Page 11 - Industrial Technology Extra - 26th May 2020

injection moulding process in order to test how controls to those of other, very similar, machines.
effective the new control system was. “We used two On average, we found that the electricity usage of
of the new EL2911 terminals to drop the 24V similar moulders would cost from between £25 to
potential supply off to the five EL2024s’ 2A digital £33 per tonne of product. Using the new system,
output terminals, which drive the hydraulic solenoid the cost per tonne of product came to £11 – an
valves and contactors,” says James. “As the heaters estimated saving of £24,000 per year.
tuned up to running temperature, it was time to run With this, the system almost immediately
the 200A inverter. Then, with all the four axes demonstrated its ability to provide a clear ROI for
running well, material was added to the machine to the manufacturer. Simultaneously, it also
try the first automatic cycle. highlighted the value and potential of modernising
“The machine was making products in older industrial systems; opportunities that the
automatic mode by day five of commissioning. By manufacturer promptly sought to seize on.
the seventh day, it was left for the night shift to run “I’ve already been asked to look at doing the
and it hasn’t stopped since. The new, enhanced same thing to a larger V1000 machine from 2005,”
control system is fully-functional and gives the concludes James, who has already planned the
business new levels of insight into its production.” Beckhoff equipment that will be required. “This will
also incorporate energy using Beckhoff EL3403s, as
Live performance data well as the unloading robot — equipped with an
Not only did a newfound capability to turn off the AX5000 or AX8000 Servo Drive — to be controlled
pump while not in use improve the overall efficiency from the same HMI and production reporting.
of the machine, the control system could now also “It’s not clear how much it would have cost this
provide live performance data. The production data, customer to purchase an entirely new machine
alarms and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) when the failure first occurred. But, by turning to
data is published to MQTT, and data is also Pressure Design to modernise — instead of replace
accessible on mobile devices or browsers through — the equipment, the company was able to
the use of AWS. minimise its expenditure while still getting an
Using this information, the team monitored the improved system with demonstrable ROI. We were
energy usage of the new system across several able to achieve this, in no small part, because of the
cycles. The system presented some striking data. extensive I/O expertise behind Beckhoff products.”
“We compared the energy usage with the new www.beckoff.co.uk

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