Above: The Konecranes implementation of IoT is one of the first that develops a framework to connect and synchronize the virtual and physical worlds.

Electronics/power distribution giant’s expertise accelerates product development at crane builder

November 2019 - Konecranes, which delivers cranes and lifting equipment to seaports and manufacturing customers around the world, implemented technology from Siemens’ Xcelerator portfolio to push its product development process forward at greater speed and connect product and performance data together. 

The Finnish company, which launched the platform internally earlier this year, is using MindSphere (the open, cloud-based Internet of Things operating system) and the Teamcenter portfolio (a digital product lifecycle management software) to leverage the “digital twin” and reduce the number of physical prototypes. Doing so helps to increase efficiency and reduce product validation time. A digital twin is a digital replica of a physical entity. By bridging the physical and the virtual world, data is transmitted seamlessly, allowing the virtual entity to exist simultaneously with the physical entity. This idea was first introduced in 2002 by Dr. Michael Grieves, then of the University of Michigan, at a Society of Manufacturing Engineers conference.

The Konecranes implementation of IoT is one of the first that develops a framework to connect and synchronize the virtual and physical worlds. The virtual world consists of engineering design, analysis and simulation, and the physical world consists of testing and operational reliability. Reliability equals safety for personnel and loss prevention of goods while cranes are hoisting millions of tons of product around the globe each day. Drop sections of, say, a wind turbine and you’ve lost a million dollars.

In addition to stationary and mobile cranes, Konecranes builds heavy-duty lift trucks and reach stackers, and a newly upgraded Agilon robotic system to move materials.

Avoid over engineering

“The product design process is currently based more on an engineer’s experience and generally shared assumptions than measured facts from existing products,” says Juha Pankakoski, executive vice president–technology at Konecranes. “These assumptions often lead to non-optimized designs that are over engineered. With an integrated digital twin platform, we see major potential in speeding up the product development process, increasing traceability and thus improving quality and reducing development cost.”

Decreasing the number of prototypes needed to ensure the fully realized product will work on a commercial scale is another goal of this approach.

Siemens has found that design, simulation and prototype testing organizations typically operate in their own silos, often using out-of-date processes for their work. Konecranes employed the digital twin as the communication approach between all three departments to review data and provide feedback about engineering, simulation and testing intent. Using Siemens’ technology, Konecranes has connected data from all these work groups to create a single 360-degree view of how prototypes are running and performing, and correlating requirements to real-world performance data. 

A closed-loop digital twin framework using IoT and product life cycle management (PLM) technologies can lead to faster design issue resolution and shorter prototyping phases by leveraging virtual sensor data in product simulations to provide accurate results. It can also improve overall quality and support downstream product life cycle processes.

Seamless results

“Bringing together assets from both the physical and virtual domains provides a seamless framework of business data, which can help eliminate rework, leverage factual data surrounding prototypes, and provide closed-loop feedback regarding physical and virtual assets,” says Tony Hemmelgarn, president and CEO at Siemens Digital Industries Software. “The proof of value of the digital twin achieved at Konecranes confirms the business value of integrated IoT and PLM technology. The power of the digital twin connecting MindSphere IoT real-time data to the virtual engineering assets in a seamless user experience turns generated data into actionable information to create a closed-loop decision environment for continuous optimization.”

One product upgrade Konecranes brought to market this year is the Agilon, an automated materials management system designed to enhance warehouse efficiency. The Agilon robot moves diagonally, horizontally and vertically and, using Konecranes’ latest software, can transfer items at customer sites at a more accelerated pace. The rebooted Agilon has greater reach for large warehouses.

Using Siemens’ technology, Konecranes connected data between work groups to create a single 360-degree view of how prototypes are running.

New business

Konecranes continues to win business in North America. The company received an order for two mobile harbor cranes to increase dockside handling capacity at the Port of Brownsville, Texas.

The only deep-water port located on the U.S.-Mexico border, Brownsville is experiencing an increase in cargo volume across its range of services. The two new Konecranes Gottwald model mobile harbor cranes will be delivered to the port fully assembled and commissioned, ready to begin work as early as December 2019. 

The cranes will handle a wide variety of cargo, including commodity breakbulk, bulk products, heavy project cargo and steel products. The steel includes coils, slabs, pipe, rod and beams.

Giuseppe Di Lisa, sales and marketing director for Konecranes’ mobile harbor cranes business unit, says the two new cranes will aid the Port of Brownsville by increasing its handling performance.

In April, the Georgia Ports Authority ordered a fleet of 20 Konecranes rubber tire gantry cranes for the Port of Savannah, Georgia, the largest, fastest-growing container terminal in North America. MM