Industrial revolution 4.0 technologies drive manufacturing to new heights
The industrial internet of things (IIoT) is the application of IoT technologies in manufacturing. Like the first industrial revolution in the 18th century, IIoT is transforming today’s manufacturing industry. This fourth industrial revolution is built on advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), IoT, 3D printing and robotics, and they’re the foundation for the factories of the future.
Let’s see how this 250-year evolution from mechanism to machine learning and smart factories was built on disruptive technologies that stretched across four revolutionary phases.
Industry 1.0: Mechanization Using Steam Power
Before Edmund Cartwright introduced the first mechanical loom in 1784, textiles were produced in people’s homes. Cartwright used water and steam to power his mechanical looms, which led to giant leaps in productivity and helped launch the first industrial revolution. The original design was continually refined, and by 1850 there was 250,000 power looms operating in England—and mechanized versions of other equipment like paper machines and threshing machines soon followed.
Industry 2.0: Mass Production Using Electrical Energy
The first assembly lines appeared in the meatpacking industry in 1870 and drastically reduced the time to slaughter and dress a single steer from eight hours to 35 minutes.[1] By 1913, Henry Ford developed a moving assembly line for large-scale manufacturing, producing affordable cars faster than ever before. When cars became available to the masses, thereby creating a more mobile society, many other industries quickly followed suit by adopting the assembly line.
Industry 3.0: Automated Production Using IT
In 1969, Richard Morley developed the first programmable logic controller (PLC) for General Motors. Originally designed to replace hard-wired relay systems, PLC’s hardened embedded processor, running a real-time proprietary operating system, became a mainstay of the industrial automation world.[2] Today, PLCs control a vast array of equipment and can be found in everything from factories to vending machines.
——
This article was originally published at – Hitachi Vantara Community
