Industrial Internet of Things pilot project in the steel industry at Salzgitter Flachstahl

The Netilion Industry 4.0 program from Endress+Hauser enables plant maintenance and management to be optimized in just a few steps. The "digital toolkit" includes the four online services Analytics, Predict, Health and Library as well as a scanner app. What is particularly exciting for SZFG is that the number and functionality of the applications can be continuously expanded according to its individual requirements. Salzgitter Flachstahl is currently using the solution packages for plant overview and is prospectively working on the implementation of predictive maintenance strategies.

Netilion Analytics provides a comprehensive overview of all installed measuring devices. Previously, a lot of manual effort was required in continuous pickling line 2 to generate a complete overview of the status of the field devices. In addition, there was the manual documentation of the installed field devices. In continuous pickling line 2 at Salzgitter Flachstahl, Netilion Analytics recorded all 104 measurement technology devices in the Profibus PA network fully automatically in about one hour. Digital images of all installed measuring points are stored in the cloud and enriched with additional information from Endress+Hauser's database, which now contains over 40 million device data records. The project manager at Salzgitter Flachstahl had an "aha" moment when he activated Analytics on an initial basis in pickling line 2: "Some of the Profibus devices were connected to the system, and I didn't even remember them. In individual cases, we also detected errors in the internal naming of measuring devices and were able to correct the error immediately."
Practical dashboards facilitate the quick evaluation of the installed field device base and increase transparency. Decisions can be made faster and more reliably in the future based on valid data.

The package for predictive maintenance is also intended to relieve the employees of continuous pickling line 2 of a lot of work in the future; the use of this solution package is planned for operational use in the medium term. Up to now, the measuring technology has been maintained preventively, i.e. at fixed intervals. Maintenance is carried out reactively as required when a defect occurs. The new Netilion Predict online service puts an end to reactive maintenance and unplanned downtime. It enables needs-based maintenance and testing of field devices at the appropriate time.

Salzgitter Flachstahl is also using the package for plant monitoring - with the integral component Netilion Health - as part of the pilot project. The project manager has the opportunity to test new functions, provide feedback to the Endress+Hauser development team and place his own requests. Health automatically interprets the devices' diagnostic information - and thus significantly simplifies maintenance operations in Industry 4.0. It uses the digital data from the measuring devices to visualize their state of health in a comprehensible way using Namur NE 107-compliant symbols. In this way, Health can be used to identify whether a measuring device needs to be serviced or even replaced. For this purpose, not only an error code is displayed, but also an error description in plain text as well as comprehensible instructions on how to rectify the error. The state of health can be determined in greater detail, especially for measuring instruments with Heartbeat Technology. For this reason, older measuring devices have already been replaced by those with the technology at critical measuring points, or this is planned for the future.

The cloud-based document management system Library is also included. The mobile asset management system enables users to store documents such as manuals and calibration reports directly in the cloud with the digital images of the respective measuring devices. Thanks to Netilion Library, the days of having to search for documents and store them manually are over. When Library is also combined with the Field Xpert tablet PC, it not only simplifies maintenance documentation, but also the maintenance activities themselves.

At Salzgitter Flachstahl, the edge device, which is used to establish connectivity between IT and OT, was integrated into the Profibus PA network via two system components. "When we were designing the plant, we already decided that we wanted to network the entire measurement technology with the Profibus PA, because this would enable us to analyze the measurement technology more effectively in terms of maintenance," explains the project manager at Salzgitter Flachstahl.

In close cooperation with Endress+Hauser, Salzgitter Flachstahl has set a promising IIoT agenda with the introduction of Netilion. The employees of continuous pickling line 2 can further develop the cloud solution together with Endress+Hauser according to their own requirements. Then, once the solution has proven itself and the potential of the applications has been demonstrated, the concept can be transferred to other Salzgitter AG plants quickly, easily and without great effort.

Source:
PR kit of the digital trade press event on Feb. 4, 2021.
revised by Jan-Marten Claus, Operating Engineer Cold Wide Strip Mill, Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH