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We are currently in the fourth industrial revolution, in which intelligent systems lead to smart productions. "Digitization" and "Industry 4.0" often fall in the same breath as "Internet of Things". But what is digitization and what influence does it have on the industrial sector? We will discuss these and other questions in the following article.
From the first industrial revolution to digitization.
The industrial revolution is understood to mean, on the one hand, the permanent change in economic and social conditions, as well as those in working conditions.
Since the beginning of the development in the second half of the 19th century, we are now in the fourth phase of the industrial revolution: the digitization of industry.
The past phases were all decisive for our " Smart Manufacturing" today and will also be in the future.
Industry 1.0: The birth of the steam engine
Industry 2.0: Electricity as the starting shot for the new revolution
Industry 3.0: computers as a symbol of automation
Industry 4.0: digital revolution
But what is digitization actually?
By definition, digitization describes the transformation of analog values into digital formats. Often the term digitization is also used as a synonym for the "digital revolution" or "Industry 4.0".
And it is much more than that: In the industrial sector, digitalization stands for the networking of individual processes - it is only through it that machine learning and intelligent production are made possible.
The term Internet of Things (IoT for short) , is often used in connection with digitization.
Internet of Things describes the networking of several objects, often machines or software, so that they can exchange information, communicate with one another and thus work together efficiently.
This enables or simplifies the interaction between humans and electronic systems, as they can be linked to one another via the Internet.
Why is digitization so crucial for the industrial sector?
What was unthinkable a few years ago is now a reality. Digitization is not just a permanent - but a constant change - that affects the entire industrial sector. Because in the age of continuous and ever faster further development of technologies and machines, digitization has become indispensable in order to optimize industrial processes and make them more efficient.
In our next section you will find out which advantages digitization offers and the reasons for using it in your production.
What key points does digitization offer?
Digitization is constantly being driven by data and machine learning. And in doing so, it creates decisive key points for the industrial sector, which essentially decide on intelligent production processes. Digitalization has also become indispensable for our customers of Atlas Copco compressors and compressed air technology.
Below you will find an overview of the reasons for using digitization in your production:
Machine-to-machine communication, M2M for short.
Atlas Copco's Smartlink solution is a good example of this application . Compressors can communicate with each other under computer control and efficiently control their compressed air requirements in unison.
Information transparency up-times, utilization, energy consumption are just a few examples that are available at the push of a button through software-based monitoring or remote monitoring . For example, Atlas Copco offers the most modern monitoring technology from the G series of our compressors with the Airkeeper software solution , as well as for all other industrial screw compressors with Smartlink , which can be read out via app .
Technical assistance
Technical anomalies, maintenance requirements, optimization potentials are automatically identified
Decentralized decisions
Since location-related data is always available, there is an immediate basis for decision-making in order to create the most efficient solution for the respective application and local conditions.
As you can see, the digitization of industrial processes offers a lot of analysis data for recognizing patterns in order to uncover optimization potential and optimize production. As far as our compressors are concerned, by using Atlas Copco machines you are already taking the first step in the right direction. Digitization is therefore an exciting journey that has only just begun.
