Digital Twins as a Game Changer at wienerberger

Just imagine a production plant that “knows” in advance which settings deliver the best results. And all without tedious trial and error, downtime or unnecessary energy consumption. Digital twins turn this vision into reality. 

As virtual copies of physical systems, machines or entire manufacturing processes they can record, simulate and optimize parameters such as temperatures or material mixes in real time.

Digital Twins in Industry 4.0

In the Fourth Industrial Revolution digital twins are playing an increasingly important role in areas such as:

On the Path to the Digital Transformation

For wienerberger, digital twins are far more than just a fast-growing trend in Industry 4.0. They are a strategic lever for the company’s digital transformation. For several years now, the Group has therefore been accelerating the development of digital twins in its plants.

The virtual models pave the way toward more efficient, sustainable and trouble-free production, as virtual experiments can be used to draw conclusions for practical application. At the same time, these data models benefit from validation through real-world experiments as this helps to improve the accuracy of their forecasts. Before implementation, production optimizations can be tested in virtual experiments based on empirical data that has been mathematically modeled, increasing the likelihood of successful implementation.

Greater Efficiency, Fewer Malfunctions, More Information

The concrete added value can be seen on multiple levels:

• Digital twins can detect deviations from a target state, unexpected downtime, excessive waste, duplicate work steps and increased energy consumption in real time.
• Precise, real-time data provides the basis for targeted interventions: errors can be rectified quickly, processes continuously improved. wienerberger is thus able to increase the speed and efficiency of its production, while at the same time reducing material consumption and costs.
• Thanks to a “digital passport” each product can be seamlessly traced from the beginning to the end of the production process.

Successful Deployment at Pipelife

A research project at the Enkhuizen plant of the solutions brand Pipelife in the Netherlands provides an impressive demonstration of the potential offered by digital twins: a digital twin was used in the complex extrusion process for biaxially-oriented PVC drinking water pipes. In this process, the material is stretched simultaneously in both the longitudinal and circumferential directions under high pressure and at a high temperature. The result is a pipe that, despite its extremely thin walls, is highly stress- and impact-resistant. 

Transparency, Predictability, Control 

“This is a highly complex process and is influenced by many different factors and interdependencies. This can result in difficult start-up phases, pipe deformations, high reject rates and downtimes. Consequently, there is great potential for optimization”, says project manager Jos Oud.

This is precisely where the digital twin proved to be a game changer: installed on a laptop and supplemented with a human-in-the-loop approach, it made previously opaque connections and processes transparent, predictable and controllable for the first time.

“The digital twin showed us specific potential for improvement. Based on its suggestions, we adjusted settings at the factory and optimized processes,” Oud says.

New Insights into Processes

Thus, the digital twin provided key insights into the influence of the

• cooling water temperature,
• configuration of control systems, such as dosage units,
• material feed, such as the mixing ratio,
• pipe temperature,
• ambient conditions, such as open doors or ambient temperature.

“The digital twin has enabled us to predict production and the final quality of our products with great precision,” says Oud. This knowledge opens the door to more efficient and sustainable production.

Practical Examples in Production

The digital twin predicted, for example, the temperature in the piping and the effect of even minimal changes to the set values. Appropriate adjustments not only led to increased production efficiency, but also to improvements in the quality of the pipes.   

With the help of predictive analytics that detect recurring patterns to forecast future outcomes, the digital twin identified anomalies before they led to a loss of quality or damage to machines. The operational teams received prompt warnings and actionable recommendations and were thus able to prevent problems before they arose.

Moreover, the digital copy of the processes enabled the team to perform simulations for a range of different scenarios: what happens if the cooling rate increases? What are the effects of changes to the material mix? 

Huge Potential for Production Optimization

The research project at the Pipelife plant demonstrates how the use of a digital twin can revolutionize the manufacturing process:

• Exact predictions for process behavior and product quality become possible.
• Parameters such as temperature, cooling and material input can be optimized automatically.
• The stabilization of processes leads to increased efficiency.
• Waste can be reduced by approximately 20% per year. This will mainly be reached by reducing dimensional deviations with 80%. 
• Preventing ovality or other dimension errors in diameter and wall thickness during production has further increased the share of products that meet the required quality standards.
• Early detection of anomalies in the production process enables prompt intervention, helping to prevent problems such as damage to systems, downtime, and costly and time-consuming repair work.
• Targeted steering measures optimize the consumption of resources and energy, thereby saving costs. 

None of these things are a vision; they are all opportunities that can be realized on the basis of large volumes of data.

Basis for Change 

At the Dutch Pipelife plant, the digital twin led to a better, data-driven understanding of the extrusion process. “We believe there is huge potential for the use of digital twins in production. We can use it to automate setting changes, simulate improvements, reduce energy consumption, significantly reduce waste, follow production planning more closely and thus raise our efficiency,” says Jos Oud.

Sustainability as an Additional Benefit

The advantages of the digital twin are not just limited to quality and efficiency. The virtual models also make an important contribution to sustainable production:

• Less scrap, for example, also means less work and lower costs for recycling
• Optimizing material input increases energy efficiency in production thus shrinking the carbon footprint.

Thus, digital twins are not just an instrument for greater economic efficiency, but are also a key to responsible, future-proof production. 

According to Johannes Rath, Chief Technology Officer at wienerberger, this is in fact where the greatest potential lies:

Read more about wienerberger’s Industry 4.0 activities here.