Design and Simulation Debugging of Automobile Connecting Rod Production Line Based on the Digital Twin

Abstract

Featured Application: The concept of a digital twin is extended to the specific scene of connecting rod production line processing. It began to participate in the product design stage, through the virtual prototype design of processing equipment, the rapid design of the workshop production line, and the preliminary planning and debugging. It can not only use the virtual model of a digital twin to verify the feasibility of an intelligent manufacturing production line but also optimize the production plan, find problems in advance, and avoid them in time. It can also improve production efficiency, reduce the production cost, and improve product quality in processing. In particular, it has certain practical guidance and application significance for pre-training in the early design stage of enterprise production, reducing the R&D cycle of enterprises, and improving the speed of production line debugging. The goal of ‘Industry 4.0’ is to promote the transformation of the manufacturing industry to intelligent manufacturing. Because of its characteristics, the digital twin perfectly meets the requirements of intelligent manufacturing. In this paper, through the signal and data of the S7-PLCSIM-Advanced Connecting TIA Portal and NX MCD, the conceptual design and simulation-based debugging of mechatronics in an automobile connecting rod production line based on a digital twin are realized. The main contents are as follows: Firstly, the data on the automobile connecting rod production line are collected. The data sources in this article are mainly MCD virtual sensors, CAD models, and factory processing history production data. Secondly, the modeling of connecting rod parts and the production line is carried out. The automobile connecting rod production line model is mainly divided into five areas: processing area, assembly area, cleaning area, inspection area, and inventory area. Thirdly, for the validation of the model, the simulation sequence is designed according to the actual processing data of the factory to ensure that it accurately represents the production line. Fourthly, control system design, mainly including the main program, reset program, sequence control system flow program, human-computer interaction, and so on. Fifthly, simulation and debugging through the debugging of the connecting rod in the process of transportation in the process of the sudden slipcase are analyzed. Sixthly, model deployment, through the specific analysis of the accumulation of workpieces to be processed between process 10 and process 11 to discuss the optimization of the production line. Seventhly, the model refinement, which explains the limitations of the research content and discusses future work. Finally, by comparing the traditional product debugging mode with the virtual simulation debugging mode of the automobile connecting rod production line based on digital twin, it is concluded that the virtual simulation debugging of the automobile connecting rod production line based on digital twin will greatly reduce the actual debugging time of the production line, thus speeding up the research and development progress and improving the industrial competitiveness.