Plastics Industry 4.0: Potentials and Applications in Plastics Technology

This book provides a sophisticated insight into the development of the plastics industry in terms of digitalization and Industry 4.0. The background to these increasingly more important topics is discussed along with the prerequisite knowledge regarding process complexity and data acquisition to build the foundation of data driven digital processes. Furthermore, the facets of so-called cyber physical systems including their key components are discussed and illustrated using industrial application as well as scientific use cases. Prof. Christian Hopmann is, since 2011, Director of the Institute of Plastics Processing (IKV) in Industry and Craft at RWTH Aachen University, Germany. He studied Mechanical Engineering with a particular focus on Plastics Processing at RWTH Aachen and received his doctoral degree, supervised by Prof. Walter Michaeli, in 2000. In 2005, he started his industrial career at RKW AG Rheinische Kunststoffwerke (today: RKW SE). From January 2010 until April 2011 he was Managing Director of RKW Sweden AB in Helsingborg, Sweden. Mauritius Schmitz is Scientific Director Digitalisation and Industry 4.0 at the IKV. He is responsible for the research and development in the field of digitalization and Industry 4.0. He is also a Cluster Research Domain Coordinator in the research domain Production Technology" of the Cluster of Excellence "Internet of Production".