Siemens to automate Continental tire factories
Continental’s tire division and Siemens have signed a strategic supplier agreement to automate tire factories worldwide
The preferred supplier deal aims to further optimize Continental’s global tire production with the latest Industry 4.0 control and automation technology. As part of the agreement, standards will be established which will help Continental make its production machinery even more efficient throughout their lifecycles.
This comes as Siemens is spinning out its drives and software operation into a company called Innomotics.
- Siemens spins out Innomotics as €3bn drives company
- Siemens teams for digital twins and AI in vertical farms
- Siemens, Nvidia team for industrial metaverse
To drive standardization, Continental will purchase its automation systems and large parts of its drive technology for new machines and developments from Siemens. These include Simatic controllers, I/O systems, WinCC Unified operator control units, and industrial PCs. Siemens will also train the relevant employees at Continental tire factories in TIA Portal.
A higher degree of standardization in software will see the Siemens Tire Library, a software library for standardizing the control of sensors and actuators, provide further support. This will simplify mechanical engineering as well as maintenance for machines and equipment for Continental and its machine suppliers as well. Standardization also enables the machines to operate uniformly, regardless of machine supplier.
This will also boost sustainable production says Siemens, pointing to longer lifecycles for the hardware and software updates to add new functions. Siemens also provides technical support and is working on long-term availability of spare parts.
“Tires connect cars and roads,” says Cedrik Neike, member of the Managing Board at Siemens AG and CEO Digital Industries. “Without modern and innovative tires, we cannot reach our safety, efficiency, and sustainability targets. That’s why Continental Tires and Siemens have formed a close partnership, one that we are now expanding.”
Siemens and Continental Tires have worked together in the past around digitalization, for example on a digital twin of an extrusion plant, which is used, among other things, for virtual commissioning. Continental Tires also uses Siemens edge technology and cloud hosting for Mendix applications.
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
