At present, we live in a digital world, and the internal and external environment of the enterprise has undergone tremendous changes. With the development of 5G, Industrial Internet, AI and other technologies, the future development direction of the enterprise will be a digital intelligent factory with resource integration, high efficiency, energy saving, green and low-carbon. Adapting to the development of the times, upgrading the products and services, production methods, management methods, and business models of enterprises is the only way out. Adhering to tradition will inevitably be eliminated by the tide of the times. To achieve the goal of building a digital intelligent factory, enterprises must go through at least three stages: Phase 1: Integrating Resources Breaking through the drawbacks of information barriers within enterprises, lagging information technology methods between departments, or decentralized construction, we need to establish information technology departments and establish a unified management and control platform, marked by ERP construction, to unify the management and control of enterprise informatization. Phase 2: Comprehensive perception Step out of the current low level of production automation, achieve the interconnection of equipment between things in production, operation and maintenance, safety, and other aspects, achieve automatic collection of production data, and improve the automation level of production lines. Phase 3: Integrated Collaboration Establish an intelligent manufacturing system, integrate multiple business scenarios in the production and operation layer, achieve the integration of all production to circulation links from planning, scheduling, operation, control, quality, energy consumption, performance, inventory, and logistics, and form a closed loop of production, supply, and sales, improve the ability of enterprises to "analyze, predict, and optimize" production and operation, and promote the transformation of enterprise production, management, and even marketing models. This article only starts from the blending technology, measurement, packaging and other aspects in the production process of lubricating oil, and gradually explores the intelligent manufacturing of lubricating oil enterprises with you.
1. Brief description of lubricating oil production process In the production process of lubricating oil, Base Oil is the main component of lubricating oil, accounting for approximately 85% to 95% of the total mass. Additives are another major component of lubricating oil, accounting for approximately 5% to 15% of the total mass. The two are added to the blending kettle in proportion through an oil pump. After passing the mixing and mixing test, it is filtered through a filter and pumped into the finished oil storage tank or directly filled for packaging and transportation. 1.1 Synchronous Measurement Automatic Blending System (SMB) Each raw material component and additive are pumped into a synchronous metering and automatic blending system through a dedicated pipeline pump for preliminary mixing. Each pipeline is equipped with an automatic feeding valve, mass flow meter, and flow control regulating valve to control the total feeding amount of each component. Each raw material is measured by a mass flow meter, and when it reaches the designated quantity, the feeding valve is interlocked with the pump, and the feeding valve is closed and the interlocking pump stops. Additives are metered through a metering pump to achieve the measurement of trace additives. Generally, the feeding speed of additives is faster than that of base oil. After the completion of additive feeding, the PLC automatically controls the flushing of the additive pipeline with base oil. The measured components are transported to the blending kettle (tank) through a manifold. At this time, according to the preset pulse frequency, delay, and pressure parameters, a set of special control devices and a gas collection plate installed in the blending kettle (tank) are used on site, Generate powerful large bubbles. After the formation of large bubbles, the oil is stirred from bottom to top and from top to bottom, allowing various components in the oil to be evenly mixed in a very short time, thus achieving qualified product quality. (Note: After each batch is mixed, pipeline flushing and blowing should be carried out once to ensure that there is almost no residual oil in the pipeline, thus avoiding cross contamination and facilitating the measurement and mixing work for the next batch.) 1.2 Automatic Batch Blending System (ABB) The automatic batch blending process is a blending method that uses base oil and additive raw materials to sequentially inject into the blending kettle (tank) according to the blending formula requirements, and mechanically stir until the mixture is evenly mixed. The process is as follows: the raw material components are transported from each basic oil tank to the measuring tank through dedicated pipelines, and precise measurement is carried out using the weighing sensors on the measuring tank. During blending production, the equipment is controlled by a computer, and each channel of the device is simultaneously transported to the measuring tank. Automatic valves are used to control the feed amount of the components, and the discharge manifold is sent to the blending kettle (tank) to achieve group distribution ratio. The blending kettle (tank) is equipped with a thermal oil tracing jacket, a vertical high-speed mixer, a feeding valve, an automatic discharge valve, and a protective pneumatic valve. During the blending process, heating is carried out while stirring, and nitrogen is filled into the kettle (tank) at the same time (to prevent oil oxidation and reduce oil loss) until all components are evenly mixed to produce qualified products. ABB blending is generally used for the blending of small batch high-end products with high additive addition accuracy (generally not less than 0.1%) and a wide variety of components, such as aviation lubricating oil products. 1.3 Automatic measurement of storage tanks It is recommended to use the principle of static pressure measurement for the automatic measurement system of storage tanks. The static pressure measurement system, abbreviated as HTG, measures the quality of the medium in the tank by measuring the static pressure of the oil medium acting on the bottom of the tank through pressure or differential pressure transmitters. The measurement accuracy of the system is better than 2 ‰, that is, one pressure transmitter, one digital temperature transmitter, and one tank front processor are installed for each storage tank.
The entire measurement system adopts the widely used field bus intelligent device and standard digital communication link in the world today, which can achieve fully digital, bidirectional, and multi-station bus based information digital communication. 1.4 Automatic filling system for lubricating oil The fully automatic lubricating oil filling production line is a type of oil filling machinery and a large-scale comprehensive oil filling equipment. It adopts automation technology and integrates light, electricity, machinery, and gas. It is characterized by high efficiency, intelligence, wide adaptability, and good stability, and is a modern integrated filling equipment. The fully automatic filling production line is composed of units such as barrel loading machine, filling machine, capping machine, aluminum foil sealing machine, capping machine, conveyor, unpacking machine, sealing machine, anti-counterfeiting labeling machine, and inkjet printer. 2. Design of intelligent chemical plants Intelligent chemical plants really need to realize the networking of production equipment, the visualization of production data visualization, paperless production documents, transparent production processes, and unmanned production sites, achieve vertical, horizontal, and end-to-end integration, dynamically master the order situation, progress, work in process, including labor and material cost changes, so as to strengthen and standardize enterprise management, reduce work errors, and plug various loopholes Improve work efficiency and product quality, carry out safety production, provide decision-making reference, establish a market competitiveness based on industrial big data, and enhance products. 2.1 Workshop IoT By utilizing the technology of the Internet of Things and device monitoring technology to strengthen information management and services, the purpose is to achieve the connection between things and things, things and people, and all items and networks. Traditional industrial production uses the M2M (Machine to Machine) communication mode to achieve communication between devices, while the Internet of Things achieves intelligent, interactive, and seamless connection between people, devices, and systems through the Things to Things communication method, In order to have a clear understanding of the production and sales process, improve the controllability of the production process, reduce manual intervention on the production line, collect production line data in a timely and accurate manner, and arrange reasonable production plans and progress. 2.2 Production data visualization With the implementation of the "Made in China 2025" strategy and the rapid integration of informatization and industrialization, information technology has penetrated into all aspects of the traditional manufacturing enterprise industry chain. Barcode, two-dimensional code, RFID, industrial sensors, industrial automatic control system, industrial internet of things, ERP (equipment management information system) and other technologies have been widely used in enterprises. The production lines of manufacturing enterprises are running at high speeds, and the amount of data generated, collected, and processed by production equipment is much greater than the data generated by computers and humans in the enterprise. The real-time requirements for data are also higher. At the production site, data is collected every few seconds, and using this data can achieve many forms of analysis; By using these big data in production process improvement, one can analyze the entire production process and understand how each link is executed. 2.3 Paperless production documents, achieving efficient and low-carbon environmental protection After paperless management of production documents, staff can quickly query, browse, and download the required production information on the production site. The materials generated during the production process can be archived and saved in real-time, greatly reducing the manual transmission and circulation based on paper documents, thereby eliminating the loss of files and data, further improving production preparation efficiency and production operation efficiency, and achieving green and paperless production operations. 2.4 Transparency of production process On the production site of traditional manufacturing enterprises, MES plays a huge role in achieving automation, intelligence, digitization, and other aspects of the production process. Firstly, MES utilizes information transmission to optimize and manage the entire production process from order placement to product completion, reducing internal value-added activities within the enterprise, effectively guiding the factory's production and operation process, and improving the enterprise's ability to deliver on time. Secondly, MES provides basic information on production activities in a two-way interaction between enterprises and the supply chain, enabling close coordination among planning, production, and resources, ensuring that decision-makers and managers at all levels can grasp changes in the production site in the shortest possible time, make accurate judgments, and develop rapid response measures to ensure that production plans are reasonably and quickly revised, and production processes are smooth Resources are fully and effectively utilized to maximize production efficiency. 2.5 Effective monitoring of production process cost consumption Digital intelligent factories can monitor the production process throughout the entire process, formulate control measures according to local conditions, so that when the production conditions of the enterprise change, they can timely regulate production, monitor the use of equipment and materials, production progress, and provide real-time feedback on employee work efficiency. For unreasonable expenses and waste phenomena that occur during the production process, they can be promptly prompted and stopped. 3. Current problems and solutions of lubricating oil enterprises 3.1 Existing problems In traditional lubricating oil enterprises, they are usually divided into two major departments, one is the production department and the other is the business department, often neglecting the construction of the information department. The former is managed through MES, while the latter is managed through ERP. The information department bears the important mission of building, improving, and maintaining the two major systems, ensuring the normal operation of the production and operation system, and organizing the connection between MES and ERP. Many times in enterprises, even with ERP and MES, the two systems are not actually connected. Therefore, when ERP issues production planning instructions to MES, MES experiences deviations from the plan during the production process (such as equipment failure, substandard raw materials, etc.), and MES will make adjustments based on the actual situation in the workshop. But ERP is unknown, so it will continue to execute orders according to the original plan. Over time, there will be significant deviations between the financial system and the actual situation of the factory. Therefore, the factory workshop usually makes a table of MES adjustment items on a regular basis and submits it to the business department, which then manually adjusts them in ERP. This does not reflect the superiority of advanced management tools, resulting in low work efficiency, excessive labor, and an increase in the occurrence of manual errors. Analyzing the two reasons for the problem, firstly, the development companies of ERP and MES usually have two groups of people, those engaged in finance and those engaged in production, who do not understand each other's work and cannot connect. In addition, the most important point is that the business department and the production department are operating independently. No one can understand the two parts of the work of the separate operation, and there is a lack of technical personnel with the "Made in China 2025" and "Industry 4.0" models. 3.2 Solution 3.2.1. Introduce talents and establish specialized information technology departments.
3.2.2. To build an intelligent factory, a comprehensive system model should be established for the overall design, engineering design, process flow, and layout of the factory, and simulation and design should be carried out. Relevant data should be entered into the core database of the enterprise; Configure data acquisition systems and advanced control systems that meet design requirements; It has established a real-time database platform, and achieved interoperability and integration with process control and production management systems. The factory production has achieved information sharing and optimized management based on Industrial Internet; Establish MES and integrate with ERP to achieve production modeling analysis and decision-making, quantitative management of processes, and dynamic tracking of costs and quality; Establish ERP to achieve management and optimization of raw material and finished product distribution in supply chain management. 4. Conclusion In many manufacturing enterprises, the production site only has a limited or no IT system, resulting in unnecessary communication, contact, contact, telephone consultation, and the generation of many documents, time delays, searches, and additional costs. There is a gap between the management of the upper executive level and the lower workshop environment, resulting in low efficiency and additional costs, thereby reducing the performance of the entire company. The essence of intelligent manufacturing is to realize vertical integration at different levels, such as Mechanical floor, control layer and management layer, horizontal integration across the enterprise value network, and end-to-end integration from the full life cycle of products. Standardization is the key way to ensure the realization of all-round integration. Combining the architecture of intelligent manufacturing technology and industrial structure, intelligent manufacturing standards have been constructed from three dimensions: system architecture, value chain, and product lifecycle.
