RE/manufacturing LAB
The Re/Manufacturing Lab brings together education and research in the domain of Industry 4.0. With cross-links through all degree programmes of our Faculty of Technology, Innovation and Society and the research group Smart Sustainable Manufacturing. Practical questions come from manufacturing companies in the region. The solutions are applications of so-called 'key technologies': engineering, manufacturing and digital technologies. Of course, while considering sustainability, flexible manufacturing and 'Factory-as-a-Service'.
RE/manufacturing LAB
It started with a sigh: ‘It would be great to let our students run a flexible production site here at the University of Applied Sciences. A factory that can switch quickly between various products, with a high degree of automation. Imagine all the things you’d be able to do there! Practical work, demos, research, testing, messing around with and by students from all over the Faculty of Technology, Innovation & Society.’ And because we like to think big and start small, on 23 February 2022 our Lab opened at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Delft campus. It is still relatively empty, but the development process is an important part of our Lab!
Start small...
Starting small literally means small: part of our Lab is a 'Learning Factory 4.0' on a scale at which we can test and demonstrate all the principles of Industry 4.0. For example, the communication between a PLC and the Manufacturing Execution System (MES), or automatically processing sensor signals in a Digital Twin.
Thinking big...
The aim of this project is to develop a flexible automated production facility. It is mainly about developing and testing a fully reversible process. How are products made and how are they taken apart again? We are developing a Digital Twin for this set-up. We are linking up with (inter)national developments in the area of 'Learning Factories'.
Practice-oriented research
Research in the lab will focus on remanufacturing, smart production logistics, operator support & human-machine interaction, flexibilisation of production, smart application of tagging to reduce search and lead times, etc. A nice example is the 'Disassembly Station', developed by our own students.
Practice-oriented education
The lab will provide a place for standard education, minor, internships and graduation assignments. Students in industrial engineering and management, mechanical engineering, mechatronics, electrical and electronic engineering, applied mathematics and engineering physics work on process analysis, programming, designing and building machines, sensors, etc. It would be nice if students from the other campuses and faculties could join in eventually.
Collaboration
For specific robotics projects, you can still visit the Smart Manufacturing Robotics minor of colleague Thijs Brilleman.
We also collaborate with the Digital Operations Centre.
Plan
Here you will find the results of the Walk-in session 'Learning Factory' of 23 Feb 2022 (pdf).
Development Team
- Jenny Coenen, professor Smart Sustainable Manufacturing, j.m.g.coenen@hhs.nl
- Rufus Fraanje, Robotics & Vision Minor Coordinator and researcher within the research group, p.r.fraanje@hhs.nl
- Wouter Hijink, lecturer Control Engineering, Automation, Control Theory and System Engineering and researcher within the research group Smart Sustainable Manufacturing, w.j.hijink@hhs.nl
- Hugo Makkink, Mechatronics business project coordinator and researcher within the research group Smart Sustainable Manufacturing, h.m.makkink@hhs.nl
- David Tiemens, RE/manufacturing LAB coordinator and Living Lab minor, d.e.t.tiemens@hhs.nl
- Mirjam Zijderveld, RE/manufacturing LAB coordinator and researcher within the research group Smart Sustainable Manufacturing, m.j.zijderveld@hhs.nl
If you have any ideas or assignments, please let us know. We will keep you informed of developments here.