At the recently held Plastivision 2020 show in Mumbai, B&R Industrial Automation showcased B&R and ABB Robotics automation solutions and services for the plastics industry. The company demonstrated Smartmold, machine vision and APROL, amongst other solutions at its stand.
According to Dharmendra Patel, plastics industry expert at B&R India, B&R’s Smartmold i.e. SM 09 is made to fulfill the requirements of global markets. “It is good to have the best machine, but it’s even better to have it on the market at the right time. To keep up with the trend towards custom machine configurations and continuous innovation, highly modular software is essential,” he said.
Patel believes that new functionality should be added with plug-andplay convenience, reducing the time required for field-testing to an absolute minimum.
“Although injection molding machines are produced in large quantities, customers usually request individual modifications. To compete, OEMs must turn mass production into mass customization. In order to produce these customized machines efficiently, engineering costs
for options must be reduced to a minimum. With UNICODE language switching and support for different value units, our SM 09 fully adapts to the unique demands of machine operators. However, it also offers a variety of HMI styles and display sizes for both export and domestic use,” he stated.
In production process, B&R’s integrated machine vision system can be deployed for applications such as calibration, measurement, orientation, inspection, barcode reading, locating, positioning, preprocessing and comparison. “Defective products can be immediately rejected, which saves raw materials and makes it possible to rectify problems at the same level – resulting in increased quality and productivity,” Patel said. Customers can also achieve real-time data acquisition with B&R’s APROL, which enables complete online performance monitoring and visual overviews. This makes it possible to track quality for the entire manufacturing process and plant.
“The ready-to-use solutions available with B&R’s APROL process control system for energy monitoring, condition monitoring, advanced process control and process data acquisition provide higher benefits and strengthened core competencies,” Patel said.
Talking about the show, he said that during five days of the exhibition, customers from different industries such as pharma, F&B, automotive, die and mold, agriculture and packaging, among others visited the company stand.
“The first day at the exhibition was average, but the next four days were good in terms of response. The exhibition and footfall were good. We met our customers, partners and some new potential customers. Overall, the exhibition turned out to be satisfactory,” Patel concluded.
