The customer wanted to reduce downtimes and increase asset utilization as well as the manufacturing output. The first objective was to evaluate what cost effective solutions were available to reduce downtime and secondly a minimal impact on production volumes was required as the customer functions as a production centre. Thirdly, existing cabinet designs should be retained where possible (to reduce project time).

After the evaluation, it was decided that networking the drive trains (drives and motors) for the production line (conveyor) would be possible and significantly reducing unexpected downtime.

The solution is based on correlation between line speed, motor speed and torque to identify excessive belt wear. Outdated products of the SINAMICS family were replaced with new, state-of-the-art SINAMICS frequency convertes.

The optimized process of switching the equipment, using in-house CE experts, made it possible to plan and complete the retrofit project within six months.

Siemens Congleton has been manufacturing drives since 1991 and is continously looking to optimize its production processes to increase productivity and volume output for Customers. Having a mature approach to productivity, and having already achieved wins with traditional techniques such as Lean and Six Sigma, the next level of productivity gains are to be found with digitalization. As part of an annual process review, over 3,000 hours production downtime were identified and a goal was set to reduce these non productive hours.