**: Concrete World Magazine.
Han Dongyang1, Shen Xue1, Guo Jienan1, Liu Zepeng1, Miao Xuefeng2, Ma Yu1, Qi Peng3
1.Building Materials Industry Information Center, Beijing.
2.Shenzhen Ailing Network*** Guangdong Shenzhen.
3.Shanghai Mengbo Intelligent Internet of Things Technology *** Shanghai.
Summary:In view of the various steps of the production of precast concrete products (concrete prefabricated parts, PC components, PC prefabricated components) and the requirements of the overall plant system architecture and network architecture, the intelligent requirements of concrete products factories were sorted out, the necessity of process intelligence in concrete products factories and the feasibility of 5G technology in concrete products smart factories were analyzed, and the system function architecture and network architecture of concrete smart factories based on 5G technology were introduced. An intelligent solution for each process link in the production process of precast concrete components is proposed. It provides a practical reference for the construction of concrete intelligent factories.
Keywords:5g；smart factory; concrete products; Concrete precast elements.
IntroductionAs an important part of the building materials industry, concrete products are widely used in the construction of many infrastructure and engineering projects such as transportation (highways, railways, airports, bridges), mining, housing construction, military and national defense projects. In recent years, with the in-depth application of 5G and many intelligent manufacturing technologies in the manufacturing industry [1-2], enterprises in the field of building materials have also actively explored transformation [3-8], and concrete products enterprises have also actively explored the application of 5G and intelligent manufacturing technology in the industry together with other enterprises in the field of building materials. At present, China's concrete products industry policy is favorable, product demand is increasing rapidly, has gradually grown from the past construction enterprise subsidiary department to an independent industry, the future development potential is huge.
With Industry 40. With the continuous development of intelligent manufacturing technology, the informatization, networking and intelligence of the concrete products industry have developed rapidly, and many related studies have been put forward by domestic and foreign scientific researchers in recent years. Du Ke et al. [9] sorted out the production process, industry development process and future development direction of prefabricated components. Chen Feng et al. [10]** the application of MES and ERP systems in the production line of prefabricated building components; Zhu Zhihua [11] introduced the development of new technologies for prefabricated components, digital production equipment technology for prefabricated components, and information management system technology for prefabricated components in recent years. Nv Kurakina [12] sorted out the existing end-to-end digital cutting-edge technologies in the EU and Russia in this field, such as the application of CAX, BIM and other technologies; Sara Reichenbach [13] described the current state of automation technology in this field. However, the existing research mainly focuses on the application of MES, ERP and other systems in the prefabricated component production line and the combination of prefabricated components and BIM technology to make the installation process more intelligent, and the intelligent solutions for the complete production process chain and the R&D and application of key intelligent manufacturing technologies in the industry with the goal of improving the overall efficiency are still lacking.
Based on the intelligent needs of the concrete products industry, this paper expounds the current status of the production process of concrete products and the intelligent needs of the factory, puts forward the design principles of the intelligent factory of concrete prefabricated components, designs and expounds the complete functional architecture of the complete intelligent factory of concrete prefabricated components, and provides a reference for the construction of intelligent factories of concrete prefabricated component products enterprises based on the intelligent scheme of each link of 5G.
1 Intelligent requirements and design principles of concrete products factory
1.1. The necessity of intelligent production process of concrete products
There will be slight differences in the process used in different types of concrete products, and this article only takes the production of concrete parts as an example to describe its general process. The general process flow of concrete parts and components production includes concrete preparation, mold assembly, steel bar and mesh installation, concrete pouring, curing, demoulding and lifting, finished product acceptance, warehousing, etc., as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 General production process.
Based on the above processes and steps, the necessity of intelligent upgrading and transformation of concrete products factories includes: (1) improving production efficiency, reducing finished products, and strengthening market competitiveness through intelligent transformation and upgrading of all links; (2) Realize flexible production of production line and quickly meet market demand; (3) Further improve the degree of equipment networking, realize real-time status acquisition of equipment, and reduce the difficulty of maintenance; (4) Realize safety production monitoring through intelligent systems to reduce potential safety hazards; (5) Ensure product quality through real-time quality inspection of intelligent system products.
In view of the above needs, this paper will construct a complete set of 5G-based concrete products smart factory solutions, which includes the design of the overall architecture of the smart factory and the transformation of production line automation, informatization and intelligence, so as to obtain the status of production equipment in real time, connect various isolated processes and data islands, and lay the foundation for the further development of smart factories in the industry.
1.2 Feasibility of 5G technology for smart factories of concrete productsAt the same time, the deep integration of 5G with cloud computing, edge computing, big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies has made it one of the key infrastructures for the digital transformation of various industries. 5G technology makes up for the shortcomings of traditional industrial wireless, such as low speed, small coverage, and poor reliability, and has become the primary choice for device connection in scenarios such as frequent movement of equipment in factories and harsh production environments, and has become an important part of industrial networks. There are three construction modes for 5G networks in the factory: (1) Virtual private network mode. Based on the public network, it provides differentiated network connection services for enterprises through technologies such as network slicing and customized DNN. In this mode, the base station and core network are shared between the factory and the public network users, the 5G equipment is deployed in the operator's equipment room, and the factory service data and 5G control plane signaling will leave the factory campus, which is suitable for users who do not have high requirements for latency and privacy. (2) Hybrid private network mode. Based on the public network, the UPF of 5G user plane functional devices is deployed to the factory to realize the local offloading of factory data, so as to achieve the purpose of data not leaving the factory campus and supporting latency-sensitive services. In this mode, the factory and the public network users share the functions of the base station and the core control plane, so the 5G control plane signaling will leave the factory campus. It is suitable for users who have high requirements for latency and privacy. (3) 5G local network mode. It is an independent physical private network completely isolated from the public network, and all equipment of the 5G network, including the base station, transmission network, and core network, are independently deployed in the factory. Ideal for users who have high latency and data privacy requirements, or who want full control over their network. In this mode, users invest in network construction at one time and do not need to pay data transfer fees in the future. 5G local network providers typically provide a simple, easy-to-use configuration and maintenance interface that can be operated by industrial users. This mode usually uses a customized and lightweight core network to meet the individual needs of industrial users in a timely manner. Countries such as Germany, Japan, and South Korea have allocated special 5G private network frequency bands for vertical industries to build their own 5G private networks, forming a multi-form pattern of coexistence with operator networks. Through the 5G local network, the private network in the factory with independent and controllable security, independent and controllable costs, and independent and controllable capabilities has gradually become the choice of industrial users.
Due to the wide range of application scenarios, concrete products have different requirements for the latency and data privacy of smart factories in different enterprises, and the appropriate network construction mode can be selected according to their specific needs.
1.3 Principles of smart factory design for precast concrete componentsBased on the above description of the intelligent requirements of the prefabricated concrete component factory and the characteristics that the 5G prefabricated concrete component intelligent factory should have, as well as the requirements of GB T 37393-2019 "General Technical Requirements for Digital Workshop", this paper proposes the following construction principles for the intelligent factory of 5G prefabricated concrete components: (1) to meet the all-round intelligent needs of the concrete products factory in terms of equipment, production process, products and management, and ensure scalability; (2) Use intelligent production equipment to achieve more efficient and high-quality production; (3) Use intelligent technology and equipment to achieve de-labor, save costs and improve efficiency under compliance conditions; (4) Realize the integration of the whole process in the factory based on the industrial 5G field network; (5) Build intelligent factory management based on intelligent equipment and systems, and gradually realize the lean and agile management of intelligent factories for concrete products.
Based on the above principles, the overall functional framework of the intelligent factory in the concrete products industry is shown in Figure 2, which vertically completes the data interaction of each module at the system level, and horizontally completes the system integration of each link of the life cycle.
Figure 2 Overall functional framework.
Equipment and facilities layer: including intelligent equipment for the production of concrete products integrated with 5G modules, such as mold tables, ferry equipment, dismantling and closing equipment, spraying equipment, placing machines, industrial cameras, industrial robots, etc., as well as information infrastructure, general computing infrastructure, etc.
Perception control layer: control systems such as SCADA, edge computing platforms, and control optimization systems. It is responsible for collecting the data of materials, warehouses, mold tables, processes, process paths, production lines and other data of the concrete products factory, and transmitting the data to the corresponding intelligent production layer functional modules or industrial application software through data fusion and platform communication.
Intelligent production layer: including the realization of basic data management, project management, production order management, raw material management, quality management, production plan management, production performance management, yard management and other key application scenarios of concrete products factory intelligence with MES or MOM as the core, so as to achieve high-efficiency, high-quality, low-cost production.
Lean management layer: including procurement, sales, customers, carbon asset management, etc., combined with business analysis tools, to help concrete products factories make intelligent decisions.
Agile service layer: including the first chain collaboration of concrete products raw materials, flexible customization, etc., to accelerate the factory to radiate the output of manufacturing advantages to the concrete products industry.
2 System architecture of smart factory based on 5G-based prefabricated concrete components
The system architecture of the 5G-based prefabricated concrete factory proposed in this paper is divided into the following three parts: (1) networked industrial equipment. Including a variety of intelligent production equipment of the production line, such as cloth machines, various manipulators, various sensors, automatic transport vehicles for transporting parts and components, etc.; It also includes additional equipment deployed to support smart manufacturing, such as video cameras, industrial cameras, RFID tag readers, etc. Industrial equipment can be embedded in 5G modules to access the 5G network, but at present, such equipment is relatively rare, and in most cases, industrial equipment realizes 5G network access through external 5G terminals. (2) Industrial 5G field network. It is composed of 5G terminals, 5G access networks, 5G core networks, 5G network management and other parts, based on the 5G local network construction mode, the 5G core network control plane and data plane functions are deployed in the form of virtualization and microservices, and exist in the edge computing center of each process link. The individual components of the 5G core network are also part of the local 5G industrial network. According to the site conditions and application scenarios, indoor small stations or outdoor macro stations can be deployed. The 5G network should have at least the following capabilities: 1) the 5G network should fully cover the business area within the factory; 2) The 5G network should ensure that the service processing capacity meets the needs of the service during peak periods; 3) The 5G network should ensure the performance requirements of various services for the network; 4) The 5G network should ensure that the 5G terminal maintains business continuity when moving within the network coverage area; 5) The 5G network should ensure that sensitive data does not leave the factory area; 6) 5G networks should ensure security during communication; 7) An easy-to-operate graphical maintenance interface should be provided. (3) Industrial edge intelligence centers deployed in the cloud. Deploy virtualized 5G core network functions and various industrial applications based on the edge computing platform. The edge intelligence center is built based on a hyper-converged architecture of micro data centers, including virtual machines and containers, as well as the construction of localized 5G network access capabilities, and the industrial edge intelligence center can be deployed in the cloud to form an ICT and OT convergence solution based on 5G local networks.
3 The production process of the 5G-based prefabricated concrete component smart factory is intelligent
The intelligent production process of the intelligent factory of concrete prefabricated components involves the flow tracking of the mold platform, the assembly of the mold, the installation of steel bars and mesh, the concrete pouring module, the curing, the demoulding and lifting, the quality inspection, the storage of finished products, the safety monitoring and other processes.
3.1. Mold table flow trackingArrange RFID electronic tags on the side of the mold table, and arrange RFID tag readers at each station. The RFID tag reader is connected to the 5G network through the 5G terminal device. When the mold table flows to the corresponding station, the RFID tag reader reads the tag ID, reports it to the host computer through the 5G network, and then notifies the MES, so that the MES can grasp the location of the specific product in the production process. This is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 Mold flow tracking function.
3.2. Mold assemblyThrough the 5G network, the mold table cleaning manipulator, the mold table placement manipulator, the mold table spraying machine and other equipment of the mold table cleaning station are connected to realize the transmission of status information such as spraying and mold table cleaning and the triggering of the subsequent process switch. This is shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4 Mold assembly function.
3.3. Installation of steel bars and meshWhen the mold table flows to the reinforcement mesh placement station, the mold table circulation tracking system scans the mold table number, and the MES notifies the DCS through the 5G network according to the order to instruct the manipulator to arrange the reinforcement mesh in the mold according to the reinforcement requirements of the order. After the arrangement is completed, the manipulator sends a completion message to the DCS through the 5G network. This is shown in Figure 5.
Fig.5. Reinforcement and mesh installation function.
3.4 Concrete pouring moduleThe placement machine connects DCS and MES through a 5G network, arranges industrial cameras and light sources above the concrete pouring station, and deploys a fabric quality inspection application on the edge computing platform. The industrial cameras are connected to the fabric quality inspection application and the DCS via a 5G network. This is shown in Figure 6.
Fig.6. Functions of the concrete pouring module.
3.5 CuringThe environmental monitoring equipment reports the environmental monitoring data to the host computer deployed on the edge computing platform through the 5G network, and the host computer software stores the environmental information, calls the data analysis provided by the edge computing platform, and processes the behavior that needs to be taken by the service calculation, and then instructs the DCS to accurately control the environmental control equipment and stabilize the maintenance environment through the 5G network. This is shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7 Maintenance function.
3.6 Demoulding and liftingThe platen opening device and the board lifter are connected to the DCS through the 5G network. MES controls the coding equipment via the 5G network. After the maintenance of parts is completed, the DCS instructs the plateplate opener to disassemble the mold through the 5G network, and feeds back to the DCS through the 5G network after the plateplate opening device is completed. The DCS controls the lifting machine to lift the parts through the 5G network. MES generates codes and controls the coding equipment to code on the parts. This is shown in Figure 8.
Fig.8. Demoulding and lifting functions.
3.7. Quality inspectionThe industrial camera takes a picture of the parts to be inspected and sends them to the intelligent quality management application through the 5G network. The intelligent quality inspection management application analyzes the captured images and outputs the quality inspection results. The intelligent quality inspection management application can detect the size of the parts including length, width, cross-sectional height, diagonal length and other indicators, and through the appearance quality inspection of the parts, based on the whole process production process parameters of defective products, combined with artificial intelligence algorithms, it can predict the fault point, solve the problem in time, and avoid product defects again. This is shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9 Quality inspection function.
3.8. Finished products are put into storageInstall positioning devices on logistics and transportation equipment, and deploy location tracking management applications on edge computing platforms. When a part is put into storage, the MES sends the start location information and target location information of the part to the location tracking management application. The location tracking management application controls the logistics and transportation equipment to transport parts and components to the designated location to achieve automated transportation. The positioning device periodically reports coordinate information to the location tracking management application through the 5G network, so that the location tracking application can grasp the location of logistics and transportation equipment in real time. This is shown in Figure 10.
Figure 10 Warehousing of finished products.
3.9 Security MonitoringThe high-definition camera device transmits the operation status of mold cars, ferry cars, kiln cars and other equipment to the edge computing platform in real time through the 5G network to the security monitoring application, and accurately identifies the collision and derailment of mold cars, ferry cars and kiln cars through artificial intelligence algorithms, and notifies DCS in time to control the shutdown of the production line and avoid production accidents.
4 Specific suggestions for the construction of smart factories for precast concrete components based on 5G
The integration of a new generation of ICT technologies represented by 5G, edge computing, and artificial intelligence into the production process of concrete products will bring a strong impetus to the transformation and upgrading of the industry. At present, this kind of integration is still in its infancy, and it also requires close cooperation between all parties in the industry, actively exploring in practice, and jointly promoting the healthy development of the industry. In view of the critical period of industrial development in the next 2 to 3 years, there are the following suggestions: (1) Manufacturers and solution providers and research institutions should work closely together to explore innovative application scenarios, innovate in production, and promote production with innovation. (2) Establish benchmarking enterprises and benchmarking applications, form demonstration effects and driving effects, and accelerate the implementation and promotion of mature scenarios and programs. (3) Accelerate standardization work and promote promotion with standards.
Conclusion
The in-depth application of 5G and intelligent manufacturing technology will be one of the important milestones in the development and transformation of concrete prefabricated component factories. In the 5G era, the concrete products industry will be comprehensively upgraded, and the integration and innovation with 5G as the core will become a strong driving force and strong support for the high-quality development of China's concrete products industry.
References