Questions & Answers: ENGEL customer portal

e-connect, ENGEL's customer portal, has become an essential tool for users of ENGEL injection moulding machines over the past eight years. It all started with the goal of simplifying and speeding up service and spare parts procurement. Today, e-connect offers a broad scope of digital services that improve the efficiency and productivity of injection moulding processes.

It includes solutions for the entire life cycle of your products:

• Design optimisation
• Mould sampling
• Production
• Maintenance
• Service

With the ongoing digitalisation of injection moulding production, the features have been continuously expanded and improved. The ENGEL customer portal is no longer just a service portal but a comprehensive digital ecosystem. It gives access to digital injection moulding processes, regardless of whether ENGEL machines or equipment from other brands are used. The portal offers a solution for integrating the entire production cell.

It also enables machines to be monitored in real time, regardless of the manufacturer. This is a significant added value for users.

e-connect revolutionises injection moulding operations with its unique transparency of production processes. This detailed overview makes it easier to control and monitor injection moulding processes. It also contributes to process reliability and productivity. By bundling all relevant data and processes in one platform, production costs are reduced, and efficiency is increased.

A customer portal like ENGEL's e-connect portal is essential for injection moulding companies that want to start with digitalisation. It is comparable with a collection of different apps on a smartphone, each app takes over specific tasks in the production process.

Some examples:

• Real-time monitoring of all machines
• Monitoring the condition of wear parts
• Understanding causes and making processes more efficient
• Solve production problems quickly
• Identification and ordering of spare parts
• and much more.

With its various expansion levels, e-connect is adaptable to the needs of each company. It offers the opportunity to utilise digital functions without additional expenses or effort for IT infrastructure and support. This makes the path to digitalisation accessible and streamlined for everyone. The modular system is designed to align with the digital maturity of our customers right from the start.

As technology advances, the complexity of production systems increases. This complexity must be handled easily and safely. Also, the demographic change, the increasing shortage of skilled labor and the varying levels of experience among employees need to be considered.

e-connect has been developed to be intuitive and user-friendly. By categorising features according to the application, users can quickly identify the functionalities that are relevant to them. This user-focused approach ensures that even users without in-depth technical knowledge can use the ENGEL customer portal effectively.

What our customers can expect:

• Clear structuring and organisation of features
• Fast performance thanks to the architecture of the portal
• Intuitive visualisation to provide a comprehensive overview of production processes

e-connect makes it possible to view and analyse the entire production process and share it with other experts in the company. Therefore, specialists in the company can work more efficiently.

The portal measures and analyses the following key figures:

• Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)
• Optimisation potential
• Losses (top losses)
• Causes of failure
• Downtime

Functions such as process insights and iQ process observer offer advanced analysis tools. They allow users to recognise patterns, trends and deviations in rejects and component quality. This enables continuous improvement and process optimisation.

The ENGEL customer portal is based on modern cloud technology. It enables a high degree of flexibility and scalability. The system can be easily expanded from a single machine to a global production network. Production managers can switch effortlessly between different locations, given their authorisation and role. Regardless of geographical location, they can watch and analyse their production.

Data security of e-connect is a top priority at ENGEL. The EDGE Device was developed for this reason. It makes the usage of digital solutions possible and it is designed according to the principle of "security by design". The EDGE Device is built to offer maximum security against unauthorised access and manipulation. Regular security audits and continuous updates ensure that the portal’s security is always at the highest level.

Part finder is the efficient solution for finding spare parts. By image and text recognition, technicians can identify parts within seconds. Thanks to this innovative app, our customers have access to the entire spare parts identification process anytime, anywhere.

shopfloor monitoring monitors and analyses the entire production process in real time at a central location, as it provides key figures of the reject rate, downtime, and losses. The tool creates transparency of all machines, identifies optimisation opportunities and monitors all cells regardless of manufacturer to increase overall efficiency.

Keep an eye on the entire process of your injection moulding cell. With the innovative process insights function, users can make more precise decisions at mould sampling, start up and cause analysis. The possibility to compare batches helps to recognise long-term impacts. This allows you to achieve greater quality and efficiency, especially when analysing claims.

Since 2015, e-connect has been established as a pioneering digital ecosystem in the injection moulding industry. It offers transparency and increased production efficiency by integrating different phases of production. The user-friendly design and networking of applications allow data to be analysed effectively to optimise processes. The cloud structure ensures flexibility and global accessibility, while the EDGE Device guarantees a high level of data security.

In the ever-changing world of injection moulding technology, e-connect is becoming an essential tool. The fast development of the industry requires a portal that not only fulfills current requirements but can also adapt flexibly to new trends and technologies. e-connect is a growing system that actively shapes the dynamics of injection moulding technology.

Thanks to continuous improvements, e-connect stays up to date to effectively support injection moulding companies in their constantly changing environment.