VDEh Institute of Industrial Researches (Düsseldorf, Germany):

Peters H., Dr. Eng., Head of Dept. of Measuring Sensors and Automation, e-mail: harald.peters@bfi.de

The theme “Industry 4.0” needs adaptation to the requirements of industrial branches, i.e. iron and steel industry. Vertical integration and networked production in iron and steel industry are illustrated and semantic simulation of the process chain of steel production is displayed. Current economical development tendencies and strengthening of competition, as well as intention to put into practice the approved technology are the pledges of further steps in this direction. It is supposed that in perspective the suppliers of automation remedies and IT systems will deliver their tools and standards adapted to “Industry 4.0”. Development of corresponding concepts for efficient implementation of these tools in production conditions are recognized to be in the area of responsibility of steel producers and their partners. Electronic storage and evaluation of manufacturing specifications as well as decentral production planning based on software agents are observed. The researches in this field have been supported by the “Research Fund for Coal and Steel” (RFCS) in the framework of European Union and the German Federal Ministry on Economics.

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12. RFCS Projekt RFSR-СГ-2012-00040 «Refi nement of flat steel quality assessment by evaluation of high-resolu tion process and product data (EvalHD)”, 2012–2015.
13. RFCS Projekt RFSR-CT-2014-000028 „Economic and flexible decentral self-optimising production (SoProd)“, 2014–2017.