TI Group Automotive Systems is the worldwide leading automotive system supplier for complete hose and tank systems for brake fluid, gasoline, coolant and hydraulic fluids. Customers are all the leading European car manufacturers.

The original state of the technology showed a coexistence of different types and designs of extrusion plant. The strong market position in the field of multilayer tube and pneumatic brake hose production brought about continuing growth. This in turn placed substantial demands on the employees in terms of flexibility in the operation of the plants with their different control systems and plant components. Spare parts procurement and maintenance activities also became unviable. The situation was far from ideal. The major objectives of a highly automated series production by means of extrusion are to minimize start-up times and scrap rates, to increase productivity and also to have a positive impact on employee and customer satisfaction.  So exactly this became the objective.

The following targets for the application of the new control system were defined:

• speed control for drives integrated into the control unit
• easy integration of external devices via definable interfaces for fast, central visualization and monitoring
• defined access authorizations for plant operation with conventions for process engineers, users and system administrators
• easy integration into the master computer system for visualization of process data
• increase of capacity utilization
• reduction of scrap rate
• optimized and thus reduced spare parts procurement

The retrofitting of the first production lines consisted of the following steps: 

• removal of obsolete hardware components in switch cabinets and control system and subsequent replacement with state-of-the-art control components 
• installation and commissioning of a Redis 52 operator console with touch screen including visualization and control software 
• replacement and renewal of the entire cabling between the switch cabinets and production line for adaptation and shielding as well as for the integration of the bus system 
• maintenance and, if necessary, renewal of all transducers and actuators 
• complete mechanical and electrical maintenance of extruder components and downstream units 
• modernization of the water supply and its control components including the filter system 
• minor optimization measures on downstream units such as the caterpillar take-off unit, flame treatment unit and cutting device

Results of retrofitting to the Resotec control concept:

• all basic functions were immediately available 
• the results were achieved extremely quickly and the production speed was increased by 10% compared to the previous system setup 
• this will be the minimum standard for any further design and development of extrusion lines.

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