In order to be more competitive, Packo Inox was looking for a way to optimise its production, in order to further improve throughput times and quality. It applied different strategies and recently made the first steps towards QRM, to enable further improvement.

As a company from the border region with France, are you ready for your transformation to Industry 4.0 but don't know where to start? Then the Factory 4.0 project of the European Interreg Programme has just what you need! As one of the project partners, Sirris provides the necessary guidance and infrastructure.

During a half-day masterclass, the pioneer of the QRM philosophy Rajan Suri will make a more in-depth exploration of POLCA, an alternative for Kanban. POLCA has been especially developed for high-mix, low-volume and custom-engineered products, for which Kanban systems are less well suited.

The newsletters from the Interreg project Factory 4.0 keep you up to date with the latest developments, events and testimonials. An overview of the most recent items.

Ceramics are usually the best choice for extreme conditions over a long time span and offer several advantages compared to metals. The main applications of technical ceramics are linked to one or more of these advantages. However, the high hardness of ceramics is also responsible for their main drawbacks. This is why additive manufacturing with ceramics can be challenging. Sirris drew up an e-book on the subject, which you can download for free now.

Is your company interested in 3D printing, but do you have no idea where to begin? Are your young professionals eager to develop something new? Are you a 3D printing expert and you want to share your expertise with the professionals of tomorrow? Now is your chance!

The potential of lasers has become huge thanks to recent technological developments, thereby also increasing the potential of surface functionalisation by means of laser texturing. New functionalities and possibilities become available to the industry and Sirris will investigate these for you.

In our sites in Hasselt and Liège, company managers can now, with the assistance of 40 of our specialists, build and test their own ‘production line of the future’ in realistically recreated industrial environments. It took 12 months to build the pilot factory. Our aim is to put all manufacturing companies in Belgium on the road to the fourth industrial revolution. The launch of our pilot factory took place on 7 November.

Parts produced by additive manufacturing can be found in an increasing number of sectors where quality criteria are extremely strict, such as the aeronautical field and medicine. For the manufacturers producing these parts, command is essential, not only of their production tool parameters, but also of the quality of the raw materials they comprise. Sirris helps those manufacturers to implement robust quality assurance and control systems.

Polishing is a labour-intensive task that requires the necessary experience and expertise. These properties are becoming increasingly rare on the shop floor. Automation is an option, but small series and complex shapes require a different approach. Within its 4.0 Made Real Pilot Factory, Sirris develops a tailor-made solution.

In order to be able to help companies in their transition to an Industry 4.0 production, Sirris decided to set up its own pilot environment of an Industry 4.0 factory: the 4.0 Made Real Pilot Factory. Various innovative technologies will be implemented here and the production can be followed digitally from order to delivery. This thanks to connected machines and IoT.

On 7 November Sirris launches its new 4.0 Made Real Pilot Factory in Hasselt and Liège. This unique concept aims to make Industry 4.0 tangible for SMEs. A lot of Sirris experts with different specialisations are involved in this project. We asked four of them to explain the initiative.

To produce parts in additive manufacturing (AM) out of metal powders is not a push-and-play technology. Due to the specific thermal history of parts, there are numerous causes of part distortions, even a production crash in the worst cases. Software solutions come in handy here...

Schunk showed off their new range of smart tool holders at the EMO trade fair held recently in Hanover.

Thanks to the latest technological advances lasers can perhaps in the future be used in the fight against copying by providing products with a texture.

Using laser technology for marking is growing rapidly. Various suppliers of laser marking equipment are presenting what they have to offer at the EMO trade fair in Hanover in Germany.

No manufacturing demonstrator claiming to be industrially relevant will be complete without an ERP/MES system. Targeting also new IoT innovations we've chosen an ERP that complements our '4.0 platform'. We’re very proud to welcome Priority Software as our partner to create a transparent shop floor using its ERP system.

The future of the machining industry will be digital. A Factory 4.0 has a transparent shop floor and connected machines, as well as other advantages. What exactly does digitisation mean for you as a machining company? And how does it provide solutions for the challenges you are facing today?

Industry 4.0 is built around the exchange of information between machines and higher-level systems. Connected machines and far-reaching digitisation ensure that manufacturing companies can make their production lines more flexible, secure and autonomous. For machine builders, connected machines offer the potential to develop digitally supported services.

The answer is 'of couse, we can'! But 'why?' and 'what are the ways to do it?' are the actual questions that need to be answered.