The virtual factory of müller+krahmer – retrofitting the retrofit

Our virtual factory is a long-term project – just like real production in a real factory. So it is not surprising that our virtual factory faces challenges similar to those in any factory hall out there. Most recently, it was the failure of our measurement system on the heating system (German) after around 10 years of continuous operation that made a quick replacement necessary.

While we had adapted the old measurement system, which was intended for temporary, autonomous measurements on changing systems, to continuous acquisition with permanent data transmission with some effort, the new system was to be IoT-ready by design. The choice falls on the EK9160 IoT coupler from Beckhoff. A good decision, as quickly becomes apparent: thanks to the integrated MQTT interface, the connection to the existing infrastructure is child’s play.