Alfa Laval – a world leader in heat transfer, centrifugal separation and fluid handling – will use advanced digital twin technology when expanding capacity in the production of separators in Sweden. The technology will facilitate the operations development and reduce the time for ramp-up of the production substantially.

Alfa Laval will expand and automate its capacity in the production facility in Eskilstuna, Sweden. To facilitate the operations development the company will use Real Digital Twin (RDT) technology from AFRY, an international engineering, design and advisory company. The technology (based on Siemens software) produces a digital twin of the manufacturing process and its machineries and enables simulation and functional testing of the process lines before the actual production expansion. The benefits are shorter installation and ramp-up time and optimized production.

“By using the advanced twin technology, we can accelerate our work towards a more digital and automated production which is well in line with our Industry 4.0 strategy,” says Mikael Tydén, President of the Operations Division.

Apart from facilitating the capacity expansion the RDT technology will be used to simulate and verify production changes and optimizations. This will make operations development safer and more cost-efficient.

Did you know that… by using digital twin technology, potential problems can be avoided, and the capacity expansion optimized, which reduces the investment cost substantially based on CAPEX and lost income during ramp-up?