The global fourth industrial revolution in smart manufacturing and automation requires intelligent solutions. On Wednesday (Aug. 18), German engineering giant Siemens started a month-long Digital Enterprise Virtual Expo. The expo specially showcases a collaboration project between Siemens and King Steel, Taiwan’s leading producer of shoe-making machinery. The expo demonstration how the project used full-spectrum digital solutions to assist companies in implementing a successful digital transformation of their manufacturing processes.
King Steel manufacturing machinery use Siemens SIMATIC controllers integrated with Siemens Digital Twin digitization solutions to accelerate the development of new machines and more efficient management of component wastage. Siemens and King Steel, two powerhouses within their respective industries, are joining hands and making great strides toward decoding the fourth industrial revolution.
Siemens continues to promote digital industries in Taiwan, this year signing a memorandum of agreement to collaborate with King Steel in the development of key fourth industrial revolution applications for the manufacturing industry.
Photo courtesy of Siemens/King Steel
Siemens Taiwan’s general manager of digital industry, Tino Hildebrand, said: “Taiwan is a world-class center for shoe manufacturing and Siemens is fortunate to have the opportunity to work closely with top manufacturer King Steel to introduce Siemens’ full-spectrum digitalization solutions. Siemens is assisting King Steel to upgrade its shoe machinery design and manufacturing to help drive forward industrial productivity, improve flexibility, realize digital transformation within a fast-changing global market.”?
According to Jim Chen (陳璟浩), special assistant to King Steel chairman, “As we enter a post-COVID-19 era, many of our customers are facing staff shortage problems, particularly involving the production process of rubber soles, which is quite complex.
In the past, one piece of equipment would require between four and six people to operate it, consuming both time and labor cost.
Photo courtesy of Siemens/King Steel
By teaming up with Siemens and employing its highly-efficient SIMATIC S7 series of controllers and integrating this with Siemens digital software, we have been able to significantly increase the production efficiency of our equipment, reducing labor intensity by as much as 80 to 90 percent.
Additionally, during the early stages of the equipment’s development, Siemens’ Digital Twin solution — abbreviated to NX MCD — allows for pre-production virtual reality simulated testing. This greatly shortens the product development timeline and allows King Steel to produce bespoke digital transformation platforms for its customers.
The successful collaboration between King Steel is an important milestone, providing a basis for future cooperation between the two companies, facilitating rapid research and development and producing a competitive edge for King Steel.
Photo courtesy of Siemens/King Steel
For more than 40 years, King Steel has placed an important emphasis on research and development as well as innovation. Responding to industry requirements for digital transformation and smart manufacturing, King Steel has partnered with Siemens to develop a new generation of smart machinery with leading industries in mechatronics, open communication and integrated virtual reality.
Siemens provides a comprehensive integrated automation platform, called the TIA Portal, which pairs the high-performance SIMATIC S7-1500 controller with Digital Twin integrated virtual reality solutions, which also incorporates motor components on the same platform. The fully-integrated mechatronic platform achieves the aim of improving the efficiency of high-end manufacturing machinery research and development.
Siemens emphasizes that its SIMATIC S7-1500 high-performance controller has excellent system functions, an extremely short response time, and the best and safest technical integration.
Paired with the Digital Twin solution and NX MCD mechatronics conceptual design, which incorporates CAD 3D modeling, digital modeling of equipment and machinery can be generated. This allows for simulation testing and adjustments to be carried out during the early stage of the development and procurement, greatly reducing the development time of new machinery and equipment, and saving on development costs.
King Steel is leading position as a world-class producer of shoe-making machinery and equipment has working with Siemens to develop and integrate the latest technologies. Through seamless connection of digital software and hardware, and the use of big data, King Steel has been able to streamline the development process and shorten time-to-market.
As the industry marches on towards the goal of factory automation, King Steel is well-placed to meet the goals of automated smart production and remote, real-time management that its customers demand; helping its clients build smart factories for the future and enhance their international competitiveness.
For more information on the Digital Enterprise Virtual Expo, which runs through to Sep. 17, please visit: https://www.siemensdi.com.tw
PATENTS: MediaTek Inc said it would not comment on ongoing legal cases, but does not expect the legal action by Huawei to affect its business operations Smartphone integrated chips designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Friday said that a lawsuit filed by Chinese smartphone brand Huawei Technologies Co (華為) over alleged patent infringements would have little impact on its operations. In an announcement posted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, MediaTek said that it would not comment on an ongoing legal case. However, the company said that Huawei’s legal action would have little impact on its operations. MediaTek’s statement came after China-based PRIP Research said on Thursday that Huawei filed a lawsuit with a Chinese district court claiming that MediaTek infringed on its patents. The infringement mentioned in the lawsuit likely involved
Taipei is today suspending work, classes and its US$2.4 trillion stock market as Typhoon Gaemi approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Authorities had yesterday issued a warning that the storm could affect people on land and canceled some ship crossings and domestic flights. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) expects its local chipmaking fabs to maintain normal production, the company said in an e-mailed statement. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp said it has activated routine typhoon alert
GROWTH: TSMC increased its projected revenue growth for this year to more than 25 percent, citing stronger-than-expected demand for AI devices and smartphones The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) yesterday raised its forecast for Taiwan’s GDP growth this year from 3.29 percent to 3.85 percent, as exports and private investment recovered faster than it predicted three months ago. The Taipei-based think tank also expects that Taiwan would see a 8.19 percent increase in exports this year, better than the 7.55 percent it projected in April, as US technology giants spent more money on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and development. “There will be more AI servers going forward, but it remains to be seen if the momentum would extend to personal computers, smartphones and
Catastrophic computer outages caused by a software update from one company have once again exposed the dangers of global technological dependence on a handful of players, experts said on Friday. A flawed update sent out by the little-known security firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc brought airlines, TV stations and myriad other aspects of daily life to a standstill. The outages affected companies or individuals that use CrowdStrike on the Microsoft Inc’s Windows platform. When they applied the update, the incompatible software crashed computers into a frozen state known as the “blue screen of death.” “Today CrowdStrike has become a household name, but not in