Enhancing performance of aluminium recycling furnaces beyond Industry 4.0

In an increasingly competitive environment, aluminium recyclers are looking for efficient, sustainable and cost-saving equipment and production facilities. Within this context, GHI Smart Furnaces has been constantly improving product designs, developing new technologies and offering innovative services. To move towards the fourth industrial revolution, the company has launched its own analytics services, called Beyond 4.0, for capturing and exploiting relevant data of industrial processes and convert it into deeper engineering knowledge. The following article sets out evidence on how GHI Smart Furnaces has leveraged its experience and know-how in process and equipment in the aluminium industry based on advanced data analytics. The platform is aimed to detect operational anomalies, identify usage inefficiencies, ensure furnace performance and track traceability and quality metrics. These data are used to adapt equipment behaviour to customer needs, adjust maintenance practices to machinery degradation, and establish energy-saving policies. Furthermore, Beyond 4.0 enables moving from data-driven insights to data-driven actions by offering advanced services, such as smart production support and smart preventive/predictive maintenance.