Erema digitises recycling with Recycling 4.0; in a tie-up with Borealis

Against the backdrop of increased recycling by brand owners and the public keen on keeping the environment in check, plus with the age of digitisation with further focus on Industry 4.0, Austrian recycling equipment maker Erema introduced Recycling 4.0, during a pre-K2016 preview.

It is an extensive Smart Factory package for both recyclers and producers, said to be a first in the industry and intended to lift up the recycling trend. “Recycling 4.0 is no future trend, it will be reality starting at K2016,” said CEO Manfred Hackl, speaking to journalists in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Meanwhile, Hackl also shared a strategic tie-up with polyolefins maker Borealis, which also recently acquired German plastics recycler mtm plastics . “We are working with Borealis on the recycling of a pouch made of various plastic layers. More on this will be revealed at the K show,” said Hackl.

Erema, which has sold around 4,000 recycling extruders (25% of this in Asia) and has equipment used for recycling 14 million tonnes of material worldwide, 40% for in-house recycling and the rest for polyolefins recycling, has a vested interest in the industry.

As such, it introduced to journalists its K theme of "Careformance – We care about your performance". “You are the first to be given a preview of this, not even our customers are aware,” said Hackl.

It will also be building on the success of the Intarema technology presented at K in 2013. “Intarema has already been in the market for two years, and with high throughput and stability achievable with Counter Current and automation. Thus, we have developed a Smart Factory package to give our customers a clear competitive edge," revealed Hackl.

Careformance consists of four components, with the Intarema system forming the basis for the further Smart Factory applications. In addition to the previous machine data, specially integrated sensors – the QualityOn package – can be used in future to record and evaluate MVR (Melt Volume Rate), colour and moisture. The QualityOn package enables recyclers and producers to make their recyclates with consistent quality in accordance with the special requirements of their customers and document them transparently using online data acquisition and analysis. Recipes recorded electronically can be compared with each other and modified.

In order to make use of the vast amount of machine, quality and process data in a user-friendly way, Erema has developed a MES (Manufacturing Execution System) known as re360 and available in five modules. "A key benefit of re360 is that it works independently of the plant manufacturer," emphasised Hackl. "Customers can integrate not only different systems but also their global production locations. re360 gives you an overview of the capacities/stoppage times of the systems for management, documents key quality data of the recyclates for the location manager and informs the operator about upcoming maintenance jobs.”

Furthermore, it has a link to Spare Parts Online, Erema's online webshop. Spare parts can be ordered directly via the online webshop to keep downtime as low as possible, said Hackl, adding that customers' respective Erema systems and previous orders are stored at Spare Parts Online.

Apart from the machinery and system highlights at K, Erema will have a 480 sq m outdoor area with machinery recycling plastic waste generated during the K show, such as highly contaminated waste and in-house waste from the show itself. Machine, quality and process data will be transferred in real time to Erema's booth in Hall 9, Stand C05.