Alexander Ebner, Stephan Trassl, Martin Egginger, Hueck Folien GmbH, Baumgartenberg, Austria
In this contribution, we emphasize the importance of comprehensive data acquisition across an entire production site and demonstrate how advanced data analytics, in combination with physical simulations, can unlock significant efficiency gains. To this end, we provide insight into our company's technological evolution, outlining our digitalization roadmap along with the concrete implementation steps undertaken to put it into practice.
Our long-term objective is guided by the vision of a fully realized digital twin, which serves as both our strategic goal and design principle. We illustrate how this vision is being pursued through a series of targeted pilot projects, each designed to implement early digitalization elements while keeping the broader transformation in focus.
We then examine our current stage along this transformation path, exemplified by a pilot project aimed at optimizing a particular electron beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD) process. This case study demonstrates the synergistic use of data-driven analysis and physical simulation to deepen process understanding and enhance performance.
A variety of methodological approaches and practical examples from both domains are discussed in detail. These include the deployment of an advanced data acquisition system and the corresponding analytics, as well as reverse-engineered simulations to improve film homogeneity and particle-based modelling for process insight and optimization.
Finally, we offer a forward-looking perspective on the scalability of our approach and reflect on the potential challenges and opportunities ahead.