Industry 4.0 applied to plastic compounds, PVC and masterbatch
In the last two years, the concept ‘Industry 4.0’ has burst into the world of industry, which can be defined as the transformation of the current production processes due to the integration of digital technologies and the Internet.
Industry 4.0 is based on the union of a group of technologies already existing that, applied to industrial processes, will promote the interconnectivity either between the technician and the production process production or between different equipment units to obtain more information about the process, store it and manage it in the best possible way to ensure maximum effectiveness in such process and also improve the relationship between the client and the company.
These technologies are known as Industry 4.0 enabling technologies and they are: the cloud, big data, additive manufacturing, Internet of Things, cybersecurity, autonomous robots, augmented reality, simulation and process integration.
Among the technologies mentioned, some of them are more closely related to production process improvements and others to data management and management tasks in general.
Therefore, technologies such as simulation, advanced sensors (associated with the Internet of Things), big data, augmented reality or additive manufacturing would be directly applicable to processes for obtaining compounds and masterbatches and for PVC formulation.
From the point of view of the immediate impact of results of companies formulating plastics, the enabling technologies to be integrated could be:
- Simulation in twin-screw extrusion processes. It could reduce the number of tests to obtain a formula, foresee productions, optimize screws or perform industrial scale-up, minimize development costs (regarding raw materials, energy and human resources) and reduce the time-to-market (TTM).
- Advanced sensors. They would help companies to better understand the process. This concept could be divided into two main fields: extruder complementary sensorization to monitor the thermal evolution, pressure, etc. of the compound, as well as the possible inline measurement of properties such as colour, electrical conductivity and maybe dispersion or mechanical properties in the future, thus saving time and resources in the performance review.
- Big data. It is related to the amount of data a system can collect to analyse the factors that have an influence on the process efficiency and act on the most critical factors to minimize their adverse effects. A system to collect and store data and analyse tools is essential. Some of its objectives are energy consumptions, assessment of response variables of the machine or productions and comparison with process parameters to optimize quality and production.