Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1481876
64 PCB007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2022 system, and you don't build one with just one soware. You need to connect different soware together from the shop floor to where the engi- neers work. at's why the platform we chose for the Atotech solution works with open stan- dards. Technically, yes, we can integrate third- party equipment and we will work out with our customers the best solution for both sides. Johnson: Right. You created the system to be open? Stefanescu: Yes, upstream and downstream. Because of the way it works, the DFS is a plat- form that gets the data, and then has applica- tions running on top of it. ese insights can be published to a different system for process automation or making deci- sions, which means that if the customer, for instance, already has a control software at the enter pr i s e le vel—and obv i- ously we don't want it to push any UI of our solutions or our applications—we can integrate that into their control soware, so we don't disturb their oper- ations. But suddenly they have much more information that they can consume. Down- stream, we have open standards, and the plat- form can connect other equipment to it. We can get the data and apply the same concept of digital twin and advanced analytics. Of course, our system is optimized to Atotech equipment being connected. Johnson: I'm sure that part of the product will be driven by customer interest and demand. Stefanescu: Yes, it is. I understand that if I am an IT manager, I don't want so much fragmen- tation. I don't want a lot of systems running in my factory. On the other hand, you will need to work with more systems. You cannot avoid that, so make it scalable. at's why we went with open standards for both connecting dif- ferent equipment and publishing. It doesn't bring them to a dead end. Johnson: Are there situations where, to have a digital twin of your factory, additional sensors may be required at different spots during the process? Is that commonplace? Stefanescu: Fo r o u r c o n d i t i o n m o n i to r i ng application, we can make use of the data that exists and offer, for 90% of the cases, a lot of information. However, there are function- alities, for instance, like the monitoring of the drive systems where we don't have a sen- sor. erefore, a monitoring drive system is not possible out of the box. We are working on installing vibration sensors, making that p o s s i b l e . We c o n n e c t t h i s sensor data directly to the DFS, so we don't need to disr upt too much of the design of the equipment and the integration w ith the equipment contro l soware. We send this data directly to our DFS platform, so that infor- mation can be monitored. is can be different depending on the use cases, and what the customer's pain points are. We can control this as required. Our aim, though, is to reduce the use of sensors, because we've learned that there is information about certain parts or functionalities that you cannot install a sensor for. With a filter, for example, how do you know when it's fully loaded? ere is no sensor to tell you that, so we combine data from the pumps with the flow sensors, and we create a model to estimate the load. at's what I meant about advanced ana- lytics. We're not just monitoring data like the temperature and so on, but instead cre- ating a model which predicts parameter val- ues of equipment and processes which cannot be measured. For instance, how to predict the wear of a certain part, which is very important. We have done a lot of analysis and testing, and