Migration from the traditional to the smart factory in the die-casting industry: Novel process data acquisition and fault detection based on artificial neural network

Although die-casting is one of the most popular mass production processes of precise metal parts, the manufacturing environment of the die-casting factory remains at the traditional level. In this study, we developed three core technologies to realize a smart-factory platform for die-casting industry: 1) a novel cost-effective product-tracking technology to obtain high-quality process data providing individual product information, 2) an advanced process data acquisition system that considers process failure, and 3) a fault detection module based on an artificial neural network. Our newly developed systems for the die-casting process were verified using 1500 test production. Based on the pilot production data, we developed a fault detection module with the pre-processing of time series temperature and pressure measurement data. The developed fault detection module shows 96.9 % accuracy for untrained data. The technologies developed in this study are expected to be a promising smart-factory platform to reduce the defect rate and production cost in die-casting industry.