Injection-moulded part

Mould temperature control is monitored with flow and temperature sensors in every cooling circuit. They measure supply and return temperatures and the cooling water volume, from which the temperature difference is calculated. At RAFI, the values reach ifm's moneo platform via IO-Link. If they exceed defined limits, the software automatically raises an alarm before the deviation results in faulty moulded parts.

An injection mould needs enough cooling water to reach the targeted temperature difference between supply and return, and no more. From the measurement data, RAFI found that in one case only 0.8 degrees were reached instead of two, a clear sign of oversized flow. After the cooling circuit was adjusted, energy was saved without affecting process stability. The data also shows where cycle times can be shortened.

Incompletely filled parts can be detected early when process data is combined with optical data. In 2022, Bergi-Plast had a large number of such parts that had to be inspected and sorted out or scrapped. The company is therefore planning imaging systems whose data Optalio's MONITORING.SUITE will correlate with the process data of the injection moulding machines. The aim is to detect faulty production early and reduce manual sorting.

Data analysis helps by revealing relationships between process parameters and quality. At Bergi-Plast, Optalio first used data from the existing production data acquisition system to train data science models. The MONITORING.SUITE examines all parameters individually and in correlation and thereby detects anomalies and machine faults automatically. This gives Bergi-Plast real-time condition monitoring of its injection moulding machines and a basis for reducing scrap.