Ypsomed and Harting collaborate on development of Industry 4.0 digital control systems for retrofitting to plastic injection moulding machines

Ypsomed Group has selected Harting as a collaborative partner in a development project to retrofit legacy protocol plastic injection moulding machines with an integrated Industry 4.0 digital control system that is also linked with a factory-wide MES/ERP system.

This approach offers simple and minimal physical integration with an existing production line for a reasonably low level of investment, with long-term benefits including improved productivity, cost savings and extended machine lifetimes.

As an established Harting customer, Ypsomed saw the immediate potential benefits of applying the Industry 4.0 Digital retrofit approach in its manufacturing operation at its headquarters in Burgdorf, Switzerland.

Ypsomed produces several hundred million products a year and meets the highest medical technology standards.

Due to the high proportion of individual plastic components in its products, the company possess a large number of plastic injection moulding machines in its production plants.

The Industry 4.0 retrofit began in 2017, with Harting’s Edge Computer MICA being installed and programmed as the protocol translator within two days.

The new production plant in Schwerin is planned to start up operations in summer 2019, and automated control of product orders will be implemented by 2020.