Molding Machine IoT Adaptation via Data Aggregation
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing systems for manufacturing molded products are not adequately adapted to IoT, leading to insufficient information collection for predictive maintenance, which delays the integration of molded product manufacturing systems into IoT environments.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a communication device in the molding machine and apparatus for taking out molded products that transmits internal data, including identification information on dies, to an external server via a communication network, utilizing a dedicated IoT communication infrastructure to enable efficient and cost-effective adaptation to IoT, allowing for enhanced predictive maintenance by associating data with specific dies and considering molding and take-out sequences.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a communication device is added to transmit data from peripheral devices to an external server, then IoT adaptability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The molding machine acts as an intermediary device that collects data from peripheral devices and transmits it to the external server. The communication device in the molding machine serves as a mediator that aggregates data from multiple sources (peripheral devices) and forwards it to the destination (external server), thereby improving IoT adaptability without requiring each peripheral device to have its own communication capabilities.
2Measurement precision
If identification information on dies is transmitted together with data, then predictive maintenance precision is improved, but communication data volume increases
Solution Approach 1:
Identification information on dies is transmitted together with operational data in advance, before predictive maintenance analysis is performed. This preliminary action ensures that the external server has all necessary information (both operational data and die identification) to accurately predict maintenance needs, thereby improving predictive maintenance precision without requiring separate communication transmissions.
3Loss of information
If all peripheral devices are individually adapted to IoT, then information collection completeness is improved, but adaptation cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of individually adapting each peripheral device to IoT, the invention merges the communication functionality at the molding machine level. The molding machine's communication device aggregates data from multiple peripheral devices and transmits it as a unified stream to the external server, thereby achieving complete information collection while significantly reducing adaptation costs compared to equipping each device with individual IoT capabilities.
Data Source
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AI summary
A molded product manufacturing system includes an injection molding machine (20), an apparatus (10) for taking out a molded product, and one or more peripheral devices (30) arranged around the apparatus (10) to operate together during operation of the apparatus (10). The apparatus (10) includes a communication unit (14) operable to transmit internal data to an external server (50) via a communication network (40) . The communication unit (14) of the apparatus (10) transmits external data, which is output from the one or more peripheral devices (30), to external servers together with information on a die.