Virtual commissioning in the automotive industry
Closer to the customer's vision from the beginning
Rickard Fransén works on the control system programmer side at Granitor Systems, which works to immerse us in virtual commissioning towards discrete automation. Volvo Cars is one of our major customers in Västra Götaland that operates in that area. Rickard brings his control system expertise into the collaboration with LKN Industriautomation, which has been part of Granitor since the autumn of 2018. They meet with simulation of mechanical hardware such as robots and fixtures.
In its work with Volvo Cars, among others, LKN Industriautomation has long used the tool Siemens Process Simulate to simulate the mechanics, especially in robot cells. At the same time, Granitor Systems has long used the tool Siemens TIA Portal for programming control systems for the same customer. Recently, Siemens has invested in bringing one of its simulation tools, SIMIT, which has previously been aimed at process technology, into discrete automation. Here, Granitor and LKN together see an opportunity and a need to start connecting these tools and raise the quality of our deliveries.
As a programmer and entrepreneur, Rickard has seen expensive hours spent solving problems on site. There are many professional disciplines that will emerge at the same time, which puts extra pressure on everything to work from the start. Virtual commissioning helps us find and solve potential problems before we are in place in reality.
Simulation
We have found thet we get closer to the customer's vision right from the start. Previously, the customer has tried to give us an idea of what reality we should achieve in the form of a function descriptions, animations and the like. This is a communication between the customer and ourselves where misunderstandings can occur. With virtual commissioning, the customer can build a model against which we can validate our function.
Commissioning
A physical commissioning is a hectic phase in a project, not at least for the customer. Thre is a lot that needs to be planned and implemented. There is a lot of responsibility both on us and on the customer for a project to have a successful outcome. I believe that virtual commissioning can facilitate physical commissioning and make it easier to plan and implement. You reduce the amount of work that needs to be done on site.
Time saving
We always struggle with access to facilities in the factories. If we do a job in the green field, we do not feel this, but in the brown field it will be a problem. Volvo is currently an extreme case where their factory produces 24 hours a day 7 days a week with the exception of a 6 hour maintenance window every other weekend as well as 4 weeks holiday and a few days stop around the Christmas weekend. Here, virtual commissioning becomes incredibly valuable both for us and for the customer.
Industries
Industries with predictable hardware are easiest to start in. A robot is predictable as you always know how its body moves based on the position of its joints. Media such as gases and liquids can be more difficult to simulate. With virtual commissioning, we want to get closer to reality. And the simpler the reality is to model up, the easier it is to perform commissioning virtually. That is why we see such opportunities in, for example, the automotive industry. .
Glossary
Virtual Commissioning
A simulated environment where you can test the function of a facility. The environment can be delimited around a certain piece of equipment or built to test a certain scenario. The environment can represent an ideal process, but it can also represent a fault in a process for testing and training staff in fault measures. Smart factories and Industry 4.0 Aims at a factory that has parts in a process that talk to each other to make the process better.
Big Data
It is about collecting large amounts of data from a process in order to then be able to ask advanced database questions and thereby be able to further streamline the process.
Digital Twins
A copy of a physical facility. Many people think that even today these twins are built in different environments in their usual process in the form of mechanical models at, for example, LKN Industriautomation or electrical construction materials at Midroc Automation. The interesting thing will therefore be how to manage this which has already been created as a digital twin and use this in a virtual commissioning.
Green field
When a plant is built in a factory on a surface that does not interfere with existing production.
Brown field
Then installation is done in existing equipment. Access is more complicated as the plant must be able to run its existing production between installation times.
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