Blockchain for forming technology – tamper-proof exchange of production data

Abstract

An increasingly connected production in the sense of Industry 4.0 allows completely new possibilities in regard to improved and more efficient production and higher product quality. But a key factor to Industry 4.0 is a consistent data flow along the production chain. However, the exchange of data, especially between companies, still is a major obstacle to overcome in order to achieve the aforementioned advantages. Currently, there are increasing efforts to record and analyse data. But there is a lack of a holistic system to handle data, therefore commonly company databases or other inefficient methods are used. These solutions are limited with regard to data exchange since the ownership of data cannot be proven, production data has no unforgeable timestamp, which in turn hinders the generation of complete production history from the final product (e.g., car door) back to the semi-finished product (e.g., steel sheet). As a result, there is insufficient to no data exchange along the production chain. In order to solve these problems blockchain is a promising approach. At the Institute of Manufacturing Technology, an operational blockchain system was developed and implemented using standard production machines. With the combination of a quarto rolling mill and a 400t - press, representing the sheet metal supplier and a forming company, respectively, the typical process chain of sheet metal processing is represented, which allows the detailed investigation of the established blockchain in this field of application. Within this contribution, the conceptual approach of a blockchain system for forming technology will be presented. The nature and the classification of occurring data throughout the production chain will be addressed.

Analysis of Distributed-Ledger-Technology for the Exchange of Design, Production and Simulation Data in Roll Forming

“…A performance-focused approach called FastFabric is presented by Gorenflo et al [10], achieving roughly 20,000 transactions per second. Frey et al [4] present a smallscale production example in the metal forming industry. In their work, a strong focus is placed on the accessibility of data gathered along the supply chain.…”

“…The table shows a lack of roll forming-specific solutions (R11). In addition, ------Huang et al [8] ----Putz et al [9] ---Gorenflo et al [10] -----Frey et al [4] ----Baumung et al [11] -----Schmiedel [12] ----…”

“…In addition to this overview's use for the presented work, it provides a basis for further investigations on the roll forming industry's supply chain. The categories are chosen as defined by Frey et al [4].…”

“…DLT denotes the concept of storing a blockchain decentralized on each participating node with automatic synchronization [3]. First applications of such blockchain networks for the sheet metal industry do exist, e.g., by Frey et al [4], but the roll forming industry has been uninvestigated. In this industry, extensive supply chains with many participants are prevalent [5], providing a challenge for secure information exchange.…”

“…In this industry, extensive supply chains with many participants are prevalent [5], providing a challenge for secure information exchange. This paper presents a pioneering approach to tackle this challenge by making use of the main properties of blockchain networks for information exchange: proof of data ownership, maintaining data integrity, system verifiability, and no need for a central authority [4]. Concluding, the contribution of this work is the unprecedented conceptualization and implementation of a blockchain network specifically for roll forming including its evaluation against the requirements for a trustworthy information exchange solution.…”