As the "eye of all things" in the intelligent era, sensors are now developing in the direction of intelligence, integration, interconnection, and strong perception capabilities, which are the key foundation and support for promoting digital transformation and intelligent manufacturing. On the afternoon of April 29, 2024, German time, the 13th German-French Industry 4.0 delegation of e-works 2024 walked into the SICK Group, an industry leader in industrial intelligent sensors and system solutions.
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This article was originally published by e-works.
At SICK's headquarters in Germany, the delegation learned about its development history, experienced the construction of the SICK I4.0 NOW Factory, a pilot demonstration plant for Industry 4.0, and learned how SICK promotes digital transformation with smart sensors and application solutions, as well as its strict requirements for product performance and reliability. Mr. Markus Scaglioso, Senior Vice President of the SICK Group, warmly received the delegation.
The delegation visited SICK
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Become a smart sensor expert
Founded in 1946 after the surname of its founder, Erwin Sick, SICK is headquartered in Waldkirch in southwestern Germany and has grown into a specialist in intelligent sensors and a leading global provider of solutions for industrial sensor applications.
At present, SCIK's sensor product line covers basic photoelectric sensors such as photoelectric switches, proximity switches, safety sensors (such as safety light barriers, security scanners), encoders, automatic identification and measurement (barcode/RFID/laser scanning, laser ranging, etc.), machine vision and motion control products, which are widely used in object detection, barcode identification, object measurement, monitoring and control, security protection, network and integration, object positioning and other fields. At the same time, SICK also focuses on customer needs, focusing on providing one-stop intelligent sensor system solutions covering industrial robots and mobile robot solutions, quality control, track and trace, machine efficiency, safety protection, etc. for customers in the three major business areas of factory automation, logistics automation and process automation.
According to the data, as of fiscal year 2023, SICK has a total of 12,185 employees and 3,987 patents worldwide, and has become a complete solution provider with sensor products, systems, software, artificial intelligence, and services. In addition, the SICK Group's sales revenue has been growing steadily in recent years, achieving sales of 2.307 billion euros in fiscal 2023. In addition, SICK attaches great importance to R&D and innovation, investing more than 10% of its sales revenue in R&D every year, and investing 270 million euros in R&D in fiscal 2023 to continuously develop new solutions for customers, quickly adapt to market dynamics and make technological progress.
Key figures for the SICK Group in fiscal 2023
Personally
Build an Industry 4.0 demonstration factory
At present, in the process of promoting intelligent manufacturing, enterprises are faced with the challenge of networking the machinery and equipment in production and logistics with the upper-level IT system to varying degrees; At the same time, more and more customized needs also force enterprises to reduce inventory, improve production line efficiency, improve the flexibility of shipments, improve the efficiency of resource utilization, and achieve on-order production and on-time delivery.
To this end, SICK, as a supplier and user of Industry 4.0, has built a modern Industry 4.0 pilot demonstration plant in Freiburg, Germany, the SICK I4.0 NOW Factory, which relies on intelligent sensors, automation and digital technologies to transform the previous assembly-line manufacturing method into a modular manufacturing method, and achieves the goal of full transparency and high efficiency in the production and manufacturing process. During the inspection, through the introduction of the staff, the members of the delegation also fully appreciated the charm of this demonstration factory.
SICK工作人员为考察团介绍SICK I4.0 NOW Factory
According to reports, with the growth of customers' personalized needs, more and more product categories have been born, and at the same time, the pressure of raw material costs, inventory pressure, and on-time delivery has been increasing, prompting SICK to try to produce products in a transparent and real-time quality monitoring way, which is the starting point for SICK to establish the SICK I4.0 NOW Factory in Freiburg, Germany. At the SICK I4.0 NOW Factory, SICK has established fully automated manufacturing workstations, manual workstations, and hybrid workstations, and has developed its own manufacturing software to optimize production processes and optimize manufacturing efficiency and cost control.
In addition, the SICK I4.0 NOW Factory also implements applications such as cloud and big data-based information collection, storage, and transmission, automatic quality control based on optical inspection systems, automatic positioning, path planning, and material distribution based on sensor-based AGVs, product tracking and traceability based on automatic identification systems, and machine control and preventive maintenance based on artificial intelligence.
The "Industry 4.0" project at the SICK I4.0 NOW Factory in Freiburg, Germany, has become a real-life version of a connected smart factory with fully automated digital production and control processes, which has given SICK a decisive competitive advantage – enabling it to develop new products and bring them to market quickly, as well as to respond quickly to the increasingly diverse and individual needs of its customers and to achieve just-in-time production. Even small batches can be produced on demand.
It is worth mentioning that the factory is equipped with SICK's own sensors and sensor systems, which allows SICK to test their performance in a real factory environment, which also enables SICK to gain a deeper understanding of the sensor's working process, identify areas for improvement, and inspire the development of new products.
Empower intelligent manufacturing
Sensors to drive digital transformation
By building the SICK I4.0 NOW Factory, a pilot demonstration factory for Industry 4.0, the members of the delegation were able to see the key supporting role of intelligent sensors as the "eyes" and "ears" of collecting data, as well as the brains and hearts of high-end manufacturing, process control, and networked operation. According to SICK staff, in fact, SICK's intelligent sensors and related solutions are not only used in quality control, automatic identification, asset maintenance and other fields, but also play a key role in many fields such as real-time positioning, energy monitoring, artificial intelligence and deep learning, bringing new value to digital transformation.
◉ Real-time positioning: Intelligent logistics is an important part of intelligent manufacturing. However, under the traditional logistics management method, it is often not clear which trailer the raw materials are on, where they are in the warehouse, whether they have been loaded, whether they are in transit or whether they have arrived at their destination. As a result, SlCK provides an integrated, just-in-time location solution to help eliminate grey areas in the supply chain and close information gaps by knowing the location of identified objects at all times, avoiding line delays due to lost materials.
Real-time positioning solutions from SICK (Source: SICK internal data)
◉ Energy monitoring: SICK can provide flow sensors, pressure sensors, barometric pressure sensors and other sensor products to monitor the energy consumption of energy-consuming equipment such as air compressors, so as to achieve energy-efficient and sustainable production as much as possible.
◉ Artificial intelligence and machine learning: With artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning (Deep Learning) technology, it is continuing to help enterprises improve their competitiveness and rejuvenate in the new round of industrial cycle. SICK is also working to integrate artificial intelligence and deep learning into its sensor products. SICK offers its customers AI hardware and software to unleash the full potential of smart sensors and the true power of automation.
For example, SICK's inspector83x 2D vision sensors, based on advanced AI technology, enable non-expert users to quickly and easily configure sensors for vision applications such as quality inspection, defect detection, and sorting with simple example teaching.
SICK inspector83x 2D 视觉传感器 （图源：SICK 内部资料）
Based on a variety of SICK smart camera hardware, the platform further optimizes the training accuracy and execution speed, helps reduce the complexity of solution development, and can be applied to scenarios such as assembly verification, welding inspection, defect detection, classification and picking, and anomaly detection. dStudio has an easy-to-use interface that can be used by people without any prior knowledge of AI. Data such as training progress and training success rate are clearly displayed in the graph, and after the training is completed, the neural network needs to be downloaded and transferred to the smart camera hardware for production use.
SICK artificial intelligence/deep learning solutions (Source: SICK official website)
Quality is paramount
Rigorous testing ensures product performance
During this visit, the delegation also visited the Outdoor Technology Center (SICK). Due to the wide range of SICK's product portfolio, which includes a wide range of sensors, safety systems, and automation solutions, SICK has established an outdoor technology center to verify and optimize the performance of its products in a variety of real-world environments, which can be used to simulate various application scenarios such as ports, transportation, security, mining, and industrial vehicles, and can test and validate multiple products at the same time, providing effective support for product development and improvement.
A corner of the SICK Outdoor Technology Center (Source: SICK internal data)
According to reports, the outdoor technology center located in the German headquarters of SICK was completed and put into use in 2018, covering an area of 3,500 square meters, divided into 7 test areas - covering motion control system testing, safety protection testing system, long-term testing of outdoor performance of laser scanning sensors, long-distance measurement sensor testing, testing of a variety of anti-collision solutions for unmanned vehicles, testing of safety solutions for rail platform solutions, long-term testing of encoder and motor feedback, etc. SICK has effectively improved the reliability of software and hardware by testing various sensors outdoors in different weather, temperature and other environments. The members of the delegation were deeply impressed by SICK's pursuit of product quality and new performance reliability through various tests on site.
The delegation took a group photo at the SICK Outdoor Technology Center
postscript
Visiting SICK's headquarters in Germany is not only a learning journey, but also a rewarding journey. As a multinational conglomerate with a history of more than 70 years, SICK has grown from a small workshop to an industry leader with complete solutions for sensor products, systems, software, artificial intelligence, and services. In this process, SICK's deep cultivation of sensor technology, attention to customer needs, deep understanding and practice of Industry 4.0 and intelligent manufacturing, as well as high pursuit of product performance and reliability, and high investment in R&D and innovation are all the secrets of its development and growth.
In particular, SICK's philosophy of "our customers are the heart of what we do" is particularly impressive. In fact, this is also the main reason why it can always be close to customer needs, provide intelligent sensors and system solutions that meet customer needs, and drive its continuous R&D and innovation, make sensor products and solutions market-leading, and create excellent value for customers, which is very worthy of reference and learning from Chinese enterprises.
Dr. Pei Huang, head of the e-works delegation, presented a gift to Markus Scaglioso, Senior Vice President of SICK