The project dealt with a crane that was specifically designed for the customer Walcarius, a company from Mouscron specialized in the laser cutting of sheet steel and metal parts.  The objective was the automation of the tasks associated with the transport of the steel plates from the warehouse to the production hall and the shipping department. Until now, these tasks have been performed manually, in particular with forklift trucks and with the resulting safety risks in case of falling steel plates. The crane must be able to handle plates up to 7 x 2 meters, with a lifting capacity of up to 6.5 tons for the loading wagons.

The 15m X 8m X 6m crane with drive cables is designed to operate in an enclosed safety area. 
Thanks to the automation, the safety parameters such as position, speed, brake wear (through tests), load level can be continuously verified.  In addition, a safety shutdown or stop can be triggered if these criteria are not met. 
The developed project is based on ASRM S7-1517TF CPU application, in combination with Sinamics S120 AC drives and Simogear geared motors. 

The Motion Control part of the application is programmed with technology objects for optimal integration and ease of use. In concrete terms, this means that the theoretical operation and positioning curves are entered into the controller. The software ensures the monitoring of the effective position and speed of the crane. As soon as these values ​​deviate from the theoretical curve, the crane switches to safety mode or will stop preemptively. 
The choice of controllers controlled by technological objects makes it possible to carry out the regulation in the controller itself and not at the level of the individual controllers, which is more efficient in terms of synchronization, communication and calculation speed.

Design, manufacture and programming of a crane for the transport of steel plates