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Once wireless is considered strategic, a more comprehensive wireless technology plan is required to ensure there are standards for approved platforms, installation guidelines, security, and ongoing management and maintenance. Here are a few key questions for a company to ask and answer heading into development of their industrial wireless standards.
More industrial wireless best practices were provided by speakers from a Control Engineering webcast, “Exploring industrial wireless best practices.” Laurie Cavanaugh, business development manager, E Technologies, and Dean Fransen, Applied Intelligence, Wood, answered more industrial wireless audience questions below that were submitted but not answered in the one-hour July 8 webcast.
E Tech Group would like to congratulate several team members on recent promotion and new roles.
Virginia Bergman has been promoted to the newly created position of Director of Quality Operations. Andy Corsini, Tag McCormick, and Chris Treat have been promoted to the newly created position of Director of Operations.
After producing some of the world’s most famous and flavorful confections for many years, a Northern California candy manufacturer’s aging conveyor system was becoming old, noisy, and obsolete. The existing conveyor system, which had sorted and moved large volumes of product for over a decade, was a line shaft design and was beginning to degrade. The factory was in desperate need of a conveyor system modernization which would increase efficiency, decrease noise and minimize maintenance costs.
For this project, E Tech Group (AG) used Ignition industrial application software from Inductive Automation and an Allen Bradley controller. The technology for the new conveyor was DC roller controlled. DC rollers are quieter, more energy efficient, and can be controlled more precisely with the set-up of multiple zones per conveyor. This technology allows for a variety of new features to enhance overall operations and reduce wear and tear. As an example, multiple rollers can be started and stopped in sections, and can also start and stop on demand. This enables a more efficient workflow based on capacity and need.
The addition of Ignition Software provided increased visibility to the plant floor, as well as the ability to pull more data via the new Itoh Denki controller. It also enabled AG to create templates for the DC roller controllers which included running data, alarming data and controls.
The upgrade and modernization of the candy manufacturer’s old, outdated conveyor system helped improve overall operational efficiency and enhance the automation processes. AG was able to eliminate the manufacturer’s noisy, worn-out system and modernize their entire conveyor operation with added features that created a quieter operation, extended life, and reduced wear and tear
Upon installation of the new system, the candy manufacturer noticed an immediate reduction in noise during the operation of the conveyor system.
With a 24V DC motor nestled inside each roller’s tube, the conveyor system achieved better accumulation (a higher run rate). They also had tighter control of product placement which increased overall efficiencies.
The old conveyors were always running and had a lot of moving parts that would get worn out and require servicing or replacement. Since the modernization project has been completed, the manufacturer has seen a significant decrease in all service and maintenance costs.
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