The ground-breaking training model, the Agile Production Simulation from fischertechnik, simulates processes in a flexible and modular factory. An additional production process has now been added to the model: APS Add On: Annealing Furnace. With the additional process module, new derivatives can be introduced into production or existing production configurations can be extended by an additional process step.

Annealing Furnaces are indispensable for many production processes and allow the permanent forming and hardening of materials. The new APS Add On: Annealing Furnace within fischertechnik's Agile Production Simulation consists of a docking station for the driverless transport system and a vacuum gripper that transports the workpiece into the Annealing Furnace using pneumatics. Hardening is simulated there with a red light. After the process, the workpiece is transported back out of the oven to the gripper. This then places it back on the driverless transport system.

The Agile Production Simulation consists of individual modules such as incoming and outgoing goods, high-bay warehouse, milling station, drilling station and quality assurance with AI. A driverless transport system transports workpieces flexibly between individual stations and ensures a flexible production process that can be customised to the customer's requirements.

Each workpiece contains an NFC tag on which production data is written, such as the colour of the workpiece or the time of delivery. The differently coloured workpieces go through different production processes.

The factory is controlled by a central controller (Raspberry Pi 4 Model B), which is networked with the controllers of the individual factory modules, PLC Siemens S7 1200 in the 24V version. The central controller communicates via the standardised AGV interface VDA 5050 and controls the transport orders for the AGV. The MQTT protocol (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) is used for communication.

The factory is also connected to the fischertechnik cloud via a WLAN router, which contains an online shop for customers to order workpieces. Dashboards are also available for order control, visualising the factory status and determining key figures. To simulate remote maintenance, the images taken by the moving camera in the factory are displayed in the dashboard so that the status of the factory can be viewed remotely.

In addition to a detailed introduction to handling the factory, the accompanying didactic material offers extensive teaching material. Contents include the basics of Industry 4.0, modular production, intelligent networking, human-technology organisation, digital twin, real-time sensor data evaluation and much more.