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| ProfilControl 7 Roughness checks the quality of rubber compounds by measuring the particle size distribution. (Photo ©HF MIXING GROUP) |
The transformation of the rubber industry is in full swing. Companies have to become greener and strive to enhance the already high efficiency levels of their processes even further. The requirements on the raw materials and additions used in the production processes become more exacting every time. New types of fillers and additives have been appearing on the market. All this is happening in an environment of constantly rising cost pressure. With ProfilControl 7 Roughness from PIXARGUS, quality control of rubber compounds can be automated and integrated within the data network of your production facilities. As soon as the system says that the quality is good, the batch can be released for production.
No chance for defects and poorly mixed blends
The ProfilControl 7 Roughness system checks the quality by measuring the particle size distribution in the compound. The system features a special LED unit that illuminates the test specimen of typically one meter length in such a way that the integrated high-resolution line scan camera can capture every detail of its entire surface. The images taken by the camera are evaluated by a dedicated software in real time at a rate of approximately 100,000 particles per minute. The system triggers an alarm signal as soon as the size distribution is not as specified. Thus, it can reliably detect minute flaws down to just 20 µm in size.
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| The Technical Center of the HF Mixing Group features two larger lab-scale mixing lines. For quality control, the compound mixing experts use inspection technology from PIXARGUS. (Photo ©HF MIXING GROUP) |
Successfully in operation at HF Mixing Group
Mixing equipment specialist HF Mixing Group uses the ProfilControl 7 Roughness system in its Technical Center, the group’s central technology lab, where they develop and test new machinery and automation solutions for compound mixing shops. The company’s customers in the technological rubber products and global tire industries can use the fully automatic mixing lines installed in the lab to test their recipes at production scale.
Just recently, the group ordered a further inspection system from PIXARGUS. “The benefits of the system were compelling,” says Ricarda Kendler, who is Head of the Technical Center & Process Engineering at HF Mixing Group. “To start with, the sample preparation is very easy and as many samples as desired can be continuously inspected 100%.” Not less important is the fact that the PIXARGUS system can inspect both raw batches and final mixtures. “Most of the measuring methods available focus on the inspection of vulcanized samples. For us it is, however, crucial to be able to measure the quality ex the mixer, that is to say in the non-vulcanized state. We have no doubt that we can achieve this with the PIXARGUS system,” emphasizes Kendler.
Enhanced quality data analysis for more process reliability
For lab environments, PIXARGUS supplies the ProfilControl 7 Roughness system as a compact smart version, for mixing rooms as an inline system. The software of the systems, designed to operate within an integrated data network, provides a wide range of analysis functions. By relating the analysis data from the mixing room to the data acquired by the inspection systems checking the quality of the final product at the end of the production chain, it is possible, for example, to tell which compounds will produce optimum quality and which ones will result in out-of-spec production. “With this knowledge, we can make the production processes even more reliable for our customers,” says Michael Frohn, Head of Sales at PIXARGUS.
