Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPTResearch project "RISEN5G"
Innovative roller burnishing tools for high-quality surfaces
In the RISEN_5G project, the Fraunhofer IPT is working with three industrial partners to develop roller burnishing tools with integrated sensors for data acquisition. Such tools are used, for example, in the pneumatics or hydraulics industry to produce high-quality surfaces of piston rods or cylinders. For the communication of the tools with adjacent monitoring or control systems, our project partners use various wireless communication technologies and evaluate them for their respective industrial use cases.
One focus is on 5G technology, with which high data rates, reliability and efficiency can be achieved. In the project, the Fraunhofer IPT is investigating different use cases with defined boundary conditions and analysing the associated requirements for data acquisition, sensor technology, and hardware and software processing. The project partners are using the 5G network of the 5G Industry Campus Europe in Aachen to test the technology.
Higher product quality and process transparency through sensitive sensor technology and 5G communication
Many newly developed high-tech products place high demands on manufacturing processes and machine performance: machine tolerances are decreasing and it is of great help to be able to take manufacturing data from upstream process steps into account in downstream processes. In this way, high surface qualities can be achieved cost-effectively, such as those required today in cylinders for the hydraulic or pneumatic industries. In addition, forward-looking companies want to produce in a resource-efficient manner in the interests of sustainable production and avoid waste as far as possible.
In conventional machining processes, surfaces are machined with geometrically defined tool cutting edges. In order to increase the surface quality, roller burnishing processes are carried out in the final production step. Compared to alternative machining processes for producing high surface qualities such as grinding, fine turning or hollowing processes, roller burnishing processes have economic and ecological advantages. The quality of the burnishing process has a direct influence on the final quality of the product and cannot be corrected in the event of faulty machining. As a result, tool wear has a direct influence on the suitability of the product. The RISEN_5G project combines the potentials of new communication technologies with those of sensitive sensor technology and thus expands the possibilities of providing process data with low latency and thus close to the point of action. Continuous monitoring of process parameters directly on the tool and communication with the machine control system enables early detection of tool wear and avoidance of rejected parts. The sensory roller burnishing thus not only improves transparency of the production process, but also product quality. Last but not least, the technology is intended to serve as a catalyst for new products in the field of inline sensor technology and thus strengthen the participating companies from the North Rhine-Westphalia region at their location.
As coordinator in the RISEN_5G project, the Fraunhofer IPT is developing the interface of the sensor technology to the 5G infrastructure and analysing the process data collected at the machines for the partners' products. Benchmark tests will also be used to test and evaluate the suitability of 5G mobile technology for industrial use cases.
Consortium
- Fraunhofer IPT (Coordinator), Aachen
- Platz & Römelt GmbH (associated), Langenfeld
- R&D Steuerungstechnik GmbH & Co. KG, Mönchengladbach
- Wenaroll GmbH, Solingen