization.?

Example: Aluminum Production

Similarly, aluminum manufacturing can benefit with a combination of the QS7000 and CNA to check the bauxite minerology for TAA and elemental chemistry at the mines and alumina particle size monitoring using laser based INSITEC.???

Example: Coal Fired Thermal Power Plants

Coal fired power plants use variety of coal coming from various sources. Monitoring the incoming coal in real-time with CNA and keeping tab on the bunkering with another CNA at the bunker-feed brings in higher efficiency and minimized boiler outages.???

Example: Oil Refinery

On-line real-time Sulphur analysis using the X’Flow in oil refineries during the processing of crude for gasoline and diesel.

Example: Pharmaceuticals

In-line particle size measurement and continuous monitoring of process in a rotary fluidized bed agglomeration of pharmaceutical excipients during synthesis.??

While several technologies are well-established for off-line analysis in the laboratories, analytical data generated from all of them go in to ‘post-mortem’ like actions where most often its too late for any course correction.

Obviously, future smart factories shall immensely benefit when qualitative and quantitative analytical information can be generated with affordable and reliable sensors enabling in-situ, online and in-process corrections.

Compared to the off-line laboratory measurements, the analytical data generated online in real-time shall be big with lot of information and facilitate deep learning and Artificial Intelligence about the nuances of any process.

Deployment of AI usher in a transformation as dramatic as we saw with robots entering assembly lines yester years.

New Vistas in Process and Automation

Thoughtful deployment of real-time analytical sensors opens a new era of process control and automation in several industries.

Cement, Mortar, Mining, Mineral Processing & Metals, Food & Food Processing, Pharmaceuticals, Power & Batteries, Plastics etc. etc.?

The list of opportunities is endless and merely based on our current knowledge, it is easy to say that the development and deployment will be faster than we can even imagine.

Digitalization will be the key driving factor of future manufacturing concepts. Industry 4.0 is going to change the landscape of all process-based industries. Obviously, there is a gap to be filled with smart sensors to generate real-time information.?

Malvern Panalytical with a focused dedicated team of experts under the Process and Automation Solutions group are here to walk you through innovative solutions adding value.??

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