Extrusion International 6-2022

34 Extrusion International 6/2022 K 2022 Digital Offensive Launched C ountless producers of films and nonwovens could be more pro- ductive today if they fully exploited the enormous potential of digitaliza- tion. Reifenhäuser presented there- fore a digital offensive at K 2022 to help all producers get started with digitalization. In doing so, the company is focusing on the empow- erment and independence of cus- tomers – and is deliberately turning away from the usual vendor-centric approaches. Instead, Reifenhäuser offers easy-to-implement, open dig- ital solutions designed to help pro- ducers of films or nonwovens world- wide to increase their production efficiency (OEE) independently and sustainably. All customers, regard- less of company size, thus benefit from a new dimension of process transparency that for the first time includes all line manufacturers and line types of a production. The core of the digital solution is the so-called c.Hub, a middleware that ensures the secure exchange of data between different IT systems, applications, extrusion machines and line controls. This includes Rei- fenhäuser systems as well as third- party systems. The c.Hub becomes the single point of truth for all pro- duction-relevant data by merging and harmonizing production data streams. The central advantage is that all users can access all data from anywhere at any time and document them securely. The data is collected and stored on premises without in- terfering with the production pro- cess. The producer retains full con- trol over the data at all times. "So far, digitization in our indus- try has mostly failed due to hetero- geneous factories with machines and peripherals from different vendors and of different ages and types, as well as applications that are not connected with each other," says Daniel Kajan, Director Product & Operations at RE:, a Reifenhäuser Group subsidiary specializing in digital products for extrusion line operators. "Without looking at the big picture, however, production is inefficient and error-prone. Un- necessary complaints, material loss and downtime are the result. Only a cross-vendor solution maps the production reality of our customers and thus offers real benefits," Ka- jan continues. To enable customers to easily connect all their equipment in pro- duction, Reifenhäuser offers out- of-the-box connectors for the most important industrial protocols. They enable fast and complete acquisition of all production data. The associ- ated ExtrusionOS software provides user-friendly applications and dash- boards that help monitor, manage, store and analyze this data. Line operators can, for example, moni- tor the condition of their connected equipment and adjust it optimally based on the knowledge gained. They also have the option of moni- toring defined thresholds and KPIs and, if desired, receiving notifica- tions when thresholds are exceeded. This enables users to act faster and more efficiently, thereby signifi- cantly reducing errors and customer complaints. Legal requirements such as compliance with EFSA-relevant threshold values when processing recyclate for direct contact with food can be monitored and docu- mented securely. "Our open digital ecosystem helps line operators capture all production data from the first meter to the last meter of the roll, easily gain insights from it, and benefit from their data in the long run," Kajan explains. The digital package can either be purchased together with Reifen- häuser machines or retrofitted on existing lines and servers. Reifenhäuser Group RE: GmbH www.re-digital.io Reifenhäuser enables cross-manufacturer data exchange between all line types and systems – and thus creates more transparency in production (Picture: Bettina Jopp-Witt/VM Verlag)