Smart Aluminum Wheel Production Monitoring in India
Introduction
The customer is a leading machine tool manufacturer that develops production lines and intelligent manufacturing solutions for one of the world’s largest aluminum wheel producers serving the passenger, commercial, and specialty vehicle markets. By leveraging Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies, the company delivers practical, factory-wide solutions built on proven engineering expertise and real-world implementation experience.
This project involved a facility with five production lines, each consisting of five machines, including three lathes, one robotic arm, and one conveyor system. As a result, operators needed to monitor up to 25 machines simultaneously.
The existing HMI displays were too small for the size of the facility, making it difficult for management personnel to view machine status and production information efficiently. To address this challenge, the customer sought a larger, more visible display solution that would provide real-time access to key production metrics, machine status, and equipment alarms. This improved visibility enables managers to quickly identify issues, monitor production performance, and optimize production line operations.
Real-Time Machine Status Monitoring with ICP DAS USA’s GW-7663 Gateway and iKAN LED Display
The GW-7663 gateway from ICP DAS USA enables PROFINET PLCs to communicate seamlessly with Modbus TCP devices, including the iKAN-116S industrial LED display. This combination provides real-time visibility into machine status and production data, allowing operators and managers to monitor equipment performance instantly.
To support the factory’s five production lines, each line was equipped with one GW-7663 gateway and one iKAN-116S LED display. This configuration enables dedicated monitoring of all machines within each production line, ensuring that production data, operating status, and equipment alerts are clearly displayed and easily accessible.
The resulting solution delivers improved visibility across the facility, helping management quickly identify issues, track production performance, and make informed operational decisions.
Solution Architecture:
The GW-7663 gateway from ICP DAS USA acts as a PROFINET slave device, enabling PROFINET PLCs to communicate directly with Modbus TCP devices. In this application, the PLC collects and processes data from robotic arms, lathes, and other equipment, then transfers that information through the GW-7663 to the iKAN-116S industrial LED display for real-time visualization.
The iKAN Series industrial LED displays from ICP DAS USA are designed for demanding industrial environments, offering excellent reliability, stability, and noise immunity. They support both ASCII and Unicode character sets, making it easy to display messages in multiple languages. In addition, the displays support a variety of communication protocols, including Modbus TCP/RTU, CGI, and CANopen, allowing seamless integration with industrial control systems from many different manufacturers.
For this project, the iKAN-116S LED display provides a compact and space-efficient solution capable of displaying up to 16 English characters per line. Installed at each production line, it gives managers and operators immediate access to critical information, including production output, machine status, and fault alerts. With clear, real-time visibility into operations, the solution helps improve decision-making, streamline supervision, and enhance overall production line efficiency.
Benefits
1. Prioritized Alarm and Status Messages
The iKAN Series displays from ICP DAS USA allow users to assign message priorities, ensuring that critical alarms are displayed immediately when an issue occurs. In this application, the PLC manages alarm conditions and automatically prioritizes emergency messages, enabling management personnel to quickly identify production line problems and respond faster.
2. Flexible Multi-Message Display
The iKAN Series supports storage for up to 128 standard messages and 20 emergency messages. With multiple text color options available, operators can easily distinguish between routine notifications and critical alerts, improving visibility and readability on the production floor.
3. Easy Message Management from Anywhere
Messages can be edited, updated, or inserted through a standard web browser on a computer, tablet, or smartphone. This web-based interface allows authorized personnel to modify content, post emergency notifications, and manage displays remotely without requiring specialized equipment.
4. Built-In Watchdog Protection
The integrated Watchdog Timer (WDT) continuously monitors communication between the PLC and the iKAN display. If communication is lost, the display automatically shows a predefined warning message. This feature helps personnel quickly detect connectivity issues, reduce troubleshooting time, improve operational reliability, and lower maintenance costs.
5. High-Speed Data Updates
Using the GW-7663 gateway from ICP DAS USA, data exchange cycles can be as fast as 1 millisecond. This enables near real-time transfer of production and machine status information from the controller to the iKAN display via Modbus TCP, ensuring operators always have access to current information.
6. Seamless IIoT Integration
The GW-7663 gateway simplifies communication between PROFINET-based controllers and Modbus TCP devices, allowing different industrial systems and equipment to exchange data efficiently. This interoperability makes it easier to connect machines, share information across the network, and support Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) initiatives.
ICP DAS USA Gateways
ICP DAS USA offers a wide range of industrial gateways that support communication protocols such as PROFINET, Modbus TCP/RTU, CANopen, DeviceNet, PROFIBUS, and more. These gateways enable seamless communication between devices and systems that use different protocols, helping organizations integrate equipment, share data across networks, and streamline industrial automation projects.
By bridging communication gaps between disparate systems, ICP DAS USA gateways make it easier to collect, exchange, and utilize operational data across a variety of industries and applications.
For example, the GW-7552 gateway enables communication between PROFIBUS and Modbus RTU/ASCII networks, making it easy to access data from access control card readers and monitor personnel entry and exit records through centralized systems.
Another example is the GW-7243D-G DeviceNet Slave to Modbus TCP/RTU/ASCII Master Gateway, which is used for monitoring bottling line equipment in brewery operations. By converting data between DeviceNet and Modbus networks, the gateway allows operators to access equipment information through an intuitive and customizable interface, simplifying maintenance, improving visibility, and supporting more efficient operations.
Whether connecting legacy equipment to modern control systems or integrating devices across multiple networks, ICP DAS USA gateways provide a reliable foundation for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and industrial automation applications.
Conclusion
Using the GW-7663 gateway and iKAN Series LED displays from ICP DAS USA, manufacturers can gain real-time visibility into machine status and production performance across the factory floor. This solution improves information accuracy, enhances production line management, reduces labor costs, and supports a more transparent manufacturing process.
