Pioneer Process Control –
Next Generation User Interface for Plastic Manufacturing

User interface for industrial machines from the manufacturer KraussMaffei Extrusion GmbH, which is part of the KraussMaffei Group, one of the world's leading manufacturers of machinery and systems for extrusion and recycling of plastic and rubber products. The company's portfolio covers all technologies in injection moulding, extrusion and reaction processing.
The aim of the project was to simplify and harmonize the complex and heterogeneous manifestations of the UI. A flexible standard was developed which in future can also be transferred to other business segments. The project was developed in a user-centered manner. Context analyses and user and expert surveys were used to identify the requirements, and the new way of operation was tested with prototypes. The focus is on the depiction of the most important figures and notifications of the system. Interactive illustrations, favorites pages and workflows help the user to manage complex processes. The result is a holistically optimized user experience, combined with a high-quality graphical design. The design is clearly structured and functional. It was developed to be responsive and can be used on various monitor sizes and smart devices. It reflects key aspects of the corporate design and contributes to a consistent brand image.

Project Summary
KraussMaffei Website

Basic interface walkthrough in an early development state during implementation testing.
Implementation Tests Video

The project was awarded the iF DESIGN AWARD 2022 and the Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design 2021.
iF Design Award Website
Red Dot Website

Features

Designed for various screen sizes of industrial touch panels

Clearly structured information using widgets, dialogues and dashboards

Uniform messaging system

Guided workflows / step-by-step instructions

Abstract, easy to understand illustration with visual error localization

Quick access via  process based navigation

Individual corporate icon-style

Next Generation User Interface for Plastic Manufacturing

Industrial Plastic Manufacturing

User interface for industrial machines for extrusion and recycling of plastic and rubber products. The interface is used for process monitoring and machine operation of compounding, tires, profile-, sheet-, foam- and pipe extrusion.

Design Challenges
The main challenge was to simplify and harmonize the complex and heterogeneous manifestations  of the current User Interface. We achieved to develop a flexible and modular system, that can be transferred to other business segments in the future. Merging the individual requirements of the different production types was also a difficult task due to the wide range of involved technologies.