Fagskolen Tinius Olsen open the largest Industry 4.0 training plant in Europe
On May the 7th opened the new training laboratory in Kongsberg, Norway. The hometown for the renown Kongsberg group of companies. Fagskolen Tinius Olsen is a college for higher vocational education and has a long-standing cooperation with the Kongsberg Group. – We aim for the same standard as our industrial partner – world class! Nothing less is acceptable for us, states the happy principal Eirik Haagensen at the grand opening.
The laboratory is supplied by FESTO Didactics and based on their cyber-physical factory technology. The plant itself is a didactical adapted manufacturing system for small electronic products comprising the recognized driving technologies for Industry 4.0; industrial robotics, collaborative robots, AIV’s, IoT, cybersecurity, system integration, big data, augmented reality, RFID tracking. In addition is it possible to simulate the different applications in FESTO’s CIROS software.
– We have invested more than 1 M€ in the laboratory. This had not been possible without our ambitious owner the Buskerud County Council and the support from our local industrial cluster, says principal Haagensen. – Our plan now is to start the laboratory training with the students in our programme for Industrial Digitalization. In addition, we will offer several courses to the employees of our industrial partners. We have several projects going for developing continuous education courses, among them a comprehensive development in partnership with The Federation of Norwegian Industries, The Norwegian United Federation of Trade Unions and our sister institution Fagskolen Innlandet.
The laboratory has also received international attention. Last year Fagskolen Tinius Olsen was invited into the ERASMUS+ project TEFFIC led by Aalborg based UCN and comprising partners from leading universities in Germany, Estonia, Belgium and Denmark. The project aims to develop inter-disciplinary didactic methods for Industry 4.0 training.
The opening ceremony was well visited, and several speakers conveyed their congratulations and expectations for the competence provided by the activities in the IDlab which is the name for the advanced training lab. Among the speakers was the deputy minister for education Mr. Tom Erlend Skaug and several CEO’s from the local industrial companies. The inauguration itself was conducted by Mr. Roger Ryberg, the major for Buskerud County.
Picture caption: The Major of Buskerud County Mr. Roger Ryberg, assisted by ID student Aase Kleven officially opens Europe’s most comprehensive practical platform for Industry 4.0 learning by the push on a virtual iPad button. Photo: Liv Ildrid Foss