As the manufacturing landscape matures, machinery is becoming smarter and more efficient. Advanced technologies are interconnected and thus all rely on one another to provide more intelligence and compatibility.
This article delves into the critical considerations for designing smarter machines, highlighting the role of internal machine communications, network industry standards and the transformative potential of time-sensitive networking (TSN). By understanding these elements, manufacturers can unlock new levels of productivity, quality and adaptability to stay competitive in an increasingly digitalized world.
Design engineers should focus on creating smarter machines as a competitive advantage for several reasons:
Improved efficiency and productivity. Smart manufacturing machines can optimize production processes, reducing waste and increasing output. They can monitor performance in real-time, predict maintenance needs and adjust production rates to meet demand, leading to significant efficiency gains.
Enhanced quality control. With advanced sensors and machine learning capabilities, smart machines can detect and correct errors in real-time, ensuring consistent product quality. This reduces the need for manual inspections and rework, saving time and resources.
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Flexibility and adaptability. Smart machines can be easily reprogrammed to produce different products or variants, allowing manufacturers to respond quickly to changing market demands. This flexibility is crucial in today's fast-paced, consumer-driven market.
Cost savings. While the initial investment in smart manufacturing machines may be higher, the long-term cost savings can be significant. Predictive maintenance can reduce downtime and maintenance costs, while energy-efficient operations can lower utility bills.
Data-driven decision making. Smart machines generate a wealth of data that can be analyzed to identify trends, optimize processes and inform decisions.
Internal Machine Communications are Key
The communications protocol internal to a machine is key to enabling the previous benefits of a smarter machine. A more efficient and reliable industrial protocol can enhance communication between smart machines, enabling faster and more accurate data exchange. This can lead to better coordination and synchronization of manufacturing processes, leading to improved efficiency and productivity.
A robust industrial protocol can ensure the integrity and quality of data transmitted between machines. This can lead to more accurate predictions, better quality control and more effective maintenance scheduling. A flexible industrial protocol can adapt to changes in the manufacturing environment, allowing smart machines to quickly adjust to new product designs, production schedules or operational conditions. This can improve the responsiveness and adaptability of the manufacturing process.
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A scalable industrial protocol can support the addition of new machines or systems to the network without compromising performance. This can enable manufacturers to expand their smart manufacturing capabilities as needed. A secure industrial protocol can protect sensitive data from unauthorized access or tampering. This is critical in ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of manufacturing processes and intellectual property.
A protocol that supports interoperability can enable smart machines from different manufacturers to communicate and work together seamlessly. This can provide manufacturers with more options when selecting equipment and can facilitate the integration of legacy systems with new smart machines.
Ethernet: The New Industrial Protocol Standard
As a large volume of devices should be seamlessly interconnected in the factory of the future, keeping the costs down while ensuring good connectivity is essential. Currently, the most attractive physical layer available is Ethernet.
Compared to traditional Fieldbus, this network technology is economical and faster. Therefore, Industrial Ethernet provides a better price/performance ratio. In addition, Industrial Ethernet offers the possibility to create different plant topologies and is generally easier to configure and scale, which are crucial considerations when defining an enterprise’s automation strategy.
The networking solution should also be able to combine multiple protocols, as factories tend to adopt field devices and machines from different manufacturers to satisfy their production needs. As a result, open networks are key, as they provide the only solution to accommodate products from multiple vendors.
It is best to use a network specification with increased openness, interconnectivity and compatibility with other solutions. For example, one that allows CC-Link IE and PROFINET to communicate on the same wire and allows individual devices to be connected via either protocol. Also, it could be beneficial to use a companion specification for machine technology and OPC UA that can enable further communication options.
Time-Sensitive Networking
Today, it is safe to assume that in many cases the network of the future will be a 1 Gbps Ethernet-based solution in line with the latest advances in technology, such as Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN).
The main benefit of TSN is that it enhances standard Ethernet by making it deterministic by design, which is essential for real-time communication and precise time synchronization in industrial and automation applications. TSN provides a suite of standards that enable precise time synchronization, traffic scheduling and network redundancy, allowing for efficient and reliable data transmission in critical industries such as manufacturing, automotive, and telecommunications.
Achieving Seamless Communication
The ideal solution should support the convergence of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) communications. It is essential to ensure that the data generated on the plant floor is accessible across all higher-level systems, from the control, supervisory and enterprise levels. It is also important that devices that support IT protocols such as SNMP are accessible across the OT network to IT solutions.
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This means that, in addition to having a large bandwidth, the industrial communications network needs to be able to schedule different types of data traffic in a highly effective manner. In particular, time-critical control data should be prioritized to support determinism and reliability on the factory floor. Multiple protocols can support multiple requirements. For motion control, you’ll want a deterministic protocol.
Leveraging Ethernet with TSN
The key design principles for digital manufacturing are real-time information transfer capabilities as well as data transparency and availability across the enterprise for advanced analytics. To implement these functionalities, it is essential to select the right industrial network. This should be able to accommodate different types of traffic generated by a broad range of devices while ensuring the timely delivery of each data packet.
By selecting the right industrial network that offers combined openness, gigabit bandwidth and TSN capabilities, businesses can implement advanced digital manufacturing strategies that enhance productivity and competitiveness. Designing smarter machines with these principles in mind will ensure that businesses remain at the forefront of their industries, ready to meet the challenges and opportunities of the future.
This article was submitted by Thomas Burke, global strategic advisor, CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA).