Adjusting products with compensatory elements using a digital twin: Model and methodology.

Area of Science:

• Mechanical Engineering
• Manufacturing Technology
• Digital Twins

Background:

• Geometric error in vehicle headlamp assembly impacts product quality.
• Calibration screws are used to manage assembly tolerances.
• Existing methods may not fully optimize error reduction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and implement a digital twin strategy for minimizing geometric error in vehicle headlamp assembly.
• To determine the optimal configuration of a compensatory element for error reduction.
• To validate the effectiveness of the digital twin approach in a manufacturing setting.

Main Methods:

• A general digital twin design and implementation methodology was employed.
• The problem was formulated as a constrained minimization task.
• Optimization was performed using gradient-based and quasi-Newton (Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno) methods.

Main Results:

• The digital twin approach identified an optimal configuration for a compensatory element.
• The novel method achieved alignment for all points when non-individual calibration met a 92% geometrical specification.
• A comparison with the standard manufacturing process on 84,055 samples showed 98.19% perfect alignment.

Conclusions:

• The digital twin strategy effectively reduces geometric error in vehicle headlamp assembly.
• Automated adjustment based on the optimal digital twin configuration enhances manufacturing precision.
• This approach significantly improves the alignment accuracy of the final product.