TPT November 2022

AR T I C L E

Fives

Shandong Province Sifang Technical Development Group

OTOMES – modular, flexible hardware and software for slitting lines, process lines, tube mills and finishing By Luca Ferraguti, product manager, Fives OTO SpA

Company servers support the system core, where an instance of the main module runs, receives real-time data, takes care of server-side computations and delivers output information to the peripherical modules in a distributed way. The process relies on a relational database that can be freely deployed on the most common commercial DBMS, such as SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL. On the client side, the office managers have their own interface to control what is going on at their side of the plant, while line operators, in the production area, have dedicated stations to control local activity. Furthermore, the essential information can be at the user’s fingertips on mobile devices, as the most flexible and remote part of the overall architecture, using dedicated apps. To achieve all of this, OTOMES has been designed using the .NET Framework and takes the best from the Xamarin open source framework, a .NET-based middleware allowing the system to run on any device, server or even microprocessor board.

As digitalisation has proved to be a base success factor for the industry business, manufactory execution systems (MES) have established themselves as important company performance drivers. Thanks to its long-lasting experience as an automation provider for the steel industry, Fives developed a steel dedicated hardware and software platform covering all the process control needs on slitting lines, process lines (cold roll mills, continuous pickling lines, galvanising and painting), tube mills, packaging, hydrostatic testers and finishing plants, distinguishing itself from general purpose MES, thanks to the deep, tailoring to the steel industry processes. OTOMES is a modular, distributed, client-server application, fully developed in-house, capable of collecting and storing production data into a relational database providing a real time picture of the plant. OTOMES provides information regarding the set-up of the machines and gives a continuous feedback on performance indicators, energy consumption and production costs, in addition to the wide range of reports that are available and easily customised. Key assessment factors such as product manufacturing times, efficiency, stock rotation, KPI, average lead times and scrap amount are rapidly calculated by OTOMES, without disrupting the company’s modus operandi and effectively assisting the operators in their day-by-day activities. Fully Industry 4.0 compliance allows companies to exploit technical benefits and tax advantages. Distributed approach One key goal of production control is the capability to be capillary present inside the company, in all the spots where data is generated and where operators and managers control the production flow. That’s why the OTOMES modular, distributed, multi-platform software and hardware architecture has proved to be a winning choice.

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NOVEMBER 2022