Industry 4.0 and industrial remote control are governed by specific European Directives in order to protect the safety of the company and of the operators themselves.
When talking about remote control we mean the possibility of intervening, by means of special commands, on industrial plants that are not located under the immediate control of the operator. There are standards,for safety reasons, specifying when remote control is allowed and when it is not.
This is possible when:
- The machine is visible to the operator.
- The plant is not close to other operators who could physically be exposed to risks connected with remote intervention.
- Alarms are never silenced, just in case when there might be problems on which a prompt intervention is needed to restore.
- The area of the remotely controlled machinery is protected and not directly accessible to the user or anyone else passing by. Specific signs should also be present
- Only one control station is active.
- The modification of machine operating parameters should only be carried out following local confirmation on board the plant.
- The software connection systems allow connection to the selected machine only.
- There is a stabile network that minimizes transmission errors.
- It is not possible to connect to the machine without previously receiving approval from the local operator.
All the standards that concern remote control are taken from the European Directives UNI EN ISO 10218-2:2011 and UNI EN ISO 13849-1:2016.
In Italy, the National Transition 4.0 Plan has been approved on which the Recovery Fund is based. This seeks to stimulate private investment, as well as give stability and certainty to companies with measures planned from November 2020 to June 2023. This plan provides a series of bonus of that companies will be able to take advantage of in the case of investments aimed at bringing their industries to a 4.0 level.
The benefits associated with remote control
What are the real benefits associated with implementing Industry 4.0 and the remote control of the equipment?
- Improved plant efficiency.
- Reduced time to market, from production to the sales.
- Reduction in operating costs.
- Better management of human resources.
- Improved industrial competitiveness.
- Reduction of waste.
- Improvement of production quality.
- Automation of all processes.
- Increased maintenance efficiency thanks to predictive data analysis.
- Reduction of consumption and polluting emissions.
- Display of parameters and data in real time for constant monitoring.
- Reduced downtime.
- Increased performance.
- Increased safety for the operator as well as the equipment.
- Immediate assistance.
All these elements make it easy to understand how an industry that can support remote control is extremely efficient and up-to-date. This should not only apply to production facilities, but also to all systems within the workplace to ensure optimum safety and working conditions