Solgomma S.p.A., a Tuscan rubber company since 1955 (Empoli), operates on three fronts: rubber moulding, compound production and roller covering, its flagship. Most of the compounds produced feed its in-house roller-covering department. Compound production is based on an automatic dosing plant and an internal mixer: a plant among the first to be automated back in the 1980s and already revamped about thirty years ago.
The challenge
Bring a historic plant back to life — still mechanically sound but with dated automation and electrics — within a very tight time window:
- Automatic dosing plant and internal mixer with automation dating back to a revamping about thirty years ago.
- Electrical panel to be completely rebuilt.
- Need to manage, besides automatic dosing, the manual weighing stations for polymers and small-quantity chemicals/additives.
- Work only possible during the August summer shutdown.
Solgomma’s new operator station: DosareX Multi Data supervision software and integrated A/B/C batch scales.
Multi Data’s work
- New DosareX software to control the internal mixer and the dosing plant, with integrated management of the manual weighing stations for polymers and small-quantity chemicals/additives.
- Complete replacement of the electrical panel, built by a local electrician to Multi Data’s specifications: the customer relied on its own trusted crew, while Multi Data provided the specifications and coordinated all the work.
- Coordination of the entire site, from dismantling the old panel to installing the new one and testing the utilities.
The result
- Dismantling of the old panel, installation of the new one and utility testing completed in 4 weeks, entirely within the summer shutdown: zero impact on the year’s production.
- Historic plant brought back to new on the automation and electrical side, ready for the years ahead.
- Paperless mixing department, integrated with the ERP: the DosareX Multi Data software connects to the ERP to receive work plans and send consumption and batch traceability, keeping all departments coordinated.