20/07/2017Cyber-physical systems for improving efficiency in the energy industry
The CIMEC project, in which the Basque technology centre IK4-IDEKO takes part, seeks to improve the efficiency and reduce the cost of component manufacturing for the wind energy sector.
The fourth Industrial Revolution driven by the incorporation of
digital technology in manufacturing systems, equipment and environments has blurred the boundaries between
physical and digital spaces and networked the production process and value chain.
The CIMEC project is being developed in this context, an initiative that has the participation of the technological centre specialising in Advanced Manufacture,
IK4-IDEKO. The program seeks to develop a
new generation of cyber-physical systems with applications in the field of large component manufacturers for the wind energy generation sector, which will allow it to improve its efficiency and reduce costs.
To achieve this, the research centre is developing a
damper for increasing the cutting capacity of the machines, whose brain will be a high-performance real-time controller. This damper will allow the various problems that can appear during the machining processes to be eliminated, such as chatter, thanks to its capacity for monitoring all the process phases and the state of the machine in the cloud.
In this way, a continuous diagnostic can be carried out of the surface quality of the workpiece that is being machined, in addition to a statistical analysis of the entire machining process. This diagnostic will provide great added value to the energy sector field thanks to the
reduction of costs associated with the manufacturing process, which up to now has offered design solutions with a high cost, as well as the possibility of using this application in local machine tools.
The initiative, which
combines this mechatronic device with the incorporation of ICT, also represents a great leap in the competitiveness of the metal-mechanical industry and other industries of high strategic value.
The CIMEC project, which started in June 2015 and will be extended to December 2018, has the participation of a consortium formed by the
SORALUCE,
DANOBAT,
Ingeteam companies and the
Eurecat technology centre in addition to IK4-IDEKO.
The initiative has received state and European finance within the RETOS-collaboration programme 2016, in the framework of the R3 field: “Safe, efficient and clean energy”.
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