Digital Twin for Machine Manufacturers
Business drivers
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Poul Kristensen
Head of Digital Twin
As an engineer, Poul has over 20 years of experience in industrial automation and digitalization. He is an expert in strategic sales, business development and thought leadership, passionate about enabling new technologies such as Digital Twins, Artificial Intelligence and Predictive Operations. Poul strongly believes in innovations pushing the borders and harvesting the benefits. At ProjectBinder, he leads a highly skilled team of engineers who develop innovative projects to meet the needs of each client.
Digital Twins to optimise production logistics: AMR fleet system.
IT/OT Engineer at ProjectBinder
The scope
Standardisation is a crucial parameter for an optimised production plant or warehouse. Hence, more and more companies invest in automating material and product internal logistics. To help our customers in the early stages of an automation project, at ProjectBinder, we create simulations of the systems based on the physical environment, logistics needs and desired outputs from the model. With this tool, you can make decisions based on different simulation scenarios and test changes quickly due to the flexibility.
The advantages that a virtual system offers compared to a physical prototype are:
* No plant shutdowns.
* No material waste or scrap.
* No unproductive working hours for testing.
* Fast time to market.
Model inputs/outputs
Data is valuable, but focusing on the key factors is vital to transforming your idea into an optimized system in terms of calendar and resources.
Depending on the objectives, key parameters to evaluate can be:
Different vehicle models, specifications, and operation parameters.
- Number of vehicles needed to avoid delivery delays.
- Impact of the vehicle fleet performance on production/warehouse and vice versa.
- Dimensioning warehouses and picking bays.
- Operational bottlenecks.
- Physical barriers.
- Operators and pedestrian safety – definition of areas.
None of these parameters are usually isolated from the others. Using a virtual model to evaluate the impact of changes on any of them is a powerful tool to give the project a solid foundation in the early stages and a sandbox to test any possible scenario during the operation phase.
Model possibilities
A virtual model is a powerful tool to showcase the idea to the project stakeholders.
However, the value of a simulation goes beyond the 3D simulation: the system can receive critical information, process it and provide key results in a format that our customers can use for different purposes.
In the design and operation phase of the system, a Digital Twin acts as a flexible tool to test any scenarios and changes in the system and evaluate the impact on crucial results to help in decision-making.
Success stories
Based on the Digital Twin of a production plant, during the design phase, our customers have already been able to support their decisions regarding:
- AMR commercial model selection after comparing the model performance depending on different vehicle data sheets.
- Arrange production orders in time within a work day after identifying bottlenecks in the use of their equipment.
- Selecting the size of the AMR fleet. After running the simulation, a report detailing the use of each unit can be generated, which helps optimise the logistic routes and equipment acquisition.
- Dimensioning of the corridors and checking the safety constraint to AMR traffic.
- Select the most suitable production equipment: Once a logistic bottleneck is solved, others might appear even on the production side. This information is vital to help establish where to invest to get the most optimised production plant.
Digital Twins for the evaluation of machine safety
IT/OT Engineer at ProjectBinder
With the recent development of automation and Industry 4.0. technologies, machines are gradually becoming more independent, improving production efficiency. However, this also has inherent risks, especially when the interaction between humans and machines is required. Therefore, it is critical to ensure the safety of the machinery used.
What is machine safety?
Machine safety is the ability of a device to perform its intended functionality where risk has been adequately reduced. However, many test scenarios are required for assessing and guaranteeing an acceptable safety level. These machine safety demonstrations are required by law in Europe, according to the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC (MD 2006/42/EC), and are often complex and expensive for manufacturers and end-users. Thus, it is relevant to investigate ways to make these demonstrations as integrated as possible with the design phase of the machine to reduce costs and time-to-market of machinery.
Digital twin as a prevalidation tool
Digital Twin (DT) technology can facilitate a large number of virtual tests for obtaining relevant information on the performance of machines during different phases of the machine lifecycle, even before the machine has been built. This enables the possibility of testing the machine at an early stage of the design phase, which can be very beneficial for machine safety demonstrations to avoid delays or expensive late design changes.
Focusing on machine safety at such an early stage of the design process instead of just performing the safety tests once the machine has been built will consequently increase the final level of safety of the machinery. At the same time, a DT perfectly fits with the iterative nature of a risk assessment process since it provides the possibility of performing a fast test and redesign iterations until the design is considered valid.
This concludes that Digital Twins could be very beneficial for machine safety demonstrations. However, the final tests on the real machine once it is built remain necessary to follow the standard requirements. Anyhow, if the machine has already been tested using the virtual model, the success rate in these tests will increase significantly.
Model verification
A relevant challenge when building a Digital Twin is ensuring that it is correctly representing the real system that is based on. This becomes even more relevant when the Digital Twin is used for applications with high importance or accuracy requirements, such as machine safety. Therefore, a part of the project was building a framework for checking if a specific Digital Twin is valid for the purpose it has. This framework was applied to the benchmark system built (system for Qubiqa), obtaining an accuracy higher than 90% in the system´s behaviour.
Machine safety applications in Emulate3D
During this project, the Essential Health and Safety Requirements from the Machinery Directive were analyzed to determine which could benefit from including Digital Twin technology in the machinery design process. This investigation concluded Digital Twins could be beneficial for ergonomics, control, mechanical and protection requirements. Two individual requirements were used as an example of a practical application. Both were analyzed deeply to develop a component in Emulate3D that could demonstrate compliance with them.
The Company:
Qubiqa is a global engineering and manufacturing company dedicated to making innovative, efficient, and value-adding products and solutions for optimizing internal logistics and packing.
They supply many different industries, and customers include manufacturers of insulation materials (boards/rolls), ceiling tiles, roof tiles, kitchen elements, biomass, etc. They are primarily known for high-quality products and many years of know-how from the insulation industry as a supplier to the biggest manufacturers in the world.
Faster time to market
When building large systems, testing, and validating the PLC and HMI application can be a challenge. The machine builder needs a lot of space to fit the mechanics before connecting the PLC and HMI. Typically, the application engineers are the last to have access to the system running tests and prepare for FAT.
In ProjectBinder we call this sequential engineering, meaning tasks are done in a sequence beginning with designing the system, purchasing components, assembly, and then testing.
This method often creates delays and introduces risks in getting products fast to the market.
A digital twin allows the engineering department to work in parallel testing scenarios without dependencies.
Emulating large systems.
Qubiqa builds large systems and meets challenges when building and testing full-scale systems. The objective of this project was to build a full-scale digital twin of the system where PLC and HMI tags are connected, enabling the automation engineers to test and validate their parts prior to the factory acceptance test. At the same time, since only a fraction of the line is available physically, the digital twin enables the possibility of testing the complete system before the delivery on-site to the client.
ProjectBinder’s role in this project was to deliver a turnkey project ready to connect a safety PLC and start emulating the design for testing the control code of the machine. For this project, we balanced the use of standard catalogues from Emulate3D and Qubiqa’s own mechanical designs to get the model ready fast before connecting the required tags and adding kinematics to the model.
Additionally, we built functionality to test different loads in a random sequence with the objectives of stressing the system and discovering bottlenecks early and demonstrating to the end-user the capability of the design.
Apart from the primary scope, we built fences and safety door switches enabling early testing of the safety application and securing the correct stopping sequence and functionality. Additionally, a control panel was built inside the model to facilitate the operation and control of the machine.
The turnaround time for this project was less than 8 working days from the first kickoff meeting to delivering the project on-site.
Voice of customer
“It has been really good to work with the model. We made several worst-case scenario tests together with the end-user. They were impressed with the result and left the testing confident in our solution and the project. This project has definitely created value for us states “ conclude Anders Brandsborg Jensen, Electrical Hardware Manager at Qubiqa A/S
The Company:
Aasted is a worldwide market-leading manufacturer of production solutions within the chocolate, bakery, and confectionery industries.
This Danish company supplies complete processing lines, machinery, and equipment around the world. At Aasted the mission for success is mainly in the equipment they develop and optimizing the design process is essential to achieve it.
Digital twin as a tool for OEM:
Developing prototypes can be a long process with several pitfalls and in the end, resulting in hours spend, the material used, machines parts manufactured with a design that cannot meet throughput demands or a finished product for the market to use.
To address these challenges a digital twin is the right tool.
Traditionally a way of testing new machines or production cells is to build a mockup of the design. This enables companies to evaluate and present their ideas to their clients but with no or limited functionality. However, a mockup is a great solution when physical limitations need to be evaluated and is often very cost-effective.
A digital twin allows the machine builders to validate every aspect of the machine design without building it physically. This results in no scrap material from the mockup and several hours saved in the building phase of the mockup.
At the same time, a digital twin allows the engineers to add functionality from an application controller to the model verifying the design and functionality. Testing the throughput at this stage is easy due to the emulation functionality a digital twin gives. Everything achieved working in a virtual space.
The objectives and the outcome:
In this project, the main objective was to understand how close and mature a digital twin is to a real-life machine unit. Together with Aasted, we focused on the possibility of testing machine parts before they are built and by doing this avoid functionality issues during commissioning.
ProjectsBinder’s role in this project was to build a digital twin in Emualte3D adding functionality and scripting enabling Aasted to emulate the model connected to a PLC and replicate the findings from the real unit.
Based on the as-build CAD files we created the digital twin in Emualte3D which included kinematic, physics, and preparing for control testing.
It was important to design the model for low PC requirements so the model could run on a standard office laptop without special specification and as close to the real machine unit as possible.
The first step is to evaluate the critical connection points in the model to avoid heavy calculation on impact in areas that are not important for the test scenario. In this project the connection between the tray and the chain conveyor is an essential area thus it is important to use mesh physics. When using mesh physics, we experience the real-life behaviour of the tray once connected with the chain conveyor. The tray loading area does not need the same level of physics as a simpler calculation model was used.
The result by understanding the model and defining the objectives from the beginning is a model that is light to work with and at the same time shows the behaviour of the machine unit in a digital environment.
The turnaround time for the initial model was less than 4 days from receiving the CAD files to delivering the model to Aasted. Hereafter close corporation between Aasted engineers and ProjectBinder with a small adjustment, add-ons, etc. The complete investment from Projectbinder was 15 days.
Voice of customer
“At Aasted we are always challenging the way things are done. That is both in the equipment we develop and in the way we use digitization and new technology to optimize our design processes.
Digital Twin is a phrase often used when talking about digitization and at Aasted we also saw great potential in the benefits promised by this technology, but as with many new trends, there is often a gap between what is promised and what is possible when applying to real-life problems. Aasted also had some prior experience using Digital Twin before we approached ProjectBinder. Experience that mainly concluded the software available was difficult to set up and required expert modelling skills to achieve quite simple results. The ProjectBinder As-A-Service model helped us get to the core of the simulation problem very quickly and we have had excellent support on both modelling and simulation throughout the project.
All in all, it has been a very positive experience that has resulted in an Aasted Digital Twin “best practice” handbook and a thorough understanding of how the technology will be used in R&D projects.” Conclude Henrik Heitmann, Chief Technology Officer Aasted ApS.
“When working with a digital twin it is essential to set the objective before you start. Failing to do so results in resource-heavy models and time spent on nonessential functionality. In this model, we focused our energy where it was important for Aasted to achieve the result of the retro testing. It was important not to make a 100% shadow of the machine when it is the functionality in certain areas and scenarios we wanted to replicate. Simultaneously we had the constrain that we needed the digital twin to run on an office Pc meaning memory and performance was a limitation.”
Poul Kristensen, Head of OEM at ProjectBinder.
“Time to production is important for both end-users and machine builders. It is essential to get the product to the market fast and most effectively. Testing scenarios and possible failures virtually save a lot of time and as important saves the environment a lot of waste.” Says Martin Petersen, General Manager at ProjectBinder.
Digital twin to reduce machine downtime
The digital twin as a digital shadow
In this great article from ScienceDirect, the Digital Shadow phenom is being discussed and how data can be used in production starting with data warehouse solutions and then discussing how to orchestra data for a more effective and efficient information supply in dynamic industrial environments.
As this article mainly covers the strategy around Digital Shadow it also touches on the use of Digital Twins as a tool to observe failing rates and reduce machine downtime.
We at ProjectBinder would like to give an example of how a Digital Twin can be used to shadow a machine and from this improve MTTR (Mean time to Repair) and increase overall OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness).
Challenges with remote support
Production lines will break down over time and it is essential to get the production line up and running fast lowering the MTTR (Mean time to Repair).
When supporting clients globally it is essential to understand what is happening on site. Traditionally once a client reports an issue the service department start faultfinding and in the best case have eyes on the production line. If the fault can’t be corrected remotely a service technician is forced to travel to the site which prolongs the plant downtime and increases the overall cost.
Lately, with modern technology, faultfinding can be done through different communication platforms like Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp or equivalent which gives the service engineer an extra tool for a fast diagnostic.
Adding a digital twin as a shadow of the production line allows the service department to have eyes on the production line and observe what the client experience without being on-site and the root cause of failure can be determined fast.
With a digital twin of the real machine, the service department can test scenarios in the virtual model while still connected to the machine remotely. With this help, the client can implement the corrections based on a tested and validated solution without experimenting on real production material.
The benefits of using a digital twin
Let’s see an example: the ease of moving sensors or stroke length of an actuator in the digital model while connected to the live machine. The effect of the changes can be tested without production loss or expensive unnecessary remanufacture of the construction before the change has been validated.
A digital shadow based on a digital twin helps clients to stay productive and support a positive impact on Profit and Loss (P&L).
The key contributors here are:
* Fast access to the production line & data with a virtual model of the actual production issues.
* Decreased MTTR due to “eyes on the line” enabling fast diagnostics.
* Safe testing of changes without impact on the actual production line.
* Less scrap during faultfinding and running-in.
* Step-by-step tutorial using Augmented Reality for fast implementation of the changes.
Conclusion
To draw the conclusión, one can say that a digital twin is an essential part of a machine lifecycle. In the above examples, we are using the tool as a great service tool in the production stage that benefits both the machine builder and the end-user.
The natural next step with a digital twin is to use the model from a training and maintenance perspective. The journey from deploying the digital twin into a virtual or augmented reality environment is just around the corner when the twin has been developed.
Digital twin to shorten lead time
The company
Cabinplant is one of the world leaders in the development of processing technology, especially in the fields of processing and weighing/packing and in the handling of complex raw materials.
Their expertise is in the handling, processing, weighing, and packing of difficult-to-handle products for large-scale food productions. Sticky, complicated and fragile raw materials that require innovative thinking to become desirable products for end customers.
Digital twin as a tool for OEM
Meeting deadlines in a competitive market is essential and put pressure on the OEM’s. Several stages in the development lifecycle are well known as challenges that can prolong the delivery of the project causing deadlines to be moved and missing essential production at the end-user.
To address these issues, a digital twin is the right tool.
Traditionally, any change or addition to a machine starts in the mechanical department where they study the viability and subsequently design the components according to the specifications. Once the design is completed, it is manufactured and deployed to the machine before the functionality has been tested.
A digital twin allows engineers to work in parallel during the process of development. It allows them to test upfront their design and code, prior to the machine has been built. This leads to the optimization of resources minimizing time to market, errors, and scrapped components during the process.
The objectives and the outcome:
Together with Cabinplant, we focused on which gains a digital twin can bring from an automation perspective, putting special attention on the test and commissioning phase, as well as the running-in phase.
ProjectBinders role in this project was to help Cabinplant with a jumpstart into the digital twin era delivering two individual models ready to connect PLC tags and start testing the functionality virtual.
Based on high-quality CAD files we created two digital twins in Emulate3D in which we included kinematic and physics to the components as well as functionality to change friction and mass during emulation. This is important to the models because it represents real-life production where cups are filled, and fluids are spilt which influence the starting and stopping profile of the application.
Fundamentally we focused on delivering the models based on scalable libraries enabling Cabinplant in the future to reuse every component in other projects with limited engineering.
The turnaround time for both models were less than 8 days from receiving the CAD files to delivering the two models to Cabinplant.
Voice of customer:
“With a digital twin of a line or machine, there are benefits to gain in the different phases in the lifecycle of the machine. One of the findings in this project is the ability to change the surface friction while running the machine virtually helping to verify the operation profile of the conveyor belt resulting in the possibility to finetune the application code before any product has been applied for the testing.
The additional benefit here is that we can test scenarios without any scrap meaning a financial gain to both parties in the project. Another finding is when investigating new technology all parties need to invest time and resources to be successful.”
Digital twin to mitigate risks
The company
SICATECH offers a wide variety of specialized products to decorate a broad range of consumer and industrial products. Among these products are complete lines of pad printing machines, corona equipment as well as accessories.
Digital twin as a tool for OEM
When working in various industries, it is important to retain trust in your brand. When delivering specialized lines and products, mitigating risk and testing scenarios early are critical to meet deadlines and throughput requirements.
To address this a Digital Twin is a great option.
Including the Digital Twin early in the engineering phase and building the twin in reusable catalogues makes it easy to test scenarios, relations, and bottlenecks before anything is built. This protects your brand and verifying the designed solution cost-effectively.
The benefits of using Digital Twin
Using a digital twin early in the process helps mitigate risk and optimise the project’s cost by parallel engineering and verifying throughput. Additional, investing limited time in the mechanical design by defining a good hierarchy of your parts will help create a visual real-life experience of the model. As in many other aspects when you invest early the cost is low and the benefit and payback later are big.
Digital Twin for machine manufacturing
This video explores the potentials of the Digital Twin technology applied in a real project in the pharmaceutical industry.
Imagine only, transforming all data from hundreds of function specification documents into a working virtual replica of a machine.
The results indicate new ways to move faster to the market while remaining cost-effective and environmentally cautious. A digital twin allows a better working plan, creating less waste while maximizing efficiency and accuracy.
It is a great opportunity to help customers become more productive and support them in their journey towards Industry 4.0.
Digital Twin for virtual commissioning & digital shadow
This video features a full digital twin for the Novo Nordisk next-generation pen assembly line that focuses on the virtual commissioning and digital shadowing stages.
It shows how cost-efficient an industry could become if you perform maintenance before failures occur.
Now it is possible with a digital twin to operate on historical data and use predictive maintenance algorithms to predict maintenance cycles and failure points of equipment and assets.
Digital Twin for design review
The video shows how a digital twin can be an excellent tool in a winning strategy to increase productivity in the manufacturing industry.
A digital twin allows to: Test scenarios, verify the throughput and test new design ideas. All in the very early design phase of the machine lifecycle.
Obtain live data from a machine digital twin
Take a look at how you can layout a machine 3D design on your desk even if you are miles away from the production line.
ProjectBinder uses the most advanced augmented reality tools to help you to visualize, manage, and process live data from a machine digital twin. Watch the video and figure out how easy is to make cost-efficient decisions based on real-time data displayed on your mobile phone.
