enfinium, a leading UK energy from waste company, has created “digital twins” of its facilities - a virtual model designed to accurately reflect the actual state of a physical object.
In a UK-first for its sector, enfinium has partnered with Vertex Industrie, a pioneer of 3D manufacturing visualisation technology, with the aim of having the most reliable facilities in the energy-from-waste sector.
The company's engineers now have easy access to interactive 3D information that is enhancing productivity, reducing unplanned downtime, and reducing costs.
For example, for typical maintenance checks, the technology has achieved a 90% time-saving compared to manual processes, according to enfinium.
Using virtual reality headsets, the experience is immersive, placing the wearer “inside” enfinium’s vast boilers, helping them to better understand its state and its repair and maintenance needs.
As an operator of one of the UK’s largest portfolio of energy from waste facilities, enfinium has an enormous amount of data about how each plant is performing, it said.
Working with Vertex it has taken this 2D data set and turned it into an immersive 3D model which is far easier to interact with and comprehend.
Initially covering the boiler, refractory and combustion grate elements of enfinium’s generating units, the technology will steadily be applied to cover other critical equipment at each of the firm’s four, soon to be six, UK facilities.
Jane Atkinson, chief operating officer at enfinium said: “There are immense opportunities for the energy-from-waste sector to deploy the very latest techniques in digitisation to improve reliability and enhance productivity. enfinium is already one of the top performing operators in the UK but our collaboration with Vertex highlights our ambition to be the best.
Taking the immense amounts of data that we have regarding our plants and creating a virtual, immersive digital twin has transformed the way we think about and plan maintenance.’’
Abder Rarmaoui, managing director, Vertex Industrie, said: “For the first time in the UK, engineers in the energy-waste sector have an effective way to support their maintenance decisions. The predictive features of the Vertex platform allow efficient preparation of future maintenance.
"As we have seen with other customers, we are confident this will drive operational improvements as well as spur further innovation.”
enfinium creates ‘digital twins’ of its operating facilities
