Client: Elis Belgium
Equipment: Biko unwinder
Scope: mechanical revamping, safety upgrade, new PLC and operator panel, new electrical diagrams
Commissioning: 3 days
Background
Elis Belgium’s Biko unwinder was still running on its original B&R PLC. Whenever the machine stopped, production and maintenance lost time finding the cause. The goal was twofold: make the machine more reliable, and make its operation easy to read for the teams on a daily basis.
What we did
1. Mechanical revamping
Overhaul of the machine’s mechanical parts.
2. Safety
Door switches upgraded. The status of each safety device is now shown on the screen: the operator sees at once which door is preventing start-up.
3. Automation and operator panel
- B&R PLC replaced by a Siemens SIMATIC S7-1200 G2.
- Complete program, rewritten from a functional analysis of the machine.
- New operator panel showing the status of each function, to cut diagnostic time for both production and maintenance.
- Communication with the downstream machine taken over in BCD.
4. Documentation
- New complete electrical diagrams, drawn in EPLAN.
- Complete maintenance manual, explaining every status shown on the screen.
The new operator panel: the status of each function at a glance.
Extract from the new electrical diagrams drawn in EPLAN.
Result
A machine upgraded in terms of mechanics, safety and automation, commissioned in 3 days. Production and maintenance teams now have a screen showing the status of each function, a manual that explains it and up-to-date electrical diagrams: when the machine stops, the cause can be read directly on the screen.
Is your machine still running on an old PLC that is hard to troubleshoot? Let’s talk.
