The TRAPO Digital Hub:
Security through virtual workflows
Savings potential due to the elimination of travel, enormous cost and time savings, and security and low risk of infection in times of pandemics: Reasons that speak for the TRAPO Digital Hub. Mechanical engineering is completing the digital mapping of its analog world.
Digital processes and modern analysis tools
The transparency and almost unlimited analysis options offered by a data management system such as TIM, the TRAPO Intelligent Management System, are particularly recommended for globally active companies.
This means that key figures can be collected from all plants across all locations at any time, comparatively evaluated, production controlled on the basis of real-time data and maintenance supported.
Hub bundles the advantages of digital workflows
A key topic at TRAPO Technikum, the research and development center, is digitization and how it can be used to the customer’s advantage. TRAPO-specific tools have been bundled in the hub to provide online support for commissioning, predictive maintenance and service. The goal is to achieve significantly higher, more effective and safer operations in an automated environment with virtual processes. Teams of experts worked with RWTH Aachen University to develop and implement the TRAPO Digital Hub.
Digital processes and modern analysis tools
The transparency and almost unlimited analysis options offered by a data management system such as TIM, the TRAPO Intelligent Managementsystem, are particularly recommended for globally active companies.
This means that key figures can be collected from all plants across all locations at any time, comparatively evaluated, production controlled on the basis of real-time data and maintenance supported.
Ten sub-processes form the Digital Hub
1 | Digital price negotiation
In the area of price negotiation, digital processes save time and resources when communicating with customers and suppliers.
In the process, video meetings replace (long-distance) travel for face-to-face coordination cycles and minimize the risk of contagion in times of pandemic.
With digital price negotiation, we save valuable time in finding contracts electronically.
2 | Digital contract signing & order confirmation
Contracts can be signed digitally by the customer and returned online.
The same applies to order confirmations in real time.
Here, too, personal contacts and travel are eliminated, and processes are streamlined.
3 | Meeting to review the 3D design
Only those who have a complete view of the plant can design it for maximum efficiency right from the start.
That is why TRAPO develops 3D models during the planning phase to design the plant according to the customer's requirements.
Discussions with TRAPO's expert teams take place in confidential video chats.
In this way, solutions for individual tasks can already be found in the planning phase - well before the physical implementation of production plants.
4 | Process simulation on the digital twin
All processes, relevant characteristics and performance cycles of individual sequences up to the entire plant can be virtually mapped in the TRAPO Digital Hub.
Especially at time-critical interfaces, processes are run through, compared and optimized in real time on the digital twin.
Various variables can be integrated into this simulation to show processes under different conditions and prepare them for as many situations as possible.
For example, the efficiency and speed of different overall plant sections can be demonstrated.
With the acceptance of the animated process simulation, the customer receives the certainty that his plant will be installed in the agreed form in a reduced time.
5 | Remote factory acceptance test
In the past, factory acceptance testing took place on site in Gescher-Hochmoor before the plants were delivered.
Today, the FAT (Factory Acceptance Test) can already be performed remotely, with modern information technologies replacing global travel activities.
The factory acceptance test is supported by a web-based meeting platform, mobile cameras, and hands-free tools for cost-efficient remote collaboration, allowing project partners to perform all steps of the FAT.
6 | Virtual commissioning
During remote commissioning, service tools support the team on site so that customers and project partners can carry out all the steps to commission the machines themselves with the help of VR goggles.
Via video chat, users on the customer side and TRAPO specialists find each other. The advantage of remote control is not limited to commissioning, but can be extended to retrofit situations and repair scenarios.
7 | Virtual Training
Virtual training immerses participants in the simulated environment of the plant to be operated.
Live instruction, HMI simulations, training videos - as individual as the plant in question - and virtual inspection of individual components are available digitally for customers so that operators can contribute to the overall efficiency of the plant and an optimized r production rate.
As TRAPO, we develop step-by-step explanations, HMI simulation, training videos and the virtual inspection of individual components.
8 | Real-time visualization and monitoring
Modern data management systems are a decisive factor for process efficiency and top quality.
TIM, the TRAPO Intelligent Management System that can be used in any industry, can be configured by the customer. TIM goes far beyond condition-based monitoring, the continuous monitoring of the operation-critical values of plants.
TIM visualizes, monitors and controls plants. Evaluations, status queries and production figures are provided on a user-dependent basis. Based on the information obtained, optimizations in production can be easily implemented and contribute to achieving maximum performance at the machine.
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9 | Maintenance support with digital purchase card
The service team receives inquiries and requests through a ticket system as an online transaction file; response and resolution are also digital. Standard spare parts are stored in TIM.
Spare parts are also ordered at the click of a mouse via TIM's shopping cart.
10 | Predictive maintenance
Lower costs, optimal personnel planning and the minimization of downtime: TIM's key functions enable predictive maintenance by specifying needs-based maintenance work and care for technical equipment.
The goal is to keep the entire plant in optimal operating condition and prevent downtime.
TRAPO's self-service portals provide access to the company's complex service knowledge via TIM: online service documents, current manuals, FAQs, and interactive instructions for the HMI operating level.