International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

Quality management is an often-overlooked business factor that represents a strategic pillar for industrial enterprises that aim to strengthen their competitiveness in the national and global markets. This paper examines the contemporary challenges faced by quality management systems in industrial settings, considering digital transformation and integration with Industry 4.0. Key impediments and opportunities are identified, and recommendations for enhancing quality practices are proposed.

The rapid evolution of Industry 4.0 emphasizes not only automation and connectivity, but also the seamless integration of humancentric cyber-physical systems (CPS). This paper presents a secure, interoperable wireless communication framework based on the emerging Matter and Thread protocols, designed for real-time, local, and privacy-aware interactions between people and machines. While traditional wireless IoT protocols such as Zigbee and Bluetooth face challenges with fragmentation, lack of interoperability, and limited security models, Matter and Thread offer a unified, IP-based mesh network that is vendor-neutral, scalable, and designed with end-to-end encryption and device attestation by default. We apply this architecture to a practical use case in assistive IoT: enabling users with disabilities to interact with smart environments through secure, low-power wireless devices. This includes wearable panic buttons, smart locks, and environmental sensors that respond in real time, even in cloud-disconnected conditions, which is a critical requirement for safety in CPS. The system also supports multi-platform integration (Android, iOS, embedded Linux) without duplicating infrastructure. The paper presents a modular threat model, performance analysis of secure onboarding and encrypted control flows, and discusses deployment challenges in real-world industrial or healthcare automation contexts. This approach demonstrates how inclusive, secure-by-design wireless CPS can be realized with current technologies, contributing to more resilient and human-aware Industry 4.0 systems.

The report examines the current state and challenges of vocational education in the transport and energy sectors. It analyzes the need for modernization through project-based learning, digital transformation, and team-based learning, which have been proven to enhance outcomes and prepare learners for Industry 4.0. The report presents international practices in dual education and effective models of partnerships between education and industry. Finally, it outlines the main barriers—institutional, resource-related, social, and those stemming from resistance to change—that hinder the widespread implementation of innovative approaches.

Family firms constitute an important element of the modern economy, combining the values of tradition, intergenerational continuity, and social responsibility. Their activities are often characterized by a conservative approach to strategic decision-making and a cautious attitude toward innovation. However, in the face of increasing global competition and rapid technological change, maintaining a sustainable market position requires openness to digital transformation and the implementation of the Industry 4.0 concept. Industry 4.0 represents a new paradigm of business activity, combining digital technologies and the Internet with conventional manufacturing processes, in order to enhance their efficiency and flexibility. The aim of this paper is to analyze the implementation of the Industry 4.0 concept in a medium-sized family enterprise located in north-eastern Poland. Over its more than forty-year history, the company has undergone a profound transformation from a manufacturer of simple metal products and agricultural tools, through a producer of cable connectors for the shipbuilding industry, to a specialized supplier of components for the aviation, automotive, and railway sectors. In recent years, the company, supported by grants from European Union funds, has established an R&D department as well as a Center for Robotics and Automation, forming the foundation of its digital transformation process. The results of the study indicate that the implementation of Industry 4.0 solutions has contributed to strengthening the company’s competitive position and facilitating its expansion into international markets. The key determinants of success were effective intergenerational succession, the pro-innovative attitudes of family members, and cooperation with universities and research entities.

Industry 4.0 has established itself as an era of digital transformation, automation, and intelligent technologies that integrate machine systems, data, and processes into a unified architecture. Its core strength is rooted in efficiency, speed, and systematic optimization. However, the pursuit of maximum productivity often displaces anthropometric factors – ethical values, sustainable development, and the social dimensions of technological progress. This is precisely where the philosophy of Industry 5.0 is positioned, building upon the previous paradigm by placing humans at the center of transformational processes. If Industry 4.0 represents the era of machine dominance, then Industry 5.0 introduces the era of symbiosis between human and technological capabilities. The change goes beyond theoretical frameworks and generates measurable results. When people are perceived as partners rather than victims of technological progress, innovations become bolder, products more personalized, and business models more sustainable. Industry 5.0 does not reject digitalization but humanizes it by integrating values such as sustainable development, social responsibility, and balance between technological innovation and human creativity.

In roll-to-roll systems like wet wipe production, the synchronous and smooth unwinding of the web material with constant tension is critical for product quality and production efficiency. Traditional constant belt braking mechanisms cause tension issues due to varying bobbin diameter and friction-induced heating, leading to web undulations, stretching, and breaks in sensitive materials such as wetlace. To overcome these operational challenges, an automatically controlled braking and accumulator system has been developed. The system instantly measures product tension by monitoring web position using a laser ruler and dynamically adjusts the pneumatic brake force via a high-frequency PID algorithm updated every 5 milliseconds. Furthermore, a constant pressure pneumatic piston acts as an accumulator, balancing the web’s vertical movements and dampening instantaneous tension variations. This system, compliant with Industry 4.0 principles and based on real-time feedback, solves critical tension control problems, ensures continuity in product quality, and establishes a new concept that is a pioneering example in the global market.

The Common European Data Space for Cultural Heritage (CHDS), operational since 2023 and coordinated by the Europeana Foundation, represents the most mature and forward-thinking sectoral data space within the EU’s Data Strategy. Hosting over 59 million digitised items, it demonstrates a federated, sovereignty-preserving architecture with an exceptionally advanced security posture designed for 2030 threats already in 2025: zero-trust from day one, post-quantum-ready hybrid cryptography, large-scale privacy-by-design using differential privacy and synthetic data, immutable provenance via Merkle-tree logging, and AI-driven anomaly detection tailored to cultural patterns. This paper shows that CHDS far outperforms most current Industry 4.0 data spaces in AI maturity, cyber-resilience, and responsible data governance. Its production-grade multilingual AI pipelines, federated learning framework, and reusable micro-services offer a directly transferable blueprint for manufacturing, predictive maintenance, digital twins, and secure supply-chain collaboration. Already ranked #1 in AI maturity among all 14 European data spaces by the European Commission (2025), CHDS provides industrial stakeholders with battle-tested solutions they no longer need to develop from scratch, accelerating the creation of trustworthy, future-proof Industry 4.0 ecosystems.

Single-point incremental forming (SPIF) eliminates dedicated forming dies, enabling flexible and cost-effective production of complex thin-walled metallic components suitable for prototyping and low-batch manufacturing. This work develops and tests a robotic SPIF workstation using a Kawasaki RS030N industrial robotic arm to evaluate how system stiffness affects geometric accuracy. The research setup development includes a rigid forming table, a universal forming tool, and dedicated software for toolpath generation, robot communication, and parameter management. Experimental tests on aluminium and steel sheets of varying thicknesses assess the role of mechanical stiffness in maintaining dimensional accuracy. This foundational study completes the SPIF process chain—from toolpath generation and trajectory verification through forming trials and precision analysis—establishing a basis for future robotic additive forming systems aligned with Industry 4.0 principles.

The Cyber-Physical System (CPS) is one of the main concepts associated to the Industry 4.0 framework. The paper aims at analyzing the futures and architecture and technologies of CPS, retracting it in form its general conceptualization, to the interpretation in high relevant problem of welding manufacturing in context of Industry 4.0. The most recent approaches are based on empirical models or AI and rely on experimental data collection. On the other hand, the actuator shell control a certain parameter or parameter set. Under close consideration of the state of the knowledge to the problem of out-of-plane welding distortions, the aspects related to data sensing and actuating process parameters are analysed. However, due to the intensive development of the welding techniques und machines as well as the increasing focus on lightweight design pose a challenge that enters an unstudied parameter domain. To address this problem, a study was carried out using a combination of experimental and numerical methods. Based on the obtained results, the existing analytical expressions are supplemented and put into discussion. Essential findings, as well as the correlations between the occurring out-of-plane distortions and the welding process conditions and parameters are emphasized. Thus, the level of knowledge and the range of application of the existing analytical models are extended. On this basis, the development of highly effective deterministic-driven CPS in the context of Industry 4.0 is advanced.

The aim of this work is to implement a wireless communication system for MEMS-based sensors within the framework of Internet of Things (IoT) applications, specifically in the context of Predictive Maintenance (PdM). The focus is placed on developing a functional prototype of a wireless sensor node that enables efficient data acquisition and transmission from commercially available MEMS vibration sensors. The solution leverages an ESP32 microcontroller for data handling and Wi-Fi communication, forming the basis of a scalable wireless sensor network (WSN). The project emphasizes their integration into a wireless system architecture suitable for industrial monitoring scenarios. This approach aims to demonstrate how low-cost MEMS sensors, when combined with IoT technologies, can contribute to accessible and modular condition monitoring solutions aligned with Industry 4.0.

The rapid advancement of Industry 4.0 technologies has significantly transformed manufacturing environments, necessitating the adoption of intelligent and scalable solutions. MESWARM is a modern platform designed to digitize and optimize manufacturing processes, offering industrial enterprises a means to enhance efficiency, reliability, and sustainability. By integrating traditional Manufacturing Execution System functionalities with cutting-edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things, MESWARM provides a flexible, modular system tailored to specific production needs. It’s architecture and key functionalities are outlined, highlighting its core modules such as Configuration, Production Management, and IoT. The potential of future modules, including Service Management, Adaptive Logic, Energy Management, Document Management, and AI-driven analytics, is also explored. By leveraging real-time data collection and analysis through MQTT-based communication, MESWARM facilitates precise production monitoring and predictive maintenance, minimizing downtime and enhancing operational decision-making. Real-world implementations are examined, showcasing its impact on production efficiency and system scalability.

The transformation of industrial enterprises to a circular economy in the conditions of Industry 4.0 is a key step towards sustainable development and reducing the carbon footprint on the nature. The main objective of the circular economy is to reduce the waste and utilize resources as efficiently as possible by reusing, recycling and extending the life cycle of products. This transformation requires changes to both the production processes and the business models of enterprises. The transition of industrial enterprises to a circular business model will have a beneficial effect on the environment, increase their financial results and improve their competitiveness. The circular business model requires a rethinking of internal processes, products and strategies. This research aims to analyse the opportunities of industrial enterprises to rethink their product strategies, optimize resources, effectively manage waste and promote a circular organizational culture.