Digital Twin – Helpful Tip: Control Cabinet Manufacturing
8 February 2021
Efficiency and Precision for Control Cabinets

WAGO Provides the Right Digital Twin for Every Challenge

Traditional control cabinet manufacturing is characterized by a lot of manual production steps. These processes are often time-consuming, expensive and error-prone. In a standard control cabinet, 500 connections are required for the control technology alone, and this includes cables of various colors, cross-sections and assembly types.

Consistent digital processes increase efficiency – and make processes faster, more economical and more precise. The foundation for an optimized process is a digital twin: a digital representation of a real-world object or process. It simulates the production situation and the calculated paths on the computer using 3D measurement.

Digital Twin Requirements

Depending on the specifications, a digital twin may consist of a lot of data, algorithms and sensors. When the production engineering aspect of a digital twin is in the foreground, it tends to be less complex and easier to integrate into ongoing processes. In addition, the digital twin can be linked to information sources and expanded to the point where it becomes an IoT system.

There’s never just the one digital twin; there’s only ever the twin that’s right for the specific challenge and requirements! The process steps in which the digital twin is to be used should be readily apparent.

Benefits of a Digital Twin
in Control Cabinet Manufacturing

A Focus on Manufacturing and Design

A detailed, accurate visual representation of an object, including all its different forms of information
Wiring can be represented with all wire paths, cable ducts and DIN-rails, as well as all drilled holes and cutouts
The three-dimensional display simplifies many tasks, because individual positions in the building system can be more easily identified
As a result, manufacturing is faster and the error rate drops significantly
Save time and money
Status data can be exchanged between the real and digital twin during ongoing operations

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Precisely Tailored and Certified: Digital Twins from WAGO

Digital twins from WAGO facilitate a consistent digital added value chain in control cabinet manufacturing. 28,000 products for 3D data in 60 different formats for the most important CRM systems provide the foundation for representing your control cabinet, including all of its components, in a digital format.

Your Digital Twin Will Be
Easy, Fast and Reliable!

Example Application: WAGO Mini Rail-Mount Terminal Blocks

A WAGO partner uses AutoCAD to set up its project in 3D. By doing so, it is also simulating its digital twin. Therefore, our partner needs a digital twin of the miniature terminal blocks from WAGO to simulate the installation space and to position the drilled holes for the flange on the mounting plate.

Only a few steps are needed to obtain the digital twin from WAGO:

1. Search for https://www.wago.com/de den benötigten Artikel.

We offer a wide range of information on our products to provide you with practical support in your day-to-day work.

2. When you find the item, go to Downloads/CAD/CAE data.

3. Here you can select the right CAD twin from among more than 60 different formats.

Digital twins that also require electrical functional descriptions in addition to the 3D modeling are available for direct download from the EPLAN Data Portal, the Zuken Component Cloud or the WSCAD Universe, where they are organized by engineering software.

ePLAN

WSCAD

Zuken

The eCl@ss Data Standard

The eCl@ss Data Standard: Higher Quality, Less Work and a Lower Error Rate!

eCl@ss is the international reference data standard for unique digital description of products and services. WAGO uses eCl@ss as the foundation for its digital twins.

Advantages:

Improved item or device data quality; more options for standardization and automation
Whether in purchasing, planning, manufacturing or operation – all departments use a uniform information standard across processes.

The expanded standard for component data – eCl@ss Advanced – offers additional options for configuring processes even more efficiently: Digital twins are expanded to include component and wiring information that is relevant to the project.

Component connection points and designations are already described in the 3D layout.
Data can be derived without media discontinuities and then used in other sub-processes like manufacturing, including wiring.
With a single keystroke, you can display colors, lengths and wiring targets for the connections and send them to the equipment (assuming suitable CAE software is available).

Do you have questions about your WAGO digital twin or need support for working with it?
We’ll be happy to assist you.

International Sales

Mon-Thu 8 am - 5 pm CET
Fri 8 am - 4 pm CET

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Additional service offerings:

Smart Script – Reliable Time-Saving Marking for All Control Cabinet Components

A sophisticated marking system saves money!

Lean Managed Switches – Easy Network Diagnostics in the Control Cabinet

The new lean managed switches: for greater network availability and reliability.

Less Time, Less Exertion, Higher Performance for Control Cabinet Manufacturing

How can professional tools streamline control cabinet manufacturing?

Digital Twin – Helpful Tip: Control Cabinet Manufacturing 8 February 2021 Efficiency and Precision for Control Cabinets