Title
Flat Die Plastic Extrusion
Microcontroller improves accuracy and safety and reduces material waste
Technologies used

Microcontroller

Industrial sector (PRODCOM code)
    28 Manufacture of tools
Abstract
The company EMO situated in Micheldorf, Austria, was founded in 1996 and is involved in the design and manufacture of one- and multi-channel dies with and without restrictor bars for:
· Film
· Coating
· Laminating
· Sheet

(compact, free and integral foaming) and for back-press technology with adjustable outlet width and cutting device.
The world-wide market for EMO's dies is steadily increasing since more and more products are being made of plastic films or sheets, (e.g. drinking-vessels, back-pressing of materials in the automotive industry etc.). Currently the main focus is on sheet dies for PVC compact and foaming sheets as well as film dies for equipment for making polyethylene and polypropylene ribbons. EMO's products are mainly used in the synthetic material industry and are distributed through OEM manufactures or are sold directly to the end user.

The company has 13 employees none of whom has any experience of electronics development. To this day EMO only produced manually adjustable dies. So far, there was no electronic development carried out in the company.
By carrying out the design of a microcontroller, market requirements, which demand strict tolerances due to the high cost of raw material, can be met. Additionally, by controlling the thickness electronically the finished material can be processed faster increasing throughput.
The product to be improved is a flat die for film and sheet extrusion. The outlet of the die specifies the thickness of the extruded product. Currently the extrusion gap is controlled through manually adjustable push and pull screws which have no electronics part.
In the market for thin film extrusion exclusively automatically controlled flat dies are used for production. Also in the overall market the demand for this dies is increasing more and more as pressures on cost increase. Therefore it was necessary for EMO to carry out this application experiment to fulfil the markets needs.
The design of the prototype took 5 months with an actual cost of 61,23k€. Industrialisation and redesign costs (for CAN bus) are estimated at 58.3K€
The payback period on the FUSE investment of 56K€ is expected to be approximately 1,5 years with an ROI over the 10 year product lifetime estimated to be 2460 %.
The selling price of the new product is similar to the price of competitive products but offers several technical advantages. These are mainly the higher range of the possible thickness, shorter response time as well as total thermal decoupling of the flat die and the expansion elements.
This AE is of interest for enterprises involved in the design of products employing electronically controlled outlet regulation in the mm range (plastic industry, synthetic material industry, paper industry, print industry).
Company
EMO Extrusion Moulding GesmbH
Müllerviertel 2
A-4563 Micheldorf
Austria
Detailed information
You can also benefit from microelectronics

Microcontroller technology provided EMO Extrusion Moulding GesmbH with the means of improving its products and enhancing its market position. You can also achieve significant benefits by acquiring the right microelectronics technology and utilising it in your product or manufacturing process. You can get help from FUSE to realise this.

FUSE is a technology transfer programme, funded by the European Commission to stimulate the wider use of microelectronics technologies by European enterprises to increase their competitiveness and enhance their economic growth. The demonstrator described here is one of many examples in the public FUSE portfolio covering the whole spectrum of microelectronics technologies and spanning a wide range of applications and industry sectors.

FUSE provides you with:

  • Best practice in acquiring specific microelectronics technologies and conducting full development projects through the FUSE portfolio of real life demonstrator documents.
  • Local training and expert support to plan your innovation realistically and help you conduct your project successfully.

Further information and support relating to this and other demonstrators can be obtained from the addresses below.
Further information   Guiding Technology Transfer Node
For further information and support regarding this case study, please contact a Technology Transfer Node (TTN) in your region.
Homepage: http://www.fuse-network.com
Research Institute for Integrated Circuits
Altenberger Strasse 69
A-4040 Linz
Austria