Digital experts at AMRC Cymru are helping Welsh manufacturers become sustainable, efficient and ready for Industry 4.0 by demonstrating the immediate impact of the data they produce on the shop floor.

The Factory+ framework, an open-access digital architecture that simplifies the way data can be handled across a manufacturing organisation, has now been implemented at the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) Cymru. Developed by engineers at the AMRC’s Factory 2050 in Sheffield, Factory+ provides a synthesised way for machines to capture, analyse and exploit the data they generate.

“We are extracting data from all kinds of machines, from robot arms, to CNC machines, automated guided vehicles (AGV) and 3D printers, and collating it; having it all in one place makes it so much easier to analyse and experiment on,” said Harri Williams, software engineer at AMRC Cymru.

“This is high on our partners’ agendas. There is huge potential impact for manufacturers to be able to analyse historical data and understand what is happening on their shop floors.”

The latest machines connected to the Factory+ architecture are AMRC Cymru’s two Stratasys 3D printers, the J835 and F170, adding to the Stratasys Fortus 900mc and F170s already at the AMRC’s site in Rotherham. Harri says AMRC engineers are now able to track the printers’ usage, some of the busiest machines they have.

He said: “We have created a dashboard that is presented in the workshop through a huge projector displaying all the data being streamed at any moment in time. For the 3D printers, every engineer can see in an instant how much material is remaining within the machines and the current status of jobs.

“Now we are trialling an alert system, so if a job does fail you can be alerted – if you are at home you know about it and if you are on the shop floor you can do something about it because with a lot of 3D printers, jobs can be saved if you get to the machine within ten minutes. Without our dashboard we missed a lot of failed prints because we were too late to react, but now we are saving a lot more of them and reducing our wastage.”

Frank Lindeman, Business Development & Customer Success, Stratasys Software, said: “With additive manufacturing making an entry on the factory floor, thanks to improved materials and machines, it's becoming clear that machine connectivity is key to reap the benefits of Industry 4.0 and make factories smarter. The integration of Stratasys equipment with Factory+ at the AMRC Cymru and AMRC Sheffield sites, enabled by MTConnect and the GrabCAD Printer Connectivity API which both are part of the open GrabCAD Additive Manufacturing Platform, has shown our machines are ready to make that step, and coexist with other manufacturing equipment on a smart factory floor, providing manufacturers with the insight and control they need, second by second, hour by hour.”

Andy Silcox, AMRC research director, added: “Thanks to a £3.5m grant from the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI), we have established a Manufacturing Data Centre of Excellence at AMRC Cymru to demonstrate the power of data to improve manufacturing organisations. Factory+ is an important addition to that.

“Whether it is monitoring the energy usage of equipment or finding efficiencies in processes, there is so much manufacturers can achieve by exploiting their data.”

More about Factory+ here: factoryplus.app.amrc.co.uk