Discover how Dorfner, founded in 1895, is using artificial intelligence to improve development in paints and coatings, composites, construction chemicals, plastics, and other areas.
Executive Summary
Dorfner used the Citrine Platform to:
- Identify high-performing elements that help clients achieve their target performance
- Increased company revenue by almost 30 %
- Reduce energy and CO2 emissions
- Reduced formulation development time by 84 %
- Ensure quality and consistency of formulations using local raw materials in new regions
- Increase business outside of Europe
The Customer
Gebrüder Dorfner GmbH & Co. is a 130-year-old family business in Germany's Mittelstand. Kaolin and quartz deposits are mined to produce new functional fillers used in a variety of applications. However, they are natural materials whose qualities vary depending on where they are extracted.
Kaolin deposits go through a complex series of processing and refining stages to produce high-quality, consistent calcined kaolins for use in the paint and coatings industry.
Objectives
Dorfner's goals in partnering with Citrine were to minimize the time it takes to develop new formulations, find new applications for the raw materials they generate, and increase the sustainability of their goods.
Concern: ROI, pricing, project costs
“What is it going to bring us?”
Dorfner: “It is not a typical investment project. You will not know what it brings you before you start. But if you do not start, you will never know.”
The Process
Data
Dorfner had a wealth of historical data documenting processing parameters for a wide range of experiments, which they were able to use with the Citrine platform.
Modeling
Dorfner was able to simulate the functional qualities, cost, and energy consumption of many candidate materials emerging from different Kaolin processing methods. The ability of the AI to grasp and use information from the complicated sequence of refining and calcining operations was critical.
Change Management
The Citrine Platform is designed for use by product specialists with little to no data science expertise after minimal training. The Citrine Customer Success Team helped the product experts get started quickly on the platform and recognize its value. They loved being able to gain insights into their scientific field.
Concern: Quality and quantity of data - “Is my dataset large enough?”
Dorfner: “Start with the available data, fill the gaps, and optimize afterwards.”
AI felt very far away. [But] with Citrine, you do not even need any programming skills.
Florian, Application Engineer
We see how the people grow. We see in the lab technicians, they literally change the way we work.
Mirko Mondan, CEO
We understand our own laboratory more than before. It is fun to work in this way.
Oliver, Application Engineering Leader
The Results
Production Optimization
- Reduced energy and CO2: Optimized production line settings to conserve energy, reduce CO2 emissions, and improve efficiency.
- Improved resilience: The team improved robustness by optimizing calciner parameters for efficient operation with various fuel types.
Product Optimization
- Differentiated Product: The Dorfner team created a customized DORKAFILL® filler for a specific final product.
- Consistent quality: The team ensured consistent quality by adjusting production settings based on the location of the Kaolin mine, addressing natural variability in characteristics. This resulted in a higher-quality and more consistent product.
Increased Productivity
- Time and cost savings: The team used "Virtual Testing" to reduce the number of experiments and shorten development cycles for new products, saving time and money.
- Better customer responsiveness: The Dorfner team improved client responsiveness by becoming more knowledgeable partners.
Higher Revenues
- Doing more with less: The new, higher-quality product can be used in smaller amounts to achieve the same results.
- More sales outside Europe: Dorfner's high-quality product resulted in increased sales outside of Europe by requiring less material for performance. Excess capacity helped Dorfner to explore previously unattainable markets (outside of Europe).
This information has been sourced, reviewed, and adapted from materials provided by Citrine Informatics.
For more information on this source, please visit Citrine Informatics.