Siemens has developed a full digital twin of McNeil & NRM’s Autolok curing press with software-in-the-loop capability. Using the digital twin technology from Siemens, McNeil & NRM can predict the operation of the press and simulate its running conditions.
The Siemens Mechatronics Concept Designer (MCD) provides the ability to achieve virtual commissioning, which is a crucial factor in reducing commissioning time in the real world and preventing costly machine crashes.
In addition, McNeil & NRM will be working on applying NX software and MCD tools to accelerate information sharing between its mechanical design and control design teams to improve the efficiency of the machine development process. Going forward, mechanical design changes and enhancements will be replicated in the virtual world to provide operational data and design feedback to bring innovations into the production of tires.
Ed Bailey, vice president of engineering and development at McNeil & NRM, said, “The Siemens and McNeil & NRM collaboration to create the digital twin of our 63in curing press provides an essential foundation for our product development roadmap.
“This twin is a prerequisite to accelerate all dimensions of development and collaboration with our customers, including software development, virtual commissioning, training and press optimization. Further development can enable our customers to virtualize tire production machine cells, complete lines and ultimately the entire plant.”
Performance and maintenance data from production equipment and entire production lines will be captured and analyzed using Mindsphere, Siemens’ cloud-based open IoT system.
Bill Henderson, head of the US tire industry group for Siemens, noted, “This collaboration marks a deeper involvement for our company in the tire business. Both the digital twin and our Mindsphere data gathering and information management tools will enable McNeil & NRM, as well as others in the industry supply chain, to anticipate changes in equipment configuration and be proactive in providing high productivity and efficiency to the tire manufacturing community worldwide.”
More information will be available at Tire Technology Expo 2020 in Hannover, Germany. Visit Siemens at Booth 9063 and McNeil & NRM on Booth 8040 for a demonstration.
