Toward digital validation for rapid product development based on digital twin: a framework

Abstract

Product development should cover product design, validation, and manufacturing. In traditional product development, physical validation based on physical trial manufacturing is the key step to confirm the design scheme before physical manufacturing. However, physical validation is costly and inefficient, which could be the main obstacle to achieving rapid product development. The emergence of digital twin provides an opportunity to accelerate product development by eliminating physical validation toward digital validation in the smart manufacturing era. Therefore, a framework of rapid product development based on digital twin is proposed in this paper. During product development, the new product is designed according to the new requirements in the virtual space, in which the existing digital twins of products can be referenced. Then, an ultrahigh-fidelity virtual manufacturing system is constructed for digital trial manufacturing based on the digital twin of the manufacturing system and the design scheme of the new product. An ultrahigh-fidelity digital prototype can be obtained from digital trial manufacturing for digital validation. The new product validation is executed on the digital prototype to test its performance. The digital validation results can be used to improve the design scheme of the new product and boost the corresponding manufacturing processes. In addition, the core characteristics and key technologies of rapid product development based on digital twin are discussed. Finally, a case study is presented to implement the proposed framework and to show the effectiveness of accelerating product development.

Adoption of digital twin for sustainable manufacturing and achievements of production strategic-planned goals

“… In the level of products: digital-twin allows rapid prototyping for products’ new design and qualities requirements. This can add competitive advantage to satisfy end-client changing preferences and future market demands [13] . …”

Research on rolling bearing virtual-real fusion life prediction with digital twin

“…National manufacturing development strategies, such as Industrial Internet, Industry 4.0 and Manufacturing 2025, take intelligent manufacturing, intelligent operation and maintenance technology of major products and major facilities as the common trend and goal of global manufacturing development [1,2]. With the development of mechanical equipment, the cost of its maintenance and guarantee is getting higher and higher.…”

Framework for the Implementation of Smart Manufacturing Systems: A Case in Point

“…However, physical validation is inefficient and costly, which hinders rapid product development. This issue was removed by Sihan Huang et al [16] by proposing the framework for the digital twin in the context of smart manufacturing. A case study was also discussed to implement the prescribed framework and accelerate product development.…”