SIKORA with full success at Fakuma

After many trade shows had been cancelled last year due to the Corona pandemic, the starting signal was given again from October 12 to 16, 2021: At Fakuma in Friedrichshafen everything revolved around the plastics industry. SIKORA was represented with a booth and presented innovative measuring, control as well as inspection and sorting technologies to the interested trade audience. With a high number of visitors, the Bremen-based company considers the Fakuma a complete success.

“We are very happy that trade shows can take place again and we are especially pleased to finally talk live about innovations and projects with our customers and partners," says Holger Lieder, Director of Sales at SIKORA. A high visitor interest and many concrete inquiries for reliable technologies for quality control made the week in Friedrichshafen a complete success. The topics innovation, digitalization and circular economy played an important role. “In demand were both our measuring systems for tube and hose manufacturing as well as our inspection and sorting equipment for plastics production and -processing with which quality and efficiency potentials can be optimally exploited,” explains Lieder.

One of the highlights at the SIKORA booth was undoubtedly the PURITY SCANNER ADVANCED, which inspects online plastic pellets for contamination by means of X-ray and optical cameras and automatically sorts out contaminated pellets. This not only creates pure material, but also reduces waste and material consumption for maximum sustainability.

The crowd puller at the SIKORA booth was the PURITY CONCEPT V, with which customers could have brought plastic pellets tested live. The optical inspection and analysis system is used for random sample analysis or incoming goods inspection of pellets. For this purpose, the test material is placed on a sample tray and automatically inspected by a color camera within a few seconds. The image recordings are automatically evaluated. The system detects, for example, black specks and color deviations from a size of 50 µm and highlights contamination on the monitor image and, in parallel, by projector on the sample tray. A clear assignment of the contamination and a follow-up control are thus possible at any time.

In the field of extrusion of pipes and hoses SIKORA presented a wide portfolio of online measuring and control devices. Among others, the CENTERWAVE 6000 presented itself as profit maximizer. It measures by means of radar technology the diameter, the ovality, the wall thickness and the inner profile of the pipe seamlessly over 360 degrees of the circumference during the production. Using the system significantly shortens the start-up process and converts wall thickness oversize into profitable extra length.

Another highlight was the X-ray-based X-RAY 6000 PRO, also for use in tube and hose production. Manufacturers use this system to measure the inner and outer diameter as well as the eccentricity of products from 0.65 mm. The wall thickness of up to three different material layers is also measured. Automatic control of the line speed or extruder rpm ensures maximum productivity.