One of the greatest challenges for manufacturers attempting to transition to 4.0 is making older equipment 4.0 ready. It simply isn’t practical for most companies to attempt to replace all their older equipment with brand new state-of-the-art equipment that is 4.0 ready out of the box.
The next best thing is finding ways to bring 4.0 functionality to the current equipment. This is where companies like Bosch Rexorth Corp are coming into play with inventions such as their IoT Gateway Rack. This is an enclosure that brings 4.0 systems and functionalities to legacy machines. It is constructed in a way that it requires no extensive renovations to existing plants other than to be hooked up to the machines.
This is but one of many systems that manufacturers should watch for to aide in transitioning to become a manufacturer capable of Industry 4.0 standards. While new state-of-the-art 4.0 ready equipment is attractive and sometimes necessary for implementing some processes that old technology simply will not be capable of – it is important to always consider the value of building upon current assets.
See more information on the IoT Gateway Rack @ https://www.ptonline.com/news/make-older-machines-ready-for-industry-40
