Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Schmalz answers frequently asked questions about Industry 4.0. Find out also what solutions Schmalz provides for this area.


General terms relating to Industry 4.0

The "fourth industrial revolution" describes the transformation of production towards the intelligent factory. The increased networking of production and IT processes makes this flexible, efficient and sustainable. In the future, products will plan, control and optimize their own production process without human intervention. Humans will continue to dictate the pace, but with the best possible support in their work.

Visions and benefits of Industry 4.0

  • Production 4.0 becomes highly productive and resource-efficient
  • Individualization (batch size of 1) under efficient high volume production conditions
  • The increasing complexity of production and processes becomes manageable
  • Autonomous production units organize themselves on an ad hoc basis - the product determines its own production process

The IoT, short for Internet of Things, is a system of interconnected physical and virtual objects that interact via information and communications technologies. It enables collaboration between humans and the electronic systems networked in the IoT as well as among the systems themselves.

EPC stands for energy and process control. The diagnostics functions of the energy monitoring and condition monitoring modules ensure maximum process transparency and optimal control of energy consumption; the predictive maintenance module improves the gripper system’s performance and increases the overall quality.

The following products feature energy and process control: