China’s tobacco companies are increasingly using intelligent manufacturing.
The internet, cloud computing, big data, AI (artificial intelligence), and other new technologies are reshaping the traditional production chain. New manufacturing featuring automation, digitization, and intelligence is coming. Tobacco industrial enterprises in China are stepping up their efforts to explore intelligent cigarette manufacturing. Intelligent sensing, big data analysis, etc., are increasingly used in equipment operation and maintenance, quality control, process management, and other work, showing great advantages.
In line with the needs of cigarette industrial enterprises, China’s tobacco machinery companies are committed to the development of intelligent tobacco machinery and services. A series of new products, such as the iTOS intelligent management system and the equipment health monitoring system, have rolled out one after another, providing important support for the development of intelligent cigarette manufacturing.
iTOS enables the construction of intelligent factories
China (Changde) Tobacco Machinery Co., Ltd., (CTM Changde) one of the holding enterprises of China Tobacco Machinery Group Co., Ltd., actively responds to market demand, proposing to deeply integrate sensing, computing, control, communication, and other technologies to create an intelligent management system that can be carried on the cigarette making and tipping machine set. The company in 2016 officially launched the iTOS system r&d project.
“Digital twin technology and visualization technology are the keys to the success of system development,” said Yu Qing, deputy director of research institute at CTM Changde. The r&d team integrates the static data in the equipment r&d and design stage and the dynamic data generated during the equipment operation. First, it builds a digital twin corresponding to a machine and then uses big data analysis to establish and improve six core function modules, such as an individual file for each machine, intelligent maintenance, and expert service, along with intelligent sensing, diagnosis, and analysis, fully meeting clients’ needs.
Among them, the establishment of a digital twin structure model and the application of an individual file for each machine function module play an important role in supporting a digital cigarette factory. The expert service function module and intelligent operation and maintenance process help users to establish a networked production system with industrial chain support and supply chain collaboration, continuously improving their ability to respond to the market quickly. A large number of intelligent algorithm models based on big data from equipment operation are of great value to improve quality, increase output, and reduce consumption.
Tobacco machinery equipped with the iTOS system boasts the functions of state perception, real-time analysis, independent decision-making, accurate execution, learning, and improvement, which provide important support for the cigarette factory to realize the production of “near-zero failure downtime, near-zero quality defects, and near-zero resource waste”.
The system gives specific reference standards for which part should be maintained, how to maintain it, and when to complete the maintenance in combination with the equipment status. Li Yuliang, the electrical equipment administrator at China Tobacco (Zhejiang) Industry’s Hangzhou cigarette factory turns on the iTOS system carried on a ZJ118 cigarette making and tipping machine set as soon as he goes to work every day. Through the intelligent maintenance module, he carefully implements the daily inspection, lubrication, maintenance, and other plans generated by the system. He said that intelligent maintenance not only avoids the waste caused by excessive maintenance, but also significantly reduces the component damage caused by untimely maintenance, which is welcomed by the front-line workshop.
The individual file for each machine module realizes the whole life cycle management of cigarette machinery. Sun Yi, senior engineer at China Tobacco (Shandong) Industry’s Qingdao cigarette factory, pointed out that this module of the iTOS system includes equipment overview, equipment structure, random documents, training materials, and spare parts list, which provides accurate, efficient, and high-quality data services for the cigarette factory, which is very helpful in improving management and maintenance efficiency and standardization.
“iTOS captures a lot of data about equipment maintenance and health status, and the developed functional modules have reached a high technical level in promoting abnormal identification and early warning of equipment and online remote monitoring,” commented Ni Jun, honorary dean and expert in intelligent manufacturing, Michigan College of Shanghai Jiaotong University after observing the application site of iTOS products on site.
Now, CTM Changde has developed a new ZJ119 intelligent cigarette machine with iTOS which has completed industry appraisal. On this basis, they are accelerating the construction of an equipment operation and maintenance service center, carrying out specific business such as call center, remote diagnosis, online training, spare parts mall, etc., to provide users with various value-added services.
“For the next step, we need to focus on customers’ problems, innovate constantly, and create a micro application ecosystem in the form of a micro service app, said Lu Fangxia, deputy general manager of CTM Changde. He also said that they will take the release of the system as an opportunity to continuously deepen the close cooperation with users and find iTOS’ breakthrough point in helping the construction of smart factories in the industry.
Full state monitoring system diagnoses equipment status in real-time
In the packaging workshop of China Tobacco (Jiangsu) Industry’s Nanjing cigarette factory the ZB416A packaging unit is particularly attractive: it is equipped with a new full state monitoring system. This is an intelligent monitoring system developed by China (Shanghai) Tobacco Machinery CTM Shanghai aimed at solving the pain points of equipment operation and maintenance as well as comprehensively using new technologies such as intelligent sensor and big data analysis. When the unit is running, the vibration, temperature, speed, and other information are collected by the system in real-time which becomes the basis for the diagnosis of the equipment health status, thus effectively helping the operator understand the operation status of the equipment and reduce the failure rate.
At present, there are two main equipment maintenance methods in the cigarette industry: planned maintenance and breakdown maintenance, both of which have high maintenance costs and spare parts inventory costs. For this, through investigation and research since 2018, CTM Shanghai has introduced equipment full state monitoring and fault diagnosis technology into the maintenance of the equipment. The solution of a full state monitoring system for the whole series of packaging equipment has been developed, which helps industrial enterprises arrange maintenance work more scientifically and economically and achieve maximum equipment reliability with the minimum cost.
The full state monitoring system, which mainly includes vibration condition monitoring, oil circuit condition monitoring, motor condition monitoring, and gas circuit condition monitoring, can more comprehensively and timely find the equipment’s potential problems and give early warning and solutions, and guide staff to carry out preventive maintenance so as to avoid equipment shutdown or damage due to failure and affect normal production.
In March 2020, the first full condition monitoring prototype completed the overall scheme design, and 18 vibration points, 13 gas circuit points, 18 motor points, and 1 oil circuit point were selected for monitoring. Through nearly three weeks of debugging, technical personnel went through the real-time data transmission of all acquisition points and completed the prototype trial production in June 2020. At present, the system started being used in the Nanjing cigarette factory.
At present, the full state monitoring system fully covers the main types of packaging machines, which will effectively help users understand the operation status of the equipment in real-time, reduce the failure rate, extend the service life, promote energy conservation, and reduce energy consumption.
Since 2020, CTM Shanghai continuously promoted technical innovation, accelerated the progress of digital transformation, invested more in the development of intelligent cigarette machinery and services, and promoted the transformation and upgrading of products.