IoT accelerating Industry 4.0

Why connecting manufacturing and industrial assets with IoT?

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The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), being the basis for the Industry 4.0 and Smart Factory, provides connectivity for smart factories, machines, industrial infrastructure, management systems, and more, to streamline business operations,  creating intelligent, self-optimizing industrial equipment and facilities. A number of challenges – related to the management of equipment and resources, the security and safety of people – can be addressed with innovative IoT solutions. 

The Industrial IoT represents a fast-growing field of application of low-power wide-area (LPWA) networks like LoRaWAN™, due to its exceptionally low power capabilities perfectly suited for the industrial automation world, enabling innovative services for improving efficiency, reliability, and availability of industrial processes and products.  Actility, being at the heart of an ecosystem of IoT sensors and applications makers, offers an IoT connectivity platform, ThingPark, providing its LoRaWAN™ network server and software to manage both private and public networks, under a unified, scalable, multipurpose IoT network infrastructure. 

IoT applications for Smart Industries

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Use IoT to make your factory smart

Industrial IoT solutions for smart manufacturing, powered by Actility’s LoRaWAN™ technology,  allows the harnessing of the power of data in order to streamline operations, reduce maintenance costs and ensure quality in the manufacturing process. 

Backup batteries capacity & machines energy consumption 

Fire, flood, smoke, air quality, temperature monitoring

Strategic equipment condition control and metrics monitoring

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Liquid presence detection, tank level and flow monitoring 

Workers safety and well-being, security of assets

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IoT is taking off in smart airports

Strengthen airport operations, improve safety and services for travelers and reduce operating costs by connecting critical airport assets and installations with highly-secure LoRaWAN™ connectivity. 

Mobile indoor and outdoor equipment  tracking

Indoor environment monitoring 

Runway light & temperature monitoring

Airport waste management 

Traveler satisfaction & comfort level monitoring

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IoT driving the future of the railway industry

Connecting trains, equipment, tracks, stations, and the operations center using LoRaWAN™ allows to lower operating expenses and to simplify maintenace globally for railway infrastructure operators.

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Water tanks level remote control in trains

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Train doors openings & closings 

Rail temperature & vibration monitoring

Train cars tracking in yards and on the road

Battery systems monitoring

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Automotive sector becoming a prominent IoT champion

The Internet of Things is breaking fresh ground for car manufacturers and vehicle fleet operators by allowing them to streamline development of connected car applications, to improve fleet management, maintenance and safety 

Automobile and asset tracking outdoors & indoors

Car plant machines and installations monitoring

Temperature, air, humidity and other plant metrics monitoring

Industrial electricity submetering

Workers and plant operators safety 

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IoT is reshaping the modern Oil, Gas, and Mining industries

Most mining, oil drilling and gas production is done in remote and harsh environments, presenting connectivity challenges now being addressed by Actility with LoRaWAN™ technology. By securely connecting assets and installations, risks are controlled and the production of natural resources is maximized. 

Outdoor asset tracking in open pit mines

Field workforce safety management 

Oil, gas pressure and temperature monitoring

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Liquid level and flow monitoring, leakage detection

Rigs and wells equipment monitoring

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The construction site of the future is built on the IoT

IoT provides many solutions to the problem of site management, the monitoring of the use of construction equipment, the prevention of theft, and the work done by men. Construction companies are now able to optimize their on-site activities using LoRaWAN™. 

Construction equipment tracking, anti-theft detection, fleet management 

Heavy construction machinery use monitoring and maintenance

Electrical power consumption monitoring

Site metrics monitoring: temperature, humidity, noise, vibration

Workers safety using wearables

Discover our real-life Smart Industries case studies and the latest Actility news !

Why LoRaWAN® is ideal for Industry 4.0 applications ?

Low network Total Cost of Ownership: LoRaWAN™ has the lowest cost for network infrastructure deployment and maintenance thanks to its high link budget, long range, good redundancy and ease for scaling densification.

Flexibility in network deployment models: industries have the choice to either use their own private LoRaWAN networks or leverage existing public ones. 

Advanced technical attributes:  very low-power bi-directional communications, deep indoor penetration and can work in a remote, harsh environment, high reliability of the network infrastructure and the sensors

Battery Life Optimization: LoRaWAN industrial sensors are optimized for a battery life of up to 15 years, and for transmission frequency, LoRaWAN offers one of the best options for mitigating battery life issues through network densification.

High security: the LoRaWAN specification uses 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithms to provide end-to-end encryption using two keys: one for the users, for protection of payload content; another for operators, for network authentication security. 

Fast-Growing Open Ecosystem of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs): industries have the flexibility to integrate devices from multiple vendors and benefit from interoperability at the network level.

Check out Actility videos on Smart Industries:

Interested in Industry 4.0 and Smart Industries IoT solutions?

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You can buy devices like sensors and trackers for your various Smart Industry use cases off-the-shelf on ThingPark Market, the largest catalog of IoT devices and applications, powered by Actility

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If you are looking to implement custom Smar Industry IoT solutions using our IoT connectivity platform, you can reach out to us through our contact form

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IoT tackling the challenges of the Industry 4.0

Industrial facilities and sites in key sectors like manufacturing, railway, construction, oil & gas, and many others currently face a number of challenges: 

  • Increased competition and demand for production volumes are building stress on machines and causing higher risks of failures or down times.
  • Raw materials are growing scarce and becoming more expensive, obliging companies to optimize their operations, to reduce energy inefficiency and manufacturing waste.
  • Industrial safety has to comply with tougher regulations, requiring secure real-time monitoring of workers, equipment, and environment. 
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It’s more practical and compelling than ever to connect manufacturing equipment to a Web-based network, deriving substantial value from it. The Internet of Things, harnessing the benefits of low-power wide-area (LPWA) networks like LoRaWAN®, allows adding digital sensors and networking technologies to the devices and systems of the analog world. 

Actility is focusing on the Industrial IoT, which deals with connectivity for smart factories, machines, industrial infrastructure, management systems, and more, to streamline business operations. The Industrial IoT is the basis for the Industry 4.0, which refers globally to the use of automation and data exchange in manufacturing, also using robotics, system integration,  cybersecurity, the Cloud, data analytics, and augmented reality. These technologies are used to create a “smart factory” where machines, systems, and humans communicate with each other in order to coordinate and monitor progress along the assembly line. 

Sharpen your competitive edge with LoRaWAN®

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IoT applications for the Industry 4.0, using those Intelligent sensors and low-power connectivity, are driving operational efficiency through automation, connectivity and analytics in manufacturing and operations, asset management, planning and inventory, quality sensing and prediction, condition-based monitoring in industrial plants and manufacturing facilities. 

The payoff for manufacturers who implement Industrial IoT solutions lies in better decision-making. When devices are connected, the data they generate can flow into software applications that create the information individuals can use to make choices that are timely and effective. By understanding the results of these choices more fully, decision-makers can achieve strategic objectives or benchmark performance.  Better decisions mean fewer mistakes and less waste. 

Connecting machines and utilizing directly applicable real-time information allows to optimize performance, perfect maintenance cycles and improve productivity. Perhaps the most positive and encouraging aspect of the Industrial IoT and Industry 4.0 is the explicit acknowledgment that the individual human being will continue to play an active, engaging role in manufacturing. Therefore, people’s safety is one of the main achievements of IoT implementation in industrial environment. 

One multi-purpose network, many applications

LoRaWAN™ is becoming widely used and helps to achieve the target of implementing predictive maintenance, industrial assets and environment control, energy consumption monitoring, and other solutions in a very efficient way.  To sustain such kind of solutions, local on premises private networks in particular are becoming very used into the industrial applications, mainly for the benefits related to security, low latency, and data transfer optimization. To make it possible, Actility provides its LoRaWAN™  network server and software to manage public or private networks, under a unified, scalable, multipurpose IoT network infrastructure.  A single platform facilitates the deployment, operation, and maintenance of your industrial projects, and LoRaWAN ensures that you know the vital data of your systems.

LoRaWAN™ offers long range (up to 15km) bi-directional communications with very low power consumption, deep indoor penetration and very low Total Cost of Ownership. LoRa-enabled sensors detect and measure physical characteristics or conditions of a device (on/off states, amperage draw, temperature, pressure, vibration levels) and perform other functions, like using geolocation technologies or converting analog readings into a digital format. Moreover, you save the installation of cables with battery-powered LoRa sensors. 

 LoRaWAN™ offers long range (up to 15km) bi-directional communications with very low power consumption, deep indoor penetration and very low Total Cost of Ownership.

LoRa-enabled sensors detect and measure physical characteristics or conditions of a device (on/off states, amperage draw, temperature, pressure, vibration levels) and perform other functions, like using geolocation technologies or converting analog readings into a digital format. Moreover, you save the installation of cables with battery-powered LoRa sensors. 

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The LPWA network is a cost-effective solution which allows smart industries to have complete control of the network and data with only a few base stations, and managing sensors and devices with a very low Total Cost of Ownership. Once the network is deployed, it’s easy and cost-effective to expand the value of the network investment over time by adding new devices.  It also provides standardized, robust security; state-of-the art network management tools; and high quality of service. Through an ecosystem of partners utilizing Actility’s interoperable platform, industries can now leverage significant advancements in IoT technology, including multi-application networks; cloud computing; data analytics; and a new generation of battery-powered edge devices and sensors. All these technologies come together in our IoT connectivity platform that delivers new and differentiating value to enable smart utilities.

Deploy your LoRaWAN® network with Actility

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 For dedicated enterprise IoT LoRaWAN™ networks

Enterprise-grade LoRaWAN™ platform with best-in-class user experience and Actility’s market-leading technology. Easy to set up, operate and support. 

A large ecosystem with a wide set of industrial use cases fitting small to high-density deployment with the most suitable performance & economics based on a progressive pricing model. 

Fully flexible solution supporting multiple deployment requirements (SaaS or On-Premise), multiple ISM bands, multiple gateway vendors (outdoor or indoor) and multiple IoT application platforms (MS Azure, AWS, IBM, etc). 

End to End Secure solution from the device to the Application using LoRaWAN standard and Actility’s additional security features.  

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For large-scale public deployments by operators

The market leading, most complete, powerful and flexible multi-technology LPWA IoT Network platform. ThingPark Wireless is the preferred IoT network platform for Service Providers rolling out LPWA connectivity services, already powering over half of national LoRaWAN™ network deployments worldwide  

ThingPark Wireless is the heart of your IoT network, enabling secure connectivity, data flow, and management from sensors to cloud applications. ThingPark Wireless is modular, and scales easily, enabling Service Providers to monetize connectivity and accelerate the adoption of IoT solutions across multiple industries. 

What is LoRa and LoRaWAN white paper techniical overview, benfits and use cases

Learn more about the LoRaWAN technology by downloading the Actility “What is LoRaWAN” white paper