PiZeta

PiZeta's goal is to automate data collection, track downtime and know the cost associated with each order, interconnecting lathes and transfer machines.

Software 4.0 for the Interconnection of Machinery

The challenge

PIZETA is a company that boasts over forty years of experience in the production of handles and small metal parts, such as screws, pins and other accessories for handles.

The goal of PIZETA is to interconnect almost all their fleet of machines and become Industry 4.0 to be more efficient and competitive and to meet the challenges of the ever-changing market.

The challenge is to interconnect lathes and transfer machines of different manufacturers with the management system and the company MES. The goal is to automate data collection, track downtime and know the cost associated with each job. The technological challenge of the PIZETA project is, therefore, that of interconnecting heterogeneous and different hardware and software entities.

We also want to take advantage of the opportunity offered by the Business Plan 4.0, which offers state incentives to promote the technological innovation of the country: further objective to be achieved is, therefore, compliance with the requirements of the legislature in this regard.

The solution

T4SM solved the needs of PIZETA in a very short time by using software already developed and tested for long internally: iDaq, Digital Factory 4.0 Lite and Lilium, achieving the objectives with a complete and scalable solution.

iDaq is used to communicate directly with 8 Gamma Cami lathes and 5 Transfer machines of different manufacturers through Modbus TCP protocol and through other dedicated protocols.

iDaq collects the main production data, such as:

• Alarms
• State of machinery
• Number of pieces produced

Digital Factory 4.0 Lite provides a global view of the plant and forwards the name of the production order to be performed on the machine on the basis of what the operator has chosen from the MES.

Lilium deals with the transfer of data to the company database, from which the MES extrapolates the information for viewing and archiving, and the transfer of data from the database to Digital Factory 4.0 and iDaq.

The machines to be interconnected are located in two buildings separated by a road and connected by a radio bridge for the interconnection, so two different iDaq installations were used in the two sheds on two separate PCs. This solution is, therefore, more scalable even when new machines are added and more robust than the connection provided by the radio link.

The huge advantage is being able to see the data of the machines located on two dislocated plants directly from the office.

Benefits and Results

All the prefixed objectives have been achieved, thus allowing PIZETA to obtain significant benefits:

• Time-saving: the orders placed by the MES are sent directly to the specific machinery involved.
• Cost determination: with all the automatically collected production data it is possible to have an accurate cost report.
• Reduction of human errors: data acquisition is automatic, reducing errors due to manual operations.
• Traceability: all the data of the production cycle are tracked and there is a production history committed per job.
• State Incentives of the Business Plan 4.0: all the requisites required by the legislature have been respected.