Remote commissioning: when a difficulty turns into an opportunity

As the world continues the fight against Covid-19, companies and businesses are finding new ways to make this situation an opportunity for growth. The pandemic has accelerated the digitization process in all areas of our daily life and the plastics industry has not been outdone.

Travel restrictions have significantly reduced, if not prevented, business trips of technicians and salespeople, who used to meet their customers in person and to intervene directly on the field. Therefore, terms that previously only experts knew like "webinar", "call", "web meeting", “remote commissioning" have become commons.

In particular, the remote commissioning have recently seen ST BlowMoulding technicians engaged, who have tried their hand at commissioning two machines in opposite parts of the world: China and United States of America.

After the installation made by ST BlowMoulding technicians present on site, it was decided to proceed with remote commissioning. If this new type of working has become common practice in the world of plastics, also in this case ST BlowMoulding proves to have something more.

The biggest innovation concerns the introduction of Io-Link technology, which makes ST BlowMoulding machines intelligent and equipped with superior diagnostics.

In these machines, all devices (PLC, drivers,safety modules, sensors and valves) interface each other through a single communication protocol thus creating an interconnection of all the parts of the system. The remote connection to the HMI allowed the commissioning engineer to configure, test and optimize the system from his workplace.

Moreover, ST BlowMoulding machines are equipped with a “live chat” that allows technicians to talk to the final user who is managing the machine directly from the operator panel, avoiding waste of time and any communication gaps: even thousands of kilometers away. ST BlowMoulding staff knows exactly what is happening in real time, making the intervention extremely convenient and immediate.

Nevertheless, there is one thing that technology will never replace: flexibility and human dedication. In both the above-mentioned remote commissioning, the staff of ST BlowMoulding organized itself in order to provide virtually uninterrupted assistance to the customer, adapting to the time zone of the different parts of the world.

This proves to be one of the benefits of ST BlowMoulding, which has always made the motto “A heart inside the machine” its working philosophy.