Blending is a very important part of most plastic forming processes. There are many different types of blenders and feeders for the plastics industry including Single and Multi-Component Volumetric and Gravimetric Feeders, Gravimetric Blenders, and Continuous Loss-In-Weight Blenders.
With today’s varied jobs, shorter runs and greater focus on material cost, accurate and consistent blending is key to processors. Improved accuracy in materials will result in better part quality and consistency.
Also important is the efficient use of raw materials. Blenders can also be used to measure material usage allowing centralized inventory control, optimized quality while reducing labor and material costs. By aggregating and presenting blending data in a useful way, machine operators can make well-informed decisions and reduce errors.
MiVue provides connected Insight into the most critical aspects of blending and feeding performance.
The uptime of blending and feeding equipment is critical because it is often in-line with the primary processing equipment. Improve your equipment uptime with quick response to alerts about the blending process:
A quick high-level overview of status and key information across blenders and other machines enables managers and operators to zero-in on the most important information at any time:
Thresholds provide a tool for operators and maintenance personnel to stay ahead of blending problems before they cause downtime or quality problems:
Labor Costs
The Blender Material dashboard reports how much material has been used at each hopper location and allows operators to select material grades from a database. This reduces the chance for error.
The material usage report enables the efficient gathering of information from multiple blenders to give an accurate report of how much material has been used, by different material grades. The result is reduced labor time and manual entry errors.
With the blender data that MiVue provides about material usage organizations can increase productivity by ensuring the correct material is on hand to meet demand. Additionally, with good material inventory management, inventory carrying costs can be minimized.
Processors work to reduce material costs while still meeting quality specifications. Without timely information, it’s difficult to make adjustments to changing conditions. This is where MiVue’s recipe analysis helps by providing information about targets and actuals needed to control the mixing process.
Now, service support is a just a click away with any MiVue enabled blender. Service requests will efficiently gather all the pertinent information about your blender problem and send it to the OEM, enabling an efficient resolution of any issues.
Additionally, the MiVue data tool provides the ability to view and analyze blender data by a technician to aid in quick troubleshooting and improve time-to-fix and uptime. Troubleshooting can be done at machine side or a remote location, allowing the right expertise to quickly come together to solve difficult technical issues.
Our partner OEM brands have ready-to-connect controls. Therefore, the installation of the MiVue router is very simple on blenders and feeders. Quickly connect the provided cables to the blender controls and mount into the control panel. You’ll have blender insight in minutes!