News from the Industrial Solutions division

In the field of industrial resistance welding technology, the topic of digitization/industry 4.0 is still dealt with conservatively. Whether it is a matter of process documentation, statistical quality monitoring or digital imaging, the principle advantages are quickly recognized by every process user. However, practical implementation in existing plants is often more complex than one might think. The historical generation mix of existing components, complexity and robustness of traditional technology as well as scarce resources in IT staff increase implementation costs and put all advantages for a concrete user once again into question.

In our customer base, we have seen the most innovative I4.0 deployments in the automotive OEM segment, where both extensive project planning and strong in-house IT competencies are available. Recently, however, we have seen more and more automotive suppliers (Tier1) who also want to follow the path taken by their clients. For us, this often means not only providing the customer with a specific data interface, but also developing the entire process documentation concept together with the customer. Even if many of the issues involved are not at all in the area of actual welding technology, we gather experience of successful configurations in order to be able to offer our customers meaningful support.

A successful implementation of comprehensive process documentation in series production was realized at a well-known supplier’s pilot plant. Here, the process data is first recorded classically by the GeniusMFI welding controllers and evaluated by the proven Q-Inspector. For comprehensive process control, the selected characteristics are retrieved from the XPegasus Platinum server via the OPC UA data interface and further processed by the customer’s own developed logic. Finally, the results from both evaluation systems are consolidated in a traceable manner and stored in a database, where they are available for the next 12 years, as required by the end customer.

We are happy to share our experience in setting up process documentation. Talk to us about the topic!