[Enterprise News] Entering the "Industrial Metaverse" of steel - Baowu's first continuous casting digital twin factory was put into operation World Metal Guide The following article comes from China Baowu, author reporter Zhang Ping Editor's note As one of the carrier projects of

[Enterprise News] Leaning into the "industrial meta-universe" of steel - Baowu The first continuous casting digital twin factory was put into operation

World Metal Guide

The following article comes from China Baowu, author reporter Zhang Ping

Editor's report

As one of the carrier projects of Baowu Group 2022 key tasks "Engineering Digital Design Delivery Cloud Platform and Digital Factory Construction", Baosteel Co., Ltd. Baoshan Base No. 2 Continuous Casting Machine Digital Twin Factory was put into operation recently. This project, known as the "Industrial Metaverse", is a leap from digital delivery to digital operations in the process manufacturing industry. It uses data to generate knowledge, accumulate knowledge, and apply knowledge, which catalyzes the realization of data value, and thus promotes on-site changes in technology, management, etc., and has strong practical significance in today's rapid development of industrial Internet .

The curtain of the meta-universe has gradually opened, and the vitality and infiniteness of the world behind the scenes make people yearn for it. It can be foreseen that for process manufacturing companies, this parallel world that interacts with the real world mapping will have a profound impact on all aspects of our production, manufacturing, and service. The continuous progress and wider application of digital technology is also a new manifestation of the development of modern civilization. With enthusiastic embrace and take the initiative, I believe that Baowu will definitely win the initiative in the new round of development and strive to become a leader in the future steel industry in China and even the world.

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Open a computer at will, log in, and instantly freely shuttle through the steel factory. Walking along the steel plate road, the concave and anti-slip patterns on the ground under your feet are clearly visible with different depths and sharp edges, and the yellow handrails extend all the way with slightly mottled rust. Although the unit is running towards the sky and earth, a leaping into it, the components inside are clearly visible. Touch the parts, and all kinds of attributes, functions, current operating conditions and other data information will be unfolded in front of you; click on the camera, and the fiery red and hot steel flows slowly under your nose...

This is not a scene in a movie or online game, but a real experience brought by the No. 2 continuous casting machine digital twin factory that was put into operation by Baosteel Co., Ltd. Baoshan Base. As Baowu’s first digital twin factory, it completes the digital mapping of virtual space through data interaction between three-dimensional models, simulation models, and equipment status monitoring models, and builds a steel “industrial meta-universe” that is coordinated and integrated with virtual and real.

"In fact, whether it is the meta universe or CPS, it emphasizes real and virtual, and virtual interaction. The essence is a software-defined process, and algorithms optimize resource allocation, thereby optimizing the allocation of physical world resources. This is the general trend." Zhang Qunliang, information director of the Group Digital Intelligence Office, introduced, "However, for industrial scenarios, the implementation challenges are very great, and the composition of industrial systems is often very complex, which is not only reflected in the large number of system components, but also in the complex structure and precise collaboration. The digitalization of industrial systems The process must simplify the object. How to meet the reliability, real-time, stability and economy of the industry in the simplification process? This requires system design, effective methods, and innovative paths, not a simple digital integration problem. "

. The continuous casting machine must have a smart brain.

continuous casting production line is a key link in the steel process chain, and is the "throat" of steel turning from liquid to solid. During the complex process of direct continuous casting of high-temperature steel into solid blanks, the series of physical and chemical changes that occur directly affect the quality of the cast blanks. Due to the lack of massive data support and typical "black box" characteristics, it is a problem faced by the entire industry.

Baoshan Base No. 2 continuous casting machine was put into production in 1989 and is the main unit for Baosteel Co., Ltd. to produce automobile plates. In order to meet the continuously improving product quality needs and at the same time improve the operating efficiency of the unit, in 2020, Baosteel Co., Ltd. decided to carry out a comprehensive transformation of this unit. How to change it? What kind of continuous casting machine do we need? Become the first question to answer.

"In recent years, we have made great progress in promoting intelligent manufacturing . For continuous casting , especially in the replacement of humans with dot-shaped machines, basic technologies have achieved breakthroughs, and efficiency, quality control and other work have almost reached the extreme under current conditions. However, we have not yet changed the original operating model." Tian Zhenghong, director of the Baoshan Base Steel Plant of Baosteel Co., Ltd., said, "We must make the continuous casting machine have a smart brain and continue to do things to liberate people."

In 2020, Baowu's key support project "Research and Application of Key Technologies of Engineering Digital Design and Delivery Cloud Platform" was officially launched, and systematically research the serialization, standardization and digitalization of production line equipment. The No. 2 continuous casting machine project has become one of its carrier projects, opening up the exploration of digital twin factories in the information age.

What kind of digital platform do we need?

Since the development of digital informatization, software and hardware have changed. Today, when the N generation, what kind of digital factory do we want to make the No. 2 continuous casting machine? This problem runs almost throughout the project.

"Of course it is best to be 3D. The equipment information we need can be opened and viewed at any time on the computer. Now, if you buy a mobile phone, you don't have to attach a manual, but there are various videos and models online, which is clear at a glance." "Even if you are at home, you can see the equipment situation in all directions at any time, and you don't have to suddenly enter the factory in the middle of the night." Chen Xiangdong, deputy director of the Baoshan Base Steel Plant of Baosteel Co., Ltd., said, "We need to build an open platform so that operations, maintenance, technology and management personnel can accumulate and solidify their own experience online and apply it to production." "It cannot be a one-time transaction, the project must have room for continuous improvement." ... The technology, equipment, and managers on the scene all put forward their own ideas.

"This is a cross-company, cross-department, cross-professional, cross-process matter, both technical and management are extremely difficult. Therefore, we set up a joint project team to promote it together." Yuan Lei, deputy general manager of Baosteel Engineering, said, "We have the responsibility to start from the source of the design, build a data water tower, let the trickle of data flow through icebergs and permafrost, gather into a big river, and fertile the soil."

From a small component to a huge unit, from the factory structure to the corridor handrail, Baosteel Engineering has built twin factories online one by one since the project design. On Baoshu Cloud, an online design platform with independent intellectual property rights in Baosteel Engineering, the designer contributed to the No. 2 continuous casting machine digital twin factory, mapped a trace of rust in the physical factory to the virtual factory, and simultaneously implanted the identity information of each device into it. This allows the production line to have real, reliable and extremely refined static data. "We will not only deliver physical factories, but we will simultaneously deliver digital factories and engineering construction cost databases, and deliver two online and offline factories," said Yuan Lei.

clears the data " damming lake ",

lets the data flow

All the time, when the production lines in the steel industry were delivered, they were all first-hand production lines and the drawings were first-hand. "After we get it, we will code the equipment, and then divide the drawings according to the management area, and distribute the drawings, and the drawings are basically locked in the on-site cabinet. But on-site equipment is a dynamic maintenance process. With personnel replacement and equipment maintenance parts replacement, gradually, the initial drawings become a piece of waste paper." Chen Chen, deputy director of the equipment management office of the Baoshan Base Steel Plant of Baosteel Co., Ltd., said. At the same time, the same equipment has not been able to work in the system during different periods such as project construction, , procurement, and equipment management. This problem is common in large-scale manufacturing enterprises. The first thing to solve is the problem of standardization and standardization of data in and standardization. "Data can only generate value when flowing. We must clear the data 'dam lake', generate clear and clean effective data from the source, and flow to the data consumer end through the river network." Yuan Lei said.

Through learning about coding standards and specifications in petrochemical, power plants, nuclear power industries and other industries at home and abroad, as well as understanding the process and characteristics of digital twins, combined with Baosteel Co., Ltd.'s engineering design management experience, the digital delivery coding standard - bit number (TAG) was born. All factory objects are uniformly identified by TAG, and the BPMS, iEQMS, and PSCS system codes are flexible to connect, realizing that the system codes of the construction and operation periods are "the same text, the same track for the car". Based on TAG, the factory object structure tree is formed through factory reorganization, and the association includes three-dimensional models, drawings, documents, attributes, cost, etc., allowing the data to be standardized and serialized, making it convenient for real-time updates and query updates.

Step into the "industrial meta universe",

Let the data play a greater value

If the static data of production line equipment and other production line equipment builds a solid skeleton for the digital twin factory of No. 2 continuous casting machine, the massive amount of dynamic data collected in real time by tens of thousands of data collection points on site injects fresh blood into it, making it truly have the vitality of life. Static data and dynamic data are integrated with each other and virtual and real.

For the digital twin factory of No. 2 continuous casting machine, the project team used three words to describe it: tens of thousands of "pieces" are unified, and many other information such as design parameters, drawings, maintenance history, spare parts inventory and procurement channels, value of the entire life cycle of the equipment are flexible to link with the unique TAG tree; the body is "light" as a swallow, and the three-dimensional model, design data, real-time production data, casting machine status and other digital assets are inquired in seconds; see the "model" as a face, and with the help of digital delivery models and simulation models, the digital mapping of virtual space is completed and the visual digital twin application scenario is realized. The most important thing is that all information does not require any professional equipment. Just log in to the system in any corner of the world and you can enter the digital twin factory with one foot.

In this virtual space, every person entering it can transform his or her own experience of the relationship between equipment and technology and quality into a data model according to spatial rules, and slowly expand its thinking space and dimensions. Just like a child's growth, after receiving a large amount of information from his facial features, he also needs to cultivate his logical thinking and other abilities. This is a long process. Qiao Jianji, deputy director of Baosteel Engineering Big Data Center, introduced that basic models are already available, and now we need to cultivate the thinking ability of the unit. There are two main directions. On the one hand, data must serve the equipment so that the equipment can operate more reasonably, economically and efficiently; on the other hand, data must serve the products, that is, "digital slabs". In the process from steel to steel, we deeply explore the relationship between equipment and operation, production, and quality, so that each section of slab quality can speak with process data. "It is still version 1.0, and we have achieved four liberations of on-site operation, maintenance, technology, and management. However, we still need to invest more energy in the future to teach our children well, so that we can get real liberation at that time." Tian Zhenghong said.

"When we started the project, we didn't think about the 'meta universe'. But when we finished and went online for trial operation, many people said at the same time that this is the 'industrial meta universe'." Yuan Lei said, "Looking back, it has also verified that our methods and paths to promote smart manufacturing and constantly solve on-site problems are correct, and are in line with the current development direction of the entire era and industry. "

President of Baowu Design Institute, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Baosteel Engineering, said that building the No. 2 continuous casting machine digital twin factory in a talent highland and innovation highland is not only a practical exploration to support the innovative development of the main business, but also an important step for Baosteel Engineering to give full play to the unique advantages of " front store and back factory " and build a demonstration benchmark, and has very far-reaching strategic significance. "Digital design, digital delivery, and digital twin factory" is the responsibility, mission and important development direction of Baosteel Engineering, an important deployment for practicing science and technology, and a strategic task entrusted by Baowu.The current phased achievements are achieved with the strong support of leaders of many brother units. They are a beneficial practice of combining management innovation with technological innovation, and there is also a lot of room for optimization and extension in the future. Baosteel Project will resolutely implement Baowu's strategic deployment, closely combine it with the actual production and operation of the main business, build a digital base for smart factories with design as the source, strengthen the bridge role of engineering integration in the technological innovation system, focus on the needs of owners, strengthen resource allocation and engineering technology breakthroughs, and actively work with industrial ecosystem partners to explore together and never stop.

"No. 2 continuous casting machine digital twin factory is a good practical exploration case. It has found a method for building a digital continuous casting production line that realizes virtual interaction. This is essentially different from the offline virtual and real simulation calculations in the past." Zhang Qunliang said, "At present, Baowu Intelligent Manufacturing has entered the 2.0 "three-span" stage. Only by continuously improving the digital level and virtual and real interaction range of physical factories can we truly make a breakthrough. Boundaries, cross-domain empowerment. Some experiences and methods formed by this case exploration have strong guiding significance for accelerating the construction of virtual and real interactive factories. "

Content source: China Baowu

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