HEGLA presents solutions for the present and future of glass processing

Intuitive user interface, digitalisation and networking

With a special section of the stand dedicated to Industry 4.0, HEGLA will provide an insight into the company’s goals and vision for the future. Visitors interested in taking a look at sub-projects in this area that have already been realised can watch a new intuitive operating concept being demonstrated on the RAPIDLINE.

This aims at further facilitating communication between man and machine and making it more user-friendly. According to Hötger, operators will receive even more support and information that is relevant to them directly at the machine – be it about maintenance intervals, downstream processes or the current key production figures.

Only a few metres away, software solution provider HEGLA-HANIC will be demonstrating its concept of a modern manufacturing execution system (MES).

In such a system, the data of the networked systems would be brought together and, for instance, made available clearly laid out to the operations scheduling staff for the purposes of production control and planning. Depending on the software integration depth, some automated data analysis will take place, resulting in corresponding adjustments to production processes. 

Self-driving AGVs as components of the Smart Factory

The vision of a Smart Factory and a new generation of shop floor logistics is at the centre of the scenario involving so-called Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) – a transport solution for mobile storage racks, A and L-frames.

The AGVs are integrated into the production software and perform logistics tasks, for instance transporting items between the cutting lines and the downstream processing or buffer stations, operating independently with automated guiding and scheduling.

“The greatest advantage of the AGVs is their flexibility,” emphasises Bernhard Hötger. “With the AVGs forming an integral part of the control system developed by HEGLA-HANIC, routes and orders can be adapted – either via system control or by the operator – to machine availabilities or changing processing priorities.”