Injection Molding Machines

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Using SmartEYE™, we converted legacy injection molding machines to SMART injection molding machines with no interruption to production.

Business Problem – Injection molding manufacturer had both new and old machines. Some machines were working better for certain materials. The older machines had substantial down-time for repairs. Product output was different from run to run resulting in waste, and the source of the deviations could not be pinpointed.

Solution – We instrumented the older injection molding machines with industrial-grade multi-function sensors. Specifically, we added sensors to measure thermolater flow rate, hopper level, manifold temperature, fluid temperature (to and from the manifold), material flow rate, material dew point, machine utilization and availability and other KPIs.

Outcome – Customer has the data needed to: (a) adjust machine settings in “REAL-TIME” to get desired manifold and hopper temperature maintained in every machine; (b) compare output and product quality from machine to machine to determine which machines worked best with what materials; (c) monitor machine usage for production scheduling and energy efficiency; (d) forecast and track per run production cost (including energy cost); (e) pinpoint equipment deviations for targeted predictive maintenance and/or repairs; and (f) run simulations to see what changes in the process yield efficiencies. Moreover, with 1,800 sensor options, SmartEYE™ can monitor, track, forecast and simulate almost any KPI desired.

In summary, the customer is able to reduce waste (product and time), deliver a more consistent product, implement more accurate scheduling and perform preventive maintenance on machines.

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With the SmartEYE™ Injection Molding Market-Ready Kit, you can monitor your injection molding machines (modern or legacy) 24/7, and send all of the information to your network or directly to your ERP System. SmartEYE™ can retrieve any sort of data from any model of machine no matter how old, making your legacy machines just as efficient and “smart” as modern equipment. With SmartEYE™, there is no upfront cost (with subscription service), no interruption to production, and the system is installed and online in a matter of weeks.

The SmartEYE™ Injection Molding Market-Ready Kit measures…

Moreover, with over 1800+ sensor options, the system can be customized to monitor and report on any KPI you desire.

Edge Computers with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning capabilities allow SmartEYE™ to build machine profiles. Deviations and alerts can be sent to any computer or cell phone. Moreover, Edge Computing eliminates the need for the Cloud; provided, we also provide access to Microsoft Azure as an option.

This small NEMA box houses SmartEYE™. Data from both wired and wireless sensors is aggregated to the SmartEYE™ “Edge Node” and processed locally on the Edge for real time analytics and machine models. Moreover, if the Cloud option is selected, this data is sent to the Cloud for analytics with a larger data set and integration with the company’s ERP/MRP system.

Hierarchical Management Dashboards show data at the machine, line, cell, plant and enterprises levels. Data can also be viewed by the second, minute, hour, month, year or any other time frame desired. Management can start from the Power BI report below, and drill down to the individual oven dashboards, and further down to the individual sensor data dashboards…all presenting real-time information. KPIs and analytics are done in real-time on the local dashboards showing alarms and situational data by individual machine.

Enterprise-level data such as energy usage, machine availability, utilization level, efficiency and predictive maintenance data is also readily available.

With material costs entered into the system (either manually or directly from your ERP System), exact costing data (including energy cost) is instantly available.

In fact, the data collected by SmartEYE™ is so fine-grained that process, resource, equipment and/or environmental deviations can be specifically targeted in real-time. Having such detailed data also assists in upgrading equipment predictive maintenance programs, as well as focused troubleshooting relating to equipment.

Because SmartEYE™ can integrate the data from a customer’s entire enterprise, it allows the customer to compare the efficiency of different machines, resources and/or facilities. This integrated data also allows the user to run simulations to show the systemic effects of changes to schedules, resources, product quality, product yield and/or production processes before such changes are implemented.

SmartEYE™ has an easy-to-use User App, which can be learned in less than an hour. By simply answering a few prompted questions, the operator provides all the information required for comprehensive data analytics.

Easy Installation (No Interruption to Production, No Changes to Equipment)

User-Friendly (Training takes less than 1 day)

Near-Instant Return on Investment

See How It all Works….

FEATURES:

One Stop Shop: All elements required provided by Ectron Corporation including sensors, industrial-grade Edge computers with AI/ML capability, networking hubs, software stack, system installation and maintenance, data analytics.

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