Compounder Spins Off Home-Made Industry 4.0 Platform

Alterra Holdings, a leading compounder of specialty elastomers, biobased /olefin-based PCR/PIR compounder is spinning off its patent-pending SmartChronos Industry 4.0 platform, which it’s been using on its own production floor in Seymour, Ind. for the past three years.

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. Alterra is beta testing SmartChronos, which will also be the name of the new company, at a resin supplier and a sheet processor and is now ready to offer it to the North American market in collaboration with an undisclosed supplier of twin-screw extruders.

Alterra has been using the SmartChronos on its six production lines, which range in size from 58 to 103 mm. SmartChronos has 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.

According to Dr. Arash Kiani, Alterra CEO and the inventor of SmartChronos, the software is user-friendly, which enables operators with minimal training to access the data and be able to implement an optimized solution very quickly. He explains, “Basically, there is a sweet spot for each product, in terms of barrel-temperature settings, torque range, feed-rate range, etc. and they are all product dependent. Most IoT platforms consider process parameters as ‘fixed in place,’ but SmartChronos is a product-dependent platform that allows live feedback between QC and the operator on the line. As soon as something is out of range, the operators will be notified by a Slack SMS text to react to it immediately. Settings are color-coded in easy-to-understand green, yellow and red. The goal is to keep all parameters in the green zone.”

SmartChronos will officially start July 1 with Kiani as the founder and chairman of the board and Sassan Tarahomi as CEO. SmartChronos will operate independently of Alterra Holdings.