JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #104 - April/May 2016 - 18

Market

trend

How Industry 4.0 affects
the composite production
landscape
- How Industry 4.0 affects
the composite production
landscape .................... p18
- To develop its carbon
production, China faces
many challenges ....... p22

By
Markus Breiing, research assistant,
seBastian stender, research assistant,
dr.-ing. Michael eMonts, ceo,
aachen center for integrative
lightweight Production (aZl),
dr.-ing. kai fischer,
divisional director Production technology, aachen
center for integrative lightweight Production (aZl),
scientific director,
institute of Plastics Processing (ikv)

The change of production systems within the media-effective
Industry 4.0 will affect the composite manufacturing sector due
to enormous productivity increase potential. The Aachen Center
for Integrative Lightweight Production (AZL) of RWTH Aachen
University links Industry 4.0 topics with its research activities
and creates synergies through interdisciplinary holistic approaches
between academia and industry.
is based on intelligent production systems
and smart factories (see figure 1) [1, 2].
Industry 4.0 is expected to change the
entire industrial production landscape.
Driven by the ongoing digitalization, present production systems will significantly
shift to flexible networked production
systems. These networks, based on newly
developed communication systems,
will result in seamless interactions of
self-optimizing cyber-physical systems
organized in vertically integrated smart
factories where the product itself will
control the manufacturing process.
Moreover, these smart factories will be
integrated horizontally within the supply

chain (see figure 2). This transformation
will be accompanied and backed by
changes of business models and social
infrastructures [1, 6].
To understand Industry 4.0, it is important to know the difference between
the media-related terms used in this
context. For instance, the term "Internet
of Things", often used synonymously
with Industry 4.0, generally stands for a
merging of the real and virtual worlds.
Things, no matter if industrial objects or
consumer goods, are equipped with identification and communication technologies and connected to the internet, thus
becoming "smart things" based on new

ndustry 4.0, inspired by one of the
German government's main initiatives,
stands for the fourth industrial revolution. After the first industrial revolution,
which introduced mechanical production
methods using steam power, the second
industrial revolution established mass
production based on electrical energy.
Then, the third industrial revolution led
to an automation of production systems
through the introduction of electronics
and information technologies. Now, the
fourth revolution, driven by digitalization,

Fig. 1: Historical background of Industry 4.0 (Sources: DFKI, IKV; Photos: Deutsches Museum, Ford, Arburg,
Bitkom)

18 jec composites magazine / No104 April - May 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #104 - April/May 2016