ZVO Surface Days 2024: Digitalization in surface technology

The opening lecture of the ZVO Surface Days on September 12, 2024 will focus on increasing the performance of existing plants through the use of modern AI-supported automation technology. Modern control and automation technologies are often associated with the construction of new, highly complex plants. However, existing systems can also experience an increase in performance by upgrading to modern technologies. This is followed by a contribution on the electrochemical control of the degreasing, pickling and passivation process steps in the galvanic production of ZnNi coatings. The sensor technology developed in the international ZIM project "MONACO-PLATE" makes a fundamental contribution to the digitalization of electroplating processes. While process times and temperatures are fully automated and often very precisely maintained, there are often significant fluctuations in the composition of process media, which can be reflected in quality and resource costs. Proper bath maintenance usually requires highly qualified personnel and expensive technical equipment. A presentation on digital electrolyte management provides an insight into possible optimization potential and solution approaches to achieve sustainable cost savings, quality improvements and process know-how.

Data and data availability are the basis of digitalized electroplating technology, but added value can only be achieved through their targeted use, for example through specific data analyses or, increasingly in the future, through machine learning and AI. The BMBF-funded project "SmARtPlaS" will be presented, in the course of which a learning electroplating facility for the development and pilot application of Industry 4.0 approaches for electroplating technology was set up at Fraunhofer IPA. The research and demonstration environment depicts important aspects of electroplating production in the context of Industry 4.0 and serves as a platform for collecting a wide range of process and production data, which is then available for further use and the development of applications to generate added value. This is followed by a contribution on the current results of the KI-InGatec project, also funded by the BMBF, which is pursuing the approach of developing an AI-based metrological system solution for industrial electroplating technology with which a large number of process parameters relevant to the digitalization of electroplating production processes can be provided cost-effectively and with sufficient accuracy. In the context of digitalization, contract finishers are faced with a variety of options for optimizing their operations. The specific options that come into question vary from finisher to finisher. The concluding presentation at the ZVO Surface Days 2024 will show how contract finishers can get started with digitalization and how innovative solutions can be integrated into already digitalized processes.