Industry 4.0 is basically the 4th industrial revolution,
the digitalization of production processes.
Customers increasingly demand individualized products.
They can already today customize their muesli or sneakers.
This is where industry 4.0. comes into play,
providing the means to produce individualized items at mass production prices.
The research cluster brings together scientists
of faculty I (Electrical Engineering and IT) and faculty II (Mechanical Engineering
and Bioprocess Technology),creating an interdisciplinary network.
Our aim is to support small and medium-sized businesses.
We cover most work fields related to industry 4.0.,
like my research area “Safety and Security”
where we deal with IT Security in production processes.
Statistics show that the number of cyber-attacks
on production plants is increasing steadily.
When we talk about IT security,
we address not only data security, or the reliability of data transmissions,
but also the availability production facilities.
The monitoring of the process and machine data for this milling machine
is called predictive maintenance – knowing when a part
needs to be replaced by a spare part.
These chessmen, we produce here, are test products
to examine the quality of the individual pieces.
We want to know ahead of time if a machine changes during its life cycle,
to anticipate when a part needs to be replaced.
This is our “Digital Factory and Virtual Product Development Lab".
In line with Industry 4.0., our focus is set on networking
and focusto the customers’ demands.
We create CAD models. CAD means 'computer-aided design'.
The automotive sector plays a cruical role in the industry of North Germany.
So we decided to test our processes on a small car.
By means of CAD, we produced a digital twin of this Smart.
These models can now be viewed in 3D, providing total immersion.
The Institute of Technical Chemistry is running a model bioprocess.
We work on the control of metrological processes.
An auto sampler periodically pulls
and analyzes samples during the cultivation process in a bioreactor.
We use highly sensitive animal cells to develop very special drugs.
These biopharmaceuticals work on specific areas of the body,
curing diseases with hardly any side effects.
In past we needed to show up in the lab regularly, to pull samples.
The cooperative effort between our institute and the Research Cluster Industry 4.0
yielded an auto sampler to do the same job automatically.
Now, no one has to be here –
the process can even be remote controlled whenever a new sample is needed.
We are scientists who work on bioprocesses.
The HsH engineers provide valuable support for IT structures, programming, and automation.