PCR plastics introduce variability in flow behaviour, crystallisation rates and mechanical performance. Such deviations can lead to production delays, defects, and costly rework, undermining efficiency and profitability. sensXPERT explores the solution that lie in transforming hidden material behaviour into actionable insights.
sensXPERT
avidens consortium - 1
Dielectric sensor technology provides a direct view into the material’s electrical properties—such as its dielectric constant and loss factors—during processing. This real-time visibility allows manufacturers to detect deviations in flow, cure, and crystallisation as they happen, enabling corrective actions that safeguard product quality.
How dielectric sensors offer critical insights
Dielectric sensors are essential for monitoring material behaviour in real time. Unlike traditional temperature and pressure sensors, which provide only indirect data, dielectric sensors measure the electrical properties of the material itself, including the dielectric constant and loss factors. These properties shift in response to changes in material composition, flow behavior, and crystallisation.
Placed directly within the mold, dielectric sensors track how the material flows and solidifies, offering manufacturers immediate feedback on its behavior. For example, shifts in the dielectric constant can indicate changes in viscosity, signaling potential flow issues or uneven filling of the mold. Similarly, fluctuations in loss factors can highlight differences in crystallization, allowing molders to detect structural defects early in the process.
Visualising material behavior for real-time quality control
The data gathered by dielectric sensors is transformed into visual representations, allowing manufacturers to compare material performance against predefined quality benchmarks. These real-time visualisation tools are essential for molders working with PCR plastics, where deviations are common due to the inherent variability in the material.
Through real-time graphs and charts, manufacturers can monitor how the material flows, crystallises, and solidifies. By comparing this visualized data with expected behavior, manufacturers can quickly determine if the material is meeting critical criteria such as dimensional stability, strength, and surface finish.
Enhancing visualisation insights with AI and data science
While dielectric sensors provide real-time data, AI and data science further enhance these insights by identifying patterns and potential deviations. AI models, trained on historical production data, analyse sensor inputs to detect subtle deviations that may not be immediately visible.
In this context, AI enhances the visualisation tools by providing deeper insights into material behavior. By layering AI analysis on top of real-time sensor data, manufacturers can better understand how PCR materials behave under specific conditions and how these behaviors relate to product quality. These AI-driven tools form a foundational layer within the AVIDENS Consortium, enabling seamless integration of data insights with practical solutions across the plastics value chain.
The AVIDENS Consortium
The AVIDENS Consortium was established to address these challenges through a collaborative network spanning the plastics value chain.
Schwarz Plastic Solutions and sensXPERT are the primary partners collaborating directly with customers to address the complexities of PCR plastics processing. Schwarz Plastic Solutions brings decades of expertise in injection molding and process optimisation, ensuring seamless integration of advanced insights into manufacturing workflows. sensXPERT provides its advanced dielectric sensor technology and AI-driven analytics, enabling real-time tracking of molecular-level material behavior and ensuring deviations are detected and corrected dynamically.
The consortium is supported by NETZSCH Analyzing & Testing and Precupa, who play pivotal roles in project support. NETZSCH provides advanced laboratory equipment to characterise material properties such as flow behavior, rheology, and thermal enthalpy under thermal treatment conditions. Precupa specialises in mold design and build-up, offering coatings for specific applications and supporting the scaling of molds from trials to full-scale production.
Meraxis and LabV provide additional services to complement the consortium’s efforts. Meraxis supplies virgin, post-industrial, and post-consumer recycled plastics, enabling experimentation with diverse blends. LabV offers a centralized platform for managing and analyzing lab data from various laboratory machines, ensuring a unified environment for seamless data connection and a single source of truth.