From the editor of the site: At the end of May, the Siemens PLM Connection forum was held in Moscow, the main topics of which were the creation of a digital twin, 3D printing, the Internet of things and increasing the competitiveness of Russian products.
Note that the term digital twin in Russian-language publications is also translated as “ digital twin", and as a "digital twin".
The hall barely accommodated everyone.
Five steps to building a digital enterprise
Modern technologies are revolutionizing the way products are manufactured. Companies are accelerating their processes, increasing flexibility and efficiency, and improving quality. Siemens believes that it is not enough to focus on only one stage of production for this. It is necessary to take into account the entire chain, from the development of products to their use.“Once you create and optimize these processes, you can integrate them, connect your suppliers, and get a single holistic approach to building your business. What's more, it will give you the ability to create a digital twin of your business that will allow you to model your business to identify bottlenecks early on, such as where surpluses are occurring or where delays are expected,” said Jean Luca Sacco, Director of Marketing for Siemens PLM Software in the EMEA region. - It sounds like a fantasy, but it is already quite feasible. It only takes five steps, and the digital twin can help your company.”
The first step is product development, Jean Luca Sacco illustrated on real example one of Siemens' own products, reusing as many of its previous generations as possible and subject to subsequent verification without physical prototyping of all its properties, including heating, cooling and EMI protection. “Our specialty is product development based on a systematic approach based on an information-filled digital twin of the product, which is stored in the Teamcenter collaboration environment in such a way that all development participants have access to it,” he said.
The second step is the development of production technology, which implies modeling not the product itself, but production operations. “With Plant Simulation, we simulate all production operations before the workplace is created, in order to foresee any difficulties in advance. And this applies not only to one workplace, but to the entire plant as a whole. This will allow to optimize material flows, energy consumption and simulate production processes long before the start of investment in building a workshop,” said Jean Luca Sacco and presented an example showing how a dangerous curvature of the worker’s spine during assembly can be avoided with the help of a model.
The third step, preparation and launch of production, is associated with the use of another digital twin, this time for technical processes and equipment. According to Jean Luca Sacco, Siemens is the only company in the world that can offer an integrated computer-engineering complex that allows you to create a complete digital twin that includes all disciplines, such as mechanical, electrical and software to test everything before production. He emphasized the importance of integrating all the components of such a twin: “After all, everything in life is interconnected. We design a product, on this basis we develop a process, and the features of the technical process impose requirements for product development.
The fourth step - the production of the product, is also implemented using a digital twin. Indeed, without it it is impossible to draw up a real work schedule in order, for example, to determine the loss of time and optimize production processes. Traditionally, this required a lot of paper instructions, which was inefficient and error-prone, but digital modeling makes it possible to create the ideal set of instructions for manufacturing and assembling a product. Jean Luca Sacco explained that such a solution is complex, it covers all the resources of the enterprise, such as people, materials, tooling, machines, and with the help of a digital twin allows you to manage production. Electronic Information transferred to the operator at that moment. when he needs her. At the workplace, he can use augmented reality technology and better understand what he needs to do with the incoming workpiece and thereby minimize assembly errors. But even if errors do occur, comparing the real product with its digital twin will eliminate them. “This approach removes the walls that have always existed between designers and workers, and thus makes it possible to significantly improve the quality of products,” said Jean Luca Sacco.
The fifth stage - maintenance, will become more efficient if you use a solution that allows you to collect and analyze the information that the product generates during its operation.
To implement these five steps, Siemens offers the Digital Enterprise Software Suite, which includes Teamcenter, NX, Tecnomatix and others, which takes into account the processes of production chains for different industries. According to Jean Luca Sacco, this solution shows the state of the product at all stages - from the initial idea to the consumer, all in a single environment. At the same time, at each stage, people use the achievements of their colleagues, benefiting from the fact that they have data not only about the current stage, but also about all previous and subsequent ones.
Russian realities
This innovative approach will be useful Russian companies, as they are in the same development trend as the entire global industry. “We have the same problems as everywhere else - an increase in the complexity of products. This is typical not only for aviation and the automotive industry, but for the entire engineering industry,” said Viktor Bespalov, Vice President, General Manager of Siemens PLM Software in Russia and the CIS. “In addition, new business models are emerging related to the spread of advanced technologies, such as the Internet of things, additive manufacturing, human-machine interfaces, big data.”Despite all the difficulties, our companies create complex innovative products, solving problems that have not been solved before. Victor Bespalov cited several developments as an example. So, when creating a new Il-76 transport aircraft, a digital layout was built and a single information space was implemented, covering the parent organization - Design Bureau named after. Ilyushin, and suppliers.
When developing the new KamAZ-5490 tractor, almost all assembly processes were simulated before the start of production, which corresponds to the Siemens concept, and when creating the new PD-14 engine, which is now being tested, its full digital layout was developed, which is used not only in production, but in technological services.
At the same time, Viktor Bespalov stressed, Russian enterprises have to solve many problems. So, due to the complication of products, they stop working traditional methods product decomposition. Therefore, at the earliest stages, it is necessary to deal with requirements management and compliance with certification norms.
Making changes during the development phase and beyond remains a challenge. This is where the use of digital modeling and various methods calculation, however, the complexity of this task suggests that there is still work to be done. There are resource management issues related to the interaction between PLM and ERP.
Viktor Bespalov: “Despite all the difficulties, most of our Russian customers
plans to expand the use of Siemens PLM Software products.”
There are also national problems. Our companies work not only locally, they enter global markets, because otherwise it is impossible. Victor Bespalov cited data from a Russian aviation holding company and its foreign competitors, which show that our company spends almost twice as much time fine-tuning production as they do. In his opinion, this is a wake-up call that Western companies are bringing products to market much faster, and Russian manufacturers should try to reduce these losses.
To do this, our companies must use technologies that make them competitive. In this regard, Viktor Bespalov believes that one should be attentive to the choice of technologies: “I categorically disagree with the statements of some Russian developers that have appeared recently in connection with the import substitution policy, in which they emphasize that Russian PLM systems are 80% meet the requirements of our enterprises. And what to do with the remaining 20%? How will our domestic companies be able to compete in such a situation? How to deal with global players who are already equipped with modern technologies?”.
As an answer to these rhetorical questions, Viktor Bespalov cited the results of a survey of Russian customers, which show. that despite all the difficulties, most of them plan to expand the use of Siemens PLM Software products.
Apparently, the attention that the Russian office shows to the requirements of customers plays an important role in this. Moreover, today we are no longer talking about the design of drawings, but about functional requirements. At the last conference, the consideration of the requirements of the OKB im. Sukhoi and ASTC im. Antonov in the NX CAD system.
This work continues for other products, in particular, the integration of the Sinumetrik CNC system and NX CAM to combine the real and virtual worlds has been strengthened, the integration of NX and Fibersim for aviation programs has been improved, the Product Cost Management system has been adapted to Russian costing methodologies, and Teamcenter and Test systems have been integrated. Lab for end-to-end requirements verification process.
This topic worries Russian users. So Michael Rebruch, director of development at NX, was asked from the floor about how you can communicate your concerns to the NX developers and influence development. To which he replied that the company continues to cooperate with customers in Russia, listening to the wishes and taking them into account: “It is important for us to understand how they work, where they experience difficulties, and then we will try to help.” For his part, Viktor Bespalov promised that immediately after the forum, work with customers would continue on defining requirements and creating a plan to meet them in next versions products.
Attention is also paid to the topic of creating a prototype of a standard solution. “PLM is not a cheap technology, so customers are interested in getting quick returns. In this regard, over the past four years, our efforts have been focused on reducing the implementation time,” Viktor Bespalov said.
Special pre-configured data models, NX templates for supporting ESD, templates for change management processes, libraries for standard parts, materials, technological resources, etc. have already been created, a methodology has been developed quick launch into operation. According to Siemens estimates and data from pilot projects, implementation times can be cut in half due to the fact that almost 80% of the work is covered by a standard solution, and only 20-30% is accounted for by taking into account the specifics of the customer.
In addition, as part of the implementation of the industrial approach announced several years ago, Siemens is promoting in Russia a set of pre-configured industry solutions Catalyst, which includes best practices and basic processes for various industries, such as shipbuilding, automotive, mechanical engineering, electronics, energy, etc. . According to Viktor Bespalov, these solutions make it possible to introduce new solutions into existing processes in such a way as to bridge the gap between advanced technologies and what the enterprise actually uses.
The speeches of Russian customers showed how we implement the listed Siemens technologies. So, Vasily Skvorchuk, head of the IT department at Ural Locomotives LLC, said that when launching a new production of Lastochka electric trains, it was decided to create at the enterprise integrated system automation, including Teamcenter, NX CAD/CAM/CAE from Siemens, the Russian-Belarusian Omega ERP system (Russian-Belarusian) and 1C: Manufacturing Enterprise Management.
Vasily Skvorchuk: “Now in the integrated corporate system employs about 1100 people"
Ural Locomotives LLC, a joint venture with Siemens, was established in 2010. “From that moment, our plant began to develop rapidly information technologies”, - said Vasily Skvorchuk and added that now about 1,100 people work in the integrated corporate system, and management can monitor the progress of work on the manager’s panel, which receives all the basic information. Thanks to this system, all divisions have access to a single source of up-to-date information necessary for the production of high-quality equipment for Lastochka.
The company plans to use a three-dimensional electronic product layout for parts processed on a CNC machine. A pilot project has already been carried out.
The Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant, which develops and manufactures Mi-8 helicopters, is also switching to an electronic layout of the product. CIO of the plant Maxim Lobanov spoke about two projects to organize a digital process of technological preparation of production based on the original design documentation in the form of an electronic layout.
First, for the new helicopter model, the End Beam project was implemented, during which the rigging and the beam itself were created, and then the Cargo Floor project, made entirely using paperless technology. As part of this project, the tooling assembly process was worked out, which made it possible to increase the accuracy of the assembly and reduce the time.
According to Maxim Lobanov, in connection with the transition to paperless technologies, it became necessary to integrate the Teamcenter PLM system with the planning system used at the plant, as well as create a modern information system to bring the digital layout to each workplace.
Foreign examples
From the perspective of global competition, it is interesting to see how the digital transformation is developing in foreign enterprises. For example, Konecranes, a company that manufactures and services cranes and other lifting equipment, began its journey of harmonizing its approach to digitalization in 2008.“Production and service is an interesting combination to get maximum effect, you need to bring these elements together. We have about half a million pieces of equipment in service and digitalization is very important here,” explained Matti Leto, Director of Product & Engineering Process at Konecranes.
According to him, first the processes were defined, and then the search began for a solution to ensure these processes in such a way that the systems continue to work in the future for many years. A list of platforms was compiled, including ERP, CRM, etc., but the company considers the PLM system to be the most important in terms of long-term sustainability, since it contains information about products. The choice fell on Teamcenter.
At the moment, some of the systems have been implemented, the rest are being implemented. Meanwhile, Konecranes is moving to the next level of digitalization by using IoT technology to automate equipment maintenance and streamline other processes. For this purpose, a portal has been created for the exchange of information between the company, partners and customers.
The IoT project at Konecranes has started successfully. More than 10 thousand units of equipment are connected to the network. “PLM-system significantly increases the value of the Internet of Things, because product data together with equipment monitoring data allows you to quickly make informed decisions,” Matti Leto shared his experience. We believe that the Internet of Things is new model for the business that holds the future.”
The digital twin as the basis for future production
The ongoing industrial revolution is transforming business, posing difficult challenges for enterprises. Development processes are changing, for example, through the use of crowdsourcing and a systems-oriented approach to design, and in the field of production, changes are taking place through the use of additive manufacturing, modern robotic systems and intelligent automation tools.“Creating a digital twin to manage the lifecycle of the entire production system allows enterprises to reach a new level of innovation,” said Robert Meschel, Siemens PLM Software’s senior director for Manufacturing Engineering Software strategy, and said that acting in this direction, the company is developing the direction of manufacturing engineering and digital production. “Several innovations that we are currently working on bridge the gap between design and production,” said Robert Meschel.
In addition, robots are increasingly being used, which are now much more flexible than before. 3D printing, which until recently was considered only suitable for prototyping, is beginning to be used in real production. As evidence, Robert Meschel cited concrete examples from the aerospace, shipbuilding, engineering and automotive industries, which show that this provides a radical acceleration: "We are updating our products to give customers the opportunity to use this technology."
Another promising advanced approach is virtual commissioning using an integrated appliance. According to Robert Meschel, all this indicates that the basis of future production will be the simulation of reality, and an important prerequisite for this is a digital twin - a model with a high degree detail.
It is also important that the use of a digital twin allows you to integrate calculations and full-scale tests, as well as models and data. According to Wuter Dehandshutter, Technical Director of Product, Siemens PLM Software, the challenge here is to make the most of the information created at different stages and link it together, but now there are a number of stages in which engineering information is produced in isolation.
Woeter Dehandshutter: "The use of a digital twin allows the integration of calculations and field tests"
He showed that this problem can be solved by using a digital twin, analyzing the product at the earliest stages through virtual tests, managing this twin and increasing its level of detail and accuracy so that field tests can focus on meeting requirements, and not on finding solutions.
As an example, Wuter Dehandshutter cited the Irkut corporation, which applied this approach to the design of the MS-21 aircraft, using the LMS Imagin.Lab and LMS Amesim products to calculate the system behavior. At the same time, not only individual parts were modeled, but the overall interaction of systems, which made it possible even at the design stage to check how the whole aircraft would behave and, according to Irkut, reduce the creation of the most complex models by five times compared to the previously used solution.
What's new in NX 11
While promoting the concept of the digital twin, Siemens does not forget about its core products. Michael Rebruch, Director of Engineering for NX, Siemens PLM Software, introduced some of the new features coming in August with NX 11 and November with NX 11.01.However, one novelty is already available. It's free mobile app Catchbook designed for development. “By drawing a freehand sketch on a tablet, the result of which is converted to geometry, we can add dimensions and control the positioning of the sketches. It is also possible to take a photo with a mobile phone and use this system to explore the possibilities of this project,” Michael Rebruch explained.
Michael Rebruch talks about what's new in NX 11
Along with NX 11, a new product, Converging Model, will be released, which allows you to combine precise geometry and face-based cellular representation in one model. According to Michael Rebruch, clients who have already met him say he has changed the way he works so that the model can be used in design, testing and new methods such as 3D printing and hybrid manufacturing.
NX 11 will also include Nvidia's new Lightworks Iray+ solution, powered by Nvidia's Iray technology, for rendering photorealistic images and including a library of materials and scenes.
In addition, NX 11 will be able to scan and upload huge point clouds into the system and interact with them just like in the real world to design in the context of the physical environment.
In NX 11.01 will be implemented new technology topology optimization, designed to create surfaces of complex shape, optimize the shape, mass, materials used, dimensions and topology of structures while maintaining the functioning of the part. It is expected that this will improve the interaction with additive manufacturing. -->
More recently, German Gref, president of Sberbank, said that in 5 years artificial intelligence will replace many people: 80% of decisions will be made by machines, and this will lead to the fact that tens of thousands of people will lose their jobs.
Machine learning and artificial intelligence expert Pedro Domingos goes even further: he suggests that people will acquire a computer psychological model of their personality. What will she be?
Sex, lies and machine learning
The digital future begins with the realization that when you interact with a computer, whether it be your own smartphone or a server thousands of miles away, you do it on two levels every time. The first is the desire to immediately get what you need: an answer to a question, a product you want, a new credit card. At the second level, strategic and most important, you tell the computer about yourself.
The more you teach him, the better he will serve or manipulate you.
What model of your personality do you want to offer to the computer? What data can be given to him so that he builds this model? These questions need to be kept in mind whenever you interact with a machine learning algorithm - just like when interacting with people.
digital mirror
Think about all your data that is stored in all the computers in the world. These are emails, MS Office documents, texts, tweets, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, web search history, clicks, downloaded files and orders, credit history, taxes, phone and medical records, driving information recorded in on-board computer of your car, a map of movements registered by your mobile phone, all the pictures you've ever taken, brief appearances on security camera footage.
If the future biographer had access only to this “data exhaust” and nothing else, what picture would he have? Probably pretty accurate.
Imagine that you took all your data and gave it to the real Master Algorithm of the future, which already has knowledge about human life that we can teach it. He will create your model and you can carry it on a flash drive in your pocket. Of course, it will be a great tool for introspection - how to look at yourself in the mirror. But the mirror would be digital and would show not only your appearance, but everything that can be learned by watching you. The mirror could come to life and talk.
Benefits of the digital twin
What would you like to do, what tasks to entrust to your digital soulmate? Probably the first thing you would want from your model is to instruct her to negotiate with the world on your behalf: release her into cyberspace so that she will look for all sorts of things for you.
Of all the books in the world, she'll recommend a dozen that you'll want to read first, and the advice is so deep that Amazon couldn't even dream of. The same will happen with movies, music, games, clothing, electronics, whatever. Of course, your refrigerator will always be full. The model will filter your email, voicemail, Facebook news, and Twitter updates, and when appropriate, respond for you.
She takes care of all the annoying little things modern life such as checking credit card bills, appealing wrong transactions, planning your schedule, renewing subscriptions, and filing tax returns. She will select the medicine for you, check with your doctor and order it in the online store.
The model will tell you who you like. And after you get to know each other and like each other, your model will team up with the model of your chosen one and choose restaurants that both of you can like. And this is where it gets really interesting.
Model Society
In the very fast approaching future, you will not be the only person with a "digital half" who runs your orders around the clock. A similar model of personality will appear in everyone, and the models will communicate with each other all the time.
If you are looking for a job and a company has X employees, then its model will interview yours. Their “conversation” will in many ways resemble a real, “live” one - your model will be well instructed, for example, it will not give out negative information about you - however, the whole process will take only a fraction of a second.
In the world of the Master Algorithm, "my people will contact yours" will become "my program will contact your program." Each person will have a retinue of bots, designed to make their way around the world easier and more enjoyable. Deals, negotiations, meetings - all this will be organized before you lift a finger.
Your digital soulmate will be like a power steering: life will go where you want it, but with less effort on your part.
This does not mean that you will find yourself in a “filter bubble” and only see what you are guaranteed to like, without any surprises. The digital person will be much smarter, they will be instructed to leave room for chance, let you touch new experiences, look for happy accidents.
As the models improve, the interaction will become more and more similar to what would happen in the real world, but it will happen in silico and a million times faster. The cyberspace of tomorrow will turn into a very vast parallel world, which will choose all the most promising to try in reality. It will be like a new, global subconscious, the collective "Id" of humanity, or "It".
Today's world is notable for the fact that theories of mind have begun to appear in computers. So far, these theories are still primitive, but they are developing rapidly, and we will have to work with them no less than with other people to get what we want.
Based on the materials of the book "The Supreme Algorithm"
There is a better way. Identification of ways to improve the efficiency of design and technological design processes
Aaron Frenkel, Jan Larssen
Product manufacturing is undoubtedly the most important part of all life cycle processes. At this stage, ideas turn into reality. What’s more, without coordinated design and manufacturing processes to ensure successful assembly on the shop floor, ideas will remain just beautiful drawings or not fully implemented. For many years, the methods of designing and developing technological processes have remained unchanged, retaining all the traditional disadvantages that lead to an increase in cost and time. Considering that today innovations have become vital for the survival of machine-building enterprises, Siemens PLM Software analyzed the pre-production processes in order to identify ways to further optimize them. In this article, Aaron Frankel, Senior Director of Marketing for Machinery Solutions, and Jan Larsson, Senior Director of Marketing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Siemens PLM Software, discuss which sources of inefficiency should be be eliminated in order to implement the concept of a "digital twin of the product", and how this will affect the way products are produced.
beautiful symphony
If you find yourself in a modern factory, you will see an amazing symphony of human labor, robots and machines, the movement of materials and parts - all done to the nearest second to keep up with schedule. The picture is just fantastic.
But behind the scenes we will see outdated processes of design and technological preparation of production. We are not going to criticize anyone. Developing a product design is no small achievement in itself. Design can be very challenging task. In some cases, a product consists of millions of parts, and thousands of employees and partners work to create it, often all over the world. Moreover, critical industries such as electronics (faster processors, miniaturization), automotive (green and emission reduction) and aerospace (green and composite materials) are constantly striving to optimize and accelerate the process of creating new products. Given the high complexity of the tasks to be solved, the reluctance to deviate from field-proven pre-production processes is quite understandable. However, our customers are reporting common product design and manufacturing issues that in some cases result in costly delays.
Common problems
One of the most serious difficulties that we see is that designers and technologists use different systems. In practice, this leads to the fact that designers transfer their developments to technologists who are trying to create technological processes in computer systems to which they are accustomed. In this scenario - and it occurs very often - there is a desynchronization of information, which makes it difficult to control the situation. In addition, the likelihood of errors increases.
Problems regularly arise during the development of shop floor plans. The reason for this is that layouts are usually created in the form of 2D floor plans and paper drawings. This is a long and laborious process. 2D drawings are an important part of the process, but they don't have the flexibility you need. It often happens that the rearrangement of equipment in the workshop is not fixed on the drawing. The problem is especially exacerbated when working in rapidly changing markets (eg, consumer electronics), which require constant expansion and modernization of production systems. Why? Because two-dimensional layouts lack intelligence and associativity. They prevent technologists from knowing exactly what is happening on the shop floor and making smart decisions quickly.
After creating the layout, a technological route is developed. As a rule, then it passes the control stage. Here lies another significant obstacle to the growth of efficiency. Technologists usually have to wait until the equipment is installed to evaluate the performance of the equipment. Moreover, if the characteristics are lower than expected, then it is too late to develop an alternative technology. Our experience shows that this situation leads to significant delays.
Finally, customers report two more problems at the end of the pre-production cycle. This is an assessment of the performance of individual operations and the entire technological process as a whole.
Due to the high complexity of modern production and the often lack of coordination between different process design systems, it is not easy to determine which operations or production areas are causing delays in the entire line. And when it comes to the actual manufacture of a product, customers report that evaluating productivity and how well the actual processes match up with what they planned is usually extremely difficult. And again, the problem is high complexity, as well as the lack of feedback between production, designers and technologists.
Digital Twin
A digital twin is a virtual copy of a real object that behaves just like the real object. Without going into the technical details of our products here, suffice it to say that our Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tools provide a complete digital platform. It supports the use of digital twins that accurately model end-to-end product design and manufacturing processes.
What does all this mean in practice? Let's take a look at the above steps again and show the main features provided by the new approach.
Construction
NX (and other CAD systems) creates a model of the product and sends it to Teamcenter in 3D JT format. In seconds, the app creates thousands of different virtual product designs that exactly match the actual product. At the same time, big data processing technologies, design and technological information (PMI) contained in the models (tolerances, fits, relationships between parts and assemblies), as well as a basic description of the technological process are used to identify potential problems. This approach has already been tested in practice when creating our company's electronic products. For example, we were able to immediately determine that the threaded holes on the video output connector did not exactly line up with the screw holes on the PCB. If the error had gone undetected, it would have resulted in warranty claims from customers: the connector could have come loose from the printed circuit board. Identifying design errors early saves significant time and money, both in technology development and production.
Design of technological processes
The digital twin improves the collaboration between designers and technologists, optimizes the choice of location and manufacturing technology, as well as the allocation of necessary resources. Consider an example of making changes to the build process. Using our software, process engineers, based on the new design specification, add new operations to the working 3D model of the process. It is possible to simulate any production system from anywhere in the world: say, technologists in Paris are preparing production at a plant in Rio. With information about the time for each added operation, technologists check whether the new technological route meets the specified performance indicators. If this is not the case, then the technological operations are replaced or rearranged. Then numerical simulation is performed again until the selected technological route meets the requirements. The new workflow is immediately available to all developers for approval. If any problems are identified, then designers and technologists work together to eliminate them.
shop floor plans
When working on layouts, we recommend creating a digital twin that contains mechanical equipment, automation systems and resources, and is clearly related to the entire “ecosystem” of design and technological pre-production. With the help of a set of PLM tools, technological operations can be swapped by drag and drop. Just as easy is the placement of equipment and personnel on the production line and simulation of its operation. It is very simple, but at the same time exceptional effective method creation and editing of technological processes. When design changes are made that require a new industrial robot, numerical simulation specialists check, for example, whether it is possible to install a robot of this size without hitting the conveyor. The shop plan designer makes the necessary adjustments and prepares a notice of changes, on the basis of which the purchasing department purchases new equipment. This analysis of the consequences of the changes made allows you to avoid errors and, if necessary, immediately notify suppliers.
Control of technological design decisions
In the control phase, a digital twin is used to virtually verify the assembly process. Virtual modeling and quantitative analysis allows you to evaluate all the factors associated with manual labor in the assembly, and identify problems such as awkward posture of the worker. This makes it possible to avoid fatigue and work-related injuries. Based on the results of the simulation, training videos and instructions are created.
Performance optimization
The digital twin is used for statistical modeling and evaluation of the designed technological system. With it, it is easy to determine whether manual labor, robots, or a combination of robots and workers should be used. All processes can be simulated numerically, down to the energy consumption of a single machine, to optimize the technology as much as possible. The analysis shows how many parts are produced in each operation. This ensures that the performance of the actual production line will match the target.
and real worlds. This allows you to compare the design project with the actually manufactured one.
product. The figure shows how big data technologies are applied
to collect current information on product quality, which is transmitted for analysis
to a digital twin stored in Teamcenter
Product manufacturing
The digital twin provides feedback between the real and virtual world, which allows you to optimize product manufacturing processes. Technological instructions are transferred directly to the workshop, where equipment operators receive them along with videos. Operators provide production data to designers (such as the gap between two screws securing a panel), while other automated systems collect performance data. Then there is a comparison of the design project and the actually manufactured product, while deviations are identified and eliminated.
New approaches to work
The use of a digital twin, which is an exact copy of a real product, helps to quickly identify potential problems, speeds up production preparation and reduces costs. In addition, the presence of a digital twin guarantees the possibility of manufacturing a product designed by designers; all technological processes are kept up-to-date and synchronized; the developed technologies turn out to be workable, and production functions exactly according to plan. The digital twin allows you to test how new technologies can be integrated into existing production lines. This eliminates the risks associated with the purchase and installation of equipment.
Mechanical engineering is one of the most advanced branches of the world industry, where proven in practice, but outdated approaches to the technological preparation of production have long been used. It's time to bring the spirit of innovation that paves the way for success in product development and manufacturing. It's time to try something new!
June 23, 2017 The creation of a 3D Digital Twin is included in the list of standard features of Winnum®, a platform for the Industrial Internet of Things. Now in Winnum® creating 3D Digital Twins is as easy as connecting sensors.
"Digital twin" is a computer representation of a specific physical product, product group, mechanical or technological process, which completely repeats everything that its physical prototype does, from movements and kinematics, to the representation of its physical environment and current operating conditions, including movement liquids and gases. The digital twin acts as an intermediary between the physical product and important information about it, such as operating or maintenance data. Now with the help of Winnum for any production systems a full-fledged Feedback based on collecting data from the real world and transferring this data to the digital world.
What is 3D Digital twin?
A 3D Digital Twin is a 3D computerized representation of a specific physical product, product group, mechanical or manufacturing process that includes more than just 3D geometry, specifications and current operating parameters, but also other important information - environment and operating conditions, technical condition and operating time, interaction with other objects, predictive analytics data, including failure and failure prediction. The digital twin can be both simplified and very detailed and reflect a wide range of the most different characteristics both the product itself and the technological and production processes.
The presence of a three-dimensional Digital Twin helps to organize the connection of the product with the objects connected to it, software responsible for managing the product, monitoring the operating status and operation process, etc. The 3D Digital Twin is especially valuable when it most closely represents the actual state and performance of its physical prototype. No matter how precise, detailed and elaborate the actions at the stages of design, simulation and pre-production are, in real life, as a rule, the processes proceed a little differently, and it is the Digital Twin that is able to act as a bridge to the necessary information about the actual operation of products. This information can be used in many ways, for example, to assess bottlenecks, opportunities for improvements and changes, confirm the feasibility of changes, etc. In addition, since the Digital Twin is a three-dimensional object, working with it is much more understandable for a person than working with any tables or graphs. The 3D Digital Twin allows you to look inside a real physical object directly during operation without the need to stop the equipment and open panels that block access to nodes that require verification.
Winnum's unique functionality allows our customers to create and manage 3D digital twins by connecting information that comes from physical objects and real processes with information that is created in various systems computer-aided design (CAD). Winnum supports loading 3D CAD models in neutral formats such as STL, VRML and OBJ, direct download is available for Blender and Collada. The presence of ready-made 3D libraries of robots, equipment, sensors and other geometric objects further speeds up and simplifies the process of creating Digital Twins, even for those companies that cannot boast of having fully digitized products in 3D.
3D Scenes and Smart Digital Twins (Smart Digital Twin)
Each Digital Twin corresponds to one specific item. That is, if a company uses 100 pieces of equipment or produces hundreds of thousands of products, then each piece of equipment/product has its own Digital Twin. Winnum's unique big data capabilities ( big data) help to work with so many digital twins to solve everyday tasks and provide high system performance regardless of their number.
3D Scenes are used to bring Digital Twins together and get an idea of their overall performance and performance, overall variation based on operating environment, and more. 3D scenes in Winnum are not just 3D environments, as is customary in computer-aided design systems. 3D scenes in Winnum is the ability to create a full-fledged 3D world with a wide range of tools for working with light sources (including Raytracing, specular views, fog, intensity, transparency), textures (including dynamic textures with video stream), custom cameras and mechanisms for interacting with 3D objects (selecting an object, clicking on an object, transferring a control action).
All actions of the 3D scene and all tools for working with the 3D Digital Twin are available exclusively in the Web browser.
About companySignum
Signum is a global provider of solutions for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The company's solutions help transform the process of creating, operating and maintaining products using Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies. The next generation Winnum™ platform gives companies the tools they need to capture, analyze and generate additional value from the big data generated by their connected computer network controllers, sensors, sensors, products and systems.
More and more companies are showing interest in the topic of digitalization of production. The organizers of the regional scientific and technical conference“Digitalization of production processes. The use of industrial software for building digital enterprises”, which was recently held in Samara.
It was initiated by the SMS-Automation group of companies, known as a universal integrator specializing in the creation and support of industrial automation systems, together with the Digital Production department of Siemens, one of the world's largest concerns in the field of automation and electrical products, with which Samara developers have been connected by more than two decades of fruitful cooperation.
Forum of manufacturers and developers information systems supported by the Ministry of Industry and Technology of the Samara region. Its specialists have repeatedly noted the success of the group of companies in the field of industrial automation and the construction of large information systems.
Representatives of industrial enterprises of the Samara region were introduced to the conceptual foundations and specific tools for building effective digital production. Industrial automation is only part of digitalization, or digitalization, as it is also called. Digitalization is the automation of processes in everything life cycle products, equipment, enterprises. The project, and its functioning, and modernization fit into it.
The report of Andrey Sidorov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the SMS-Automation Group of Companies, "Industrial Software as a Tool for Digitalization" aroused great interest among the conference participants. “We are on the verge of intellectualization of control systems,” said Andrey Sidorov (on the bottom photo). - Now equipment manufacturers in the West are changing the production model. Equipment begins to have a digital twin. The change in the business model will lead to the fact that a digital twin will be a significant factor in choosing a supplier.”
Digitization is, among other things, the development of situations on virtual digital models, which allows you to save huge amounts of money. Siemens is already at its digitalization site, without waiting for the arrival of the machine for the production of parts, having received its virtual image, it connects virtual robots to it and starts debugging technological processes without wasting time.
The topics raised by the experts related to the use of specific digital production tools were received with interest by the conference participants and raised many questions and discussions. In addition to the reports, the attention of the conference guests was attracted by demo stands with practical examples of the implementation of the principles of digitalization in the realities of industrial process control systems in Russia. Special attention at the conference was given to the issues information security modern systems automation. Acquaintance with current trends in the development of enterprises within the concept of "Industry 4.0", according to experts, can become an additional tool in the process of increasing competitiveness in the era of "Industry 4.0".