During the Coronavirus pandemic, the world is experiencing first-hand the tremendous importance of global digitisation for the flow of information and online ordering. The rapidly rising number of applications worldwide clearly shows that the digitisation of production equipment to exchange information between processing machines and auxiliary appliances is also becoming more and more important.
Wittmann Battenfeld
WITTMANN 4.0 peripheral devices now with free-of-charge OPC UA connection
The Wittmann Group is working on supporting and driving the efforts of modern injection moulding companies towards digital integration of the entire production plant. This is why Wittmann 4.0-compatible auxiliary appliances ordered from 1 April 2020 onwards can now be connected via OPC UA as standard, and without any additional costs to suitably equipped Wittmann Battenfeld injection moulding machines with B8 control systems.
The interconnection of Wittmann Battenfeld machines with Wittmann appliances via WITTMANN 4.0 offers numerous advantages, including central operation, meaning all functions of auxiliary appliances can be selected centrally on the Wittmann Battenfeld B8 control unit and used with their familiar menu structure; extended mold data set in the B8 machine control system, wherein the mould data set not only consists of the usual process parameter settings for the machine itself, but has now been extended to include the settings of the WITTMANN 4.0 auxiliary appliances and the Wittmann R9 robot.
Furthermore, for every mould data set, the total original set or required specific range of production equipment can be retrieved at any time from the mould catalogue, enabling the operator to prepare for imminent mould changes.
Following a mould change, and subject to mechanical and electrical connection of the auxiliary appliances, the parameter settings, formulations, robot sequences, etc. can be transmitted automatically.
Optionally, the advantages of WITTMANN 4.0 can also be utilised outside the Wittmann Battenfeld production cell by connecting the machine and the auxiliary appliances to the TEMI+ MES system.
