Companies in Thuringia are facing enormous pressure to transform. Alongside societal upheavals, the issue of energy has been at the forefront of business activity since February 2022 at the latest. This is also the case for Fabian Hoppe, the managing director of HM Heizkörper GmbH Heating Technology in Dingelstädt, which manufactures high-quality radiators for the global market.

Changing demands require production adjustments

"In 2020, energy costs accounted for significantly less than 10 percent of our product costs. This year, that figure has risen to over 20 percent. Furthermore, customers are demanding sustainable, decarbonized products, which, for energy-intensive companies like ours, make the use of renewable energy necessary. Moreover, during autumn and winter of 2022/2023, we faced the risk of a gas shortage. That would have brought our production to a complete standstill."

– Fabian Hoppe, CEO of HM Heizkörper GmbH Heating Technology

Many CEOs in Thuringia find themselves in the same situation as Fabian Hoppe: they are seeking solutions to ensure competitive energy prices, a high level of supply reliability and access to renewable energy for their businesses. However, companies often lack the appropriate tools to efficiently identify pathways to transformation.

The ZO.RRO 2 (Zero Carbon Cross Energy System for the Glass Industry) research project is developing such tools. One of these is the digital production twin, which represents a virtual mirror image of a physical production system and displays the status of a company’s production and logistics systems in real time. With a digital twin, decision-makers in day-to-day operations can predict potential developments much more accurately and quickly obtain forecasts for required key performance indicators and values.

Digital production twin highlights potential for optimisation in radiator production

As part of the ZO.RRO 2 research project, a specialised digital production twin is being developed for the manufacturing, painting and assembly areas at HM Heizkörper GmbH Heating Technology, with a focus on energy aspects. The twin is designed to take into account the specific features of HM Heizkörper GmbH Heating Technology’s energy supply – such as an existing PV system – and to generate proposals for the scheduling of manufacturing and assembly stages based on energy prices.

Over the course of several meetings, the dialogue between the researchers, the staff and the management provided a sufficiently detailed picture of the manufacturing process for a radiator. Not only were the necessary manufacturing processes, such as cutting sheet metal from a coil, forming it into the familiar corrugated structure, the subsequent welding of the individual parts and the final painting process, scrutinised, but the accompanying processes were also analysed. “The energy-efficient digital production twin provides us with a highly precise tool that enables us to prepare optimally for the challenges of decarbonised production and to reduce energy costs both in planning and in operations,” explains Fabian Hoppe.

Optimised production control in the future to further reduce energy costs

Researchers at Ilmenau University of Technology are currently expanding HM Heating Technology’s digital production twin to include product-specific data on the energy consumption of individual resources involved in the manufacturing process. This is because, as expected, a long radiator requires more energy to manufacture than a short one. The current implementation provides a precise tool, but one which does not yet have any impact on current energy data. Future plans include linking the digital twin to a standardised energy measurement system that complies with metrology regulations. This will enable production facilities not only to be analysed but also to be controlled in an optimised manner, thereby reducing energy costs further in operational production planning.

Regional energy consultancy firms such as Ingenieurbüro für Energiewirtschaft GmbH (IfE) from Steinbach-Hallenberg are the ideal partners for the future implementation of the digital energy production twin outside the research project.

“As an energy consultancy, IfE sees the advantage of the digital production twin in its ability to measure energy consumption and derive recommendations for action in the form of transformation pathways more quickly than before. This gives our clients a head start, which has a positive impact on their competitiveness.”

– Dr Dirk Schramm, CEO IfE GmbH

The research project highlights how close cooperation between industry and academia contributes to maintaining a competitive industrial location.

Text: Technical University of Ilmenau

Photo: HM Heizkörper GmbH Heating Technology / Copyright: Marcel Mende

Original text in WiMa