SmartChronos Licensed to Kneader Manufacturer
Industry 4.0 platform, developed then spun off by compounder Alterra, to be used by X-Compound in its lab.
SmartChronos, a company spun off from compounder Alterra Holdings that provides Industry 4.0 solutions, announced at NPE2024 that continuous kneader supplier X-Compound, has been licensed to use the technology in its lab in Kaisten, Switzerland.
Alterra Holdings, which produces specialty elastomers, biobased /olefin-based PCR/PIR compounds, has been using the SmartChronos platform on its own production floor in Seymour, Indiana for the past six years. Alterra has six production lines, which range in size from 58 to 103 mm. SmartChronos enabled Alterra to launch several new programs during the Covid-19 isolation period, with customers online in different states observing the entire process live, the company says.
The technology relies on a network of sensors on each machine that track parameters in real time, such as feeder rate, barrel temperatures, torque, and much more, alerting the QC and production teams the instant a parameter falls out of spec so they in turn can text the operator to take a look at what’s going on.
(l-r) SmartChronos CEO Arash Kiani; Chris Wenhold, X-Compound’s business development and sales manager, North America; and Karsten Kretschmer, X-Compound’s sales director-compounding.
SmartChronos was spun off July 1, 2023 with Arash Kiani, Alterra CEO and the inventor of SmartChronos, as the founder and chairman of the board and Sassan Tarahomi as CEO.
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