FACTORY MANAGEMENT | INDUSTRY 4.0
event of equipment failure is not only tedious and complex, but also very expensive. In turn, the lost time and resources associated with downtime can negatively impact both productivity and the competitiveness of the company.” The implementation of OPC UA communications
Above: German compounder Sitraplas has networked its metal separators to ensure immediate operator notification and response to any issues
says the company. “These systems should be as simple as possible and not overloaded with powerful IT systems. However, this is a shortcoming of most solutions. They are not adequately tailored to plastics processing…KraussMaffei is closing this gap with easyTrace.” EasyTrace acquires information from material
dryers, plastics processing machines, complex automation systems, cameras, printers, and scanners. It supports most interfaces available in the market—including E63, Profinet and E77—which makes it possible to integrate machines from different manufacturers or older equipment into digital production.
Cutting downtime
One ancillary equipment company making use of OPC UA for smart manufacturing in the compounding sector, among other industries, is Sesotec, which makes systems for contaminant detection and material sorting. It highlights the use of its technology at Sitraplas, which produces engineering plastic compounds at Bünde in Germany.
“Unplanned downtime is a nightmare for every company, but especially for continuous production facilities,” says Sesotec. “Troubleshooting in the
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protocol has had many benefits for Sitraplas. “Since we have been using OPC UA, we’ve had minimal maintenance and downtime,” says Tim Hencken, Managing Director of the company. “System availability has seen considerable improvements.” Last year, Compounding World reported on a new initiative at intelligent industrial automation provider Oden Technologies to help machinery manufacturers help their customers eliminate unplanned downtime. It partnered last September with WorldWide Polymer Compounding (WWPC), a specialist in process development and troubleshooting for the compounding industry, to offer Oden’s products to polymer and food compounding manufacturers in North America.
Facing challenges Oden says companies operating compounding facilities face various technical and operational challenges that have the potential to be resolved using Industry 4.0 solutions. “Specifically, manufacturers are struggling with maintaining the highest throughput rate and product quality on a continuous basis as well as hiring operators and process engineers with the right skills to oversee their operations,” it says. Oden’s intelligent industrial automation platform is claimed to provide continuous visibility into factory operations and processes. The company says customers can see improvements such as a 20% increase in monthly output, due to the combination of optimised production rates, increased yield, and reduced downtime. It claims its AI-powered data analytics helps manufacturers achieve as much as a 50% decrease in total scrap
IMAGE: SESOTEC
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