Sometimes the hard part of understanding a new concept is imagining what it would be like in real life. In engineering, equations of forces and free body diagrams only take you so far. Until you see the cantilever beam or a truss bridge in the real world, it may be hard to understand how it actually works. The same can be said about the Internet of Things (IoT). The concept of interconnected devices communicating with cloud networks and helping connect your manufacturing process is hard to imagine, especially if you are new to the digital landscape.
The IoT Emerge Event being held at McCormick Place in Chicago, Nov. 2-4 , helps to introduce you to real-world IoT by providing tours where you can actually see IoT at work. These tours, through the IoT Institute partnering companies, will bring you to face to face with how companies are using IoT technology to their advantage.
UI Labs solves large-scale challenges by helping bring university and industry together with startups and government to accelerate the deployment of emerging technologies through collaboration. As a first-of-its-kind innovation accelerator targeted at the convergence of Big Data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and computing, UI Labs is developing a portfolio of applied research and commercialization labs that address entire industries like manufacturing and urban infrastructure.
How is it IoT?: The Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation from UI Labs Institute hosts its facility on Goose Island in Chicago. Here the research collaborative helps educate on digital manufacturing by providing public-private collaboration, advancements in digital manufacturing, and educating and developing the workforce. A state-of-the-art demonstration factory consists of seven dedicated manufacturing technology cells. Each cell incorporates the latest in digital integration technologies, automation, robotics, and communications.
Winzeler Gear designs and manufactures precision-molded plastic gears primarily for automotive clients. The company has expanded to create a highly automated gear-molding facility with the capacity to produce 150 million gears annually. Winzeler Gear, in collaboration with its molding machine supplier, is creating a vision and culture for implementation of Industry 4.0 using IoT technology.
How is it IoT?: Winzeler uses modern engineering techniques and approaches its design through collective intelligence. Its designs for plastic gearing are optimized in design and manufacturing by collaborating with customers, engineers, material experts, and manufacturing engineers all the way from design to production. Winzeler uses CAD models to design, run stress analysis, and use 3D laser models to confirm the gear the design. This type of foresight into design showcases the company’s innovative bent.
Plant Chicago is a non-profit organization established in 2011 to develop circular economies of food production, energy conservation, and material reuse while empowering people of all backgrounds to make their cities healthier and more efficient.
How is it IoT?: The entire plant is one huge experiment and a working model for closing waste, resource, and energy loops. Eventually, the facility will divert over 10,000 tons of food waste from landfills each year and provide over 250 homes with electricity. One project currently being worked on is the Miniature Anaerobic Biodigester. Anaerobic digestion is a highly efficient, low-oxygen method for converting organic matter into biofuel.
How is it IoT?: Morey is an electronics manufacturing services partner that helps design and build the hardware for IoT systems. The edge devices in an IoT system are now becoming the sensors and are collecting the data used for analysis. Morey expertise ranges into several capabilities and markets including automotive, off-road, aerospace, green energy, industrial manufacturing, and medical. Its technology outreach is present in motor controls, embedded devices, wireless equipment, smart power electronics, and wire harnesses to list a few. These devices are the backbone of hardware for IoT systems.
