PlastorGomma: from the marketing of technical materials for the ceramic industry to the personalized supply of articles and semi-finished products
2019
THE CHALLENGE
After celebrating 50 years of activity in 2019, PlastorGomma srl owned by Fiorano Modenese, is one of the historical companies in the Sassuolo ceramic sector (MO).
Until 2015 the main activity of the company consisted in the marketing of technical products for the ceramic industry, such as industrial transmissions, components for automation, spare parts for the industrial pipes industry, plastics, technical sheets and industrial products with a wide range of quality products and solutions for every need.
To meet the needs of a market that requires more and more personalised and semi-finished products, the company has created a new production plant to provide customised parts even in small batches. The investment, made in 2019, involved the construction of a new production area (2300 square meters) with the latest generation of related production systems and new production machinery.
PlastorGomma also decided to take advantage of the benefits offered by the Italian INDUSTRY 4.0 plan for this investment, introducing new digital system lines that would allow the company to plan, schedule and monitor the real-time progress of its production.
THE SOLUTION
The project was carried out through the introduction of RETUNER technology, which allowed the interconnection of all new and existing machines, thereby making even those machines not Industry 4.0-abled, especially those not born with these features and made by foreign manufacturers, capable of adapting to this technology.
The electronic component on the machine SMARTEdge4.0 is in fact, able to simultaneously process and integrate machine data from PLC on various industrial protocols, from analogue / digital signals of electrical panels or sensors, from digital interfaces such as OPC-UA and MTConnect, from multi-format or DB files, transforming raw data into information ready for use.
This information is exchanged, either wired or wireless, via the factory network with the PlastorGomma corporate server, where the RETUNER SMARTHinge4.0 Industrial IoT platform is installed, which acts as an “intelligent hinge” between the factory system and the end users of the data collected.
This, through API, exchanges data with all other company systems, such as ERP, MES, CMMS, CAD / CAM, BI etc.
BENEFITS
The digitization of production processes, also introduced thanks to the INDUSTRIA4.0 project, now allows the company to have reliable data for industrial accounting by order, which allows the monitoring of the margins of the production business line, also for the purpose of better estimates.
The adoption of Industry 4.0 technology resulted in a change of pace for the company, through the adoption of a new business model that underlies new production processes and the new professional skills of the employees, to be brought into operation in the shortest possible time.
FINALIST AT Innovation 4.0 Award
