The manufacturing sector in Germany comprises almost 200,000 industrial companies, of which around 98 % are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Approximately 750,000 CNC-controlled machine tools are operated in the industrial companies of the EU27. Associated with these machine tools is a Europe-wide energy consumption of an estimated 200 to 300 TWh per year, which corresponds to about 6.3% of the total energy consumption of the industrial sector (EU27). Cutting fluid systems are in use in nearly 75% of these industrial companies. The numerous variations and components of the cutting fluid systems, result, by the process-conditioned necessary operation, in a high energy requirement portion. This energy share amounts to approx. 30-35% in a production system (tendency increasing).
The containment or optimized use of this energy share of machine tools with cutting fluid systems have already been considered in individual cases. A holistic approach that considers digital concepts, simulations or systematic data processing does not exist. Within the scope of the research work, a cyber-physical production system is therefore developed, which extends from data acquisition to the visualization of the reference as well as transfer systems.
The integration of sensors and suitable interfaces enables the recording of machine and cutting fluid system data, which means that modeling at the cyber level of the CPPS can be based on methods such as system simulation or a digital twin. This simulative environment can be combined with the process and machining parameters to optimize the overall machine tool system. Ultimately, this results in a holistic control system that can achieve savings of up to 25% of the original energy requirement with the help of the CPPS.