Researchers from CEU UCH and Ford Valencia, awarded for an IIoT tool that predicts breakdowns

VALENCIA, Oct. 17 (EUROPA PRESS) -

Researchers from the CEU Cardenal Herrera University (CEU UCH) and Ford Valencia have obtained the Global Manufacturing Technical Excellence Award (GMTEA) 2023, which the American multinational Ford Motor Company awards each year to the best research and innovation project of all its factories, from its headquarters in Dearborn (Michigan).

The award-winning work consists of the design of an IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) tool to monitor in real time the balance of the presses during the stamping process, detect anomalies due to imbalance or discontinuity and predict possible breakdowns, explains the academic institution in a release.

This technology, awarded with the GMTEA 2023 from Ford, is part of the doctoral thesis that the doctoral student Iván Peinado is carrying out at the CEU UCH, with funding from the Foundation for Development and Innovation (FDI), and under the direction of professor Ph.D. Nicolás Montes Sánchez, principal researcher of the Industrial Automation and Robotics Group (AIR) of the CEU UCH, and the doctor from this University Eduardo García Magraner, manager of the Body and Press Engineering area of ​​Ford Valencia.

The three researchers have published the results of this new technological development awarded by Ford in the scientific journal Sensors, in the article titled "Virtual Sensor of Gravity Centers for Real-Time Condition Monitoring of an Industrial Stamping Press in the Automotive Industry."

Already in 2019, its mathematical model for predicting breakdowns in the production lines of bodies and presses "Miniterms 4.0", designed by the CEU UCH and Ford team in Valencia, was the best innovation of the year in the American multinational, achieving the 2019 Henry Ford Technology Award, which Ford awards annually to the best proposal submitted by its 80 plants and 3 research centers around the world.

The evolution of their methodology, now to detect anomalies due to imbalance or discontinuity in the stamping process, has earned them this new award from Ford, the Global Manufacturing Technical Excellence Award (GMTEA), just four years later.

According to the author of the doctoral thesis, Iván Peinado, "the award-winning system is based on the same philosophy as the "Miniterms 4.0" project, that is, it uses the data already available on the machines in the production plants to generate IIoT tools. .

In this case, the so-called "360 Criterion" has been defined to store data from the press sensors every time the position of its main axis has rotated one degree. Since the main shaft rotates in one complete cycle of the press, this criterion allows us to obtain information from the phases of the process and easily shows where in the cycle the measured data is.

CEU UCH doctor Eduardo García Magraner, from Ford Valencia, highlights that the new system "detects anomalies due to imbalance or discontinuity in the stamping process using the DBSCAN algorithm, which makes it possible to avoid unexpected stops and serious breakdowns. In addition to carrying out the previous tests to verify that minimal imbalances are actually detected in the stamping process, the system has been connected to normal production at the Almussafes plant for a whole year, showing its full effectiveness."

According to CEU UCH professor Nicolás Montés, "the work carried out in Iván Peinado's thesis, as well as in the previous thesis of Dr. Eduardo García Magraner on "Miniterms", demonstrates that the key to success in these predictive systems is use the sensors that are already installed in the industry to develop tools for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)."

"Currently," he continues, "research centers, universities and companies propose IIoT tools for which it is necessary to install their own sensors and use their own network to extract the data to a database located in their facilities. These solutions do not "They are viable in the industry, because thousands and thousands of sensors would need to be installed and maintained to cover all the existing machines in a factory like Ford's. For this reason, their use is not widespread and they are only used in critical machines."

In this sense, Montes highlights the importance of University-Business collaboration for the development of tools that can be effectively implemented in the industry.

"Our 'I3oT' concept proposes to develop IIoT tools through the use of already installed sensors, which make the line operate automatically. This allows data to be obtained without installing new sensors and from all the machines and factories already monitored. For example, there are currently about 40,000 miniterms installed in the factories of Almussafes, Craiova and Sarlouis, with minimal cost. This is I3oT: an industrial and industrializable Internet of Things."

And adds. "Our I3oT concept should make research centers and universities think that it is not possible to work alone in the laboratory, because then, when you want to transfer to the industry, this is not possible. Working side by side with the industry, "Understanding its problems and limitations, is the way forward to achieve the long-awaited Industry 5.0."

Along with the researchers Iván Peinado Asensi, Nicolás Montes Sánchez and Eduardo García Magraner, Hilario Teruel Sempere, from Ford, is part of the Ford and CEU UCH research team awarded with the GMTEA 2023; CEU UCH doctoral students Javier Llopis Ballester and Antonio Lacasa Corral, also Ford staff; and Juan Carlos Latorre Iranzo, CEU UCH research support staff assigned to Ford.