Spanish Mondragon corporation is one of the big partners of Productive4.0. The ecosystem consists of eight different organisations involved in the project being active in most work packages. Apart from Mondragon University representing the academic side and Ideko as an RTO (research technology organization), there are six businesses focusing on various areas: Mondragon corporate office (MGEP), Mondragon assembly, Danobat (machine tool and production systems), Savvy (data systems) and ULMA (embedded solutions).

On the occasion of the project review in July, when Jon Salvidea and Gorka Unamuno from Savvy/Danobat and Ideko presented their progress in machine tool digitalization, it seems to be worth taking a closer look at their achievements. With the focus on shifting from a product based business model to a product service model in work package 9, they interact with work packages 1 through 5. Being asked which are the preliminary results Gorka Unamonu says, “We already have a number of real implementations”, and then he is going into details:

Preparing transformation into a cyber physical system

“Within Savvy’s IIoT infrastructure we have defined an interoperability module and a node-red connector in order to effect communication and node-red flows between the machine and the arrowhead services.

We are testing and fine tuning the analytical platform BI&ML (Business Intelligence and Machine Learning) with data streams from real production machines that end up in the data mart to enable the analysis of process & production. A real process optimization for a customer of Danobat with severe machine damage risks has been a remarkable outcome of the reported period.

We have installed new sensors in different components of machines connected to a cabinet for a better monitoring of standard machines.

We have developed an OPC-UA server docker in the Savvy Box in order to transform a machine tool into a cyber physical system. Becoming part of a SOA (service oriented architecture), digital automation solutions based on distributed control systems would be designed in a more flexible manner.

We have defined a complete simulation environment combining commercial and free solutions in order to provide a comprehensive and productive environment for machine level and cell level simulation. The machine tool builder perspective is prioritizing virtual commissioning and pre-sales demos activities.

Ideko has defined a digital production monitoring system for a customer, focusing on a user friendly OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) measurement system, where machine data and operator inputs conform to a harmonious digital experience.

After defining a measurement framework for “machine tool data”, the Danobat standardization committee is discussing on how to connect the machine tool data with third parties. The API rest, MTConnect and OPC-UA are the three standards for our machines to provide data through the Savvy Box device.”

Benefits of Productive4.0

Being asked for the specific benefits of Productive4.0, Gorka Unamuno says, “It has helped us identifying the research roadmap to create new or evolved products and services which will succeed in Tomorrow’s manufacturing industry and especially in the machine tool market.” And during the review it became clear that exploitation is one of the strong points of the project.