i.com Smart-Factory Smartphone and Tablet Application

BENZ has announced that it has introduced a new digital application named i.com, an Industry 4.0-ready application for monitoring the condition of its products. The BENZ i.com Smart-Factory smartphone and tablet application scans, saves and processes tool data and uses it to provide important information about the product's current condition.

BENZ i.com is located on a chip, which is powered by an integrated generator or a battery, depending on the application, and saves the data. BENZ i.com transfers the data to the app, via NFC and Bluetooth, either in real time or after specific events. The app uses this information to provide important notifications about the product's state, such as the number of hours of operation, the temperature, speed or vibration values. Using the BENZ cloud solution, the user not only has access to the data they have scanned themselves, but to all of the product data saved in the cloud.

Thanks to the transparent tool monitoring system, the service life of a tooling unit can be extended by identification of optimum service intervals, minimizing production standstills. Working with a receiver module, the solution communicates directly with the machine control system. Among other things, it can trigger automatic lubrication or the emergency stop function, if there is an emergency. This is essential, as even a few seconds can make a difference when it comes to preventing bearing damage that might cause the unit to fail due to overheating or excessive vibration, and that is often not enough time for a manual intervention.