Read this Technical Article to gain fresh insights and detailed recommendations on how the extrusion industry can make smart investments in Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies, upgrading its press hydraulics and controls in order to increase productivity, reduce downtime, improve extruding quality and use real-time press systems data to transform their operations.

Many highly automated manufacturing segments are already benefitting from aggressive implementation of I4.0 technologies. This article details how extrusion press operators are implementing smart hydraulic systems, with embedded sensors and high-bandwidth industrial communications interfaces, in order to have similar benefits.  

For example, these smart hydraulics feature sensors that monitor the health of a hydraulic pump and automatically notify a maintenance manager prior to failure, allowing replacement of the pump during a scheduled outage rather than catastrophically failing during production.  

The Bosch Rexroth Technical Article also details five key factors to help extrusion press operators decide when and how to implement a press upgrade. These include: 

• Current level of extrusion control — how precise is it? How much effort to consistently produce high-quality parts? 
• Fully assessing the efficiency and reliability of older hydraulics and control systems components 
• Potential energy efficiency improvements — many older presses have electric motors driving the hydraulic pumps that are oversized to compensate for inefficiencies downstream 
• Workplace environmental conditions — if there are persistent hydraulic fluid leaks and excessive noise associated with older equipment, new hydraulics can clean those problems up fast 
• Overall cost savings — investments in new technology can lead to lower maintenance and repair costs, as well as reduce costly extrusion press “dead cycle” time

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