Plastics Guide to Industrial Weighing for the Plasticsfor the Industry Optimized Weighing Solutions More Productivity and Quality Control Plastics

Plastics Guide to Industrial Weighing For the PlasticsFor the Industry Optimized Weighing Solutions More Productivity and Quality Control Plastics

Material Receiving Quality Control and Warehousing Production / Quality Control in Production Packaging Logistics and Shipping Product Development

Material Quality Control & Warehousing and Receiving Product Development Order-Picking Ensure your suppliers meet Quality control, failure analy- Counting solutions keep track your specifications. Verify the sis and new product devel- of stock movements, ensure amount of incoming goods opment require reliable and flawless goods storage and quickly and accurately with powerful analytical instru- help avoid out-of-stock situ- floor and bench scales. Feed ments. Determining water ations through direct inte- the information into your content of polymers and gration into ERP systems. resource planning or ware- resins is a key application. For correct order-picking, house-management system. Karl Fischer titrators deter- high-resolution bench scales mine water contents down to ensure correct kits or pack- 1ppm. ages for the smallest parts under time pressure.

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Data collection starts at the receiving department. With easy-to- Collect warehouse data integrate weighing devices, you can keep track of the material flow when commissioning and Data Collection and Integration in your factory. With weighing devices at key points in your value order-picking with scales for chain, you can the follow your products easily from incoming reduced inventories and a Yield Analysis goods through warehousing to production and packaging. lean warehouse.

2 METTLER TOLEDO - Industrial Weighing for Plastic Industry In the plastics parts and components industry, every piece counts for your profit. Weighing solutions help you achieve process reliability and traceability while improving productivity. Save time and money with speedy processes and better quality control. METTLER TOLEDO provides complete weighing and measuring solutions and services.

www.mt.com/plastics

Material Receiving Quality Control and Warehousing Production / Quality Control in Production Packaging Logistics and Shipping Product Development

Production At-line Quality Packaging Logistics & Shipping Checks Process automation and fast Process reliability is indis- Make sure you pack the cor- Prior to shipping, orders user guidance in manual pensable for high-quality rect amount of parts and must be complete, on time processes are essential to products and to ensure cus- ensure correct packaging and and properly documented increase production efficien- tomer satisfaction. Damaged labeling. Counting scales for tracking and tracing. cy and consistency. Verify or incomplete products are ensure correct packaging and METTLER TOLEDO weighing your plastics production discovered through manual labeling. Create labels from and labeling solutions make with weighing platforms and over/under checkweighing simple printouts to automo- sure you pay the right trans- counting scales. or integrated high-precision tive industry compliant labels portation fees, meet freight weighing modules in produc- and complete customized regulations and fulfill your tion machines. versions. customers’ requirements.

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Collect the weighing data to Keep track of your quality Identify the packages leaving your factory. Keep weighing achieve a comprehensive data. Check the ratio of in- data for audits or faster reactions in case of recalls. Review yield analysis. Simply visual- and out-of-spec products for efficiency of your production process and check final prod- ize output or calculate daily better quality insights. ucts vs. material input. production quantities. Page 15

METTLER TOLEDO - Industrial Weighing for Plastic Industry 3 Material Receiving Plastics

Ensure your suppliers meet your specifications. Verify the amount of incoming goods quickly and accurately with floor and bench scales. Make sure you are not receiving fewer parts than expected. Verify raw materials or break shipments accurately for warehousing and production. Feed the information into your resource planning or warehouse- management system.

Fast and flexible verification acquisition right at this point. Send weighing solutions and scales of incoming goods the data from your weighing station mounted on carts make weighing Check completeness of incoming directly into your MES or ERP or use in receiving departments fast and goods with rugged bench, floor or barcode scanners to identify parts flexible. pallet scales. Count parts of all and components. Weigh your in- sizes or volumes with bench and coming material and create labels. floor scales. Verify bulk, small Scan the label and enter data into lightweight parts with two-scale your systems. This enables you to counting solutions. Monitor fill lev- follow your material flow from raw els of tanks and bins. Start data material to final product. Mobile

Check incoming bulk deliveries for com- Measure accurate quantities for shipment Verify tank and bin levels with weigh pleteness. and create labels for production with modules. counting scales.

4 METTLER TOLEDO - Industrial Weighing for Plastic Industry Quality Control & Product Development

Quality control, failure analysis and new product development require reliable and powerful analytical instruments. Determining water content of polymers and resins is a key application. Karl Fischer titrators determine water contents down to 1ppm. Exact analyses are crucial for long-term market success.

Moisture determination tent determination. It provides ac- quality control, material develop- Moisture plays a crucial role in curate and precise results within ment and research. It determines many manufacturing processes. minutes. The coulometric technique thermal quantities, analyzes thermal For example, polymer granules for applies from 1 ppm to 5 percent. processes and characterizes or injection molding should not ex- The volumetric technique is de- compares materials. DSC yields ceed the permissible water level to signed for a range of 100 ppm to valuable information relating to pro- avoid processing problems, poor 100 percent. cessing, application, quality defects, surface quality or reduced mechan- identification, stability, reactivity, ical properties of the molded parts. Thermal analysis at its best chemical safety and the purity of Karl Fischer titration is the standard The differential scanning calorime- materials. method for the specific water-con- try (DSC) technique is ideal for

Thermal analysis and moisture determination are essential for quality of plastics products.

METTLER TOLEDO - Industrial Weighing for Plastic Industry 5 Warehousing and Order-Picking Plastics

Counting solutions keep track of stock movements, ensure flawless goods storage and help avoid out-of-stock situations through direct integration into ERP systems. For correct order-picking, high-resolution bench scales ensure correct kits or packages for the smallest parts under time pressure. Mobile set-ups facilitate and speed up op- erations in big warehouses.

Error free and fast picking nology delivers accurate results motely, giving you full stock con- Achieve error-free order picking all with even the lightest parts. Smart trol, accountability and the oppor- of the time. Sort samples of more display functions and user profiles tunity to optimize your supply than one component, compile ma- facilitate error-free handling and chain.Smart shelves in a ware- terials for an assembly or gather fast operation. house. products ordered by customers, ac- cording to a pick list. Speed up the Remote inventory picking procedure with a compact Benefit from efficient and transpar- scale, while eliminating missing ent stock control with integrated parts and customer complaints. smart-shelf weighing systems.The METTLER TOLEDO MonoBloc tech- quantity of every bin is checked re-

Count the smallest parts accurately for order-picking. Smart shelves in a warehouse.

6 METTLER TOLEDO - Industrial Weighing for Plastic Industry Mobile weighing time-saving flexibility to make your Tips and Tricks Often weighing workstations are production lean. With those, even situated on one end of the ware- counting and checkweighing many Calibration Intervalls house and products are spread different articles is no longer a The interval of calibration depends on how critical across the corridors. That causes time-consuming task. the weighing process is in your production. Manu- warehouse workers to walk long facturers have to define how much monetary loss or distances between shelves, trans- reputational damage would be caused if piece porting goods to and from the counts are inaccurate. The interval can differ from workstations. That transportation daily calibration schedules to a calibration every couple of months or once a year. Except when man- time does not benefit business. ufacturing plastic parts for the automotive industry. Mobile weighing solutions offer That industry has higher requirements regarding calibration than others. To be on the safe side in any plastics segment, request an individual consultation by our Good Weighing Practice™ (GWP®) team. This unique risk-based service provides you with all the information and guidance needed to support your equipment’s accuracy over time.

www.mt.com/gwp

Use a palette truck scale to move and Weight and load or unload simultaneously checkweigh goods at the same time. with robust forklift scales.

METTLER TOLEDO - Industrial Weighing for Plastic Industry 7 Production Plastics

Process automation and fast user guidance in manual processes are essential to increase production efficiency and consistency. Verify your plastics production with weighing platforms and counting scales.

Counting workstations production quantities with counting efficient. It helps to reduce walking When manufacturing on a contract scales. Verify output quickly and time significantly when production basis, any extra piece that is pro- securely. Take your parts to a is spread out or the counting equip- duced adds up to additional costs. counting station for weighing, data ment is not used at the same place Often, inaccurate counts of molding gathering and correct labeling. every day. Data transfer is done or extrusion machines cause prob- wirelessly or via USB stick. lems. Production managers Mobile solutions need to know when to start or stop Battery-powered scales can be production. Miscounting high-tech placed on trolleys or other devices plastic parts can be costly. Check to make operator movement more

Counting station on shop floor, barcode scanner to start an operation and to load article ICS counting on trolley. data and package counts and a printer to supply labels for identification and transportation.

8 METTLER TOLEDO - Industrial Weighing for Plastic Industry Semi-Automated weighing platform(s) have to be Tips and Tricks counting solutions connected to a counting terminal. This solution features the benefits of Determine the total weight or piece Piece-Weight Variation an automated production with the count of a correctly filled box of a Piece-weight deviation is one of the most frequent low cost of a manual installation. certain product and save it in the sources of counting errors. Piece weights can differ Simply place the scale next to your scale’s database. Use it to fill ship- due to the use of different machines, tool wear, raw injection molding machine/stamp- ping boxes with products until the material inconsistencies or changing environmental ing press or connect a conveyor preset total weight is reached. The conditions. If parts have a high deviation of more belt. Install one or more weighing scale then indicates when the oper- than 1 percent, the counting error can be cut in half by increasing the number of reference (sample) parts platforms at the end of this process ator can remove the package, at- for example from 10 to 30 pieces. ICS scales offer the and place boxes or bins on top. The tach a label and ship. Average Piece Weight optimization function that lets you take bigger reference with as little counting as possible. That greatly reduces human errors in reference taking and makes weighing parts much more accurate due to increasing sample numbers.

www.mt.com/counting-brochure

Scale terminal controls alarm light and material flow.

METTLER TOLEDO - Industrial Weighing for Plastic Industry 9 At-line Quality Checks Plastics

Process reliability is indispensable for high-quality products and to ensure customer satisfaction. Damaged or incomplete products are discovered through manual over/under checkweighing or integrated high-precision weighing modules in production machines.

Checking completeness package contains the right amount, can be detected. That makes this of shipping boxes and kits or they can use the colorWeight® step an important key point in qual- If you want to make sure that your backlight display, which clearly ity checks, which leads to fewer re- packages are packed with enough shows if a package is filled cor- calls or customer complaints. This product, scales offer a practical and rectly. secures your reputation and brand fail-safe method to check complete- integrity. ness. This especially counts when Quality control of parts and producing kits with small quantities assemblies by checkweighing Semi-Automated Quality Checks of light-weight items. You can do Single parts or pieces and com- Assemblies, final products and this right in production in a dedi- plete assemblies consisting of dif- plastic cables can also be verified cated packaging area or with a mo- ferent parts and components can semi-automatically. Placed on a bile solution. You can either check also be checked for quality by conveyor belt, the pieces pass a prefilled packages or fill packages weighing. The gravimetrical method weighing station, and depending assisted by a scale (for more details is faster, reliable and less costly on preset tolerances, the work see Packaging chapter). Operators than common tactile or optical sys- piece is either sorted out or is can either manually make sure a tems. Missing or redundant parts placed in a shipping container or

Check kits fail-safe. Verify completeness of assemblies. Way raw material for production.

10 METTLER TOLEDO - Industrial Weighing for Plastic Industry box. An example procedure begins mated process. This high measure- Tips and Tricks by scanning the article barcode to ment speed enables 100 percent Control Production Devices download target weight and toler- inspection at without any losses in with Scale Terminals ances and starting the conveyor time. Furthermore, lighting and po- belt. It is very simple and easy to sitioning of the part doesn’t matter; You can control the material flow with a scale termi- use and does not require any oper- this method is suitable for complex nal. Connect a conveyor belt or pusher via the termi- ator activity during checkweighing shapes, packages and kits, hidden nal’s digital I/O interface. Digital I/O is an optional processes, as the products are structures, material inconsistency scale interface that generates signals (outputs, 12V sorted automatically. as well as transparent or reflective DC) to control external light alarms or pushers. In total, there are four output signals, which can be materials. used to send digital information from the scale to a In-Line solutions PLC. Stop or redirect production when the preset fill- In-line solutions offer quality ing target is reached or checkweighing is in or out of checks for high throughput rates. In the predefined tolerance. To notify operators, attach a split second, a weighing platform a light or sound an alarm to the terminal. weigh module can detect violations www.mt.com/ind-in-process-counting of weight tolerance in an auto-

Start operation with scan. Belt feeds package onto scale. In-line checks with weighing platform.

METTLER TOLEDO - Industrial Weighing for Plastic Industry 11 Packaging Plastics

Make sure you pack the correct amount of parts and ensure correct packaging and labeling. Counting scales ensure correct packaging and labeling. Create labels from simple printouts to automotive industry compliant labels and complete customized versions.

Packaging of bulk plastic parts pieces currently boxed and the No matter if you package right after colorWeight® backlight display indi- production at the molding or extru- cates if the target package weight is sion machines or in a dedicated reached. You can fill thousands of packaging area. Scales are espe- small parts accurately in little time cially suitable to assist in packaging with this fast, easy-to-use and error- of plastic parts of all sizes and di- free solution. This can be done mensions. Piece-counting is a manually or with an automated pro- smart solution for accurate filling of cesss with less operator involve- packages with bulk material. Simply ment. define the weight of the piece to be filled and start filling until the preset target number is reached. The scale automatically counts the number of

Fill and label packages scale assisted. Checkweigh pre-filled packages for completeness.

12 METTLER TOLEDO - Industrial Weighing for Plastic Industry Packaging with quality checks: checkweighing or checkcounting. Tips and Tricks Totalizing The colorWeight® indicator will indi- In another variant, you can check if cate if a product package is within Select the Right scale product packages or kits are intact predefined parameters and no parts Using the right weighing equipment for your process- while packaging. This two-in-one are missing. If so, the scale will au- es is important for product quality. Using the wrong solution secures product integrity tomatically zero and the operator weighing equipment can lead to poor quality, wrong and accurate packaging at the same can continue filling. counts, product defects and rework. This results in time. This is suitable for both prod- significant monetary loss over time. Scales have to fit uct packages of assemblies, kits or your application, tolerances and work environment. A free GWP® Recommendation will tell you which bal- loose parts. Position a scale under ance or scale will give you the best results based on the shipping box. Preset the weight METTLER TOLEDO’s unparalleled accuracy and your of the product packages and toler- specific parts. A METTLER TOLEDO Recommendation ances. Place packages in the ship- combines actual device production data and science ping box and the scale will start to accurately match your needs to the right balance or scale. www.mt.com/gwp

Totalizing function allows checks product completeness and package filling at the same time.

METTLER TOLEDO - Industrial Weighing for Plastic Industry 13 Logistics & Shipping Plastics

Prior to shipping, orders must be complete, on time and properly documented for tracking and tracing. METTLER TOLEDO weighing and labeling solutions make sure you pay the right transportation fees, meet freight regulations such as SOLAS, and fulfill your customers’ requirements.

Printing options for labeling Customized printouts and labels Data exchange by Tele Transmis- and packaging For printing barcodes, company sion (ODETTE) in Europe or other Make your packages and products logos or a specific customized lay- standards. The METTLER TOLEDO traceable. Document every weigh- out, you can use METTLER TOLEDO Print Design service supports many ing operation and create labels or DatabICS software. You can cus- standard label formats. printouts right away, eliminating er- tomize printout templates to meet ror-prone handwritten notes. With your requirements and to comply Transport cargo and define scales, use predefined printing tem- with industrial standards or local shipping weight plates or define your own user-spe- regulations. Include barcodes, such Material handling in the shipping cific ones in different formats, such as Code 128, EAN-13, UPC or oth- department is often under time as labels, strips, forms, pictures ers, as well as pictures or company pressure. Time-critical cargo is and barcodes. Incorporate different logos in standard image formats. shipped around the globe. Weigh- components as needed, including ing becomes increasingly impor- article numbers, date, time or a Automotive industry labels tant in this process, either to deter- customer logo. A broad range of Suppliers to the automotive indus- mine freight costs for outgoing METTLER TOLEDO standard printers try may have to fulfill label stan- goods or to comply with safety reg- and third-party printers can be dards from Automotive Industry Ac- ulations such as SOLAS in sea used. tion Group (AIAG), Organization for freight.

METTLER TOLEDO offers and extensive portfolio for warehouse solutions. Verify heavy consignments or complete palettes on floor scales or palette truck scales. Transport cargo to the loading dock and gather weighing data at the same time with forklift scales. For small shipments, use the BBA231 basic bench scale.

Attach a printer to a scale terminal and print Floor and pallet scales for verifying bulk on the spot. quantities.

14 METTLER TOLEDO - Industrial Weighing for Plastic Industry Process Supervision and Yield Analysis with Weighing Data

Weighing data is produced with every weighing operation. Weight, date, time, operator etc. is stored in the scales memory and can be retrieved via WLEN, Ethernet or USB. Scale- management software such as DatabICS helps to manage the articles on the scale and fa- cilitates simple data retrieval and storage.

Weighing data can be used to ana- real-time. Monitor operator perfor- derstand template and follow your lyze production processes, to com- mance, count the ratio of correct plastics parts production from resin ply with audits and secure evidence and out-of-specification packages bins or tanks to the final product. in terms of customer complaints. and even predict production output.

Make valuable use of your produc- Take immediate action if operator tion data. Machines on the shop efficiency drops and monitor the re- floor constantly provide data and sults right away. Put the informa- you can use it to gain a competitive tion you need into an easy-to-un- advantage. CollectPlus™ is data- collection software that captures production weight and process An easy-to-understand yield analysis for SME data from every scale on your shop companies. Follow pro- floor. Watch variations in your duction from incoming weighing or counting processes in goods to packaging.

Get better insights into your production with an easy- to- follow layout and 30-second refresh rate.

METTLER TOLEDO - Industrial Weighing for Plastic Industry 15 Global Services Optimize Operational Efficiency

Our service offering includes an extensive range of services to help you pre- serve the value of your investment. The primary aim of our Service Network is to meet the needs of global customers worldwide, giving the same high level of service quality regardless of location.

Comprehensive service agreements A comprehensive service agreement is tailored to your operational requirements. It includes preventative maintenance, parts, labor, travel and guar- anteed response time for repairs. This is your most cost-effective assurance against downtime, low-quality results and unbudgeted expense.

Customer-specific requirements METTLER TOLEDO is familiar with local needs and specific customer requirements. This includes needs for local spare parts stock, special service reports, technical training, failure analysis, product upgrades and interaction with system integrators.

Repair services METTLER TOLEDO is your single source for maintenance and repair of dimen- sioning, weighing and scanning equipment. In case of breakdown, we will provide services and parts in a cost-effective manner to get you up and run- ning as quickly as possible. www.mt.com/service

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