Key points
The Foundation Industries are a group of industries who supply strategic UK sectors. They cover the glass, metal, ceramic, paper, cement and bulk chemicals industries. United by inherently energy intensive processes and large fuel consumption, together they emit 10% of all of the UK’s CO2 emissions. Yet these materials are vital to our economy and our lives, so we must work together to make them futureproof and able to meet our 2050 targets.
Successful innovation will be the key to future growth.
Our businesses need to be at the forefront of technological developments to maintain their market and exploit efficiency gains. Imperative to this, systems need to have up to date instrumentation and suitable control systems in place, to withstand the hostile environments within the foundation industries.
Forming, inspection, quality control and recovery processes are just a few of the vast number that are common to all six sectors. All are striving for “right first time, every time” with higher production efficiencies, and there are huge opportunities for experts in production efficiency to support the foundation industries on this journey.
Whilst there has been research into the digitalisation of processes in advanced manufacturing, only a few studies have explored the current implementation and future potential of Industry 4.0 in energy-intensive process industries like the foundation industries.
Our foundation industries have recognised this potential and are engaging in this challenge, which means large current opportunities for technology developers in this space.
Thinking back to the original iron works and float glass plants, a lot has changed. Operators rely less upon their physical senses and manual processes, and much more on plant data and mechanical and electrical controls.
A wealth of data can be captured, such as temperature, chemistry, line speeds, surface properties and product properties. Often this is simply recorded and stored.
There is much greater potential for this data, with live process feedback, allowing the operator to maintain optimal process parameters and decrease fuel usage.
Increased sensor usage can lead to better process control, improved productivity, output efficiencies and reduced process downtime. Sensors can also track assets across a plant, increasing the efficiency of storage and transport. This can also aid in the development of optimised production scheduling.
In terms of efficiency planning, and the utilisation of sensors, a lot of transferable knowledge can be gained from other industries with challenging environments, for example food & drink, oil & gas and aerospace.
Sensors can also accelerate conformity assessment whilst ensuring objective, accurate judgement. Assessments can also take place more regularly through the process than is often possible through human measurement, minimising the chance of defects in the final product.
But taking things a step further, what if we close the loop with our process control? As more sensors are deployed and a greater digital understanding of plant parameters is ascertained, could our machines take more responsibility for our foundation industry processes as has been seen in the advanced manufacturing sector?
Smart digital systems will be able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, likely even more efficiently than possible by skilled operators. When comparing data to previous trends, it is possible to identify subtle correlations in process parameters; drifts due to faults, wear, or misalignment; predictions of optimal conditions and schedules.
These systems can also complete predictive maintenance, manage machines and inventory. Tagged data systems also increase traceability of process inputs, identify process faults and allow poor scrap batches to be highlighted.
So if we know we need data from a harsh environment, for sensor deployment there are a few options: ensure the sensor can withstand that environment using casings; interrogate remotely using electromagnetics, photonics or acoustics; or use a digital twin.
Digital twins are virtual counterparts of the physical systems, created as digitalised replicas of plant equipment or physical processes using data from sensors. Effectively, why measure directly, if you can simulate?
Simulations of manufacturing processes are continuously improving. If we can pin a simulation down at key points by using accessible parameters, then we can interrogate the rest of the process digitally, preventing the need to deploy further sensors.
This is where we move from the Third into the Fourth Industry Revolution. If the First industrial revolution brought mechanisation from water and steam power, replacing muscle with machine. The Second was mass production, with the development assembly lines and use of electricity.
After this, the Third revolution started in the 1960s with the use of computers and automation systems. This leads to the Fourth revolution being the integration of the cyber and physical systems, replacing the mind with machines.
But many projects labelled Industry 4.0 mainly focus on automation: sensor deployment or data-driven process control. Industry 4.0 goes beyond this and is a tangible way of strengthening our foundation industries’ international competitiveness.
Major improvements are expected in terms of process efficiency, as associated technology promises to provide intelligent support systems for the workforce. This means there are vast opportunities to develop new business models to enhance this potential.
Smart predictive systems can aid with purchasing, such as on the quality of scrap utilised based on market prices; navigating the transition in fuel switching, such as making decisions between hydrogen, electric and biobased fuels in the future based upon market prices.
Virtual reality technologies can also assist the operator by providing real time information overlaid on the processes or for training purposes.
The technologies necessary for this Fourth industrial revolution are at various stages of realism
Despite widespread excitement about how they will change the world, we must consider the practical applications. Our focus should be translation, commercialisation, and acceptability. Especially within our foundation industries, there is very limited time and resource available for technology exploration. We cannot take big risks in deployment.
We must drive for the deployment of technologies to improve productivity, accelerate new products to market and the generation of commercial value. This is the first, integral, stage to industry buy-in.
By setting state-of-the-art examples, competitors will follow suit, unable to be left behind in such closely competitive industries.
As part of the UK’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, we are already seeing developments in digital twin technologies for the foundation industries.
A project between the Materials Processing Institute, Liberty Steel Group and TSC Simulation is using digital imaging, linked to machine learning and intelligent process control. Although the developments are being trialled on the metals industry, lessons learned can be shared across other foundation industries, energy, oil & gas, pharmaceuticals, and the process industries.
Digital twins are also being developed for virtual alloy design, allowing large scale digital chemistry exploration, small scale experimental validation and reduction to disruption on production lines in the development of new products.
At the Ellesmere Port development in Cheshire, Progroup, one of Europe’s main manufacturers of containerboard and corrugated board, and packaging manufacturer Krystals, have opened one of the most efficient and best performing plants in the industry.
By co-locating corrugated board and packaging production within their packaging park, a considerable reduction in transport, as well as technology utilisation have led to a considerable reduction in CO2 emissions of the processes.
Rapid production speed has been enabled by the highly automated control system, with employees receiving data through wearables. Quality control is also automated, with measurement checks giving a 100% reliable quality level. With the interconnection between production systems and IT systems, the level of flexibility and efficiency of the production process is unparalleled.
But what must be remembered, is although we are aiming for the smart factory of the future, foundation industries often do not have the luxury of a new build factory. Compared to advanced manufacturing, where technology is built in from the start, most of the foundation industry companies will need to retrofit into existing sites.
Due to the nature of the equipment, plants have very high capex and long life spans. Continuous improvement plans must be generated for digitalisation strategies without replacing all the equipment. We must transform today’s factory into the factories of the future.
And again, learning from other industries, we need to look beyond the factory walls and into the supply chain, there is a lot to be learned in customer and data management within the supply chains.
But not all of the deployment challenges are technical.
Organisational issues such as the uncertainty of the impact on jobs, data protection and safety must also be considered. The foundation industries are well aware of the lack of qualified personnel in this space. But should we be retraining our current operators, or is the pace of technical change too great? Should we be changing our model to keep a group of technical experts in an intermediate body to aid in the deployment, training and management of these systems?
We also need to consider the economics of this change. A large barrier to uptake is the need for short payback times for investments by the foundation industries. Investments must provide economic benefits and contribute to company strategy.
A large challenge with deploying technology through retrofitting is the interruption to processes which run continuously and at low margins. Downtime is therefore incredibly costly, especially for these high temperature continuous processes which have large start-up times and costs.
To aid confidence in the benefit of these disruptions, pilot scale facilities, such as those within the High Value Manufacturing Catapults, can be used to trial deployment of new technologies. Captured data then generates a stronger business case for implementation.
Foundation industries also tend to rely on external expertise and cooperate with external partners when developing and deploying Industry 4.0 solutions. There are therefore more opportunities for collaboration than in other high-tech industries, where development more often takes place in-house.
And it is in this collaboration between the foundation industries and technology developers where the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund plays a key role. Funding and support are available for research and developments in this space, from feasibility studies to large multi-million pound demonstrator projects.
Successful innovation will be the key to future growth and it could be these innovations that define our future narrative.
