Injection Molding: Milacron Expands Industry 4.0 Platform

Milacron recently reviewed the various components of its expanding M-Powered Industry 4.0 platform, which originally launched in 2018. The platform consists of three tiers—Premier, Essential and Advantage—with with technical support and the Connect portal available in Advantage, while Essential adds downtime tracking and production monitoring, and top-tier Premier features predictive analytics and preventive maintenance.

In terms of machine compatibility, Milacron’s Mosaic and Endura control platforms can support all of those M-Powered functions. For Fanuc Roboshot machines, all but technical support and predictive analytics are supported, but those functions are in the process of being added.

In terms of security, Milacron notes that the system, which it partnered with ei3—its 4.0 partner since 2012—to create, runs on a Milacron-owned Cloud infrastructure that is certified by DEKRA, which provides ISO and TEC certification for information security. The private Cloud is compatible with a number of data formats, including Ethernet, Modbus, OPC-UA, Profibus and more.

The Connect portal automates OEE data collection and reporting with real-time tracking of operations and secure web and mobile application to review key performance indicators. To support this and finetune data sent to the cloud, M-Powered utilizes so-called edge computing on the plant floor in the form of its Symphony and Amphion technologies. Instead of continuously sending millions of data points to the Cloud, the edge computing “mathematically transforms information” into an effective format, according to Milacron. Amphion gathers and analyzes the data, while Symphony examines sound patterns in pumps.