Thermoforming Process Research Articles

Effect of lubrication on contact thermoforming: Thermal aspect

The ability to produce the product at a high rate makes thermoforming one of the most practiced manufacturing processes. Depending upon the control required over the product, pressure and contact forming techniques are being used. It is evident that the contact thermoforming process can produce components with controlled thickness distribution. However, contact conditions are crucial in determining process output. Thermal conductance and coefficient of friction contact properties govern the thermal and structural behaviour of raw material during the process. Like other manufacturing processes, lubrications play a vital role, affecting the thermal and structural behaviour of the material during processing. For thin thermoformed products, the thermal state of raw material can be assumed to be isothermal; this is not true for thick thermoformed products. When a thick sheet product gets manufactured, there is always a temperature variation along with the raw sheet thickness, which affects the whole life cycle of the product (deformation and cooling stage). Thus, it is imperative to study the thermal aspect of thermoforming process lubrication. The objective of the presented work is a numerical investigation of thermoforming lubrication. For lubricated and non-lubricated contact conditions, contact thermoforming of hemispherical domes with a height of 55 mm was simulated. Lubrication was observed to have a significant impact on the thermoforming process. It was found that cycle time was reduced by 15 % with the application of lubrication.

Enhanced Simulation of Infrared Heating of Thermoplastic Composites Prior to Forming under Consideration of Anisotropic Thermal Conductivity and Deconsolidation by Means of Novel Physical Material Models.

In recent years, thermoplastic composites have found their place in large business sectors and are in direct rivalry to thermoset matrix composites. In order to ensure efficient and lean processes, process modeling gains ever-growing attention. This work shows the computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-modeling of a typical heating step in a thermoforming process of a thermoplastic composite sheet. When heating thermoplastic composites, the heat conduction proceeds anisotropic, and the sheets are subject to thermal deconsolidation when heated above the melting temperature of the polymer matrix adding to the anisotropic effect. These effects are neglected in known process models and this study shows the first successful attempt at introducing them into CFD-modeling of the heating of thermoplastic composite sheets. Thus, the simulation requires temperature dependent values for the anisotropic thermal conductivity and the coefficient of linear thermal expansion, which are calculated with novel physical models which were developed solely for this cause. This alters the behavior of an isotropic CFD-model and allows the successful validation via laboratory experiments using glass fiber reinforced polypropylene (PP/GF) sheets with embedded thermocouples to check the internal temperature distribution when the sheet is heated to the designated forming temperature in a composite thermoforming press. The incorporation of this newly developed process model reduces the error in the core temperature prediction from close to 70 °C to 3 °C at the forming temperature.

Improved Polypropylene Thermoformability through Polyethylene Layering.

Due to its low cost, stiffness, and recyclability, isotactic polypropylene (iPP) is an excellent candidate for packaging applications. However, iPP is notoriously difficult to thermoform due to its low melt strength. The addition of just 10 thin layers of high-molecular-weight, linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) into iPP sheets by coextrusion significantly increased extensional viscosity and reduced sag. Both LLDPE and iPP were metallocene-catalyzed with excellent adhesion as measured in our previous work. We performed a series of hot tensile tests and sheet sag measurements to determine the properties of the iPP sheet and the multilayer sheet between 130 and 180 °C. To evaluate the thermoformability of these multilayer sheets, truncated conical cups were positive vacuum formed at different temperatures and heating times, and the crush strength was measured. Cups that released easily from the mold with good shape retention and a crush strength within 80% of the maximum value were used to define a temperature-time thermoformability window. We estimated the maximum stress that occurred during the thermoforming process to be 5 MPa. Layer thicknesses before and after thermoforming were used to estimate an average strain of 0.78. The thin LLDPE layers decreased the yield stress below 5 MPa. This enabled thermoforming at sheet temperatures as low as 150 °C. The immiscible LLDPE interfaces increased extensional viscosity, which decreased sag in the multilayer sheets compared to iPP. This broadened the thermoforming range to temperatures as high as 180 °C and allowed longer heating times. These highly thermoformable, layered sheets may be recycled as iPP since they contain only 8% of LLDPE.

Mechanical properties of thermoformed multilayer parts containing non thermoformable materials

Different viscous materials were chosen to simulate the behavior of degraded materials in the thermoforming process and to demonstrate the potential of using multilayer sheets for thermoforming non thermoformable materials without losing final part performance. The mechanical properties of thermoformed multilayer sheets with 3, 22, and 50 melt flow index (MFI) polypropylenes (PP) were investigated. Therefore, a thermoformable material (MFI-3) and difficult/non thermoformable (MFI-22 and MFI-50) material was combined in the bilayer sheet. The extruded bilayer sheets had equal layer thicknesses (A/B 50%/50%) and unequal layer thicknesses (A/B 70%/30%), whereby B is always the material difficult to thermoform. As the non thermoformable material can lead to inhomogenity in the wall thickness and therefore can cause different part performance, the investigation focused on how the non thermoformable material influenced the mechanical performance of the final part. This labortory scale thermoformability investigation of the extruded PP sheets with different viscosities showed that the low viscous layer position has only a marginal influence on the general mechanical properties of the thermoformed parts. The mechanical properties can be predicted more precisely by the mechanical properties of the thermoformable material used than by the rule of mixtures. Whereas the Young’s modulus and yield stress change only negligibly, the elongation at break after thermoforming significantly increases with the stable component.

Design and manufacture of thermoplastic carbon fiber/polyethylene terephthalate composites underbody shield to protect the lithium-ion batteries for electric mobility from ground impact

Recently, the electric mobility has emerged with great prospects as there has been a growing interest in and demand for eco-friendly energy. The electric vehicle uses a large number of lithium batteries as sources of power, and the lithium battery poses a risk of fire and explosion when the external impact is loaded. Therefore, in this study, an underbody shield (UBS) was designed and manufactured using carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites for battery protection. The underbody shield is composed of two parts, which are the main shield plate and collision protection bar (CPB). Mechanical behavior against impact was analyzed through finite element analysis considering the position of the CPB and the shape of the underbody shield plate. For the UBS, the hybrid composites (Carbon fiber (CF)/polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and self-reinforced polypropylene (SRPP) composites) were used and the ratio between the CF/PET and SRPP was optimized. Through a finite element analysis, the optimal underbody shield was designed with a thickness of 2.4 mm and a hybrid ratio of CF/PET:SRPP as 1:2. Finally, the designed underbody shield was manufactured using a thermo-forming process and mounted to an electric vehicle, and then a vehicle crash test was performed with a concrete obstacle. The developed underbody shield could protect the battery against the impact damage successfully, showing that the deformation of a rear part was within 5 mm and no battery leakage occurred.

Enhanced liquid retention capacity within plastic food packaging through modified capillary recesses

A novel approach is proposed to isolate meat exudate in plastic packaging trays. This exudate is responsible for limiting meat shelf life, increasing meat loss and non-recycling plastic waste. This study explores the use of specially designed capillary recesses with integrated raised rims as a means of improving liquid retention capacity in thermoformed meat trays. The presence of raised recess rims is used to enhance the valving functionality of the recesses and restrict liquid drainage during and after recess inclination. This resulted in a considerable increase in liquid retention capabilities. For pork exudate, the retention capacity of recess samples (recess diameter: 9 mm) significantly increased ( p < 0.05) from 0.79 g for recesses with no rims to 2.12 g for rim-integrated recesses. The corresponding retention capacity of a recess array after introducing these rims was 2921 ± 63 mL/m 2 . These recesses have comparable liquid scavenging performance to absorbent meat pads (3000 mL/m 2 ) yet are integrated within the tray material. This proves the practicality of using rim-integrated recesses in plastic meat packaging to retain exudate away and ensure fully recyclable plastic packaging. The manufacturing of these recesses is integrated into the thermoforming process for the tray body. • Rim-integrated recesses is a new technology for exudate management in PET packaging for food applications. • Developed rims considerably improve liquid pinning and restrict liquid drainage, improving retention capacity of recesses. • PET packaging film with rim-integrated recesses allow to avoid use of absorbing materials for confining exudate in packaging. • Fully recyclable PET packaging film can be achieved with rim-integrated recesses.

Stress Response Behavior, Microstructure Evolution and Constitutive Modeling of 22MnB5 Boron Steel under Isothermal Tensile Load

22MnB5 boron steel has become one of the main choices for lightweight vehicles due to its extremely high mechanical properties. To explore the intrinsic relationship between the thermoforming process and thermo-mechanical behavior for constitutive modeling and thermoforming of vehicle structure, thermal tensile tests in wide ranges of deformation temperature (500 °C to 950 °C) and strain rate (0.01 s−1 to 10 s−1) were performed using a Gleeble-1500D thermal simulator with hot-rolled 22MnB5 boron steel. With increasing applied strain and strain rate, the flow stress increases gradually and then tends to saturation after reaching peak stress, except for that at 0.01 s−1 and 500 °C. With increasing deformation temperature, the microstructure transforms from a mixture of bainite, ferrite and pearlite to lath-shaped martensite accompanied with some residual austenite. At 950 °C, the average size of martensite decreases with increasing applied strain rate. After thermoforming with austenitizing temperature of 950 °C, lath-shaped martensite accompanied with some residual austenite is obtained in a thermoformed U-shaped structural part, resulting in a dramatical increase in tensile strength. In contrast, the tensile strength of sidewall is slightly higher than that of bottom. Based on the Arrhenius-type constitutive model, a modified constitutive model is constructed with a relative error of less than 5%, which can well describe the flow stress behavior of the studied 22MnB5 boron steel.

Simulation Analysis of Polyphenylene Sulfide Composite for Two-Folded Clip Panel by Using Aniform Software

Out of autoclave composite manufacturing is a process that achieves same quality as an autoclave process but through different method and one of them is thermoforming process in which, it can save the process cost and time. Recently, the fabrication process to fabricate thermoplastic composites by using thermoforming method becoming more popular among the thermoplastic research area. The simulation process is applied to enable the prediction of defects as well as to study the behavior of the process at early stage using simulation analysis to avoid trial and error during fabrication. To simulate the simulation, there are several factors and parameters need to be considered so that the defects could be avoided due to the excellent and poor formability will be linked between the fabricated samples in Aniform and the manufactured products. In this study, Two-Folded Clip panel mold type has been chosen to simulate the fabrication process. The results show the tensioner of AUY-50 is the best tensioner to be used in this research due to the significant of the result of press formed laminate quality with no voids appeared.

Integration of Material Characterization, Thermoforming Simulation, and As-Formed Structural Analysis for Thermoplastic Composites.

An improved simulation-based thermoforming design process based on the integration of material characterization and as-formed structural analysis is proposed. The tendency of thermoplastic composites to wrinkle during forming has made simulation critical to optimized manufacturing, but the material models required are complex and time consuming to create. A suite of experimental methods has been developed for measurement of several required properties of the molten thermoplastic composite. These methods have the potential to enhance thermoplastic composites manufacturing by simplifying and expediting the process. These material properties have been verified by application to thermomechanical forming predictions using commercial simulation software. The forming predictions showed improved agreement with experimental results compared to those using representative material properties. A tool for using thermoforming simulations to inform more accurate structural models has been tested on a simple case study, and produced results that clearly differ from those of models using idealized fiber orientations and thicknesses. This provides evidence that this type of as-formed analysis may be necessary in some cases, and may be further investigated as an open source alternative to commercial analysis software.

Effects of gripper location and blank geometry on the thermoforming of a carbon-fiber woven-fabric/polyphenylene sulfide composite sheet

The effects of gripper location and blank geometry on the thermoforming of a pre-consolidated carbon-fiber woven-fabric/polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) thermoplastic composite sheet (deformed into a U-beam geometry) are investigated both experimentally and numerically. The thermoforming experiments and simulations are performed at constant tool (160oC) and sheet (315oC) temperatures by using four thermoplastic composite blanks, which are different in geometry and inserted into the blank holder using gripping springs. Thermocouples are inserted on the composite sheet and forming molds in order to monitor the temperature variations during thermoforming. Thermoforming process is simulated in Ls-Dyna; the composite sheet is modeled using the Anisotropic Hyperelastic Material Model (MAT_249). An optimum punch speed and a spring constant are initially determined through numerical simulations. Afterward, the numerical thermoforming processes of four different blanks are implemented separately. Results reveal that the simulations show good agreements with the experiments in terms of defects formation and the maximum shear angles between the fiber directions on the final thermoformed U-beam geometry. When the blank is attached with eight springs from the lugs to the blank holder, the deformation and distortion of the net edge of the sheet are avoided, resulting in significant reductions in the extent of defect formation.

Introducing surface functionality on thermoformed polymeric films

We present a fabrication process for the production of 3-dimensional micro-structured polymeric films. The microstructures are fabricated in a single step using thermal nanoimprint lithography as patterning technique. The micro-structured polymer films are then transformed into a 3D shape by means of a plug-assisted thermoforming process, while keeping the functionality of the micro-patterned areas. The preserved functionality is characterized by water contact angle measurements, while the deformation of the micro-structured topographies due to the thermoforming process is analyzed using confocal microscopy and Digital Image Correlation (DIC) techniques. This combined fabrication process represents a promising solution to complement in-mold decoration approaches, enabling the production of new functional surfaces. As the microstructures are fabricated by means of a mechanical modification of the surface, without the need of chemical treatments or coatings, the presented technique represents a promising, simple and green solution, suitable for the industrial fabrication of 3D nonplanar shaped functional surfaces. • A method to produce 3-dimensional micro-structured polymeric films by combination of nanoimprint lithography and thermoforming is presented • The surface microstructures defined by Nanoimprint Lithography induce surface hydrophobicity which is maintained after the thermoforming process. The microstructures defined by nanoimprint induce surface hydrophobicity which is maintained after the thermoforming process. • The strain induced by the thermoforming process deforms the microstructure, affecting the functional properties. • This combined process complement in-mold decoration approaches with the introduction of new functional surfaces.

Thermoforming process effects on structural performance of carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic composite parts through a manufacturing to response pathway

Thermoforming process of thermoplastic-based continuous CFRP's offer a major advantage in reducing cycle times for large-scale productions, but it can also have a significant impact on the structural performance of the parts by inducing undesirable effects. This necessitates the development of an optimal manufacturing process that minimizes the introduction of undesirable factors in the structure and thereby achieves the targeted mechanical performance. This can be done by first establishing a relationship between the manufacturing process and mechanical performance and successively optimizing it to achieve the desired targets. The current study focuses on the former part, where a manufacturing-to-response (MTR) pathway is established for a continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composite hat structure. The MTR pathway incorporates the thermoforming process-induced effects while determining the mechanical performance and principally comprises of material characterization, finite element simulations , and experimental validation. The composite material system selected for this study is AS4/Nylon-6 (PA6) with a woven layup. At first, the thermoforming simulations are performed above the melt temperature of PA6 using an anisotropic hyperelastic material model, and the process-induced effects such as thickness variation, fiber orientations, and residual stresses are captured from the analysis. Residual stresses developed in the formed structure during quench cooling from the elevated temperature are predicted by the implementation of classical laminate theory (CLT). These results are then mapped onto a duplicate part meshed suitably for mechanical performance analysis. A quasi-static 3-point bend test and a dynamic impact test are carried out and the results are compared with experimental tests. Experimental results from thermoforming, bending and dynamic impact trials show good agreement with the simulation results for the hat structure under consideration. Further, the static and dynamic performance is evaluated for the thermoformed structure and the effects of the thermoforming process are compared numerically, for the cases with and without the inclusion of process effects.

Three‐dimensional forming of plastic‐coated fibre‐based materials using a thermoforming process

AbstractThree‐dimensional (3D) forming of fibre‐based materials has been a topic of growing interest over recent years and 3D forming processes using hydroforming, press forming and deep drawing processes have been widely explored. Thermoforming as a potential alternative method for forming these materials remains, however, relatively understudied. This research attempts to provide a fundamental understanding of the thermoforming limitations of plastic‐coated paperboards. In the work, a variety of commercial paperboards are subjected to experimental tests with different forming parameters and moulding depths. Shape accuracy, maximum acquired depth, thickness distribution behaviour and damage mechanisms are used to evaluate thermoformability, and the results linked to the material properties and forming conditions. The research findings indicate that the plastic‐coated paperboards studied are thermoformable but only in simple geometric shapes and with low mould depths. Unlike plastic, thermoforming can result in thickness increase in plastic‐coated paperboards, which is thought to be a result of out‐of‐plane auxetic behaviour of paperboards. Paperboard thermoforming was also found to be hindered by rupture, blistering and curling defects. Tensile strain at break is the key factor determining thermoformability. Additionally, the density of the paperboard can impact the heating step and the rate at which the moisture content of the material changes during the forming process. Furthermore, it was observed that changes in process parameters affected materials differently, with the direction and rate of change differing based on the material being used.

Experimental and numerical study of thermoforming of Al/CFRP hybrid composites

Composite materials are more and more widely used in the automotive industry with the increasing requirements of lightweight design. In order to obtain automotive parts with excellent comprehensive mechanical properties, the 7075-T6 aluminum alloy was integrated with Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) by using thermoforming process. The influence of four forming methods on the forming process, forming accuracy, and interface bonding strength was studied in this work. A finite element model based on cohesion and forming was established to study the integrated thermoforming and properties prediction of Al/CFRP hybrid composites. The results showed that forming CFRP and unformed 7075 Al aluminum alloy sheet together required higher forming energy and the formed parts had higher Mises stresses. When the CFRP was located below 7075 aluminum alloy sheet, the uneven stress distribution due to the severe deformation of the resin resulted in the worst forming accuracy. For all four processes, the thickness of the formed parts decreased at the round corners and side wall area, increased at the flange area, and changed little at bottom surface. The thickness distribution of the formed part depends on the deformation process and the contact pressure between the tools and the blank. Greater contact pressure resulted in greater thinning rate. For the processes of preformed 7075 aluminum alloy, although less forming force was needed, the interface debonding risk between 7075 aluminum alloy and CFRP might arise due to the small contact pressure.

Influence of the Unit Cell Parameters on the Thermomechanical Non-Symmetric In-Plane Shear Behavior of 2D Biaxial Braided Preform for Thermoplastic Biocomposites.

The identification of thermomechanical in-plane shear behavior of preform is one of the most important factors to ensure the quality of the thermoplastic composites during the thermoforming process. In this present work, the non-symmetric in-plane shear behavior of flax/polypropylene 2D biaxial braided preform for thermoplastic biocomposites was characterized at elevated temperature chamber by using bias-extension test. Analytical models of a bias-extension test based on non-symmetric unit cell geometry for 2D biaxial braids were defined and applied; the thermo-condition-dependent experiments were conducted to study the temperature and displacement rate dependences. The influence of unit cell geometry parameters including braiding angle, tow waviness, and cover factor on the thermal in-plane shear behavior was deeply invested, experiments in both axial and transversal directions were performed for a complete study, and asymmetric scissor mechanisms for in-plane shear behavior were introduced and studied. Finally, a simulation of thermal impregnation distribution based on unit cell geometry was made to clarify the importance of the overall fiber volume fraction.

Effect of the cover factor on the tensile properties of multi-core flax/polypropylene micro-braided hybrid yarns for thermoplastic biocomposites

With the growing popularity of hybrid yarn techniques, the micro-braided yarn is becoming a good choice as one kind of intermediate materials for thermoplastic biocomposites, by presenting favorable morphology during the preform process and lowering the resin flow distance during the thermo-compression process. In this article, different flax/polypropylene (PP) based multi-core micro-braided hybrid yarns with the similar total number of flax core fibers were manufactured, by varying the parameters: multi-core configuration and braiding angle; both dry-and thermo- states tensile tests on yarns were carried out, since it is necessary to simulate the deforming behavior of a single hybrid yarn during the thermoforming process. The objective is to determine the cover factor especially for multi-core micro-braided yarn as a comprehensive textile indicator; and to study the influence of the cover factor parameters on mechanical tensile properties at the yarn scale. It has been observed that the cover factor parameters contributed the braider effect (friction and compression) on flax cores in the dry-state and lubricant effect (distribution and viscosity) in the thermo-state; further influenced the characterizations. Increasing multi-core configuration and braiding angle can both increase the tensile strength; larger cover factor results in greater tensile stiffness both in dry-and thermo-states.

Validation of a new diagnostic method for quantification of sleep bruxism activity

ObjectivesTo validate a new diagnostic method (DIABRUX) for quantifying sleep bruxism (SB) activity using the current gold standard, polysomnography (PSG), as a criterion in an adequate sample size investigation.Materials and methodsFor SB diagnosis, each participant received a two-night ambulatory PSG including audio–video recordings. The 0.5-mm-thick sheet is produced in a thermoforming process. After diagnosis via PSG, each subject wore the diagnostic sheet for five consecutive nights. The resulting total abrasion on the surface was automatically quantified in pixels by a software specially designed for this purpose.ResultsForty-five participants (10 SB and 35 non-SB subjects) were included. The difference of the mean pixel score between the SB (M = 1,306, SD = 913) and the non-SB group (M = 381, SD = 483; 3.4 times higher for SB) was statistically significant (p < 0.001). The receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed a value of 507 pixels as the most appropriate cut-off criterion with a sensitivity of 1.0, a specificity to 0.8, and an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.88. The positive and negative predictive value accounted for 0.59 and 1.0.ConclusionsThe present data confirm that the new diagnostic method is valid and user-friendly that may be used for therapeutic evaluation, and for the acquisition of larger sample sizes within sophisticated study designs.Clinical relevanceThe verified properties of the new diagnostic method allow estimating SB activity before damages occur due to long-standing bruxism activity. Therefore, it might be utilized for preventive dentistry.Trial registration numberNC T03325920 (September 22, 2017).

Fluid–structure‐interaction simulations of forming‐air impact thermoforming

AbstractThe authors present a thermally and dynamically coupled fluid–structure‐interaction (FSI) model of a thermoforming process variant along with simulation results. By purposeful arrangement of the inlet nozzles, the process variant under consideration seeks to improve the deformation behavior of a plastic sheet made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), ultimately leading to a more uniform wall thickness distribution. In order to capture the complex interaction between deforming sheet and turbulent flow field in the pressure box, the numerical model must realistically reproduce both fluid and solid domain and accurately handle coupling between the simulation participants. Detailed information is provided on modeling aspects of the solid and in particular of the fluid domain. Wall thickness distributions obtained from experiments for two test cases are compared to results generated using varying parametrizations of the simulation model. The results in general are in line with experimental measurements, although some peculiarities in the measured data could not be reproduced. Despite its limitations concerning accuracy and the computational cost, the holistic simulation approach using FSI appears to be a helpful tool for investigating thermoforming due to the detailed resolution of the inflation process in time and space.

Experimental and numerical analysis of the defects induced by the thermoforming process on woven textile thermoplastic composites

In the present work, a parallel numerical and experimental analysis of a critical type of defect is conducted, the shear deformation which is caused by the thermoforming process of thermoplastic-based composites reinforced with glass fiber textile. The numerical analysis is conducted a priori using a commercial finite element software, developed for this specific process. In parallel, an experimental thermoforming test was conducted using the exact same parameters used for simulating the process and, consecutively, measurements of the component characteristics such as the fiber relative deformation of the textile are taken. Aiming to validate the simulation and to obtain crucial information about this phenomenon, a comparison between the finite element process simulation and the measurements output is conducted revealing a satisfying agreement between them, leading also to useful conclusions about the validity of the simulation method as well as about the detection and measurement of the shear textile deformation using optical systems.

Digital twin modelling for optimizing the material consumption: A case study on sustainability improvement of thermoforming process

Reducing material consumption is a rising issue for manufacturers as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the European Union’s Green New Deal minimize carbon footprints. Sensors and PLC data-enabled digital twin applications stand as a remedy to minimize material consumption, maximize product performance and prevent rework through process quality improvements. They also provide insights to process parameters, enabling preventive actions and hence optimize production. However, digital twin applications require in-depth simulation expertise and an advanced understanding of the process and the product. This paper aims to present a digital twin modeling application for improving process and product quality. Hence, the sustainable production performance in a refrigerator production line of a large Turkish durable goods manufacturer, Arçelik, collaborates with a Digital Twin Startup, Simularge. The digital twin modeling used sensors and PLC data. The development team validated the digital twin after a detailed analysis of the process characteristics, process parameters, and process challenges with material modeling. Finite element simulations and several data analytic tools were combined to obtain the digital twin. Arçelik used the digital twin of the thermoforming process in its production system for better optimization. This implementation has significantly improved production KPIs and quality by decreasing the scrap ratio by 50 % and the raw material consumption by 10 %, resulting in an annual savings of USD 2 Million. Digital twins may enable production optimization with an improved sustainability performance. Collaboration and production data availability are the enablers of success. © 1905 Elsevier Science. All rights reserved