Plastics & Rubber World - September/October 2019 - 19

thermoforming

at the lower end of high-volume output.
As such, these companies have not invested in Industry 4.0 systems, which is
a surprise to Lornie.
"If there's a cycle time of three or
four seconds and an issue isn't caught,
that can result in a lot of wastage, leading to possible downtime. You're burning through material, effectively cycling
scrap. We still can't control the material,
that's out of our scope. We can't see if
it's damaged, or the wrong formulation.
But the machines with 4.0 systems are
incredibly stable, we can control the machines with far more accuracy."

Material reMains the weak link

The thermoformers are self-stabilising
within preset parameters, meaning they
can monitor their own performance. This
extends to alerts, should production fall
out of those prescribed limits.
But there's still no opportunity for 'dark
running', where the machines operate on
an unlit shop floor - saving on labour and
energy costs.
"I'd never do that with a thermoformer,
and that's more than 30 years of experience talking," says Robert Lornie. "Again,
it's the material that can't be controlled,
that's the weak link."
Beyond ensuring that the sheet is
correctly inserted into the machine(s),
material can be thinner in one area in
comparison to another, highlighting instability in the supplier's raw product and/or
processes. And while such inconsistencies
generally feature in material with recycled
content, even virgin product can have the
same issues.
Lornie: "[Material deviation] can take
away from operational stability, but we do
have ideas about how to address that."
Interestingly, the material deviations
are not generally down to third-party material being used in the sheet product, as
the recyclate is largely generated by the
thermoformers themselves. "It's recycling
from wastage. The company can granulate it, bag it, send it back to the material
provider. It's a closed loop. It's estimated
to make the material 20% cheaper, so it's
a built in value," adds Lornie.

extended longevity

Lornie states that the average lifespan
for a thermoforming machine is about
15 years. Any longer and sourcing spare
parts can become an issue, although
even that can be overcome with some
ingenuity.
"We've got a machine with us, the HMI
[control panel] has stopped running. We
can't get the original, so we bought a new
HMI and we updated the software. That
upgraded machine has another 15 years
of operation," he recounts. "And that's not
silly money, between £6,000 and £7,000."
Construction of the machines also
plays into longevity. Lornie says that while
machines from competing manufacturers
might have an edge in aesthetic design,

HMI technology with advanced software ensures product quality and efficiency
Cannon Shelley thermoformers are much
more rugged and built to withstand harsh
industrial environments.
In one instance, the machine maker
installed two new thermoformers at a
customer location in the Midlands. The
customer also had machines from a competitor and, while Lornie says they were
"run hard", they were in worse shape than
expected.
"They were falling part in areas where
they shouldn't have been," he recalls. On
the other hand, he says that he was with a
customer still using a machine dating back
to 1970. "It wasn't in great condition, but
still going!"
Beyond exterior design, Cannon Shelley machines are a little larger when it
comes to overall footprint. "That's due to
the add-ons being more substantial," says
Lornie.
He continues to say that about 80%
of sales are supported by service contracts. This helps with tracking machine
performance and maintaining optimum
operational standards. In some cases,
support can lead to future-proofing of
the machines.
"If we're changing a gasket at every service, we can plan to do that as part of a
regular service visit. Or, we can look at why
that's happening and try to eliminate the
issue," says Lornie.
In addition to Industry 4.0-style data-driven performance analysis, the machines can be accessed remotely. "You
can log when issues have taken place, the
frequency of that event."
There are, though, issues with gaining
remote access to the machines. In many
cases complex IT systems are designed
to defeat any interaction with outside
networks, which means setting up access via these routes is a time-consuming process.
This is why all the latest thermoforming
machines produced by Cannon Shelley

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