Innovative Manufacturing Automation Technology

Digital twins are a digital representation of a physical assets. They are mirror images that represent the structure and behaviour of that asset in real life. This includes the design specifications and engineering models that detail its materials, components and behaviour unique to the specific asset.

Digital twins allow a more effective lifecycle assessment of a system’s current and future capabilities from design to operations and optimisation. They are complete 360° digital representations of a physical asset, from a pump, motor, turbine, or an entire plant. At the concept phase, fast evaluation of design alternatives are assessed and iterated through variable specifications allowing integrated asset modelling of interacting but separate systems. During design, they allow analysis of processes, equipment and operations through many simulations for optimal safety, reliability and profitability.

Digital Twins bnefits

Creating a digital twin first to simulate an operation before building the physical asset provides an insight of problems before they happen, resulting in safe, more efficient and profitable operations.

The benefits of digital twins in an industrial automation environment for Product lifecycle management (PLM) enables the digital twins to become a major feature of all automation systems. It then becomes a matter of what your put in the digital twin not whether you design one. The digital twin will be a common part of the system, and companies ignoring the technology will be left behind.

Digital twin technology improve the customer’s Operating Expenses (OpEx) and the Capital Expenses (CapEx). From the simulation aspects alone, this technology will reduce both these expenses. Customer will have confidence they are deploying the best automation system and have an accurate estimation of the capital expense.

Automation of production lines need accurate digital images of physical assets and processes to predict events and optimize operations in near real-time. An automation system may comprise of several digital twins and physical devices and smart, fast-reacting factories will perform better by linking real application with the digital image almost in real time.

Digital twins are essential for developing and implementing digital models that match equipment, machines, systems and processes used in their production lines. These digital twins provide a unique tool for control and PLM. They simulate what might happen in the real-world application, such as component interactions or component wear rate and failure.

Software platform
An effective IoT enabled software platform is essential for production companies to coordinate and manage digital transformation. The ‘Elements for IoT’ solution enab les data transparency for individual machines and devices across many locations allows for efficient planning, management and predictive maintenance.

Digitalisation of manufacturing, using these tools offers improved ROI for automation investment by increasing production uptime using predictive maintenance. It also creates an opportunity for new business models, such as machine as a service and service contracts based on predictive maintenance, driven by live information and intelligent systems.

Moreover, it also supports managing the complete lifecycle of machinery from a single reference point. The development of a virtual operational model starts with CAD files of the equipment which and then connected to a physical production site.

Digital twins are modelled using live data from machine tools, robots, PLCs and other Smart devices. They then provide maintenance on-demand, to accurately predict service requirements, improving operational efficiency and reducing downtime.