REAL OR DIGITAL?

A “digital twin” is a virtual reflection of reality. In the same way as this illustration of innumerable animated points of light and circuits creates the image of a bird’s-eye view of a big city, a digital twin is not composed of anything tangible. On the contrary, it consists of data that flows into a predictive model. In this way, the US startup Element Analytics, in which Evonik has held an equity investment since last year, creates virtual copies of production facilities, including all of the machines that keep the operation running. This can provide Evonik with a digital twin of a pump, for example, that can be used to accurately forecast when the real-life pump in a particular chemical plant will fail. This enables technicians to take action early on—and in a completely analog manner.

Photo: Javier Pardina / stocksy.com