View through the technical glasses to the digital twin

At your home, VR and AR have long since reached many users - be it for true-to-life moments of horror via glasses and video game consoles or the hunt for pocket monsters with a view through the smartphone camera. But there are also more and more exciting application examples in the industry.

Virtual Reality: Igniting the spark that the digital twin jumps over

For you to understand complex machines and their processes, do you want to deal with complicated descriptions and sketches or just simple animated films? This rationality can also be applied to the inner workings and functionality of state-of-the-art industrial furnaces.

This can be seen with the Austrian company RHI Magnesita: The world's leading refractories group uses the diverse possibilities of virtual reality for the presentation of its products. Customers and interested parties can now take a virtual tour through a converter like a museum and follow in detail all the working steps: from the structure and the materials used to the working method and the chemical reactions of the products used to the result.

All of this is displayed virtually to scale and in real time - as if you were there live. This is made possible by a specially developed VR application from CIDEON in conjunction with the corresponding hardware. The 3D modelling, animation and visualisation of the converter using the Autodesk 3ds Max software was also developed by the CIDEON subsidiary in Linz, Austria.

Augmented Reality: Engineering you can touch

A popular scenario, which EPLAN presented at the Hannover Messe 2019 and on the campus of RWTH Aachen University, among others, is a Service and Maintenance Showcase. A sorting system is used to simulate the failure of an engine. The highlight here is that the necessary information is provided directly where it is needed using AR - for example for the service technician who is in charge of maintaining the machine.

The digital twin of the machine and the control cabinet can be called up via a digital device, such as a tablet. The technician is automatically informed of malfunctions and also sees exactly where the problem lies. In this case, a motor has failed in the tarmac. In the tablet view, the virtual motor and the corresponding position in the circuit diagram are displayed at the touch of a finger. The digital image of the control cabinet shows at a glance which of the many components must be replaced - and which replacements spare parts, fit. The cloud also informs the planning office of the service technician's changes and they can update the circuit diagram accordingly.

The digital twin of the control cabinet is created with EPLAN Pro Panel. With EPLAN eVIEW, changes made by service technicians can be noted directly in the circuit diagram, checked in the planning office, and kept up-to-date. Suitable spare parts are selected in the EPLAN Data Portal and integrated into the circuit diagram. Reducing errors between the machinery and the documentation and saving time.

Details on the technical implementation can also be found in the blog.

The digital twin of the machine and the control cabinet can be called up via tablet.