The renaissance Industry 4.0 is bringing to plastics processing has showed no signs of petering out at NPE2018, with injection moulding technology giant KraussMaffei demonstrating just how crucial digitisation is to its growth, and how it is transforming the injection moulding machinery space.
KraussMaffei
The future is digital for KraussMaffei.
In a meeting with industry journalists on May 7th at the Orlando industry event, CEO of KraussMaffei Group Dr Frank Steiler emphasised that the company has survived and thrived for 180 years owing to its willingness to adapt, adding that now, North America is the largest single market in the world for the KraussMaffei Group.
“If this company can survive two world wars and a number of economic crises that have turned the world upside down … it’s a strong signal where this company is coming from,” said Dr Steiler.
“We’ve had changes in ownership. Our owners now do believe in growth and we should be investing in growth. We believe this market has much more potential for us and we are set to tap into that potential.”
Two ways KraussMaffei is reaching as yet untapped potential is through research and development and digitisation.
“These are very important to us,” said Dr Steiler, who noted that digitisation of KraussMaffei machines adds value for customers in the form of data collection, cloud solutions for monitoring, intelligent machines for communicating and interactive service concepts.
Such service concepts include the pioneering leasing initiative KraussMaffei launched at Fakuma 2017, which guarantees the customer can return their machine after three years or they have the opportunity to buy it.
“We will expand this concept through the US,” Dr Steiler confirmed. “We believe it’s highly attractive and connects the time for a single project for our customers to a time they can commit to using the machine. After the rental period has expired they can return the machine or buy it. All this in real life is related to the ability to connect data.”
KraussMaffei began the rental scheme at the beginning of this year and now going through a validation phase. The company is now in talks with financing institutions in the US as the model is driven by accounting rules and requirements, and will be rolled out once the wrinkles presented in the pilot scheme are ironed out.
The CEO has not made predictions for what percentage of the business will be leasing when the scheme is fully phased in, as it is not a model that works with economies of scale, rather a scheme designed to be flexible. The company has targeted China as well as the US for rolling it out.
Paul Caprio, President of KraussMaffei Corporation raised the matter of Plastics 4.0, KraussMaffei’s answer to Industry 4,0 and the Internet of Things.
“We are showing how the APC plus process control function is able to lower scrap rates, have a high component quality and increase the use of recycled material,” he said.
APC’s intelligent machine function, which can be used to quickly compensate for disruptive fluctuations and environmental influences in the manufacturing process.
"We are using the slogan 'our people help shape your success' to showcase
groundbreaking injection molding and automation solutions at NPE. We help
our customers achieve more efficiency and cost-effectiveness over the long
term using our flexible standard machines and customized system solutions.
The primary target group of our exhibits at NPE consists of the automotive,
packaging, construction, medical and electronics industries," explained
Caprio.
Another product from the Plastics 4.0 portfolio is the DataXplorer. The system provides a
nearly microscopic look at the process, enabling users to respond to unclear
fault patterns. Depending on the machine's equipment, it displays up to 500
high-resolution signal paths, visualises the signal paths, and makes them
available for evaluation.
Using DataXplorer means better traceability and easier error identification.
For Netstal, customers can use cloud-based analytics with AnalytiX complemented by apps in Android and iOS. AnalytiX goes live at NPE 2018.
There are a total of seven KraussMaffei injection moulding
machines with automation technology live in production at the KraussMaffei
trade show booth and at partner booths.
