Anybody dealing with the topic of Industry 4.0 will, after just a short time, inevitably encounter the digital twin. This refers to the digitalized image of a real object or process. We set out to track down this ominous twin and followed it all over Phoenix Contact.
Frank Knafla is an Industrie 4.0 expert. For many years, he has been active at Phoenix Contact in everything that carries the labels digitalization, Internet of Things, automation, or Internet 4.0. And after all these years, he knows “his” Phoenix Contact inside out. So it was obvious that we should go on a treasure hunt together with him, always on the search for this ominous digital twin.
It’s not even here
If there is one thing that unites the twin in all its facets, it is it’s ability to make itself almost invisible. Because no matter where you look for it, your research will first uncover the warning: “Well, it’s not even really here. Just a part of it at most.”
What at first sounds like gruesome bodily parts is quickly explained. On the one hand, the people in the Lippe homeland of the digital twin are rather reserved. On the other hand, this legendary creature from the digital world of the future is actually anything but spectacular. If you take a closer look.
We didn’t let up and finally found him. Maybe we had him in our sights the whole time, just didn’t recognize it. But read it for yourself!
We feed it
We train it
We control with it
We print with it
We got it!
