A feasibility study of Digital Twin for additive manufacturing : From the perspective of resource efficiency, smaller companies, and the future of industry

Sammanfattning: The Digital Twin in additive manufacturing has become a topic of interest as the method promises to be the next step in its development as well as an essential component of Industry 4.0. However, the area is as of now largely undefined since both Digital Twin and additive manufacturing are terms that encompasses several methods and techniques as well as to it being relatively novel. A Digital Twin is as defined a digital representation of a physical system with real-time flow of data between them. Due to its simulation capabilities, the method is seen as the future of additive manufacturing. Additive manufacturing today is hindered by its unpredictability. Prints often fail due to a lack of ability to accurately predict, monitor, and control the printing process, an area where the Digital Twin excels. The question is not if the Digital Twin will be a part of the future of additive manufacturing but rather how that relationship will look like. This report focuses on the integration of the Digital Twin and additive manufacturing by looking at a smaller additive manufacturers shopfloor to generate an understanding of what the next step towards integration should be. The companies that currently put great effort into developing and integrating their Digital Twins are mostly the large ones with plenty of resources to spend. However, this report still finds that there are benefits that could be gained by smaller companies if they were to invest into a Digital Twin. This is especially true if they have intentions to automate their business in the future. A small company may not be able to benefit as much as a larger one and the initial investment could prove to be an expensive endeavor for a relatively small increase in efficiency. Developing their business with Digital Twins in mind is however a good idea to prepare for the future as the method become more commercially established. There are however some aspects of the Digital Twin that can be made inexpensive while still providing great value to the shopfloor as well as future-proofing the manufacturing processes.