Retrofit of Eight Lines at AKRO-PLASTIC

Press release of January 16th, 2009

The AKRO-PLASTIC GmbH is well-known in the market to be a specialist for the development and production of technical thermoplastics, especially of polyamide compounds and derivates for technically sophisticated applications in nearly all market segments.

An increased demand for the products required an increase of production. Therefore, an additional extrusion line was bought which was completely automated by BSG. The production capacity of all 9 lines in Niederzissen is approx. 40,000 t/year. One customers` demand is quick availability of the products just in time. In order to guarantee this, the reliability and quick availability of the lines is indispensable.

Not only the mechanics of the lines has to be perfect, but also the automation technology has always to be state of the art. That is the only way to activate all possible productivity reserves and to optimize the workflow. The decision to retrofit the existing lines was taken because of the good experience with the BSG automation technology of the new line.

During this retrofit, three old C4 and five Soft-SPS-controls were adapted to the universal BSG automation concept ONEconcept. Whereas with the C4 controls, a retrofit was overdue because of missing suitable spare parts, the Soft-SPS was changed for other reasons: The original control with Panel-PC and Soft-SPS has caused several, unexpected standstills. Therefore, with the machine automation ONEoperate, BSG consequently counts on S7-CPUs and Siemens Operator Panels of the OP and MP series. With this equipment, standstills occur hardly ever. For all lines, the operating philosophy of ONEoperate is identical.

The existing operator panels for the extruder and feeding systems ...	... were exchanged through one common operator panel (right side).	The new operator panel is optimized to the needs of the operators.

„Trouble-free working is a basic condition for a productive and modern manufacturing concept!" explains Werner Specht, Production Manager of AKRO PLASTIC GmbH.

Moreover, the retrofit of the lines enables that, with the ONEdatagate system, all production data of all 9 lines can be registered. That is an essential contribution to quality control and customer satisfaction at AKRO PLASTIC.

Furthermore, all lines are equipped with modern bus systems which allow to connect the lines with the company-internal MES. Hereby, the production workflow is additionally optimized.

„With the new BSG automation technology, which we have also firmly earmarked for further investments, AKRO PLASTIC is prepared for important steps in the future" says Plant Manager Marc Tenne.