From 16 to 23 October, more than 3,000 exhibitors from over 60 countries are expected to crowd into the pavilions in Düsseldorf’s exhibition centre and more than 200,000 visitors from all over the world.
Piovan Group will be at K 2019 with its own brands, Piovan, Aquatech, Fdm and Penta to present state-of-the-art technologies: from drying systems to temperature control, from traceability of the raw materials to solutions for industry 4.0, to provide complete turnkey solutions.
One leading innovation is the new GenesysNext, launched as a world premiere at the fair in Düsseldorf. This drying system is featured by self-adaptive technology that is now also optimised for the treatment of recycled PET. The innovations that this new generation machine brings include more intuitive control and improved self-regulation. Significant improvements have also been made to the AIPC (Automatic Injection Pressure Control) technology that ensures the lowest production cost for each preform, not in terms of energy savings alone, but in terms of optimisation of the entire preform production process, with increased end product quality and reduction of rejects. Regarding solutions for PET, at the Düsseldorf exhibition, visitors will be able to check out the new user-friendly range of instruments for analysing preform quality. These devices enable the most important parameters, such as the acetaldehyde level in preforms, to be measured in a simple and intuitive manner.
Also Fdm, the Group company based in Troisdorf, Germany, specialising in the production of advanced solutions for extrusion applications, will showcase GDS 5, the new gravimetric blender of the GDS line optimised to enable mounting up to 5 granulate stations, while still maintaining compact dimensions and featuring a Siemens PLC system.
Penta, the Group company that designs and produces large systems for storing, conveying and dosing materials in powder or chips, will present the latest innovations in the production of pipes and cables for managing additives in the compounding sector. At the exhibition, visitors will be able to see Vakupulse, a system that will be in operation to show the conveying of materials in the dense phase, which is particularly suitable for conveying delicate raw materials at low speeds and flow rates over short distances.
Particularly remarkable is undoubtedly the new RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tagging system which which checks that the match between sources and destinations is correct. In an error occurs, the conveying system does not activate the loading cycle, thus avoiding any risk of contamination between different materials. A system of LEDs, which can also be duplicated on a dedicated display, guides the operator. The LEDs change colour as the conveying pipes are coupled, enabling active connections to be checked at a glance.
At the exhibition, Piovan will present important innovations also in the medical sector: a new microdosing unit will be on display for the first time. This unit is able to feed the machines even with only one granule at a time, whilst maintaining very high accuracy to meet requests that come mainly above all from highly technical sectors such as the medical sector and precision micromoulding. The medical range is also complemented by machines suitable for usage in clean rooms, such as the Pureflo filterless receiver, which requires neither compressed air nor maintenance, and the emission-free DPA dryer.
Aquatech, the Group company dedicated to industrial cooling and temperature control technologies will be in the limelight with many product innovations on display. The Easytherm range of temperature control units, the mould temperature control units that won the IF Design Award 2019, will be completed with the new pressurised temperature controls that will complement the line of atmospheric temperature controllers. There are also interesting innovations related to the DigitempEvo water-cooled thermochillers that ensure high performance whilst keeping energy consumption levels very low. Special focus also on the Easycool+ line of chillers: this range of extremely compact chillers has been conceived, designed and engineered to meet the specific cooling requirements of plastics industrial processes with unrivalled efficiency.
Industry 4.0 is a key topic on which the main players are increasingly focusing. Piovan continues to invest in innovation, extending the range of features offered by the Winfactory 4.0 supervision software. This software also includes a module for monitoring energy efficiency and, from this year, a module to monitor Aquatech solutions. Data context integration and digital interconnection throughout the process: these are the guidelines of Industry 4.0 from which MTS, the new material tracking system, has been created. MTS consists of a new barcode terminal capable of reading barcodes for the identification of users and materials and a new app, developed to guide the operator in the management of raw materials. The system enables to optimise the storage of materials and to identify the flow of different batches from the initial phase to the finished product.
