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MACHINE BUILDING, FRAMEWORKS & SAFETY FEATURE extension in motion System integrator VHE


Industrial Automation is a Lenze motion partner


I


n the world of industrial automation, it is increasingly important to know the right parties for the best solution – collaboration


with partners is obvious, especially if you know you have found the right one. VHE Industrial Automation has been working


with Lenze for almost 25 years. “In the year 2000, that cooperation became really intensive, when a major customer wanted to standardise their drive technology on servo technology from Lenze,” says Rick Valkenburg, commercial manager at VHE Industrial Automation, motion partner of Lenze. Together with project leader Teun Jaspers, he is happy to tell us why they entered into this cooperation. A recent large project serves as an example, in which the intensive cooperation with Lenze's sales engineer Leon Verweij, application engineer Jeroen de Hond and project manager Maikel Kling was successful.


DistinguisheD VHE develops mostly large turnkey projects for high-tech, energy, food, packaging and speciality machinery, among others. The company has seen a tripling in size in recent years. “With the growth of our company, we have taken a good look at the scopes where we particularly stand out and where we want to focus. The motion component is one such scope and that is where we want to position ourselves with even more emphasis. And since we regularly do motion projects with Lenze, we were happy to join forces as a motion partner,” explains Valkenburg. Jaspers is project manager of multidisciplinary


projects involving the motion control specialism. From hardware to software, from test rigs to complete lines. He tells us about a project that is currently being installed after a lead time of about a year and a half. “This project concerns a production line for assembling pipe insulation that was developed and built by the customer in the 1990s. The control system had to be completely replaced because the components used had entered their end-of-life phase and were no longer available. This customer has as many as thirty to forty production sites around the world and they therefore also have a sizeable internal engineering department. But that engineering department was completely at its maximum capacity in terms of work and it was indicated there that VHE was the party for this project ‘if we can’t do it ourselves’. You have to imagine that this is a huge control room, the size of a sizeable shipping container.”


Pre-engineering Valkenburg explains how pre-engineering was done for this project back in 2018. “This is a very big project. In the pre-project, we mapped out the exact scope. The product lines involved here have to produce 24/7, the production line has to do it all


the time. The conversion should be done within two months, where you normally have to count up to three-quarters of a year. The entire lead time of the project, from start-up to commissioning, has taken no less than two years due to the current market situation with delivery times. So these are also really big investments.” The fact that the state of the art has changed


considerably since the 1990s obviously also plays a role in this project. Jaspers explains: “Just the sizing of the motors and gearboxes is just a little different than back then, so the motor supports also had to be adapted. The mechanics and structural adjustments for the installation were done by our partner Madolex. The whole project was done in a consortium of VHE, Lenze and Madolex and we benefited a lot from that. After all, the whole machine has already evolved a lot since the 1990s, and this conversion incorporated all the modifications.”


other engines, other transmissions


A similar machine was already converted for this customer at a factory in the Netherlands in 2019. Valkenburg continues: “In the earlier conversion, we implemented a lot of synchronisations. That was a very special project with a lot of Lenze inside. So in the preliminary phase of that project, we worked closely together on that. By using different motors, we had to deal with slightly different gear ratios. Figuring that out together was a big job, but it went very smoothly. Together, we selected the right combination of components down to the last detail. For this current machine conversion, we used the blueprint of the one from 2019 and built on that accumulated knowledge, using the latest components and state-of-the-art technology.” A test set-up of the new controls was built


at VHE's production site. Jaspers says: “We set up switch panels and connected simulated components such as new pneumatic cabinets, new control panels and new safety components. This allowed us to prepare a lot already so that the actual commissioning on site has a shorter lead time.” “We are nicely on schedule, before Christmas


the converted line will be commissioned. But the fact that it is a conversion means there are always a few surprises to be expected,”” says Valkenburg. “We have short lines of communication with Lenze’s sales engineer Leon Verweij and we can respond quickly to people in the field. Direct contact is possible between VHE and Lenze on every discipline so that every member of the multidisciplinary team can be helped directly on site.”


exchange The template was adapted for Lenze’s i950 servo controller. “We had to be able to predict that the solution would work, so our people visited Lenze and tested it there. Another special technique is that we used one supply point for multiple axes. Small braking resistors were used where the energy is exchanged between them. So the


whole thing has been designed very efficiently.” The whole process in the production line is


quite complex. Lenze’s application engineer, Jeroen De Hond, says: “The functionality was considered per individual axis. On the supply belt, there are eight axes with servo adjustments that require specific synchronicity for the right functionality. A so-called dancer application is used for this and there is a lot of intelligence in that.” The modifications not only ensure that the machine can operate at the state of the art, but it has also brought with it optimisation of use and performance. “We have applied the most efficient combination


of servo motors and latest-generation servo control. This gives full-continuous high effectiveness and quality,” he adds.


Key figures No fewer than 37 motor shafts were converted with servo drives. Seven supply groups with filter and equipped with safety, 22 switch panels measuring 1.20 x 2.00 metres, 16 new control cabinets, 7 pneumatic cabinets with remote IO and safety, 18 control panels with remote IO and safety and WinCC panels for an overview of the entire line. “We kept the look and feel for the operators in the control panels. From the WinCC panels, the customer can extract information for OEE (Overall Equipment Efficiency) calculations. That is not in use yet but the line is fully prepared for that,” continues Valkenburg. “The optimisation of drives safety also ensures component preservation. Because of 24/7 operational reliability, all similar machines will be brought to this latest state of the art in the near future.”


extension Where Lenze customers cannot provide their own system integration, Verweij says VHE comes into the picture. “VHE is Lenze’s official motion partner. They have the capacity and competence we look for in a cooperation partner. In recent years, VHE has grown tremendously in software engineering and the motion partner designation is actually a confirmation of the relationship. We are active in the market together and VHE’s people are trained in Lenze’s products. We in turn keep the people up-to-date on the latest developments. A system partner like VHE is an extension of Lenze. And we are only too happy about that.”


Lenze www.Lenze.com


FEBRUARY 2024 DESIGN SOLUTIONS 23


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