Product category:
Miscellaneous metal forming machines (wire, canning,etc) and equipment
News Release from: Routeco | Subject: Control panels
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 06 May 2002
Can handling control delivered quickly
A can handling line control system for a two piece beverage can making facility in Spain was configured and delivered in a very close time frame.
When Crown, Cork and Seal needed a can handling line control system for their two piece beverage can making facility in Spain, there were a number of key requirements they needed their system integrator to have These were an in-depth knowledge of can making (and the special control requirements associated with it), expertise with Rockwell products, excellence in build quality and speed of response
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 14 Nov 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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RG Automation Ltd is a control system integrator offering a total solution from concept to completion.
Their past experience in successfully completing can handling projects on time, in budget and to specification, helped Crown Cork and Seal to make, what was obviously, a very important decision.
With a team of highly skilled project engineers from a variety of backgrounds, their knowledge of the customer's process coupled with the understanding of the Rockwell Automation product range meant that, even during the bid process, they were suggesting time and money saving ideas.
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Time scales were tight, November order placement - a suite of 4 panels (23mtrs long) designed, built and tested twelve weeks later.
Crown's electrical team had devised the ideal architecture for the plant.
The Line Control panels were to be the central core to a series of networks controlling and interfacing to initially over 30 machines.
As process speed was an issue, the solution was based around the Allen-Bradley ControlLogix PLC, utilising Ethernet IP (with Flex I/O and SLC 5/05s hooked onto it) and to complement this inverter drives were connected to Devicenet technology (linking all the drives to the processors).
Four control panels were required each containing the variable speed drives for a particular zone of the can handling conveyors.
Allen-Bradley's 160 drives series with Devicenet adapters were chosen - meaning that wiring, testing and commissioning time was reduced - vital, given the time scales involved.
Using this architecture as a basis RG Automation detailed the final design for the panels.
The design process was accelerated by using RSWire as the electrical design CAD package - pre-drawn symbols, conforming to IEC standards, taken from their database meant that drawings were constructed extremely quickly and a parts list printed within minutes of approval.
The auto-numbering and cross referencing features ensure that repeated wire numbers and confusing drawings are a thing of the past.
Andrew Jones, General Manager of RG Automation is delighted, "Twelve months ago, when we first invested in RSWire, I was sceptical about achieving the 30% drawing time reductions advertised - now we are saving at least that, which is great for our customers because our lead times and design costs reduce accordingly!" Account Manager, Alan Powell, of Routeco's branch in Coventry, ensured that by January 2002, RG Automation had all the parts required for the panels.
RG Automation's task was to put it together and make it work before March.
The panels were assembled and wired at RG Automation's premises in Worcester, and after over 10,000 terminations, the panels (along with distributed I/O boxes, pushbutton stations and motor isolators) were ready for test.
To save vital commissioning time in Spain, drive and network parameters were set-up and distributed I/O boxes linked to the master panels so that a full network test of the system could be carried out.
Routeco's specialist engineers were ready to support the design and process as required.
Pre-delivery inspections were successfully completed and the panels were shipped out to Spain on the dates agreed.
Crown, Cork and Seal's Electrical Systems Manager, Graham Cramphorn, said, "RG Automation were competitively priced and delivered to all our expectations.
With any Line Control, design flexibility is required to meet with last minute changes in the can handling system, and any changes we required were made with no fuss.
RG Automation remains top of our preferred suppliers list".
Routeco plc is the UK's leading distributor serving industry with control and automation products.
We supply products from many of the industry's leading manufacturers and provide quality service and support second to none.
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