Industry 5.0 from 4.0, Are we there yet?

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The decisions of our past are the architects of our present. – Dan Brown (Inferno)

We see 2012 to 2015 as the period when Industry 4.0, where IoT is the major push, was at the Peak of Inflated Expectations. At that time, a major IoT surge yielded a lot of investor money for consumer-focused companies like Nest, and every tech publication was buzzing. Followed by 2015, the consumer IoT industry hit the Trough of Disillusionment when we all realized that a lot of consumer products didn’t really need to be connected. At the time, there just wasn’t enough value in connectivity for most of the products on the market. Since 2018, industrial and business-to-business use cases have represented IoT’s big comeback. We’re seeing companies in “unsexy” industries like HVAC, industrial monitoring, energy production, etc., starting to adopt IoT for a variety of use cases—not to mention a rise in relatively new industries like micromobility that only exist because of IoT. Overall, it is believed that IoT is early on the Slope of Enlightenment. Excitement around IoT reached its peak prior to the 5G marketing boom, and in many ways, has receded into the background since—even as many industries continue to adopt the technology. Some reference.

Industry 4.0 are we there yet? 🫏

It’s been a while since this question came up. The switch to Industry 4.0 has been slower than expected, especially in developing countries. These countries tend to adopt Industry 4.0 technologies at a lower rate than developed nations because of some main challenges. Developed countries, especially those with strong industries like Germany and the United States, have made great progress in using digital technologies, automation, and advanced data analysis in their manufacturing processes. This success is helped by good infrastructure, access to funding, and a skilled workforce that understands high-tech operations.

What are the hurdles for adaption of Industry 4.0?

No doubt, we see huge advantage of adapting to Industry 4.0 to Corporate as well as SMEs, then what is the hurdle? I think the hurdle are multiple, and one can compartmalize them in few buckets namely

  1. Infrastructure
  2. Awareness
  3. Inertia

Infrastructure

Last mile connectivity for Industry 4.0 is a major concern. It’s a technological issue as well. Typically to connect a big equipment to Internet, the internet ready hardware has Ethernet port, and some one has to lay cable till the machine, establish a small local server to fetch and push data to cloud. Given human nature, these activities falls under ‘unproductive’ work, or ‘too much of work for the benefit’ and the machine never gets connected to Server. From infrastructure point of view, accessibility of high speed network, both wired and wireless is still a question in most part of country. You may get big hoarding on 5G connectivity, however call drops and low internet speed is the fact of the day. The dual issue of OEM not making machines ready with low hurdle options (WiFi ready or Bluetooth ready machines) and lack of Infra to give high speed access to data both becoming a challenge for the adaption.

Awareness

It’s important that the consumer and OEM both see the ‘value of this new technology’. I came across this article https://elischragenheim.com/2018/10/01/the-big-slogan-and-the-potential-real-value-of-industry-4-0/, and the article asks six questions, to enable user get the awareness of the technology and find the value.

  1. Question 1: What is the power of the new technology?
  2. Question 2: What current limitation or barrier does the new technology eliminate or vastly reduce?
  3. Question 3: What are the current usage rules, patterns and behaviors that bypass the limitation?
  4. Question 4: What rules, patterns and behaviors need to be changed to get the benefits of the new technology?
  5. Question 5: What is the application of the new technology that will enable the above change without causing resistance?
  6. Question 6: How to build, capitalize and sustain the business?

here in the sixth question, we need to look at the global aspects of using a specific new technology. When considering multiple applications of new technologies, question 6 should be applied to all of them together. So, when examining the different parts of Industry 4.0, the first step is to pick a few for closer study. The last step is to evaluate the overall strategy and decide which ones to implement, if any, and what other actions are needed to achieve the expected value as quickly as possible.

Inertia

Inertia, especially in the context of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) supplying machines aimed at enhancing the last mile of connectivity, presents significant challenges. This resistance to change does not originate from a lack of interest among end users or industries; rather, it stems from a comfort with the current state of affairs—often referred to as the ‘As-is’ state. Many individuals and organizations find solace in familiar routines and established practices, which naturally leads to reluctance when faced with the prospect of change.

The underlying reasons for this resistance are often tied to concerns about potential negative consequences that could arise from adopting new technologies or processes. Change, by its very nature, is an unsettling force, and the anticipation of negative outcomes can evoke fear and skepticism. For instance, the introduction of new medical drugs, while aimed at curing an illness, frequently comes with side effects that can be severe or even counterproductive. This analogy is not confined to the pharmaceutical realm but extends into all areas of innovation and transformation.

In industries where established practices have yielded satisfactory results, any proposed changes may be perceived as a threat to the status quo. The examples of disruptions in various commercial sectors often illustrate a pattern where innovation, despite its potential benefits, is met with resistance due to fears of failure or unforeseen impacts. This caution is not inherently negative, as it reflects a desire to protect existing investments and avoid potential risks. Nonetheless, it highlights the intricate balancing act organizations face when striving for progress while managing the inertia of their current operations.

Thus, fostering an environment that promotes openness to change requires not only a clear communication of the benefits but also addressing the fears associated with potential drawbacks. Educating stakeholders about the supportive measures in place to mitigate risks and enhance their experience can pave the way for smoother adaptation, ultimately leading to a dynamic evolution in processes and technologies that serve to enhance the last mile of connectivity and beyond.

Industry 4.0, what next?

Industry 4.0, slowly but surely showing its advantage to public at large, many governments are also adding new packages, to help adapt to these technologies. Also Infrastructure are upgrading and with penetration of mobile network and miniaturising electronics boards, the technology is becoming more accessible to all. Specially from Industry perspective, young entrepreneurs are quick to adapt the technologies, and giving access to Industry 4.0, we see quick adaptation rate, and more demanding customer base to harness true power of Industry 4.0! Power of visualising data, identifying patterns, itself gives huge productivity boost. On my personal account, I’ve seen improvement of OEE from 10-15% just by visualising data and trends.

COVID-19 has rapidly sped up Industry 4.0 transformations for many companies. By embracing digitization and artificial intelligence, organizations are strengthening their resilience in these difficult times. Companies seizing this opportunity now will gain a significant advantage in the future.

With long term quality data harnessing, which is happening in process industry for long, and they are on the cusp of making a breakthrough, Machines and plants are still in process of aggregating data and streamlining data in more quality and quantitative way. Once the data is harnessed and aggregated, the hyped ‘predictive’ and ‘preventive’ analytic will be making Total cost of ownership lower, and increase the adaption in return.

With burst of AI technologies, the adaptation curve will be faster, however the spike will come only once we harness the data. Machines, which are less of timeseries data unlike process industries, will take a bit longer to come up with practical applications of AI based predictive and preventive maintenance model or Just in Time spare inventory. I’m sure this is happening in Countries like Germany and USA, but again not to the scale, which was anticipated. The struggle is same across the domain.

So what’s Industry 5.0🤔

As we talked about before, we are not yet fully at Industry 5.0. Many companies are still focusing on Industry 4.0 or are changing their plans to follow this trend. Industry 4.0 includes important elements like automation, robotics, big data, smart systems, virtualization, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the Internet of Things. While businesses are still working through this fourth stage, Industry 5.0 is just starting to take shape. Before you feel rushed to make decisions, let’s take a quick look at what Industry 5.0 means and how it might impact your business plans in the future.

Industry 5.0 is an emerging concept that shifts focus from mere efficiency and productivity to the wellbeing of workers and societal contributions. The European Union describes it as a movement that utilizes new technologies to ensure prosperity while respecting environmental limits. It builds upon Industry 4.0 by prioritizing research and innovation for creating a sustainable, human-centric industry. This approach marks a significant change in prioritising people and the planet over profits, contrasting with historical concepts like Corporate Social Responsibility and ESG.

Summary 🔖

Industry 5.0 is still a new idea, with most businesses focused on Industry 4.0 or earlier stages. Sustainability is also a growing concern. However, the EU’s push towards Industry 5.0, built on human-centricity, resilience, and sustainability, offers a vision for future progress.

Whether this vision is exciting or overwhelming depends on the company and individual. The level of adoption will vary widely. Yet, given today’s challenges, Industry 5.0 seems like a future promising path. By prioritizing people, adaptability, and environmental responsibility, organizations and societies can find solutions to current problems.

Economiser, some FAQs

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Guide for better economiser design

Is it essential to pre heat feed water?

How one preheats they boiler feed water? We have two options,

  • Via economiser, mounted on exhaust of boiler, and heating incoming feed water by absorbing lost heat in flue gases
  • Via Deareator tank, adding steam to deareator and heating the water temperature. Though the purpose of deareator is as name suggest remove the “oxygen” from the water, by heating it. Nevertheless it also increases the temperature of water in this process.

Let’s talk about economiser

Now that’s the question, one should not ask, if possible, one should always use economiser. It generally speaking will increase boiler efficiency by 3-5 percentage points.

It also helps reduce the thermal stress on boiler as a whole.

Then why this question?

Challenges with economisers are few, apart from how much heat we are recovering vs how much expenditure we are doing in is installation, maintenance and qualification.

Assuming the economics works well, the next question is if you absorb too much heat, and condensation happens, it will lead to sulphur corrosion, distorting not only boiler but also chimney in long run.

Criteria for designing economiser from user perspective

  • Define maximum hot water temperature we expect out of economiser, this has to be above sulphur due point
  • Define maximum pressure drop allowed. As more pressure drop will add more duty to the Blower, adding to running energy cost
Acid Dewpoint Corrosion

Criteria for design from Designer’s perspective

  • Configuration of path, with multiple branches to make water flow, it helps get maximum efficiency but also adds to pressure drop and duty on feed pump
  • Profile of fins for heat exchanger, some profiles of fins, for example serrated fins, has huge heat transfer to area ratio, and are highly efficient, but also adds to pressure drop on air side, and blower duty increases accordingly.
  • Number of passes of hot flue gases, this ensures more residential time for the flue gas, so that we can extract more heat, however, this will also cost us more pressure drop and added duty to the blower.
  • Minimum feed water temperature and maximum outlet temperature, both factors are important to ensure we get better efficiency but also to ensure we have less issues with corrosion (oxygen pitting

Typical failure reasons

Typically in boiler, the flue gas is mostly utilised to super heat the steam, and then passed to economiser, in such cases, The temperature differentials between the flue gas and water are quite low. To maximize heat transfer, water temperatures at the end of the economizer run should be very close to the saturation temperature. If the temperature difference is very low, then it some time can lead to steaming in economiser. Steaming not only reduces the efficiency drastically but also lead to knocking and failure of weld during operation due to thermal impact.

Second reason for failure could be quenching effect. This happens, when boiler is stand by mode, that is steam is not consumed. Water in economiser reduces drastically, and sudden surge in demand, make feed pump, pump cold water to economiser, leading to thermal stresses, even if the delta of water differential is low, this will lead to failure after some time. This issue can be over come by losing some water in boiler itself via intermediate blow down, small water circulation in economiser helps avoid such quenching issues.

On-line toolkit

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The online tool is available for all users, please register and start using the calculation. Please visit here to sign-up or login.

P&ID Diagram : Process Vs. Piping

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Whats ‘P’ Stands for!

In office someone told me, lets not spend (tone was ‘waste’) time in making P&ID, as our machine has no piping! an I was like … confused on matching the description of P&ID with need of P&ID. and hence this article.

I just went back to basis, and tried to find out whats the ‘dictionary’ meaning first.


  • ISA 5.4 Says, This standard establishes minimum required information and identifies additional optional information for a loop diagram for an individual instrumentation loop. This loop is typically part of a process depicted on the class of engineering drawings referred to as Piping and Instrument Drawings (P&IDs).
  • EN ISO 1068 Says,  a piping and instrument diagram (P & ID)
  • Document on ISA Website , refer The process and instrumentation diagram (“P&ID” as it often called) represents a document that can take on many different forms . 


  • IS 3232: Says, RECOMMENDATIONS‘ ON GRAPHICAL SYMBOLS FOR PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAMS, PIPING AND INSTRUMENTATION DIAGRAMS
  • South Austria Water Technical Standard TS 112 : Process and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&ID)

So, is it Piping of Process diagram? What we understand?


The challenge, limiting it to piping application, user can ignore its advantage  on discrete machines, where there is no piping (or less of it), but its highly automated.  

To answer this question, we need to see what the diagram help us with.

It help us with
  • Understanding the design philosophy.
  • Understanding of process flow (energy and mass flow)
  • Process Control parameter, loops, interlocks
  • Economics of system, process optimization
  • HAZOP Study
  • Unit operation, interlinking between plants and machines. 

It will be more appropriate to consider P&ID and Process & Instrument Diagram, which shows following but not limited. 

  • Material & Energy Flow
  • Interconnecting Piping 
  • Stations of operations
  • Instruments
  • Interlocks and data flow
  • Loops and control logic
Let me know your views on this.

Orbital Welding for Sanitary Piping

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Orbital Welding for Sanitary Piping

Orbital welding in Sanitary application is extension to tungsten inert gas (TIG/TGAW) welding. This type of welding is default in piping, which the application demands Sanitary or super clean application, where cleaning is done with CIP/SIP.
The pharmaceutical industry currently uses orbital GTAW/TIG welding almost exclusively. This produces welds of high quality with very low rejection percentages; these joints possess high strength, high purity meta, and good surface finish.
Orbital welding is the controlled rotation of components within a fixed support, while an adjustable, non-consumable tungsten electrode attached to a guide moves (or “orbits”) the joint. The electrode, the arc, the area surrounding the weld, and tube interior are protected by a shield of inert gas—usually argon—with a purity of 99.995/99.999% 
Virtually all the metal alloys employed in the pipeline fabrication sector can be welded and since the process is carried out in an inert atmosphere it produces results that are extremely clean, oxide free and without spatter

Its completely automated process and hence needed precision when preparing the face and edges before welding.

Following mind map will help you understand variable in Orbital welding.
Please Explore. Will add more information shortly.

Material in Saniatary Application (Pharma/ Food Industry)

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Metals in Pharma/ Food Industry

As we know, the out put from these industry are directly consumed by end user, and it impact either health value or patients safety! Its prime importance that the metal used in these industry ensures no impact on quality of products and also ensures minimum maintenance.
Many time, manufacturer prefer to take different batches of products in same equipment, and this leads to one more challenge of cleanability. and when one like to be equally sure, that no residual is passing to next batch, its prime important that the metal should not react with any chemical cleaning agents!
Stainless steels are uniquely qualified not only because of their long service life, availability and fabricability, but also because they are non-corroding, non-contaminant, they can be polished to very smooth finishes, they are strong and rigid, they can withstand heat and chemical sterilization treatments, and they are easily welded.
In such industry, following metals are preliminary used.
  1. 304 and 316 stainless steels and their L grades
  2. Austenitic stainless steels with higher Mo content
  3. Duplex stainless steels group
  4. Superaustenitics in particular “6Mo”
  5. Ni, Cr, Mo family commonly called the “Alloy C family”
  6. Cobalt based alloys with high corrosion and wear-resistance
  7. Titanium alloys, referred as chemically pure (CP)

Following table shows chemistry of typical Stainless steel used in industry

Ergonomics design for Push Trolley (System on wheel, managed by Pushing)

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Ergonomics design for Push Trolley (System on wheel, managed by Pushing) 


As per HSE, Pushing and pulling of loads is a way to avoid manual lifting and carrying of objects such as by putting the load on a trolley.

Why its important to study? and even design?

Statistics can be seen below that give you an idea of how important it is to eliminate or reduce pushing and pulling risk factors.

  1. 11% of manual handling – related RIDDOR accidents investigated by HSE involved pushing and pulling.
  2. The most frequently reported site of injury was the back muscle injury (44%).
  3. Followed by the upper limbs (shoulder, arms, wrist and hand) accounted for 28.6%.
  4. 12% more accidents involved pulling than pushing (where the activity could be identified within the reports).
  5. 61% of accidents involved pushing and pulling objects that were not supported on wheels (e.g. bales, desks etc.)
  6. 35% of pushing and pulling accidents involved wheeled objects!

IS there any Regulation?

Yes, we have to comply with the risk assessment requirements set out in the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 as well as the requirement in the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (as amended) (MHOR) to carry out a risk assessment on manual handling tasks.

So, Tell me about design now 🙂

Following are the quick tips, then my next post will talk more in details.
  • Choose PUSHING a load instead of PULLING it whenever possible
  • Place your hands at the correct height.
  • Followings are weight (push or pull) to stop the load! will cover this in next post.
Men
women
For stopping or starting a load
20 kg (ie about 200 Newtons)
15 kg (ie about 150 Newtons)
For keeping load in motion
10 kg (ie about 100 Newtons)
7 kg (ie about 70 Newtons)

Design of a trolley : A thought!

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Be in whatever field you are, you come across trolleys in one form or other.

Trolleys, some time stuck, sometimes with broken wheels, sometime hard to push and sometimes its better keeping them untouched.
My profession given me opportunity to design one trolley myself. And I grab the opportunity by both hands.
Here, I’ll share some learning those I came across while designing and also some surprises that in faced myself while designing the system.
I’ll also share my thought process, to enable reader understand my background and reasoning for going with my decision.
So, let me put the challenge that I’ve grabbed !
Challenge: Design trolley for clean in place system, weighing 300kg plus, easy to install and accommodated all crucial items in and yes Movable!

Energy Required to Heat Air

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Recently I came across this requirement of calculating heat required to heat air (for AHU), I came across two simplified formulas, as follows.

Please also note the learning from this workout at the bottom!

image

Learning!

for delta T, Centigrade vs Fahrenheit are different!

I was thinking, as long as its Delta (Difference between two temperature), °F and °C doesn’t matter! I was WRONG… See following example

Raise temperature of air from 10 °C to 110°C, Temperature difference is 100°C

Where as in Fahrenheit, its 50°F (10°C) to 230°F (110°C) i,e difference is 180°F!

Non Destructive Testing of Welding

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So, we have covered Destructive testing in my last post, now something on Non-destructive testing.

There are Numerous Non-Destructive tests used to evaluate the base metal to be joined as well as completed welds. However these all NDT shares several common elements, these essential elements are summarized below:

o A Source of Probing energy or Medium
o A Discontinuity must cause change or alteration of probing energy
o A means of detecting this change
o A means of indicating this change
o A means of observing or recording this indication so that an interpretation can made.
Over the years Numerous Non-Destructive Testing Methods have been developed, each one has associated with its various advantage & Limitations.

Followings are the Noted NDT Methods
o Penetrant Test (PT)

o Magnetic Particle Test (MT)

o Radiographic Test (RT)
o Ultrasonic Test (UT)
o Eddy Current Test (ET)   1. Penetrant Testing (PT)

Liquid penetration inspection is a method that is used to reveal surface breaking flaws by bleedout of a colored or fluorescent dye from the flaw. The technique is based on the ability of a liquid to be drawn into a “clean” surface breaking flaw by capillary action. After a period of time called the “dwell,” excess surface

penetrant is removed and a developer applied.This acts as a “blotter.” It draws the penetrant from the flaw to reveal its presence. Colored (contrast) penetrants require good white light while fluorescent penetrants need to be used in darkened conditions with an ultraviolet “black light”.

Detection of Defect using Black-light



Table for Dwell time

2. Magnetic Testing (MT)

Magnetic particle inspection is a nondestructive testing method used for defect detection. MPI is a fast and relatively easy to apply and part surface preparation is not as critical as it is for some other NDT methods. These characteristics make MPI one of the most widely utilized nondestructive testing methods.  

      MPI uses magnetic fields and small magnetic particles, such as iron filings to detect flaws in components. The only requirement from an inspectability standpoint is that the component being inspected must be made of a ferromagnetic material such iron, nickel, cobalt, or some of their alloys. Ferromagnetic materials are materials that can be magnetized to a level that will allow the inspection to be effective.
     The method is used to inspect a variety of product forms such as castings, forgings, and weldments. Many different industries use magnetic particle inspection for determining a component’s fitness-for-use. Some examples of industries that use magnetic particle inspection are the structural steel, automotive, petrochemical, power generation, and aerospace industries. Underwater inspection is another area where magnetic particle inspection may be used to test items such as offshore structures and underwater pipelines


Electromagnetic Yoke Detail Diagram



Electromagnetic Yoke Application



Application of Dry Powder



The Magnetic Field Intensity Measure



Defect Detection in Weld Using MPI (Dry Powder)




Before and after Inspection MPI Detection



3. Radiographic Testing
Covered in detail in my older post

4. Ultrasonic Testing (UT)

Ultrasonic Testing (UT) uses high frequency sound energy to conduct examinations and make measurements. Ultrasonic inspection can be used for flaw detection/evaluation, dimensional measurements, material characterization, and more. To illustrate the general inspection principle, a typical pulse/echo inspection configuration as illustrated below will be used.

 

A typical UT inspection system consists of several functional units, such as the pulser/receiver, transducer, and display devices. A pulser/receiver is an electronic device that can produce high voltage electrical pulse. Driven by the pulser, the transducer generates high frequency ultrasonic energy. The sound energy is introduced and propagates through the materials in the form of waves. When there is a discontinuity (such as a crack) in the wave path, part of the energy will be reflected back from the flaw surface. The reflected wave signal is transformed into electrical signal by the transducer and is displayed on a screen. In the applet below, the reflected signal strength is displayed versus the time from signal generation to when a echo was received. Signal travel time can be directly related to the distance that the signal traveled. From the signal, information about the reflector location, size, orientation and other features can sometimes be gained.
cross-section of the Probe


Beam spread occurs because the vibrating particle of the material (through which the wave is traveling) do not always transfer all of their energy in the direction of wave propagation. Recall that waves propagate through that transfer of energy from one particle to another in the medium. If the particles are not directly aligned in the direction of wave propagation, some of the energy will get transferred off at an angle. (Picture what happens when one ball hits another second ball slightly off center). In the near field constructive and destructive wave interference fill the sound field with fluctuation. At the start of the far field, however, the beam strength is always greatest at the center of the beam and diminishes as it spreads outward.