With the innovation "PredictON: Plastification Unit – Wear Measurement as a Service", our tech2b start-up Moldsonics, together with EREMA, convinced the jury and won this year's innovation award from ÖVIA (Austrian Association for Maintenance and Plant Management).
EREMA is the market leader in plastics recycling machinery and plant engineering and places a special focus on condition monitoring and predictive maintenance solutions, which are being promoted together with the innovative start-up Moldsonics, among others.
Moldsonics develops and manufactures ultrasonic sensor solutions for the plastics processing industry. This unique sensor technology makes it possible to look deep into the process and ultimately optimize it subsequently.
Behind the ultrasound-based wear measurement is also the knowledge that despite the highest demands on material qualities and wear-protected designs, the extruder screw and the extruder cylinder are subject to abrasive wear. The consequences are reduced productivity, unplanned machine downtimes, but also high storage costs for spare parts.
Thanks to the implementation of the innovation, it is now possible to determine the state of wear of the Erema plastic recycling plants or their plasticizing units during operation and thus always have an eye on the current condition of the systems. As a result, irregularities in the process can be detected immediately and appropriate measures can be taken. This, in turn, results in cost optimisation and increased efficiency.
The future vision for this innovation is the continuous (24/7) monitoring of recycling plants around the globe without technicians on site, as Thomas Mitterlehner of Moldsonics emphasizes.
Image: (c) Moldsonics
