WITTMANN BATTENFELD and MPDV Mikrolab GmbH cooperate in MES

WITTMANN BATTENFELD and MPDV… As a manufacturer of injection molding machines, automation technology and peripheral equipment, WITTMANN BATTENFELD offers a complete product range for modern injection molding technology. A high degree of integration and virtually interface-free communication within a production cell has already been achieved on the basis of virtually uniform control system technology, which is an important step into the world of Industry 4.0 with the WITTMANN 4.0 networking concept.

MPDV Mikrolab GmbH has been a leader in the field of MES (manufacturing execution systems) for many years and is operating worldwide with subsidiaries in Germany, Switzerland, the USA, China and Singapore. This enables MPDV to serve customers with production plants around the world.

The MES software HYDRA is characterized by modular design and includes a wide range of functional elements, which can be combined according to customers‘ needs. A high degree of standardization provides ergonomic user interfaces and scalability. This enables precise adaptation of the MES system to every customer’s individual requirements, to fits every company’s size and specific needs. In many production plants, several upstream and downstream manufacturing processes are integrated into MES HYDRA in addition to injection molding, such as materials management, assembly jobs, printing, packaging, etc.

The aim of this partnership is to supply plastics processors by way of close cooperation between the machine manufacturer and the MES specialist with the required production equipment on the one hand, and simultaneously with the software management modules needed for flexible production, thus promoting the optimization of manufacturing processes and quality management systems with maximum transparency of all processes.

The partnership and close cooperation of the machine manufacturer WITTMANN BATTENFELD with the independent MES specialist MPDV brings concentrated competence to the customer’s project management, yet at the same time ensures a well-balanced combination of counseling, training and support on the production floor in companies with a heterogeneous range of machinery and equipment from several different makers.

A special benefit for users of WITTMANN BATTENFELD equipment combined with MES HYDRA from MPDV is the facility to have various status signals from the MES displayed on every B8 monitor screen of the WITTMANN BATTENFELD machines. In this way, an overview of all machines connected to the MES system can be obtained from every B8 monitor screen. Depending on the equipment package installed, functions such as production monitoring, OEE evaluation or maintenance management are all visualized directly on UNILOG B8.

At the Fakuma 2017 from October 17 to 21, the cooperation between WITTMANN BATTENFELD and MPDV will be demonstrated live for the first time at the booth of WITTMANN BATTENFELD in hall B1, No. 1204. Comprehensive information will be available to interested trade visitors at the booth.

Integration of the WIBA-MPDV SmartMonitoring module into the UNILOG B8 control system

Fig. 1: Integration of the WIBA-MPDV SmartMonitoring module into
the UNILOG B8 control system (Source: WIBA, MPDV Mikrolab GmbH)