GF Machining Solutions’ digital products put customers on the road to the Industry 4.0 vision of intelligent, high-performing manufacturing

Industry 4.0 is underway, changing shop floors all over the world by connecting smart machines with one another to make smart factories a reality. GF Machining Solutions’ guests at EMO Hannover 2019 (Hall 27, Stand B26) will experience firsthand how cutting-edge digital products can drive their autonomy and productivity.

GF Machining Solutions is pushing full speed ahead toward an Industry 4.0 vision of intelligent, high-performing and predictive manufacturing. With the EMO Hannover 2019 theme, “Connected to your needs,” the GF Division will showcase digital solutions that help manufacturers reduce machine downtime, monitor the performance of their machines and workshops, automate their processes, ensure manufacturing process compliance, and connect their GF Machining Solutions machines to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and manufacturing execution systems (MES).

OPC UA is where it starts

In a dedicated Industry 4.0 corner of GF Machining Solutions’ 1,156-square-meter booth, EMO Hannover 2019 visitors will discover firsthand how these software products can drive their manufacturing success—today and in the future. Aligned with GF Machining Solutions’ vision of an “open future” for manufacturing, the Open Platform Communications (OPC) Unified Architecture (UA) protocol is installed on all of the GF Division’s machines. It provides a common communication language across GF Machining Solutions products, technologies and services. Version one of the OPC UA collects a vast range of comparable data and, with the new rConnect Dashboard, makes it accessible on the shop floor and remotely from users’ offices, and makes it possible for users to connect GF Machining Solutions products to their existing ERP and MES systems. EMO Hannover 2019 visitors will experience both scenarios in the Industry 4.0 corner.

Success-enabling rConnect Dashboard

Collected live data related to a variety of machine key performance indicators (KPIs) is available on the rConnect Dashboard. All of this data is comparable and structurally aligned with ISO 22400’s framework for defining, composing, exchanging and using KPIs in manufacturing. Machine status, availability, efficiency and productivity are available, so users can easily monitor machine activity and receive alerts about, for example, deviation from their companies’ normal productivity. That means they can better analyze and fine-tune their processes to ensure on-time delivery to their own customers. Thanks to the rConnect digital services platform, including rConnect Cockpit connectivity and rConnect Live Remote Assistance, online, expert support is at customers’ fingertips.

The OPC UA and the innovative new rConnect Dashboard represent two more ways GF Machining Solutions is innovating to enable the Industry 4.0 vision of intelligent, high-performing and predictive manufacturing for customers today and well into the future.

EMO Hannover 2019, the world’s premier trade fair for the metalworking sector, takes place September 16–21 at the Hannover Fairground in Hannover, Germany.