Smart Manufacturing & Automation Control Systems for Industry 4.0/5.0

Industrial manufacturing processes have evolved and improved since the disruption of the Industry 4.0 paradigm, while energy has progressively become a strategic resource required to maintain industrial competitiveness while maximizing quality and minimizing environmental impacts. In this context of global changes leading to social and economic impact in the short term and an unprecedented climate crisis, Digital Twins for Energy Efficiency in manufacturing processes provide companies with a tool to address this complex situation. Nevertheless, already existing Digital Twins applied for energy efficiency in a manufacturing process lack a flexible structure that easily replicates the real behavior of consuming machines while integrating it in complex upper-level environments. This paper presents a combined multi-paradigm approach to industrial process modeling developed and applied during the GENERTWIN project. The tool allows users to predict energy consumption and costs and, at the same time, evaluates the behavior of the process under certain productive changes to maximize consumption optimization, production efficiency and process flexibility. Full article

Blockchain 3.0, an advanced iteration of blockchain technology, has emerged with diverse applications encompassing various sectors such as identity authentication, logistics, medical care, and Industry 4.0/5.0. Notably, the integration of blockchain with industrial automation and control systems (IACS) holds immense potential in this evolving landscape. As industrial automation and control systems gain popularity alongside the widespread adoption of 5G networks, Internet of Things (IoT) devices are transforming into integral nodes within the blockchain network. This facilitates decentralized communication and verification, paving the way for a fully decentralized network. This paper focuses on showcasing the implementation and execution results of data preservation from industrial automation and control systems to IOTA, a prominent distributed ledger technology. The findings demonstrate the practical application of IOTA in securely preserving data within the context of industrial automation and control systems. The presented numerical results validate the effectiveness and feasibility of leveraging IOTA for seamless data preservation, ensuring data integrity, confidentiality, and transparency. By adopting IOTA’s innovative approach based on Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), the paper contributes to the advancement of blockchain technology in the domain of Industry 4.0/5.0. Full article

In order to reduce carbon emission and energy consumption in the process of raw material distribution, the workshop material distribution management model was established based on the business compass model; it can help guide enterprises to manage workshop production. Based on the raw material distribution equipment, a path calculation model considering the carbon emission and energy consumption in the process of raw material distribution was established. The dung beetle optimizer was selected for the optimization calculation. The dung beetle optimizer has the characteristics of fast convergence and high solution accuracy. The material distribution of an engine assembly workshop was taken as an example; the results showed that the optimized scheduling model could effectively optimize the material distribution route and reduce energy consumption and carbon emission in the distribution process on the basis of meeting the distribution demand. Full article

This paper conducts numerical experiments on performance comparisons of CTDARV—with or without conical angle in the valve element and valve seat. The working principles of three kinds of CTDARV are introduced. The simulation models of three kinds of CTDARV are established by utilizing AMESIM. Numerical experiments on CTDARV, with or without a conical angle in the valve element and the valve seat, are conducted and the performance comparisons of three kinds of CTDARV are obtained. The results show that: (1) When all parameters of VED, VSD, VEM, SS, CAVE&CAVS, and OD have the same value, respectively, CA-VE has the highest stable pressure, CA-VE&VS has the highest stable displacement, CA-VS has the lowest stable pressure, and CA-VE has the lowest stable displacement. The stable pressure of CA-VE is significantly higher than that of CA-VS and CA-VE&VS. The stable displacement of CA-VE&VS is significantly higher than that of CA-VE and CA-VS, and the stable displacement of CA-VE and CA-VS has little difference. (2) With the increase of VED from 13 mm to 16 mm, the stable pressure of CA-VE remains constant, while that of CA-VS and CA-VE&VS both decreases. As the VSD increases from 3 mm to 6 mm, the stable pressure of CA-VE and CA-VE&VS decreases, and that of CA-VE decreases significantly. With the increase of VEM from 0.01 kg to 0.04 kg, the stable pressure of CA-VE, CA-VS, and CA-VE&VS remains unchanged. With the increase of SS from 5 N/mm to 20 N/mm, the stable pressure of CA-VE, CA-VS and CA-VE&VS increases. With the increase of CAVE&CAVS from 15 degrees to 60 degrees, the stable pressure of CA-VE, CA-VS, and CA-VE&VS decreases. With the OD increase from 0.8 mm to 1.4 mm, the stable pressure of CA-VE, CA-VS and CA-VE&VS remains unchanged. (3) With the increase of VED from 13 mm to 16 mm, the stable displacement of CA-VE will not change, while that of CA-VS and CA-VE&VS will increase. As the VSD increases from 3 mm to 6 mm, the stable displacement of CA-VE increases, while that of CA-VE&VS decreases. When VSD is 4 mm–6 mm, the stable displacement of CA-VS remains unchanged. With the increase of VEM from 0.01 kg to 0.04 kg, the stable displacement of CA-VE, CA-VS and CA-VE&VS remains unchanged. As SS increases from 5 N/mm to 20 N/mm, the stable displacement of CA-VE, CA-VS, and CA-VE&VS decreases. As CAVE&CAVS increases from 15 degrees to 60 degrees, the stable displacement of CA-VE, CA-VS, and CA-VE&VS decreases. With the OD increasing from 0.8 mm to 1.4 mm, the stable displacement of CA-VE, CA-VS, and CA-VE&VS remains unchanged. (4) With the increase of VED from 13 mm to 16 mm, the velocity of CA-VE remains unchanged, while that of CA-VS and CA-VE&VS increases. As the VSD increases from 4 mm to 6 mm, the velocity of CA-VS remains unchanged, while that of CA-VE and CA-VE&VS decreases. With the increase of VEM from 0.01 kg to 0.04 kg, the velocity oscillation of CA-VE gradually increases, and the velocity of CA-VS and CA-VE&VS has little change. As SS increases from 5 N/mm to 20 N/mm, the velocity of CA-VE increases, while that of CA-VS and CA-VE&VS decreases. When CAVE&CAVS is 15 degrees and 30 degrees, the velocity of CA-VE is lower than that of CA-VS and CA-VE&VS. With the OD increasing from 0.8 mm to 1.4 mm, the velocity oscillation of CA-VE increases gradually, and the velocity of CA-VS and CA-VE&VS changes little. Full article

Most industrial processes have nonlinear and time-delay characteristics leading to difficulty in prediction modeling. In addition, the working conditions of most industrial processes are complex, which results in multiple modes. Testing and modeling for each mode is a waste of time and resources. Therefore, it is urgent to complete model migration between different modes. In this work, a new prediction model, a nonlinear autoregressive model with exogenous inputs and back propagation neural network (NARX-BP), is proposed for the nonlinear and time-delay processes, where the input data order of the model is determined by the feedforward neural network (FNN) method, and the nonlinear relation is realized by the BP neural network. For the multi-mode characteristic, a new migration optimization algorithm, input–output slope/bias correction and differential evolution (IOSBC-DE), is provided for using a small amount of data under a new mode to correct the slope and bias of the relationship between the input and output variables through DE. The modeling and migration methods are applied to a wind tunnel system, and the simulation result shows the effectiveness of the proposed method. Full article

In order to solve the problems of high carbon emissions, low distribution efficiency and high costs related to the process of material distribution in manufacturing workshops, a multi-objective workshop material distribution path optimization problem model is established, and the model is solved using an improved genetic algorithm. The problem is processed using Gray code and crossover and variation operations with a genetic algorithm. To improve the search accuracy and convergence speed of the algorithm, an adaptive mutation method is proposed to enhance the diversity of the population and to achieve global optimal path objective finding. The improved algorithm is applied to workshop path multi-station logistics path planning, which effectively solves the transport path optimization and station solving problems in workshop logistics distribution, and the convergence speed and convergence accuracy of the algorithm are significantly improved. Finally, a simulation analysis is carried out on the optimization of the production material distribution of a smart gas meter workshop owned by K Company, which is an electronic assembly manufacturing company. We used MATLAB software for the case company logistics distribution route model for data analysis and solving. Due to the consideration of carbon emissions, we did not consider two kinds of experiments, which were two different cases of the optimal path. The experimental results verify that the distribution optimization scheduling model can meet the demands for immediate material distribution in the production workshop, which is conducive to improving material distribution efficiency, reducing logistics costs and achieving the goal of lowering carbon emissions. This optimization model has a certain utility in that in the current context of aiming for carbon neutral and carbon peaking, early low carbon distribution layout can reduce the environmental cost of the enterprise, making material distribution a more environmental economic path. Full article

Reducing carbon emission and raising efficient production are the important goals of modern enterprise production process. The same product can be produced by a variety of equipment, and the carbon emissions and processing time of different equipment vary greatly. Choosing suitable production equipment is an important method for manufacturing enterprises to achieve the efficient emission reduction of production process. However, the traditional production equipment selection mode only gives qualitative results, and it is difficult to provide effective advice for enterprises to choose suitable equipment under the needs of carbon neutrality. To solve this problem, this paper systematically analyzes carbon emission and the time of the turning production process, and a unified calculation model for carbon emission and efficient production of multi-type processing equipment is established. The important point of the article is to research the diversity among between carbon emissions and efficiency levels of the same product produced by different devices. The carbon emissions and efficiency levels of different kinds of equipment can be calculated by the BAS algorithm. By turning a shaft part as an example, the results show that this method can calculate the optimal value of carbon emissions and efficiency of the same product produced by different equipment and can provide suggestions for enterprises to select appropriate equipment for low-carbon and efficient production. This paper provides a reference for further research on the quantitative calculation model for the selection of high-efficiency and low-carbon production equipment. Full article

Aiming at the intelligent production line scheduling problem, a production line scheduling method considering multiple constraints was proposed. Considering the constraints of production task priority, time limit, and urgent task insertion, a production process optimization scheduling calculation model was established with the minimum waiting time and minimum completion time as objectives. The BAS was used to solve the problem, and a fast response mechanism for emergency processing under multiple constraints was established. Compared with adaptive particle swarm optimization (APSO) and non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II) operation, this algorithm showed its superiority. The practical application in garment processing enterprises showed that the method was effective and can reduce the completion time and waiting time. Full article

The high-pressure polyethylene process uses cyclone separators to separate ethylene gas, polyethylene, and its oligomers. The oligomers larger than 10 microns that cannot be separated must be filtered through a filter to prevent them from entering the compressor and affecting its normal operation. When the separation efficiency of the cyclone separator is low, the filter must be cleaned more frequently, which will reduce production efficiency. Research shows that improving the separation efficiency of the separator is beneficial for the separation of small-particle oligomers and reduces the frequency of filter cleaning. For this reason, Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations were performed for 27 sets of cyclone separators to determine the effects of eight structural factors (cylinder diameter, cylinder height, cone diameter, cone height, guide vane height, guide vane angle, exhaust pipe extension length, and umbrella structure height) on separation efficiency and pressure drop. The equations for separation efficiency and pressure drop using these eight factors and the equations based on energy-efficiency parameters were determined. The optimization analysis showed that separation efficiency can be improved by 98.7% under the premise that the pressure drop is only increased by 8.2%. By applying the improved structure to the high-pressure polyethylene process, separation efficiency is increased by 17.7%, which could effectively reduce the frequency of filter cleaning for this process, and thereby greatly improve production efficiency. Full article

Due to the fast material reaction in zinc hydrometallurgy, the traditional national standard photometric method cannot capture the characteristic information of target substances in real time. Herein, a nitrogen protection device is built based on ultraviolet spectrophotometry, supplemented by a programmable logic controller (PLC), to form an automatic control system for the direct detection of target substances (SO₄²⁻, Pb²⁺ and S²⁻) in zinc hydrometallurgy. The baseline straightness comparison results show that the nitrogen atmosphere can effectively improve the stability of the instrument. Furthermore, the detection sensitivity of SO₄²⁻, Pb²⁺ and S²⁻ under the nitrogen atmosphere is higher than that of the air atmosphere, manifesting in sensitivity increases of 16.23%, 18.05% and 17.91%, respectively. Additionally, devices based on PLC systems show advantages over manual control both in states feedback and information backtrack. Moreover, the regulation time and nitrogen consumption during the regulation process are reduced by 80% and 75%, respectively, which effectively reduces the test cost and improves the equipment utilization rate (from four cycles per day to six cycles per day). The device can meet the requirements of different target substances and different process conditions by changing the electronic control parts and air source, so it has great application potential in the automatic direct measurement of target substances in zinc hydrometallurgy. Full article

In the context of Industry 4.0, the lean–green manufacturing system has brought many advantages and challenges to industrial participants. Security is one of the main challenges encountered in the new industrial environment, because smart factory applications can easily expose the vulnerability of manufacturing and threaten the operational security of the whole system. It is difficult to address the problem of the brittleness factor in manufacturing systems. Therefore, building on vulnerability theory, this study proposes a vulnerability index system for lean–green manufacturing systems in a manufacturing company in the context of Industry 4.0. The index has four dimensions: human factors, equipment factors, environmental factors, and other factors. The Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) approach was used to calculate the degree of influence, the degree of being influenced, and the centrality and causes of the factors. The causal relationships and key influences between the factors were identified. Then, the dependence and hierarchy of each of the key influencing factors were analyzed using the Matrix-Based Cross-Impact Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC) and Interpretative Structural Model (ISM) methods, and a hierarchical structural model of the factors was constructed. Finally, an intelligent manufacturing system that produces a micro-acoustic material and device was used as an example to verify the accuracy of the proposed method. The results show that the method not only identifies the key brittleness factors in a lean–green manufacturing system but can also provide a guarantee for the safe operation of a manufacturing system. This study provides theoretical guidance for the effective management of intelligent manufacturing systems; moreover, it lays a foundation and provides a new methodology for assessing the vulnerability of manufacturing systems. Full article

Aiming at resolving the problem of low assembly accuracy and the difficulty of guaranteeing assembly quality of remanufactured parts, an optimization classification method for the assembly sequence of remanufactured parts based on different accuracy levels is proposed. By studying the characteristics of recycled parts, based on the requirement that the quality of remanufactured products not be lower than that of the assembly quality of new products, the classification selection matching constraints of remanufactured parts are determined, and the classification selection matching optimization models of remanufactured parts with different precision levels is established. An algorithm combining particle swarm optimization and a genetic algorithm is proposed to solve the model and obtain the optimal assembly sequence. Taking the remanufacturing assembling of a 1.4 TGDI engine crank and a connecting rod mechanism as an example, the comparison of quality data shows that this method can effectively improve the qualified rate of assembly, reduce the cost of after-sale claims, provide new theories and methods for remanufacturing enterprises that need hierarchical assembly, and provide effective guidance for the development of the remanufacturing industry. Full article