Many companies in the textile industry are faced with the challenge of managing a heterogeneous machine park with different digitalization solutions. The machines come from different manufacturers and comprise different generations, which leads to compatibility problems and inefficient data management processes. The solution lies in the integration of sensors and IoT/IIoT gateways that enable manufacturer-independent data processing and visualization.
The challenge: A heterogeneous machine park with different digitalization solutions
Companies in the textile industry, for example in yarn production, have a very heterogeneous range of machinery from different manufacturers and generations of equipment. Due to the longevity of machines, it is not unusual for individual production systems to date back to the 1980s.
Increasing digitalization has led to some manufacturers developing applications to process the machine data of their models – albeit usually exclusively for their own brand. As a result, the individual applications are not compatible with each other and often have different hardware requirements and demands on the IT infrastructure used. They often do not offer interfaces to common applications for data analytics or visualization.
Many companies in the industry therefore want a comprehensive solution that brings all data from different providers together in one central location – a “single source of truth”, as it is called in IT. For most companies, the first step is a visualization that displays the same data values for all machines.
The solution: Sensors and IoT/IIoT gateways for networking any machine
IT systems such as texware ERP or MES from update texware are a well-known tool in the textile industry and are well suited for processing the required data. However, a heterogeneous machine park such as the one described must first be equipped with sensors and networked in order to transfer the necessary data to this tool. The IIoT platform in.hub is ideal for this. Their open solution concept enables the operation of universal and vendor-independent machine monitoring.
The IIoT gateways and modules from in.hub have been specially developed for machine diagnostics in industrial environments. The high level of integration of industrial and IT interfaces enables the direct connection of sensors and actuators as well as communication with various control and bus systems. This means that in.hub can read data from machines from many manufacturers. With additional sensors, older machines from the textile industry can also be connected to the systems from update texware.
The complexity of the task is demonstrated by bobbin machines, among other things. They have different numbers of bobbins with which they wind and rewind yarn. Some machines have 400 bobbins, others up to 1000. The processing capacity therefore varies and with the older machines it is not clear whether all bobbins are really working or whether individual ones are faulty.
In this case, the in.hub devices pick up the sensor data directly from the turntable over which the thread runs. This is a wheel with holes in it on the side of the machine. The size and number of holes vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. The siineos® operating system integrated into the solution uses the diameter of the turntable and the number of holes to calculate how many meters of thread actually pass through. This is used to calculate the individual kilogram output per machine. The data is then sent to the texware monitoring tool, where it is interpreted and visualized.
The result: Fast identification of machine condition data
Textile companies can use the in.hub solution to determine very precisely when and how often downtimes occur and do not have to wait for a manual evaluation. When changing shifts, staff can immediately see how the last shift performed. The entire production status can be viewed on one screen, eliminating the need for Excel lists or other documents. In addition, everyone can view the results of the last few days and, if required, also display data from further back in time. All in all, this provides textile companies with a comprehensive and simple solution that they can integrate and configure themselves.
