Extrusion International 1-2025

41 Extrusion International 1/2025 Filtration removes a signi cant proportion of the impu - rities present in the melt, but not all the gels," says Bart Lauwers, Principal Extrusion Customer & Application Development at ExxonMobil Technology Group. Nevertheless, the project has demonstrated quality and process consistency. All tests carried out demon- strated the ability to consistently produce lm that in - corporated 30% PCR content for automatic use with a consistency of 180 to 200% without the need to stop the line, except for routine operations unrelated to re- cyclate use (e.g. lip die cleaning, chill roll cleaning, resin or format changes). A key component in this process was the patented Gneuss RSFgenius self-cleaning screen changer. This fully automatic ltration system renewed the screen surface with no measurable pressure uctuations and can be adapted to the material in question, with screen nenesses typically ranging from 30 - 75μm, even dur - ing full operation. Colines is a renowned manufacturer of cast and blown lm lines based in Novara, Italy. Colines has demonstrat - ed exceptional exibility in meeting the individual needs of its customers. Not only with the full integration of Gneuss screen changers, but also in terms of fully custom- izable line set-ups for the production of any type of lm. The collaboration between Colines, Gneuss and Exx- onMobil Signature Polymers has already led to the cre- ation of several large-scale production lines speci cally dedicated to recycled content incorporation with many more in progress for various global markets. Gneuss Kunststofftechnik GmbH Moenichhusen 42, 32549 Bad Oeynhausen, Germany www.gneuss.com FILM EXTRUSION, DIGITALISATION One-Stop Solution for Data-Driven Decisions When it comes to high-performance extrusion lines, SML is one of the technological leaders and has been in the market for extrusion machines for more than 25 years. When developing digital services for its lines, SML adheres to the same “all in-house”-approach which it applies to all of its other core competencies. “F or several years now “indus- try 4.0” has been a popular buzzword but the underlying ques- tion is always how the companies that operate our machines can ben- e t from the rapid developments being accomplished in the digital sector,” Christoph Strasser, Team Leader of SML’s Digital Business Unit, says. Like all of its other core competencies, such as mechanical engineering, electrical design or au- tomation, SML makes sure to keep the development of digital solutions strictly in-house. Close co-operation among the different departments, all located at SML’s headquarters, supports the creation of coherent extrusion concepts with perfectly harmonised digital solutions. bitWise: Analysing data – increasing productivity Bitwise, the data generation and analysis tool, is at the heart of SML’s digital activities. Today it is used in more than 200 extrusion lines around the world. “bitWise enables the comprehensive collec- tion, processing, analysis and trans- mission of manufacturing data – in an extraordinarily fast and easy manner. The process knowledge bitWise generates, helps to con- tinuously optimise both the manu- facturing processes and the prod- uct quality,” Christoph Strasser continues. Its main purposes are to Picture: bit.Wise