Extrusion International USA 1-2020

32 Extrusion International 1/2020 EXTRUSION 4.0 Greiner DIGI.LINE (Picture: © Greiner Extrusion) Greiner Extrusion Group GmbH Friedrich-Schiedel-Str. 1, 4542 Nussbach, Austria www.greinerextrusion.com Extrusion 4.0 has moved into profile production. With the DIGI.LINE fromGreiner Extrusion the extrusion process is digitally controlled and optimized in real time. Significant savings have been confirmed by Greiner customers in long-term tests in the harsh production environment. DIGI.LINE – Automated Extrusion Process The Greiner DIGI.LINE minimizes material consumption and increases productivity. In addition, process reliability and profile quality in extrusion are increased. The DIGI.LINE takes extrusion to a new level and is the re- sult of more than 40 years of process experience at Greiner Extrusion – specifically the development, design, produc- tion and tuning of more than 28,000 profile tools and 4,500 extrusion lines. The world premiere of the DIGI.LINE was at the K Fair 2019 in Düsseldorf, where it convinced more than 1,000 enthu- siastic visitors LIVE twice a day. Centrally networked, automated control of all line com- ponents, maximum savings The DIGI.LINE enables central control of all line compo- nents, and in addition, automated and error-free repro- duction of the process parameters is possible. Certain features of the DIGI.LINE, the products DIGI.CONTROL, FLOW.MATIC, DIGI.TANK and DIGI.SCALE, are the heart of the line and allow a digital extrusion process which is now optimized in real time. DIGI.CONTROL – Networked Extrusion Line with Recipe Management The new 15” DIGI.CONTROL control system networks all line components and controls the entire extrusion process digitally. For complete reproducibility as well as for fast start-up, so-called “recipes” are storedwith the set process parameters. These can be called up and loaded automati- cally during the next production process, which ensures automated and error-free reproduction during the next production run. FLOW.MATIC controls Full Profile Sections Automatically FLOW.MATIC is based on the already proven and patented FLOW.CONTROL technology from Greiner Extrusion, and represents the further digital development. With the help of FLOW.MATIC, the degree of filling of individual full pro- file sections of a profile can be measured. Together with the nozzle function FLOW.CONTROL, this results in a fully automatic control loop. Within a few seconds, constant profile dimensions are guaranteed, even in the event of process fluctuations such as material variations. DIGI.TANK with SHAPE.MATIC keeps the Profile in Shape With the DIGI.TANK, water level, water flow rate and vac- uum settings can be controlled automatically. The SHAPE. MATIC enables together with an inline measurement sys- tem the control of all influenceable contours in the DIGI. TANK. This reduces potential sources of error to a mini- mum and ensures maximum constancy in the profile ge- ometry. Backup and reproducibility of the process data are guaranteed in connection with DIGI.CONTROL. DIGI.SCALE with WEIGHT.MATIC saves Material TheDIGI.SCALEwithWEIGHT.MATIC savesmaterial thanks to precise digital in-line profile weighing on the one hand and on the other hand by controlling the haul-off speed in conjunction with the FLOW.MATIC. This allows profile weight and thus the professional costs to be reduced con- siderably. By means of the permanent data recording of the DIGI.CONTROL, trends in the profile weight develop- ment can be called up at any time. In addition, the Greiner DIGI.SCALE is equipped with LED monitoring. The DIGI.LINE thus allows central control of all networked line components, automated and error-free reproduction of process parameters, automatic control of full profile sec- tions and automated profile weight optimization. This ulti- mately enables considerably shorter start-up times, higher profile quality, a larger process window, thus maximum material savings and, as a result, a reduction in profile costs, both for window profiles and for technical profiles. Using the example of a window frame with a weight per meter of 1.2 kg, with 5,000 production hours per year, 1.2 € material costs, an hourly rate of 60 €/h and an output of 350kg/h, savings of up to127,000€per year canbeachieved.