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The Swedish primary industry has undergone a transition
over the past twenty years.
Once heavily resource based, it's now characterized
by highly competetive, cutting-edge technology.
This change has placed tougher demands on industry.
Targets must now be hit with absolute precision.
In our primary industries, there are a lot of continuous flows.
These are highly optimized industries -
-which means we have to minimize downtime.
And when someting goes wrong, it's already too late.
Measuring some things can be very difficult.
In some cases, if I knew that, I could control the process optimally.
Unfortunately, they are right in the middle of something-
-where the temperature is 1000 degrees, which is difficult to measure.
That's why we attempt to control these processes using models.
And this is a part of the research we do at LTU.
Much of our primary industry is based on processes that are difficult to oversee-
-for example, in the production of steel, copper, paper pulp or electricity.
Within Process IT researchers are working to solve problems faced by industry-
-in its endeavour to control processes effectively.
Industry states its needs and problems,
and researchers in the Process IT field at LTU,
together with IT companies, find the solutions.
Primary industry faces incredibly tough competition.
It's a matter of continuous improvement-
-and there is enormous potential for improvement in industrial efficiency.
To get control and automation functioning optimally-
-and it is largely the research and modern technology-
-that leads to greater efficiency.
SSAB is one of the companies in the network.
In the blast furnace, and in steel making, there are numerous process related problems-
-that can be solved with the help of the university's expertise in Process IT.
The better we are at getting direct measurements-
-so that we can adjust our process continuously, the better things will be.
One of the benefits of Process IT is the cooperation-
-that exists among companies in the primary and manufacturing industries-
-and the university with its technical expertise, and I think-
-that creates conditions that will enable us to develop our operations.
ABB is one of the suppliers responsible for building the IT solutions-
-that are developed by the university's researchers, in collaboration with industry.
Solutions which in turn support a growing IT industry with completely new products and services.
Around Process IT, I think it's very important-
-and this applies to all research, that there is someone who can take care-
-of the results of the research and projects.
Someone who owns the results, and uses them-
-to build new concepts and new products.
It really feels as if those objectives have been set for Process IT.
The research at Luleå University of Technology is characterized by-
-very close cooperation with industry, which I believe is very important.
Today, measurements are often taken manually-
-or using large pieces of measuring equipment.
From there, data is sent to the control systems.
Can complicated processes be measured and controlled-
-while they are running at full capacity?
Processes running at temperatures of perhaps more than a 1000 degrees.
In the future, we will use sensors that are much smaller.
Sensors that can be mounted inside the pipe or follow along with the flow.
They can be like this one, or even smaller. In the future, it's possible-
-that they could essentially be the size of dust particles, and actually-
-they might even look like a paper fibre or a grain of iron ore.
When everything has been reduced to the smallest possible size-
-what is the next step? What do the visions look like?
The most interesting possibility of all is when we start gathering data-
-from these, so that we can both follow the process-
-but also get these tiny machines, to almost think for themselves.
We could use the same methods as our brain with the help of these-
-huge numbers of sensors which we can then send through the processes.
Then we can gain an understanding of how the process works-
-and maybe the process itself will begin to understand how it works;
A sort of self-regulation. This is a fascinating perspective.