Since 1953, Argolite AG has been producing laminate sheets and is the only Swiss manufacturer of these HPL panels. Even after 63 years of production, there is still great enthusiasm and passion behind—and within—this fascinating material. Away from the mass market of various decorative materials, HPL laminate draws attention to its visible and hidden strengths. On one hand, through its functionality, robustness, and longevity. On the other hand, through the aesthetics and tactile experience of a wide variety of surface textures.

To meet future market demands, Argolite decided to modernize its facilities and digitalize production. This enables the company to satisfy individual customer needs with high quality. The primary focus was placed on comprehensive press control at the Willisau plant. This was modernized and vertically integrated. The integrated press control is capable of independently processing orders and manufacturing individual HPL laminate panels in a single press cycle using various methods. In the process, important process data are continuously stored with the order, resulting in transparent traceability.

PHASE 1

The Autexis solution at Argolite in Willisau consists of the Autexis Manufacturing Execution System (MES), WinCC (visualization), and a new Siemens S7-1500 controller. Orders, recipes, and materials for all facilities are managed via the MES. The Autexis MES is directly connected to WinCC and the PLC, exchanging “target” and “actual” process data. The user-friendly MES interface (HTML5 in responsive design) displays the status of the press order and individual work steps in real time. Production management is informed at all times about the start and end times and duration of each individual step. All other process-related data across all facilities are visualized in WinCC. In the future, the Autexis MES will allow facilities to be expanded and optimized with the help of machine integrations and additional modules.

PHASE 2

The foundation laid in Phase 1 enables the utilization of further valuable MES advantages. In the future, facilities can be optimized through performance analyses. Furthermore, the prerequisites have been created for a fully integrated paperless management and evaluation tool. This will further improve the high quality of press recipes through generic evaluations.

Through the combined expertise in IT and automation, Autexis was able to implement complete vertical integration with a retrofit of the entire facility at Argolite. This reduces interfaces and increases implementation efficiency. Complete traceability of batches is now ensured. This facilitates quality control and efficiency improvements of the facilities. Thanks to the visualization, Argolite has the entire process under control at all times and keeps production in view. In addition, this also results in a reduction of duplicate data entry, error minimization through increased process reliability, and continuous data collection.