More sustainability thanks to artificial intelligence

At this year’s Kuteno, tech­no­trans solu­tions GmbH is pre­sent­ing an AI-based process mon­i­tor­ing sys­tem for injec­tion mold­ing machines and periph­er­als such as tem­per­a­ture con­trol units. The sys­tem is the result of a strate­gic coop­er­a­tion with dig­i­tal solu­tions provider Nex­ocraft and helps reduce the car­bon foot­print of plas­tics pro­cess­ing com­pa­nies. In addi­tion, tech­no­trans will exhib­it its tem­per­a­ture con­trol units from the high­ly effi­cient eco.line. 

Sus­tain­abil­i­ty, cir­cu­lar econ­o­my and the reduc­tion of mate­r­i­al con­sump­tion, ener­gy and CO₂ are becom­ing increas­ing­ly sig­nif­i­cant for the plas­tics pro­cess­ing indus­try. “Par­tic­u­lar­ly in times of cri­sis, com­pa­nies are repeat­ed­ly faced with new chal­lenges such as sup­ply dif­fi­cul­ties, raw mate­r­i­al and mate­r­i­al bot­tle­necks, and sharply increased prices. tech­no­trans is aware of these chal­lenges and con­sis­tent­ly devel­ops solu­tions to meet them effec­tive­ly,” says Nico­lai Küls, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor of tech­no­trans solu­tions GmbH. The com­pa­ny recent­ly ini­ti­at­ed a strate­gic coop­er­a­tion with the solu­tion provider to lever­age fur­ther effi­cien­cy poten­tial for the plas­tics pro­cess­ing indus­try through the use of arti­fi­cial intelligence. 

Long-term cooperation for more digitization 

The high­light of the pre­sen­ta­tion is a joint­ly devel­oped AI-based process mon­i­tor­ing sys­tem for injec­tion mold­ing machines and periph­er­als such as tem­per­a­ture con­trol units. The solu­tion enables process mon­i­tor­ing, intel­li­gent process con­trol and over­ar­ch­ing machine con­trol direct­ly from the cloud. The aim is to opti­mize plant effec­tive­ness. Among oth­er things, this has involved sim­pli­fy­ing the machine con­nec­tion, which now takes place via plug & play using pre­con­fig­ured LTE gateways.

“Basi­cal­ly, we can con­nect and inte­grate all injec­tion mold­ing machines and tem­per­a­ture con­trol units that have an acti­vat­ed OPC UA serv­er. Here, we are inde­pen­dent of the device series and manufacturers.”

- Nico­lai Küls, Man­ag­ing Director

In addi­tion, intel­li­gent mon­i­tor­ing and auto­mat­ic con­trol of mold tem­per­a­ture with easy-to-install retro­fit sen­sor tech­nol­o­gy for injec­tion molds are pos­si­ble from the com­pa­ny through the sparring.ai expan­sion solu­tion. tech­no­trans is also plan­ning fur­ther projects with the dig­i­tal solu­tion provider. Among oth­er things, fur­ther trade fair appear­ances are planned with Nex­ocraft, includ­ing in Hanover and Cologne. The com­mon goal is clear­ly defined: Plas­tics pro­cess­ing is to be made even more effi­cient through the use of dig­i­tal solu­tions. “In order to raise the effi­cien­cy of injec­tion mold­ing sys­tems to a new lev­el, a holis­tic per­spec­tive and new con­cepts are need­ed, which we are devel­op­ing togeth­er with a strong part­ner,” says Küls. 

Highly efficient and sustainable temperature control units 

In addi­tion to the dig­i­tal solu­tion, vis­i­tors* can expect to see the ener­gy-effi­cient and sus­tain­able tem­per­a­ture con­trol unit series “eco.line”, for media tem­per­a­tures of 95°C, 140°C, 160°C and 180°C, at the booth. By using cen­trifu­gal pumps and a pump effi­cien­cy mod­ule (PEM), users not only save high oper­at­ing costs, but can also ben­e­fit from the hand­some sub­si­dies. Among oth­er fea­tures, the units are equipped with an inno­v­a­tive “longlife” stain­less steel heat­ing car­tridge, which trans­fers heat to the medi­um with­out trans­fer resis­tance and impress­es with low ener­gy loss and a long ser­vice life. The prod­uct line also impress­es with its high lev­el of user-friend­li­ness: Vis­i­tors to the trade show can get an impres­sion of the 7‑inch Logotherm oper­at­ing con­cept with mul­ti-touch functions.