A step-by-step quick start guide is provided on the EuProGigant Gaia-X Portal to connect to the Gaia-X test net. With your created and connected account you can explore and consume content of the EuProGigant value creation ecosystem.

Motivation

The Gaia-X lighthouse project “EuProGigant – European Production Giganet for calamity-reducing self-orchestration of value creation and learning ecosystems” was represented at the joint stand of the Austrian Federal Chamber (WKO) in Hall 4, Stand A12 in the Digital Ecosystems area (also see the hall plan). The project exhibited a demonstrator using a tooling machine for educational purposes, the Heller CNC-ProfiTrainer, with a connection to the EuProGigant data infrastructure under the guiding theme “Experience Gaia-X in action!”. The addressed target groups are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as representatives from politics, industry associations and project sponsors. The goal was to demonstrate machining production supported by smart services. This was only made possible by the collaborative, cross-company provision of data according to the Gaia-X federated data infrastructure.

Figure1: Heller CNC-ProfiTrainer

Trade show visitors experienced a tooling machine in the chipping process of a demo part. They could independently influence the speed and traverse rate of the axes via potentiometers and discover, view and process the acquired data from the machine control in the form of data packages on the EuProGigant Gaia-X Portal and other Gaia-X Portals using a service. Through media-based digital content, detailed information on the technical implementation in the context of Gaia-X was offered via a touch monitor at the booth.

The story behind “Experience Gaia-X”

The tooling machine CNC-ProfiTrainer is part of the trade fair demonstrator, which represents the application of a sovereign data infrastructure based on Gaia-X principles for service-based competence support of tooling machine operators. It addresses the use case “detection of a good or bad tool”.

Operators often have to monitor the process on the tooling machine themselves and make adjustments to process parameters such as spindle speed and feed rate from experience, and via manually adjustable potentiometers. This way, personnel influence machining time and quality and, crucially, the wear of components – such as milling tools. The problem is that there is no assistance here with regard to load status, tool damage and the necessary boundary conditions for maintaining a required component quality.

The addressed question then is: how can medium-sized companies, with often small machinery, benefit from an experience of many processes on similar machines by a cross-company, sovereign exchange of information, so they are able to adapt their machining processes more effectively regarding tool wear and workpiece quality? The approach is that via the self-determined provision of data and services, a company B can obtain the desired experience knowledge from a smart service, which is based on the data of a company A.

The implementation of the demonstrator envisages that two identically constructed CNC-ProfiTrainers from different companies A (here: CNC-ProfiTrainer of IGH Infotec AG in Langenfeld, DE) & B (here: CNC-ProfiTrainer of PTW TU Darmstadt at the trade fair stand) carry out an identical machining process to produce a demo component. A data record is generated for each manufactured workpiece and made available via the Gaia-X portal. This means that other companies can find the data set and use it after concluding a data use agreement. For this length of time, the data record remains in the IT system environment of the data owner – in this case, Companies A and B. Company A provides the data sets, which were generated from the machining processes, as training data sets for creating a tool condition anomaly detection algorithm via the EuProGigant Gaia-X portal. Company C (here: craftworks GmbH as a provider of services for data analysis and modelling) creates a model based on the process information contained in the data, which outputs the result whether the process has run properly or not.

Manufacturing company B and company A jointly benefit from the algorithm provided in the form of a smart service. The algorithm is also available via the Gaia-X portals. The algorithm can be applied to the existing data sets of the manufactured workpieces to obtain the condition of the tool and statistical information about the process. The information is output in the form of a results report in .pdf format. The value proposition, which promises good processes through timely tool changes, is thus fulfilled. This additionally leads to a higher probability of a well manufactured part.

What visitors experienced at HANNOVER MESSE

A dashboard showed the status data of the CNC-ProfiTrainer at the HANNOVER MESSE. These were, for example, speed & torque-forming current, limit values and much more information which was displayed live. Another dashboard allowed live viewing of the CNC-ProfiTrainer data at the IGH Infotec AG company site in Langenfeld.

For a more in-depth explanation of the Business Process View – i.e. the steps operators have to go through in order to apply such demonstrative functionalities to a tooling machine, target group-specific appealing digital content is available at the EuProGigant booth.

Visitors to the booth gained the knowledge that thanks to the sovereign exchange of data and services between companies in the Gaia-X ecosystem, there is a benefit for the manufacturing industry in the form of increased value creation. As an example, this can be experienced through targeted competence-supporting guidance of the operating personnel of tooling machines on the basis of services for the production of good parts.

Intended effects of the EuProGigant demonstrator

As a Gaia-X lighthouse project, the EuProGigant project successfully demonstrateed the current state of technology implementation according to Gaia-X and thus contributes to a professional public debate on the development status of the Gaia-X initiative.

The target groups of the manufacturing industry and political representatives are convinced of the orientation and progress of the EuProGigant project and the Gaia-X initiative, so that they want to maintain or even intensify contact with the project.

Collaboration with deltaDAO

The EuProGigant project cooperates with deltaDAO AG in the course of the trade fair demonstrator. The synergies of the Gaia-X demonstrator “Minimal Viable Gaia-X” developed by deltaDAO and the practical EuProGigant use case will be used for understandable, clear communication to demonstrate the added value and the functionality of a Gaia-X federated data infrastructure for the manufacturing industry.

The validation platform puts condition monitoring of manufacturing processes, and how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can cooperate in creating the necessary database, in focus. The data volumes required for condition monitoring present SMEs with numerous challenges – they often do not have the needed number of identical machines to generate sufficient operating data, or the capabilities to analyse existing data.

The validation platform developed by the project team opens up new cooperation opportunities for SMEs. In doing so, the validation platform relies on the new Gaia-X data infrastructure and ensures secure and sovereign data exchange between production companies.