“Machine Tool 4.0” as a milestone on the road to digital transformation

Although not visible from the outside, the two DMC 80 FD duoBLOCK machines of the innovation project “machine tool 4.0” are nevertheless packed full with intelligent sensors as the basis of condition-oriented service and maintenance. To achieve this more than 60 sensors have been installed on elementary components of the FD machine.

Calculable availability of means of production ranks as a decisive factor in the realisation of cyber-physical production networks. This has led to the optimisation of service and maintenance processes progressively moving away from the back burner and into the limelight. That is why DMG MORI has collaborated with Schaeffler Technologie to start the innovation project “Machine Tool 4.0” taking the mill/turn centre DMC 80 FD duoBLOCK as a specific example. To achieve their aims more than 60 sensors have been installed on elementary components of the FD machine. Together with other (obligatory) status information all data are now captured in realtime and analysed using specially developed algorithms. As a result the evaluation of the data provides qualified insights into the probable occurrence of different process and production faults. This in turn enables users to take targeted measures in advance for the first time, where currently unplanned machine downtimes quickly render capacity planning a waste of time. The extent to which the above-mentioned theory is actually implemented in day-to-day machining routine can be experienced live by visitors to the DMG MORI stand at the EMO in Milan. Energy and running costs have also been reduced significantly in addition to the increase in availability and simultaneous reduction of service costs. This new “knowledge” also constitutes the basis for the sustainable optimisation of processes, products and machines.

Future-orientated joint project
“Industry 4.0“ is the hot topic of the moment. The fundamental ambition of the 4th industrial revolution is the individualised manufacture of products in digitalized, de-centralised, self-controlling cyber-physical production systems. On this basis every customer is to be offered his/her product customised to the conditions of mass production and have it delivered within the shortest possible time. So much to the vision. The status quo, of course, looks very different. Not even basic and more importantly globally coordinated rules and standards are in place yet.

But DMG MORI and Schaeffler Technologies were no longer willing to wait. With their innovation project “Machine Tool 4.0” they have together developed an intelligent machine – namely the DMC 80 FD duoBLOCK turn/mill centre. An example of this future-orientated “Machine Tool 4.0” will be on show at the DMG MORI stand in Milan. The second prototype will then already be up and running and in everyday use for series production in the Schaeffler Höchstadt plant and from there will enhance the EMO presentation with status data from the shopfloor.

Successful interplay of mechanics, electronics and information technology

A small factory of the future within the factory of today
“The DMC 80 FD duoBLOCK is an absolutely high-end product“, explains Alfred Geißler as the Managing Director of DECKEL MAHO Pfronten GmbH, which is responsible at DMG MORI for the innovation project “Machine Tool 4.0”. And he goes on to stress: “With its pallet changer, numerous tools and complex capabilities of up to 5-axis simultaneous milling in combination with sophisticated turning processes the machine is perfect for giving a representative documentation of the utilizable value of sensor-integrated intelligence.”

Gained in practice, for use in practice
Seen from a practical point of view this applies to an even greater extent to a second machine already installed in the Schaeffler plant in Höchstadt, as the manager of the business division production machines at Schaeffler Technologies, Martin Schreiber explains: “With our products we are both a system partner of international machine tool construction as well as a user of machine tools. So with our investment in a new DMC 80 FD duoBLOCK we have combined what is necessary with future-orientated developments, in that we as a user can now gain important experience with an intelligent machine directly from the factory environment and then as a system supplier pass on this plus in competence to our customers and partners.”


In context of a specific investment DMG MORI and Schaeffler Technologies conjointly have started the innovation project “Machine Tool 4.0” by the example of the turn & mill machining centre DMC 80 FD duoBLOCK.

Enabling customer benefit to be experienced
“The presentation of customer benefit is the focus of the innovation project”, stresses Alfred Geißler: “With the “Machine Tool 4.0” we demonstrate what can already be implemented today, enable the possibilities of Industry 4.0 to be actually experienced and show ways in which companies can master entry into the digitalized world of production on their own.”

Intelligence as a standard
The fact that even as a “Machine Tool 4.0” the DMC 80 FD duoBLOCK still remains in principle a normal high-tech standard machine from the DMG MORI portfolio is bound to build confidence among users. Alfred Geißler: “The entire control and operation is not different from that of a standard turn/mill centre. This applies in particular to the CELOS user interface as a centre of communication and organisation.” The only new elements are the machine’s internal network to which all additional sensors, actuators and evaluation units are connected and the CELOS APP “Condition Analyzer” as an information centre on the machine.

Linking in the cloud is effected via a gateway. Both the Profibus in the PLC for time-critical and process-relevant data and the OPC UA protocol to the Human-Machine-Interface (HMI) for other information are used to ensure the data exchange to the machine controller with CELOS.

Knowledge-based added value
A total of more than 60 additional sensors continuously measure vibrations, forces, temperatures and pressures on the sensor-intelligent DMC 80 FD duoBLOCK and report the results to the evaluation unit via which the information is both sent to CELOS and made available to the cloud. Whereby the results of both pilot machines are analytically evaluated in the cloud thus increasing the quality of the forecast even further. 

Maximum availability
“Every day and every detected deviation from the preset standard parameters will enhance the informative value of the data analysis”, promises Alfred Geißler. After all the algorithms were permanently updated on the basis of the continuous data evaluation, so that ever more targeted status information with ever more qualified predictions of occurrence could be derived. And Martin Schreiber stresses: “This should enable us to come ever closer to maximum possible availability via the intelligence of the machine, sensors and evaluation.”

Whereby, according to Martin Schreiber, the higher availability is the result of better machine utilization and more efficient planning of maintenance measures. ”In addition“, maintains Alfred Geissler, “the overall machining value added is higher due to the numerous possibilities arising from process and production optimization. And what is more thanks to the knowledge base described above, it is possible to make reliable forecasts concerning the quality of the workpiece during or rather immediately after production.”

Cooperative partnership
It will be interesting to see how the customers react to the innovation project “Machine Tool 4.0”. The EMO presentation is already a milestone for DMG MORI and Schaeffler Technologies – especially in view of the close cooperative partnership between the companies that took place within the framework of the project. “It would never have been possible to realise such a complex task in such a short time and with such high (practicable) quality had we worked alone”, sums up Alfred Geißler. Finally Martin Schreiber brings the customers on board as well: “The close interconnection between manufacturers and suppliers is only the beginning. More than anything Industry 4.0 needs open interaction between all the parties involved in the value-added chain.”

Data protection and data security
Whereby DMG MORI and Schaeffler Technologies are fully aware that the issues of data protection and data security will be the next great challenges that need to be addressed if the elementary confidence so vital for Industry 4.0 solutions is to be achieved. “We are all well-acquainted with the problem of handling sensitive data“, they all claim in unison. “That is why we will do everything in our power to work together with users and other potential partners to find a secure communication environment,” both Alfred Geißler and Martin Schreiber agree.