Extrusion International 6-2022

38 Extrusion International 6/2022 K 2022 Pioneer in Digitalization, Focus on System Engineering A t K 2022, BUSS will be explaining the possibilities of its digitalized machine monitoring project, which is designed to extend machine service life and uninterrupted production runs, identify maintenance needs at an early stage and avoid unforeseen downtime. BUSS will also be present- ing its wide-ranging expertise as a partner in plant engineering for all aspects of compounding. Another focus will be the addition of a labora- tory version to the versatile COMPEO co-kneader series. Condition-based monitoring, the ongoing acquisition of parameters indicating the status of individual components and entire assemblies in a machine or plant system, is the foundation of the new SenseHUB ser- vice from BUSS. Sensors for acquiring process section, vibration data or oth- er metrics elucidate the condition of the manufacturing system at critical points on machines such as kneaders, discharge and dosing units, pellet- izers, heaters and coolers. Following data analysis, the user can call up the visualized results in the SenseHUB dashboard on the BUSS service por- tal. This BUSS service carries out mon- itoring, evaluation, and planning of any necessary repair work in direct consultation with the customer. Not limited to the compounding unit of the BUSS co-kneader, the SenseHUB service will be extended to additional sensor data for the evaluation of the machine health, ensuring maximized production uptime. Where required, BUSS can supply greater complexity in the form of complete systems for various appli- cations and is increasingly designing and implementing custom applica- tions as a one-stop shop supplier working hand in hand with selected manufacturers. Depending on the scope of the project, such systems may include not only material dos- ing, kneading, discharging and pel- letizing but also a variety of other components, such as filters, coolers, materials handling systems, quality control systems, clean room design and more. The cornerstone of any system sup- plied by BUSS is a COMPEO series co-kneader which is designed to incorporate high levels of ad- ditives gently and thoroughly into base materials. The modular machine design is so flexible that a specially configured compounding line is available for any application at any temperature up to 400°C and for all plastics, ranging from thermally sen- sitive thermosets to demanding engi- neering thermoplastics. The latest addition to the family of the series of five production units with throughput levels, depend- ing on application, of 100 to over 12,000 kg/h is the new compact, user-friendly COMPEO LAB labora- tory compounder for throughputs of 50 to 100 kg/h for development, process optimization and small pro- duction campaigns. It offers all the advantages of the large COMPEO co- kneaders, including the combination of two-, three- and four-flight screw elements, and provides precise and reliable scale-up of process param- eters to production conditions. BUSS AG www.BUSScorp.com Continuous, sensor-assisted monitoring of machine status and cloud-based data analysis are the foundation of the new SenseHUB service from BUSS that helps customers extend machine runtime and avoid unplanned downtime (Images © BUSS) New COMPEO LAB compounder with detached twin-screw discharge unit