Prof. Dr. Martin Dix, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU, will address the topic with his keynote speech "Production of tomorrow - sustainable, flexible and error-free" on the first day of Intec/Z connect 2021. Another contribution will be "Smart production: Adaptive finishing in toolmaking" by Konstantin Kusch from Fraunhofer IWU. German toolmaking is increasingly having to face up to global competition and is under time and cost pressure, reports the expert. Mechanical processing accounts for a significant proportion of the conventional production of forming tools. The try-out process and the associated manual smoothing and correction work is a process that is difficult to calculate. The Fraunhofer IWU is therefore working on a new type of reproducible process chain using automatic print image recognition and robot-supported, adaptive grinding processes.

Martin Naumann also works at the Fraunhofer IWU. In his presentation, the Head of the Control and Regulation Technology Group will provide information on the "Possibilities and variants of cognitive robot programming". The trend towards fast-moving products - accompanied by greater individuality and product diversity - is presenting the entire automation sector with new challenges. Industrial robots in particular are playing an increasingly important role due to their high flexibility, but require new approaches to fast and effective programming, the expert explains. His article uses specific examples to demonstrate the potential and possibilities of cognitive robot programming. The application focus is on the use of CNC-controlled industrial robots.

The presentation "New dimensions of adaptive manufacturing" by Heiko Mucke, sales engineer at B&R Industrie-Elektronik, is another component of the "Trends in manufacturing technology and the supplier industry" forum. Smaller batch sizes, shorter life cycles and online retailing are current challenges for manufacturers of consumer goods. For modern production machines, this results in the need for a very high degree of flexibility. However, this must not have a negative impact on productivity and robustness, emphasizes the speaker. A new type of machine is intended to help overcome these challenges: the adaptive machine. These are machines that automatically adapt to different products during operation. To implement the adaptive machine, it is necessary to merge existing and new technologies into a new overall solution, says the expert.

Sebastian Held, Senior Sales Consultant at Schaeffler Digital Solutions, will provide an overview of the company's digital transformation in his presentation entitled "Smart Production: From Sensor to Value - Schaeffler's way to success in digitalization". "Smart production: 5G in the smart factory - potentials today and tomorrow" is the topic that Stefan Richter, Head of Campus Networks at MUGLER, will shed light on. In contrast to its predecessor networks, access to the new 5G mobile communications standard is no longer primarily dependent on population density, but is based on the requirements of local users. Innovative applications in the factory of the future in particular require high-performance communication networks. With the new local frequency usage, companies will be able to use mobile networks in an exclusive frequency range independently and with quality assurance, explains the expert. Applications and processes can thus increasingly be implemented, controlled and monitored wirelessly. The presentation will show how this implementation works.