Industry 4.0: Real-time monitoring of an injection molding tool for smart predictive maintenance

Predictive maintenance has been growing as one of the main topics of the Industry 4.0 concept and several challenges arise from it The constant search for mechanisms that allow the control and reduction of machine down-time led to the study of new ways of extracting valuable information from injection tools through the monitorization of different parameters. In the study presented here, a custom pressure sensor is integrated into an injection tool to monitor the different pressure levels along the process cycle, together with a commercial off-the-shelf accelerometer, coupled at the surface of the tool. Both sensors recorded the events over regular productive cycles, being this information, in the long-term, paramount for a smart predictive maintenance. The runtime information can also give valuable insights about the tool condition in real-time.