SIMEX PLASTIC Smart Cloud Systems

SIMEX for plastic waste recycling

Plastic waste recycling has management requirements similar to those of recovered paper: traceability of deliveries, quality control, separation of contaminants and valorization of the sorted material. The SIMEX system applies to this supply chain the same architecture based on RFID technology, a cloud platform and integration with plant management systems.

Digitalized management makes it possible to treat every plastic bale as an individually tracked unit: polymer type, weight, origin, warehouse location and logistics status are recorded and available in real time.

Compared with paper, the plastic supply chain demands greater attention to separation by polymer: the value of the material depends on the purity of the fraction, and a classification error affects the entire lot. Accurate recording of what comes in and how it is sorted is therefore the precondition for valorization.

Intake and coding of plastic material

On arrival, every load is recorded with weighbridge data and identifying information: gross and net weight, material type and supplier. Automatic coding of the load and the link to the process documentation ensure compliance and traceability right from receipt.

Recording takes place in the field via a handheld or web terminal and includes the vehicle plate and the operator. The certified weight is acquired directly from the in-line connected scales, without manual transcription, and flows into a centralized database that makes historical analysis and storage forecasting possible.

• Recording of gross and net weight and automatic coding
• Recording of vehicle plate and operator from handheld or terminal
• Supplier verification and unloading authorization
• Acceptance or rejection with photographic documentation
• Consolidation into a centralized database for analysis and forecasting

Sorting and quality control

Sorting separates the different polymer types and removes contaminants, preparing the material for baling. SIMEX manages the assignment of work stations and operators, measuring sorting times and efficiency by batch.

Checking the quantities entering and leaving each stage makes it possible to quantify the sorting yield and the presence of foreign fraction, calculated as a percentage of total weight.

Following its trend over time makes it possible to qualify suppliers on the basis of measurements and to distinguish an occasional problem from a delivery that is systematically out of specification, acting upstream rather than downstream.

Baling and plastic bales with RFID

The sorted material is pressed into bales identified by RFID tags applied automatically in line. Every bale receives a digital identity that accompanies its life cycle, readable at a distance without line of sight.

The tag allows reading through handhelds, portals and radio-frequency antennas, updating of the bale status and rapid stocktaking without physically moving the material.

• Polymer type and material quality
• Weight of the bale and production date
• Origin of the material and supplier it came from
• Logistics status and current warehouse location

Weighing, density and characterization

The weight of each bale is measured by integrated scales with digital sensors and automatically associated with the RFID tag: it is the figure on which valorization, transport documents and stock levels are based.

From the ratio between weight and volume the system derives the density of the bale, a parameter that affects storability in the warehouse and transport costs, because it determines how much material actually fits into one trip.

Characterization of the material — including the measurement of parameters such as moisture with portable instruments where relevant — is recorded and linked to the bale, documenting the quality of the lot and making it possible to identify out-of-specification material before dispatch.

Handhelds and RFID technologies in the field

Data collection in the plant is carried out with instruments designed for industrial use, without fixed workstations and without paper forms.

Operators use handhelds to record movements and checks. The RFID tags applied to bales, containers and pallets allow automatic identification, while the fixed stations placed at transit points detect passage without operator intervention.

The data originates where the physical event takes place and is immediately available in the system: delayed recording times and transcription errors are eliminated, and the link between delivery, processing and the bale produced does not have to be reconstructed after the fact.

Virtual warehouse and logistics

The bales produced flow into a virtual warehouse that mirrors the physical situation in real time: every bale is georeferenced to its location, with stock levels updated by material type and weight. RFID management allows rapid stocktaking, FIFO picking and fewer errors.

Material handling is managed with RFID readers on the forklifts and reading portals at transit points, which automatically update the logistics status of the bales.

At the dispatch stage, transport documents are generated from the bales actually loaded, with weights and characteristics already recorded: consistency between the physical load and the documentation is guaranteed without manual re-entry of data.

Interfacing with balers and sorting systems

SIMEX communicates with the plant machinery through standard automation protocols, in particular OPC UA and Modbus TCP/IP, with bidirectional integration.

The functions include real-time monitoring of presses and sorting systems, automatic setting of machine cycles and recipes, and the receipt of alarms, such as jams or scheduled maintenance.

The operational benefit is a reduction in downtime: an anomaly is reported the moment it occurs and reaches whoever has to act on it, instead of emerging at the end of the shift from a comparison of production data.

Real-time reporting and operating margin

The data collected feed dashboards that can be consulted on tablet and desktop, customizable with charts and tables according to the role of the person using them.

The system manages minimum operating margin thresholds by line or department and sends alerts by e-mail or SMS when they are exceeded: the warning arrives while production is under way, not after the fact.

Reports can be exported as PDFs with the company layout and sent on a schedule to managers and administrative offices, making reporting an automatic process rather than a manual collection of data.

The same dashboards can be consulted remotely, so that those who are not present in the plant have the same picture of production as those working on the floor, without requiring dedicated extracts.

Traceability and cloud platform

All the data flows into the SIMEX cloud platform, which processes it and makes it available in real time on dashboards that can be consulted from PC, tablet and smartphone.

Access is protected by individual authentication, passwords and a firewall, with profiles differentiated by role: each user sees only the information relevant to their responsibilities.

Full traceability of the plastic material, from receipt to dispatch, meets the transparency requirements of the supply chain and customers’ documentation requests, making it possible to certify the origin of the recycled material with data rather than declarations.

Cloud archiving also makes it possible to keep the history beyond the life of an individual lot: information that proves useful when a check or a complaint arrives months after dispatch.

Integration with MES, ERP and SCADA

SIMEX integrates with the company information infrastructure through native connectors and REST APIs.

The link to the MES synchronizes production orders and line status; the link to the ERP feeds invoicing, warehousing and accounting; integration with SCADA systems makes the data available for advanced analysis and management reporting.

The modular architecture makes it possible to start from the priority functions and extend coverage progressively, keeping a single database and without duplicating data entry.

Applications by sector

The functional framework of SIMEX PLASTIC — identification of the unit, traceability of the stages, measurement of yield and connection to management systems — applies to every context in which a plastic material is collected, sorted, turned into load units and moved, whatever the destination sector.

Recycling and sorting platforms

This is the reference field. In platforms handling plastic waste the system governs delivery, separation by polymer type, baling and RFID labeling of the bales.

Continuous monitoring of the foreign fraction and of sorting yields makes it possible to qualify suppliers and to act when the quality of deliveries departs from the standard: in plastics the purity of the fraction directly determines the market value of the material.

Being able to trace a bale back to the delivery it came from, with photographic documentation already linked to the lot, is decisive when the downstream customer disputes the quality of a supply.

Logistics and warehousing

Wherever material is stored and handled, RFID identification of the units and reading at transit portals keep the virtual warehouse aligned with the physical situation.

The functions used are the location of units, stocktaking without manual handling, FIFO picking and the generation of transport documents from what has actually been loaded.

Stock becomes the result of the readings recorded rather than of a periodic count, and the selection of the units to be shipped can be made by polymer type, production date or quality parameters, without preliminary physical inspections.

The result is fewer picking errors and consistency between the physical load and the shipping documentation, with more predictable order preparation times.

Process production and transformation

In continuous-flow transformation plants the system collects line data through the automation protocols and makes it comparable over time.

Monitoring the line parameters makes it possible to detect deviations from the expected conditions and to report them as they occur, shortening the time between anomaly and intervention. The history provides the basis for scheduling maintenance according to the actual use of the machines rather than at fixed intervals.

The same data feed the calculation of the operating margin by line or department, so that the economic impact of a stoppage or of a drop in yield is immediately readable.

Sectors with strict documentation requirements

Some supply chains require the origin and processing conditions of the material to be documented: this is the case with plastic intended for uses in which the recycled content must meet verifiable requirements.

SIMEX meets this need by keeping for each unit the complete documentary chain: origin, supplier, processing undergone, recorded parameters and the people responsible for the operations, with data archived and retrievable even long afterwards.

Certification of the origin of recycled material is thus based on objective records rather than on declarations, a requirement that appears ever more frequently in the requests of industrial customers.

Having the documentation already structured also reduces the burden of periodic audits: the data required can be extracted from the system instead of being reconstructed after the fact from separate registers.

Transport and vehicle handling

Managing the flow of incoming and outgoing vehicles is an integral part of the cycle: weighing, verification of the plate and the supplier, authorization to unload and recording of the operator.

The coordination of loading and unloading operations draws on the same data used for production, so that the status of a vehicle and that of the material it carries remain aligned.

The transport documentation is produced by the system without manual re-entry of weights and quantities, and vehicle waiting time in turn becomes a measured figure, useful for tackling queues in the yard.

Knowing the duration of individual operations also makes it possible to schedule supplier delivery slots and to size the staffing of the yard at times of heavier traffic.

Frequently asked questions

The information on this page is provided for information purposes. Although it has been compiled with the greatest care, it may contain transcription errors or typos: for precise, up-to-date information please contact RODER SRL directly.