To protect the environment and the climate, the EU wants to launch a Digital Product Passport (DPP) as part of its Green Deal. The Digital Product Passport records and stores all the important information about a product, including details about the manufacturer, the materials used and options for repair and disposal. The information is transparent and digitally accessible to all parties involved in the product life cycle via the DPP.
The DPP consists of three elements:
- Digital nameplate
- information on the product related to the impact on the environment
- Product description with key features and functions
The digitalization of the industry is constantly presenting new challenges, particularly in product labelling and documentation. The strategic goal is that the digital product passport can also be read and interpreted by machines as a subset of the so-called “digital twin”.
The solution: Digital product passport based on the ECLASS standard
A study by the German Economic Institute recommends using the ECLASS standard to create a digital product passport in order to ensure consistent and efficient structuring.
The standard is backed by ECLASS e. V., a non-profit organization founded in 2000 and supported by companies, associations and institutions from a wide range of industrial and commercial sectors. Their aim is to develop a manufacturer-independent and cross-industry standard for the digital exchange of product data.
More than 4,000 companies worldwide already use the ECLASS standard with its approximately 48,000 product classes and 23,000 unique properties for data exchange in accordance with ISO 22274 and IEC 61360. Since version 14.0, it is also available fully translated in 15 languages. It can be used across manufacturers and industries. ECLASS is developing various standards from sectors such as electrical engineering, food, automotive and office supplies into a uniform, cross-industry standard.
Thanks to semantic interoperability, ECLASS data can also be read and interpreted by machines – an important prerequisite for machine-to-machine communication, I4.0 applications and the digital twin.
Experts from development, industry and trade are continuously developing the standard and adapting it to current requirements.
The introduction of the DIP in conjunction with ECLASS leads to a significant increase in efficiency in information management. It provides quick, easy access to up-to-date product information and facilitates compliance with new EU regulations regarding climate targets. It also plays a crucial role in promoting Industry 4.0 by supporting the digitalization of production and contributing to Europe’s global competitiveness.
How does it work?
The digital product passport records the relevant information of a product. For this purpose, a data container based on the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) is used. ECLASS, which defines the necessary structures for the content, forms the semantic basics. In the AAS, information such as “Environmental Footprint”, “General Battery and Manufacturer Information” or “Circularity and Resource Efficiency” can be mapped for the Digital Product Passport using ECLASS structural elements. ECLASS structural elements can also be exchanged directly via a web service as XML or JSON.
In application
From 2027, the battery passport for industrial and car batteries will be the first digital product passport to become mandatory. Additional product groups will follow. The ECLASS standard already provides the necessary structures to create the digital product passport for batteries.
