Has digitalization lived up to its promise in plastics manufacturing? Or has it failed to live up to the hype?
"Digitalization: Top or flop" was the topic of an Oct. 15 roundtable discussion at Fakuma 2024 in Friedrichsafen, Germany.
"As a machinery producer with our digital tools, we are clearly fired up by the digital economy," said Guido Frohnhaus, managing director technology and engineering at injection molding machinery producer Arburg GmbH + Co. KG.
Frohnhaus explained that digitalization can reduce material consumption and can be used to recognize materials, which increases the speed of returning plastics for recycling.
"This is an important contribution that we as a machine producer and engineers can make," Frohnhaus said.
Michael Braungart, founder of Hamburg, Germany-based EPEA Internationale Umweltforschung GmbH, suggested machinery producers should consider selling rights to use their machines and stressed that one should preferably work towards ecological effectiveness rather than ecological efficiency.
Miranda Burtscher, head of corporate operations at Vienna, Austria-based plastics packaging producer Alpla Werke Alwin Lehner GmbH & Co KG, expressed a processor's view that it is necessary to react quickly in real time and that digitalization aids it.
Data should absolutely be uploaded to the cloud and used from there as the basis for decision making, Burtscher said, adding that "it is just as important to analyze the data and ensure different equipment intercommunicate."
Thomas Seul of Schmalkalden University said digitalization in toolmaking with the use of computer-aided design (CAD) is very important, but highly trained professional staff are indispensable to ensure than tools and machines work effectively.
"There are enough practical cases that show we can do it, so why don't we do it?" Seul asked, adding that, "there is more to it than just using a computer screen and a mouse."
Hans-Josef Endres of the IKK institute for plastics and the circular economy at Leibniz University in Hanover, Germany said it is important to realize that there are huge opportunities in the materials chain, specifically that "we should use the opportunities that we have in Europe and not just leave it to the Asians."
Burtscher agreed, but stressed that a lot of work still has to be done by both technical institutes and machinery producers.
On this point, Frohnhaus of Arburg noted: "We are already more than top, as we use digitalization to reduce reject rates, obtain faster cycle times and reduce energy, but, we can of course still do more."
Frohnhaus sees the potential of artificial intelligence to obtain identical quality worldwide and said there are huge opportunities in utilizing common Euromap machine interfaces and with support by technical institutes.
Endres stressed that with a practical example of how digital studies of how people get into and out of cars can lead to predictions as to when a car seat will need to be replaced. Once the seat's end-of-life has been digitally predicted, it is then possible to adjust plastic materials and additives to extend that period.
But it is equally important to digitally study which plastics are contained in a car and then how to get them out for recycling at end-of-life.
"If you only have five materials, you don't need digitalization, but you certainly do if you have several hundred materials," Endres added.
Seul stressed: "Irrespective of whether you run Arburg or Engel machines, they have to run intuitively. Digitalization doesn't help if you can't use it to master the process."
Here, Burtscher commented: "It is importantly to find where there are gaps in a process, and then to use technology to close them."
She said Alpla has digital assistance in the cloud, but stressed that stored data should be understandable. In a subsequent open discussion, it was suggested that there has to be a common understandable language and that German molders should get over their fears of putting a lot of data into the cloud, otherwise they cannot benefit from it.
Werner Koch, founder of Ispringen, Germany-based ancillary equipment producer Werner Koch Maschinentechnik GmbH, stood up and stressed importance of sensors to identify and sort plastics material on conveyor belts "in a practical way," even if they are highly reinforced with glass fibers.