FEATURE CABLING & CABLE MANAGEMENT
Cutting costs and boosting production B
An ABB control system is increasing productivity, lowering waste and reducing energy costs for a UK cable manufacturer
ritish Cables Company (BCC) replaced the control system on two insulated
cable-making lines, resulting in a 29 per cent increase in the number of reels produced during an eight-hour shift. The new system controls the wire tension and maintains the correct drawing diameter as the wire is pulled through an extruder, while running at an increased speed of 1,800m a minute. The company was unable to source
spare parts for the original control system. This resulted in frequent breakdowns costing over £60,000 per annum in lost production. Restarting the system added a further £38,000 per annum in engineering costs. The original control system was slow to
respond - setting up the machine to produce a new colour of cable often meant several false starts, resulting in wire snapping and up to 10,000m of scrapped cable. The new ABB Compact HMI SCADA
system - supplied, installed and commissioned by ABB’s Engineering Centre in Coalville, UK - controls two ABB AC500 programmable logic controllers (PLCs) on each line. The PLCs are linked by ProfiNET to five ABB
variable speed drives (VSDs), rated between 4kW and 60kW, each of which control the speed of ABB AC motors. In addition, a smaller ABB VSD is used to control the positioning of the water trough that cools the extruded wire. Upgrading the motors and drives has reduced energy costs by £16,000 a year across the two lines. The control system now triggers cable
colour changes on the fly by reducing the machine speed to 200m a minute during the changeover. This has resulted in an 80 per cent reduction in waste. Additionally, safety of the production
line is improved as guards are electrically controlled and rotating equipment is electrically interlocked. This prevents the safety guards from being opened while the line is running. “We have exceeded our goal of running
the lines at 1,600m a minute,” says James Glenn, business improvement team leader for BCC. “The engineering detail we can get from the system shows exactly what stage each machine is in – and the speed of everything on the lines. Installing the two systems has achieved over £60,000 in extra production due to the higher line speed.”
ABB
new.abb.com
Cable management saves thousands T
Electrical contractor, First Call Electrical, has saved thousands on an office-to-residential refurbishment project, thanks to the speed of installation and load-bearing capabilities of the Unitrunk RIS (Rapid Installation Systems) cable management range
he project involves conversion of the four-storey former Severn Trent
Headquarters building into 53 luxury apartments. First Call Electrical is responsible for installation of all incoming electrical supplies and both power and data networks in the communal areas, along with inspection and testing of the domestic installation in each apartment. First Call Electrical used Unitrunk’s
600mm EasyConnect cable basket to take the heavy duty cabling from the switch room via a riser to each level of the building after consulting the detailed engineering specifications in the company’s catalogue.
14 NOVEMBER 2019 | ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING Leighton Wilkinson from First Call
Electrical explains: “After talking through the specification with Unitrunk, it was clear that the 600mm EasyConnect cable basket would provide an ideal, cost effective and rapid installation solution for the job and provide savings on both materials and labour.” The cable basket risers have been
installed within an existing dry riser, which has been compartmentalised to allow the electrical cabling, AOV and dry riser to be accommodated within the existing building services route. For the communal areas on the ground,
first and second floors, First Call Electrical has re-used the building’s existing cable
management installation for the new cabling, along with a parallel route of Unitrunk’s UniKlip cable tray to accommodate data and LV cabling for phone, TV, internet, door entry and fire alarm systems. At third floor level, all the cable management in the communal areas has been replaced with Unitrunk’s UniKlip. In addition, First Call Electrical has also
used 100mm EasyConnect cable basket in the switch room for the cables that extend between the smart meters for each apartment and fused switches, along with Unitrunk 6x6 cable trunking for the armoured cabling terminations.
Unitrunk
unitrunk.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
