In recent years, Industry 4.0 has opened new doors for research and development of "new ways of manufacturing". The main challenge of Industry 4.0 is to interconnect all existing processes, within a factory and across the entire value chain.

One of the most important processes in the value chain of a product is MAINTENANCE. Not only because it allows us to extend the useful life of our machines, but also because it provides a safe environment for workers. Maintenance is undergoing a digital transformation, where data collection is essential to carry out corrective measures and to develop preventive or predictive maintenance plans that improve the overall efficiency of the processes.

Moreover, the versatility of Industry 4.0 technologies allows us to foster our innovative and entrepreneurial capacity, developing all kinds of applications to our liking. In this way, technologies accessible at user level, such as Augmented Reality, can be implemented at industrial level for ecological purposes, reducing, for example, the amount of paper to be used.

All these factors, framed under the umbrella of the term Industry 4.0, represent a disruption in the ways of manufacturing, in search of more competitive, efficient and sustainable digitised environments.

In this way, the project "INTELLIGENT AND SUSTAINABLE MAINTENANCE" is presented, where the use in the classroom of various maintenance-oriented Industry 4.0 technologies will be the common thread. The integration of new intelligent communication protocols, as well as the development of APPs, will allow project participants to acquire the previously mentioned Competences and Skills 4.0, fostering their critical and entrepreneurial spirit.

Among the technologies that have been integrated in this project is IO-Link technology, which offers different advantages, such as carrying out a preventive maintenance application by integrating IO-Link communication protocol in an SMC EX260 model EX260 valve head-end, which allows the life cycle of the different valves integrated in the head-end itself to be counted and the data obtained to be displayed on an HMI screen.

This project is within the framework of the development of applied innovation and knowledge transfer projects in vocational training promoted by the Ministry of Education. The centres involved in this project are the Salesianos centre in Urnieta, CIFP Simón de Colonia in Burgos, IES Galileo and CIFP A Farixa in Ourense.