PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2019

INSPECTION PET planet Insider Vol. 20 No. 04/19 www.petpla.net 44 Integration of inline monitoring and offline inspection into preform manufacturing lines Preform Factory Concept 4.0 IMD Ltd offers preform manufacturers a flexible factory concept with inline monitoring and 100% offline inspection systems that can be integrated into existing production lines or entire production halls. The monitoring systems is claimed to ensure reliability on the entire production line via a portal that can be viewed from anywhere at any time. Acsur S.A. in Argentina has been using the IMDvista Factory Concept 4.0 for one and a half years now. Like many other preform manu- facturers, Acsur S.A. is experiencing an increase in production error rates, as more and more recycled mate- rial and UV blockers are processed and process problems such as black spots, colour deviations, crystallisa- tion and other errors in the production process occur and sometimes disap- pear again. Acsur S.A. has been manufactur- ing preforms and HDPE lids for the beverage, edible oil and detergent industries since 2002. They have nine production lines and a laboratory for quality control of the manufactured products. They use an Integrated Quality Management System (SGCI) supported by ISO 9001, FSSC 22000, ISO 14001 certifications. Three steps for higher preform quality Acsur’s existing production lines with several moulds and machines were upgraded in 2017 with the IMD- vista Preform Factory Concept 4.0. The goal was to increase productivity and quality, and to learn more about sources of error in the production pro- cess in order to reduce or eliminate them. IMD Ltd. therefore implemented at Acsur S.A. a combination of: 1) Online monitoring of the entire pro- duction process and 2) Offline inspection of individual pre- forms if necessary (at high speed) and 3) A portal for all data, for the evalu- ation and processing of data from the entire process. First step: constant monitoring inline As it is of high importance to have the production chain under control the first step of the con- cept is constant monitoring inline of the production, so as to avoid scrap production over a long period. An IMDvista Peco Lux system for inline monitoring of PET preforms has been integrated into each of the eight existing preform injection- moulding production lines. Monitoring of the whole process Monitoring the process in the Acsur plant is not only a monitoring of the product itself (preforms), but it is a monitoring of the whole production process, beginning with the resin (in mixed raw material) and ending with the finished preform. By examining these processes, the Acsur management was able to draw a conclusion over the qual- ity of their raw material. On the resin – for example contamination and foreign particles inside the product – as well as of the master batch (colour drifts during the production). Going a step further to the storage room, whether humidity or dust is contaminating the resin while in storage. In the next step, the preform provides information on the process inside the machine. The operator is now able to conclude if the machine has a temperature or water and cool- ing problem (burn- /watermarks). If the tool/mould – or injection process has a problem, it can be seen in the finished preform, because of the short shot trend analyser software or because of evidence of long gates. Step two: offline post inspection at high speed The offline post inspection at high speed is carried out with the IMDvista Peco V3 with efficiency and preci- sion. Only selected octabin boxes are inspected by IMDvista Peco Lux to make sure in the case of problems that only the bad preforms are sorted out while the good ones are used and sold. This factor guarantees Acsur S.A. a smooth production and quality management. The IMDvista Peco V3 can be used inline or offline. It is a compact preform inspection system. The pre- forms are kept in one straight line, no bends, no corners etc. Step three: one portal for all data Using these values, the final piece of the puzzle for the Portal (data for software data based systems) can generate all these data to a single Ricardo Berger, Quality Manager at Acsur S.A., Argentina.