"Massively reduce the footprint"

Machine builders and plant operators have one major common goal: to make manufacturing more digital and flexible. To reach this goal, the manufacturing industry relies on research institutions such as the Graz University of Technology in Austria. At the renowned university's Smart Factory testbed, everything revolves around agile and secure manufacturing solutions. We sat down with project manager Rudolf Pichler to learn how his testbed contributes to the implementation of smart factory solutions and how manufacturing companies benefit from the knowledge that is gained there.

Rudolf Pichler: The Smart Factory brings state-of-the-art mechanical equipment for manufacturing and assembly together with the most advanced IT products. That lets us explore new solutions for Industry 4.0 in a realistic factory environment with a focus on improving agility and data security. We also open up our Smart Factory to companies as a sort of test lab where they can do their own research on disruptive manufacturing technologies.

Pichler: Exactly. We have an end-to-end value chain and manufacture a multi-part industrial product. After manufacturing, our product is transported to various stations, such as washing, measuring and assembly. We've even integrated a test bench. The real highlight of the whole thing, though, is that we've connected the different process stations as flexibly as possible and made the entire manufacturing process extremely smart. We've been able to demonstrate, for example, how robots, machines and CNC tools can be interconnected and work in perfect harmony.

Pichler: As I mentioned, we have a strong focus on agility, so we needed a flexible solution for our processes. In the end, we decided to install all of our applications – like our pneumatic-electric press or robot, for example – on mobile workstations. We wanted each station to be capable of working fully autonomously and self-sufficient from an energy standpoint. And, regardless of what manufacturer they come from, all the machines are networked together. The last step was to find a way to connect the workstations and transport the product between them.

Pichler: One of our 20 industrial partners, B&R, had a really fascinating proposal: the flexible and intelligent ACOPOStrak system.

Pichler: ACOPOStrak allows parts and products to be transported quickly and flexibly from station to station on independently controlled shuttles. So that answered our question of how to handle intralogistics. But, ACOPOStrak does more than just move products around. It addresses some of the most pressing concerns of modern manufacturing: the demand for smaller batch sizes and greater flexibility.

Pichler: Oh, we've certainly had a lot of very interesting challenges. What was important at the beginning was to find a concept that was unique. There are other testbed factories around, and we wanted ours to stand out. That's why we set a special focus on agility and data security. And, considering the sums involved, another challenge early on was finding industry partners who were willing to invest in the project.

Pichler: Once we had the concept and the financing figured out, the next step was finding qualified personnel to participate in our innovative endeavor. That's always a challenge for universities, but in the end we were successful. Another issue we faced was taking the myriad of ideas we had for the Smart Factory and combining them into a cohesive whole – a complete manufacturing system. To demonstrate digitalization concepts, we needed an IT network to join all the different stations. And we had a lot of different equipment speaking a variety of different languages. With put a lot of work into that, together with our industry partners, and arrived at a very good solution.

Pichler: Our testbed factory thrives on innovation, so it will surely continue to evolve. One thing that will remain is our core focus on agility and secure connectivity – and that focus will intensify in the future. It has always been a priority of mine to have a good mix of technologies from different manufacturers. After all, a large factory in the real world isn't all B&R components either. If I had one wish for the future, it would be for more and more companies to come take advantage of the infrastructure we've created. We're excited to host and participate in the developments that shape the future of manufacturing.

Thanks for your time!