Typeset

Digital twins (DT) for circular economy (CE) offer a promising approach as part of digital data ecosystems for more sustainable value creation. By mapping and analyzing product, component and material specific data along the li- fecycle, it is possible to address current challenges such as climate change and resource scarcity. Within Catena-X, specific solutions based on this cross-company exchanged data and information are developed. Here, the “R-Strategy Assistant” is presented. It is an application, which identifies the best CE-Strategy based on DT data at the end of a vehicle's life.

Resource-efficient businesses have become increasingly important for companies in recent years. Although this brings new potentials, the practical implementation in the form of suitable business models is accompanied by challenges. In this paper, we will examine which concepts and methods already exist for the development of circular and resource- efficient business models and show approaches and solutions from science and practice using the example of interdisciplinary research projects.

The use of Digital Twins offers a wide range of applications and opportunities for optimized processes along the entire life cycle of technical systems. However, this concept encounters specific characteristics in plant industry within the development, the construction and operation phase of plants. This article describes these special characteristics and the resulting challenges for the creation and operation of Digital Twins in plant industry. The concept of “Digital Representation” as a basis for Digital Twins is presented together with its prerequisites and potentials.

Additive manufacturing, i.e. the printing of three- dimensional workpieces from different materials, offers the possibility of quickly producing functional prototypes. Digital optimisation is an important building block for the rapid implementation of functional product ideas. Based on digital models, the product is virtually optimised and continuously improved. Once the product has been digitally optimised in terms of its properties, it is checked and, if necessary, adapted for additive manufacturing. The product is then manufactured, reworked and finally tested. The article shows the optimisation possibilities using the example of a dispenser from the food industry. An existing component is digitised, a flow optimisation is carried out on the digital model and the improved product is additively manufactured.

The food sector is facing many challenges, including food loss and waste. To cope with those challenges, digital twins that create a digital representation of physical entities by integrating real-time and real- world data seems to be a promising approach. This article presents the results of a literature review on digital twin applications in the food industry and analyze their challenges and potentials.

Industrial robots are being used increasingly in machining processes. Here, the robots exhibit a significantly higher displacement of the end effector than conventional CNC machines due to their comparable low stiffness. This paper presents an approach to minimize such displacements of the tool by exploiting the rotational degrees of freedom at the milling spindle. For this purpose, the displacement of the end effector at different orientations of the milling spindle was investigated by means of a structural model.

In the first article, the reference model was already explained in its essential features [1]. In the second part, the further development to a flexible reference model will be shown. The focus is on the extension to implement different source systems, the implementation of further planning tools, and the implementation of AI tools to achieve dynamic production engineering in the form of holistic and integrated factory planning. This paper explains the development of a holistic demonstrator as a proof of concept.