Four months before the start of the Düsseldorf metal trade fair duo, the halls were already better booked than ever before in the 30-year history of Wire & Tube, according to Messe Düsseldorf. In January 2018, both trade fairs together already occupied around 120,000 net square meters; this is around 10,000 square meters more than the final result of both trade fairs in 2016. 1,180 exhibitors from 50 countries have currently registered for Wire 2018. Over 65,000 square meters are occupied in exhibition halls 9 to 18, followed by Tube with over 52,000 square meters of exhibition space in exhibition halls 3 to 7.0, 7a and 16 to 18 and currently 965 exhibiting companies from 53 countries. New technologies, new machines and plants as well as products and services from the wire, cable and tube industry will be presented over the five days of the fair. The SMS Group is placing digitalization at the forefront of its presentation. The company will be highlighting how this is changing the entire value chain and enabling greater efficiency, quality and flexibility from various perspectives.

Additive manufacturing on wire and tube

The first impetus provided by digitalization and Industry 4.0 relates to the design and manufacture of the machines and components for tube and wire production itself. At the trade fair, the company will be demonstrating this using the example of a rolling stand for a cold pilger rolling mill manufactured using additive processes. The component geometry of a roll stand previously manufactured by machining was optimized with regard to the loads that occur so that the number of strokes and thus productivity can be significantly increased. Other examples of the company's activities in the growth market of additive manufacturing that will be on show at the trade fair include the competence center for 3D printing that is being established in Mönchengladbach, as well as 3D-printed components that are characterized by improved functionality, lower weight or shorter delivery times.

The second topic area shows the opportunities that digitalization opens up for the production process. The "smart rolling mill" relies on using data and associated parameters as a basis for business and process management decisions. The prerequisite for reliable process data is the realistic mapping of the process through precise measurements. At Wire & Tube, SMS Group will be exhibiting such a measuring system for tube, wire, bar and section rolling mills together with TBK Automatisierung und Messtechnik, a company of the group. The system uses laser light section sensors to measure up to 5,000 contours per second during the rolling process. The 3D models generated from the high-resolution cross-section measurements can also be used to detect local, atypical anomalies on the surface. Direct transmission of the measured values to the roll stand control system enables corrections to be made to the roll settings during ongoing production, thus saving time and costs through direct production monitoring.

Augmented reality makes training easier

Digitalization also opens up new possibilities for plant service. "Smart maintenance solutions aim to sustainably increase the availability of the system and the quality of the end products by combining software solutions. In future, a digital plant structure will provide maintenance with centralized access to all relevant parameters. The required information will be provided, for example, by the electronic parts catalog eDoc, the IMMS (Integrated Maintenance Management System) or Genius CM (Condition Monitoring). The connection to "smart" training courses using augmented reality will also be presented at the trade fair.

Digital products and platforms round off the presentation at the trade fair. These form the basis for intelligent, digital services and realize, for example, the secure, digital exchange of information between the company and its customers. One example is the digital platform for PQSC piercing mandrels for seamless tube rolling mills, through which orders are processed and the status of each order can be viewed around the clock. In addition, the comment function enables simple communication by allowing customers and employees to make notes referencing the respective purchase orders. The ability to communicate on an order basis results in increased transparency, easier traceability of change requests and the ability to split an order if different delivery times are required for partial deliveries. ee

Wire + Tube, Hall 7a, Stand B03/B04