Success Stories

Biere Bakery from Detmold wants to relieve its staff. Instead of multitasking customer conversations, searching for bread rolls, counting, looking up prices and cashing in, the staff should concentrate entirely on the customer conversation. An intelligent recording system takes over the tracking of the products and the transmission to other systems.

The Gerdesmeier carpentry from Paderborn brings life into living spaces with individual furniture and complete furnishings. Solid wood, high-quality materials and tailor-made solutions are the trademarks of the manufactory. An intensive exchange with the customers is essential for this. In order to get from the customer meeting to the offer more quickly, Fraunhofer IOSB-INA is developing a Speech2Text process with owner Matthias Gerdesmeier.

Diwo Sculpture Workshop from Paderborn restores monuments and sculptures. An important part of the work is the regular inspection of existing objects – because hairline cracks in the stone can endanger stability. With the help of AI-based sensor technology from Fraunhofer IOSB-INA, Diwo can now be supported in these inspections.

Programming programmable logic controllers (PLCs) is a time-consuming and error-prone process. Each manufacturer uses its own dialects and proprietary function blocks that cannot be easily transferred to a Mitsubishi Electric controller. In a project, Fraunhofer IOSB-INA, together with Mitsubishi Electric, has developed a specialized programming assistant that solves these challenges.

The young start-up company VALETUDOO aims to advance the digitalization of physiotherapy, rehabilitation, and fitness through the development of modern training equipment. Therefore, in 2022, the idea for developing an innovative cable pull tower (VIS) emerged, which was transformed into a prototype in the SmartFactoryOWL with the help of the Industrial Automation Lab.

Digital steles with large monitors are part of the cityscape at bus stops, train stations, or central hubs in city centers. The Bielefeld-based company ST Vitrinen Trautmann manufactures these steles and is working on remote monitoring of the devices for collecting and evaluating data on temperature, ventilation, and weather. With the help of Fraunhofer IOSB-INA, this data transmission via LoRaWAN was tested and prototypically implemented at SmartFactoryOWL.

In pneumatic systems, air leaks can occur at connecting components, which can lead to high energy losses, costs or even downtimes. Not only can maintenance costs be reduced and unplanned downtimes reduced by early detection, but also by the most accurate location of such leaks. This challenge has been successfully addressed by Aventics GmbH, which belongs to the Emerson Group, together with the AI Community OWL in a hackathon in the SmartFactoryOWL.

The medium-sized company Plastikpack GmbH from Steinheim OWL specializes in the production of canisters for hazardous goods. The company’s well-networked production must meet the highest quality requirements. In particular, the process stability of extrusion blow molding is crucial for the quality of the canisters. Plastikpack decided to use AI to evaluate data from the automated process and found support from Fraunhofer IOSB-INA in neighboring Lemgo.

The company Zecher from Paderborn manufactures printing rollers and anilox rollers, among other things, for use in printing technology or surface finishing. The anilox rollers are installed in systems that companies use in continuous operation. To detect wear of the roller, integrated sensor technology for the roller was developed together with Fraunhofer IOSB-INA.

Wöhler Brush Tech GmbH builds custom machines for the production of technical brushes and for sheet metal deburring. The technical service and maintenance of these systems pose a challenge. The goal was to digitalize and optimize the service process for customers: Machines and IT systems were integrated using OPC UA and Digital Twins.

Aluminum die casting shot sleeves are subject to natural wear and tear due to constant stress. These damages result in inefficient processes, inferior product quality, and unscheduled maintenance costs in the order of several thousand euros for customers – sometimes multiple times a week. Until now, this wear could only be vaguely predicted. This is where the project came in: the goal was to develop a system that monitors the condition of the shot sleeves and detects signs of wear early.

BECATEX GmbH, specializing in custom-made bags such as emergency bags for rescue services, defined the requirements for these bags, which included easy cleaning, excellent shock absorption, and a modular design. The bag needed to make ampoules and medications safely and quickly accessible. Sensor technology is to be used to continuously monitor the condition of the emergency kit’s contents.

RAUTEC, a specialist in industrial automation, offers an innovative solution for wired and wireless remote maintenance of networked industrial plants with the RAUTEC Remote System. This reduces costs, enables location-independent monitoring and secures communication through encrypted VPN connections. In collaboration with Fraunhofer IOSB-INA, the user interface was further developed.

“Smart Factory Web” is a groundbreaking project launched by the Korean institute KETI and Fraunhofer IOSB, and funded by the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE). It promises to revolutionize industrial production through a global network of smart factories — with the help of Industry 4.0 technologies, such as OPC-UA and AAS!

The MöllerGroup, a globally operating family business based in Bielefeld, focuses on injection molding for the automotive industry in its MöllerTech division. To reduce waste and improve sustainability, a Predictive Quality System has been developed to monitor the quality of plastic parts in real time and identify problems early on.

CirQualityOWL plus: Sustainable Economic Transformation in Ostwestfalen-Lippe With the “CirQualityOWL plus” project, Ostwestfalen-Lippe is significantly driving the transition to a sustainable, circular economy. Funded by approximately 2.5 […]

As part of the transfer project, an energy check was developed specifically for companies, which was developed and piloted using a CNC machine from IWN. The energy check offers the possibility of recording various energy-relevant parameters in detail over a defined period.