Smart sensors drive the development of China's manufacturing to China's smart manufacturing

With the development of information technology, sensors, as the nerve tentacles of the information industry, bring people from the "communication era" to the "perception era". Sensors are an important tool for data collection and an important technological basis for the new technological revolution and information society. They are widely used in various fields such as aerospace, aviation, national defense, science and technology, industrial and agricultural production. firstratesensor Smart sensors based on micro-electromechanical system technology represent the main development direction of sensors. The advancement of its technology can not only improve the level of product intelligence, but also promote the development of China's manufacturing to China's intelligent manufacturing.

 

After 2010, China has become the largest country in industrial manufacturing, but we must clearly realize that China’s manufacturing industry is large but not strong, and the status quo of unsustainable development. The problems are mainly concentrated in the lack of independent innovation capabilities and low industrial value. Low operating efficiency, unreasonable industrial structure and product quality. The Chinese government attaches great importance to the development of the manufacturing industry. "Made in China 2025" marks the first step of "Made in China" to "from large to strong". Among them, intelligent manufacturing is positioned as the main direction of manufacturing in China, and German industry 4. 0. Corresponding to the Industrial Internet in the United States. Mao Weiming, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, pointed out: "Sensing technology, together with computing technology and communication technology, should be collectively referred to as the three pillars of the information technology field. Sensory manufacturing represented by sensors will be an important strategic emerging industry in the future. It is the source of the information system and the core to realize automation and intelligence."

 

The sensor is closely related to Chinese manufacturing. The sensor is a basic component, the cornerstone of the industry, the key to performance, and the bottleneck of development, and its importance is self-evident. The sensor has the characteristics of large usage and wide range of applications, and has played a role in connecting the previous and the next in the industrial production and manufacturing. At present, in Chinese manufacturing companies, the use of sensors to collect, process and transmit data is not new, but traditional sensors have two problems:

 

Traditional sensors basically belong to the low-end basic category, with slow response, low accuracy, poor stability, large volume, poor adaptability to harsh industrial sites (high temperature, dust, humidity, electromagnetic interference, etc.), high energy consumption, Problems such as low technical content and short life span. In modern industrial control, to ensure high-quality and efficient operation of production equipment, built-in sensors not only require communication, but also sufficient accuracy and stability. In different industrial application scenarios, some precision instruments or equipment themselves are small in size, which also puts forward higher requirements for the miniaturization of sensors.

 

Traditionally, in the process of data collection, the same working principle can only be used to record physical variables in the form of data, and then send the collected data to the equipment controller. It is impossible to automatically and intelligently collect, provide and analyze massive amounts of data at the front end. The function of industrial data cannot communicate with the Internet or the cloud at all times. Big data analysis, as the basis for the realization of intelligent manufacturing, requires sensors to operate more intelligently. This is essential for the integration of big data and industrial automation, and it is also a breakthrough in the realization of intelligent manufacturing.

Therefore, traditional sensors can no longer meet the production needs of modern manufacturing, and it is imperative for sensors to develop toward intelligence.

 

The concept of smart sensor was first proposed by NASA in the process of developing spacecraft. It refers to a multi-element integrated circuit with functions such as information collection, information processing, information exchange, and information storage. It is an integrated sensor, communication chip, and micro-processing. Drivers, drivers, and software algorithms are equal to an integrated system-level product. Compared with traditional sensors, smart sensors have the ability to automatically collect information from the external environment, data processing, logical judgment, function calculations, self-diagnosis, self-calibration, self-compensation and self-adaptation, and have higher accuracy and better The stability and stronger environmental adaptability. On the one hand, smart sensors can communicate not only at the controller level but also at the higher data level through more flexible interfaces. Additional data or software system interfaces allow sensors to perform new analysis tasks and new functions. These capabilities can increase the flexibility, quality, efficiency and transparency of production. On the other hand, due to the addition of smart functions, the data provided by smart sensors is more compact and practical, the utilization efficiency of data resources is also higher, and the data processing results obtained are more accurate. Smart sensors that directly preprocess, compress and filter data internally can better meet the requirements of smart manufacturing. With the deepening development of applications, smart sensors are gradually developing in the direction of miniaturization, digitization, intelligence, systemization, networking, and mobile Internet.

 

In a smart factory, whether it is smart robots, smart production lines, or automated production equipment, their workflow is basically data collection, analysis, and processing, and many tasks are done by smart sensors. Smart sensors can not only provide real-time monitoring data for production control, but also provide early warning and status monitoring, making field equipment transparent and controllable in real time. At the Hannover Messe, ABB demonstrated a smart sensor, through which the operating status information and status parameters of each motor can be quickly and accurately obtained, such as vibration, temperature or overload, and energy consumption can be measured at the same time. , The accuracy is 10%, and the data is wirelessly transmitted to the cloud server, and converted into usable information through specially developed software for analysis, and provides customers with information and suggestions on motor maintenance. Equipment managers can check the running status of their motors through smartphones or computers at any time, and can plan maintenance according to actual needs, instead of relying solely on planned maintenance to avoid unplanned downtime and extend operating time. Preventive maintenance is a very important advantage, because one hour of downtime in the production process means tens of thousands of euros in losses.

 

The development of smart sensors is closely related to the manufacturing industry. The development level of smart sensors has become an important indicator of whether a country has an international competitive advantage. In order to achieve the goal of a strong manufacturing country in China, both the "Made in China 2025" and the "Three-Year Action Guide for the Smart Sensor Industry (2017-2019)" put forward clear requirements for the development of the sensor industry, and vigorously develop high-end smart sensors with independent intellectual property rights. Build an industrial Internet platform and lay a solid foundation for intelligent manufacturing. As an important sensing device for the Internet of Things, smart sensors will surely become a strong driving force for the development of China's manufacturing.