Data and Circular Economy of the Future

CUNA real production starts in Lemgo

31-Jan-2022 - Germany

A cooperative of ten partners has formed around the AI real lab, which is funded by the BMWK with 2 million euros, to jointly develop and operate a digital and sustainable plastics production of the future in the SmartFactoryOWL in Lemgo. This was ceremoniously opened on January 26.

It's an enormous number: 320,000 disposable cups for hot drinks are consumed in Germany - every hour, according to the German Environmental Aid Association. The coated cups, most of which are made from non-recyclable material, can only be used once, with the average use lasting no longer than ten minutes. In addition, paper and plastics are used in their manufacture, so that, according to the German Environmental Aid Association, 48,000t of CO² emissions are produced each year in the production of disposable cups alone.

Reason enough for Rafael Dyll to found a startup company in Mett-mann called CUNA Products GmbH in 2018. CUNA Products GmbH produces reusable cups from CO2-neutral, plant-based material and is characterized by a sustainable concept with a future-proof product idea: the cups are made from a bio-based plastic without the use of oil and are reusable as well as recyclable. What is special is that not only is the material used for production made from renewable raw materials sustainable, but also the recycling process specially organized by CUNA. For this purpose, a material cycle is created via the return flow of used cups of the pool system, because the ecological reusable cups with the distinctive CUNA flower symbol are mainly used as a deposit system in gastronomy, in bakeries, in company canteens or at festivals.

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The product also convinced Fraunhofer IOSB-INA, which is researching and implementing the industrial data economy as part of the "AI-Reallabor" project funded by the BMWK since the beginning of 2020. In this context, the research institute from Lemgo was looking for production partners for the establishment of an economic production in the SmartFactoryOWL, a joint initiative of Fraunhofer IOSB-INA and the OWL University of Applied Sciences.

The reason for the search for business partners was, on the one hand, the plan to implement there-driven use cases together with the "Platform Industry 4.0" on a real production. On the other hand, real industrial data was to be made accessible in Lemgo in an open but protected environment for the development of in-dustrial, data-based solutions. In the meantime, the cooperation with the goal of data-driven manufacturing consists of ten partners and production has been established.

The following corporate partners are now involved in sustainable production: The medium-sized plastics processor Hadi-Plast GmbH & Co. KG is taking over production management and operation of manufacturing in SmartFactoryOWL, contributing expertise from years of injection molding production. The machine manufacturer ARBURG from Lossburg is responsible for the overall design and integration of the system technology. ARBURG is supported by other industrial partners, such as the robotics manufacturer KUKA and the automation specialists fpt Robotik and Barth Mechanik GmbH. A laser system from REA Elektronik GmbH will be used for the individualized labeling of the CUNA cups. digicolor GmbH, a medium-sized company based in Herford, Germany, which manufactures granulate dryers and color systems, among other things, will organize the material supply. The participating company IANUS Simulation simulates components of the injection molding system and provides data for continuous optimization of the production processes.

On January 26, the partners, together with BWMK and Plattform Industrie 4.0, held a small inauguration ceremony for CUNA Production at Smart-FactoryOWL. Another large number of interested parties were able to follow the inauguration virtually via a livestream. About 100 people from economy, politics and science could participate in this way. They were welcomed by the director of Fraunhofer IOSB-INA, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Jasperneite: "We are very pleased that we have now been able to realize a real production in our research and demonstration factory with our industrial partners. To our knowledge, this kind of "open-heart surgery" is unique in Germany. It places the highest demands on the design of technology transfer during ongoing operations. At the same time, however, this approach offers the fastest maturation process".

Ernst Stöckl-Pukall, Head of Department IV A 3 - Digitization and Industry 4.0 in the new Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection BMWK, had also traveled from Berlin to SmartFactoryOWL in Lemgo to inspect the new production: "In Industry 4.0, we are setting global standards with the Industry 4.0 platform and its network, including the concept for the digital twin. The next step is to put data-driven networking and new business models into practice. This also requires, above all, a willingness to cooperate across companies. The AI-Real-labor successfully demonstrates that everyone involved can benefit from this."

In order to achieve the BMWK's targets, CUNA Production maps the entire value chain from the component manufacturer to the production operator to the customer and is being developed into a production system aligned with Industry 4.0 viewpoints. This creates a real experimental field for Industrie 4.0 and artificial intelligence technologies. Fast and agile technology transfer and integration of jointly developed solutions form the basis for the cooperation of this future-oriented production in the SmartFactoryOWL.

CUNA's founder and CEO Rafael Dyll is proud: "We produce in Germany and from renewable raw materials, reduce CO2 emissions and recycle ourselves. These are all already groundbreaking features. We now want to take the next step and are very much looking forward to cooperating with a world-leading research organization. At the Fraunhofer Institute in Lemgo, we are also demonstrating that Germany can combine sustainability and digitization. And in harmony. In addition, with ARBURG and other partners, we have leading machine manufacturers for plastics production at our side. This constellation of cooperation is unique for the exploration of future bioplastics production, I'm sure."

In the future, customers will be able to place their orders for CUNA cups online, individualize their products and, as visitors, follow the production of their cups live in the SmartFactoryOWL. The production continuously provides data for the data portal of the AI-Reallabor. This data and solution approaches are available for future AI applications to research institutions, AI developers as well as companies with similar challenges.

Interested institutions, companies, schools or universities as well as private individuals are also given the opportunity to get an impression of the current state of data-driven production. The SmartFactoryOWL team is looking forward to being contacted.

Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.

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