China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) recently announced the second batch of 10 typical application scenarios and five key industry cases for the “5G plus industrial Internet”. The 5G plus smart chemical industry project, undertaken by Elkem Xinghuo Silicones and China Telecom, was listed as the production unit simulation application scenario and the typical case for the chemical industry.

In the project, the digital twin technology has been used to simulate the application of production units in a factory and realize the integration of the supply chain in full scenarios. Through the MEC network, 5G industrial gateway, personnel positioning, AI machine vision and big data, the data concerning human, machine, object and other factors within a factory have been collected and aggregated for an enterprise’s production data center. By using digital twin technology, all kinds of real-time and analysis data in the production are accurately mapped to the 3D model of the production line. The virtual twin organosilicon plant is operated to provide a complete simulation of the physical production line. Key links of production flow and equipment production are simulated through data acquisition to quickly present the production status. The collected data is fused with the 3D model data to achieve real-time synchronization of virtual and physical equipment. After the “5G plus smart factory” project was put into operation, the production safety of Elkem Xinghuo Silicones has been significantly improved. In contrast, the production and management costs were reduced.

Also, the project was selected as the 2020 Industrial Internet Application Case by the Chinese Alliance of Industrial Internet. Elkem Xinghuo Silicones will give full play to the benchmark demonstration effect of the chemical industry, expedite technological innovation and the transformation of old and new drivers under the defining trend of industrial Internet, and facilitate the digitalization, networking and intelligent upgrading of the chemical industry so as to boost the high-quality development of the silicone industry.