Automotive Industry – Industrial Automation Review – Industrial Automation | Automation Magazine | Manufacturing Automation News & Resource https://industrialautomationreview.com Online Portal on Industrial Automation & Instrumentation Wed, 07 Dec 2022 09:09:25 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.5.14 Automating battery production for eMobility applications https://industrialautomationreview.com/automating-battery-production-for-emobility-applications/ https://industrialautomationreview.com/automating-battery-production-for-emobility-applications/#respond Fri, 10 Jun 2022 11:38:41 +0000 https://industrialautomationreview.com/?p=3352 Automating Battery Production for eMobility Applications - Pepperl+Fuchs

Powerful batteries for electromobility applications are manufactured in highly automated processes. Numerous sensors using various measurement procedures ensure efficient control of machines and plants. Pepperl+Fuchs has decades of experience in the automotive industry and electrical engineering, so it can offer all relevant measuring instruments for battery production from a single source.   Rotary Encoder ENI190 […]

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Automating Battery Production for eMobility Applications - Pepperl+Fuchs

Pepperl+Fuchs logoPowerful batteries for electromobility applications are manufactured in highly automated processes. Numerous sensors using various measurement procedures ensure efficient control of machines and plants. Pepperl+Fuchs has decades of experience in the automotive industry and electrical engineering, so it can offer all relevant measuring instruments for battery production from a single source.

 

Rotary Encoder ENI190

Coated foils are the most important source material for lithium ion batteries. They are delivered in large rolls from which they are processed during production. The unwinding speed of the rollers is measured using high-precision rotary encoders. The winding distance and material stock can be calculated using the speed. The speed value is also used to control the material supply and allows the correct web tension to be set. The new, extra-rugged ENI90 rotary encoder series is ideally suited for this task.

Ultrasonic Double Sheet Sensor M18

In the next step, pieces of foil roll that are suitable for the battery to be produced are punched out and assembled into battery cells. The punched material feed is monitored using ultrasonic double sheet sensors, such as those from the UDC-18GS series. These sensors are equipped with two ultrasonic transducers and detect if one, two, or even zero sheets are in the sensing range. If the sheets have been incorrectly double-stacked, the process is stopped in time. This prevents the battery capacity from being reduced by having two layers with the same polarity next to each other. Using an ultrasonic solution double sheet detection means the process is not affected by ambient conditions or the optical properties of the material; although the films are often glossy, they are still reliably detected.

SmartRunner Explorer 3-D

Bonding the foil layers together creates cells, which are then joined together to form the finished batteries. In this step, it is important that all the required cells are actually available and in the right position in the specified grid. To verify this, a SmartRunner Explorer 3-D sensor creates a precise 3-D point cloud image so that the actual situation can be matched with the required positioning. The process step to connecting the cells is only initiated when everything is in the correct position.

Pepperl+Fuchs sensors have been part of the standard equipment in the automotive industry for decades. This is also true for factory automation in the field of electrical engineering: In both areas, customers benefit from the comprehensive expertise of the Mannheim-based company. A broad portfolio of proven standard devices is available for high-performance electric-vehicle-battery production. Pepperl+Fuchs also offers custom automation solutions for specific applications.

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EmPower Your Control Cabinet With WAGO Power Supply Pro 2 https://industrialautomationreview.com/empower-your-control-cabinet-with-wago-power-supply-pro-2/ https://industrialautomationreview.com/empower-your-control-cabinet-with-wago-power-supply-pro-2/#respond Fri, 22 Apr 2022 04:50:55 +0000 https://industrialautomationreview.com/?p=3309 EmPower Your Control Cabinet With WAGO Power Supply Pro 2

Fast, flexible, as cost-effective as possible – in the face of increasing cost pressure, scarce resources and tight delivery times. The demands on the control cabinet industry are steadily increasing. Production processes are undergoing increasing digitization and automation to reduce costs and save time. That’s where power supplies play a decisive role. But what does […]

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EmPower Your Control Cabinet With WAGO Power Supply Pro 2

Fast, flexible, as cost-effective as possible – in the face of increasing cost pressure, scarce resources and tight delivery times. The demands on the control cabinet industry are steadily increasing. Production processes are undergoing increasing digitization and automation to reduce costs and save time. That’s where power supplies play a decisive role. But what does a modern power supply look like? And what must it be able to do? With the WAGO Power Supply Pro 2, WAGO launches future-ready devices that power your application: Choose the Power of the Possible!

Save Time with Modular Circuit Diagrams

A modern power supply must basically do one thing: Convert alternating current into a safely electrically isolated direct current. It is also necessary to save time and money simultaneously – but how? According to a 2017 study by EPLAN and the Institute for Control Engineering of Machine Tools and Manufacturing Units at the University of Stuttgart, planning and creating the circuit diagram accounts for over 50% of the design time. There is significant potential here for savings potential. This study of Control Cabinet Manufacturing 4.0 shows that switching from project-specific or order-oriented circuit diagrams to modular circuit diagrams can save up to 45 % of the time of the engineering process. There is significant potential for optimization such as this in control cabinet manufacturing and in the power supply, since many work steps are still performed without automation even today. 92 % of the study participants surveyed still rely on two-dimensional engineering. But why? One industry that is facing particular challenges in this regard is the automotive industry.

Automotive Industry: Increasing Demands on Power Supplies

If a production system in automobile manufacturing is idle for even a few minutes, it can quickly cost several thousand Rupees and mean fewer vehicles produced. That’s all the more exasperating if it’s caused by the failure of a power supply whose original price was only a fraction of these costs. To avoid this, it is essential to choose a reliable power supply. Availability plays an important role for automobile manufacturers above all else. An important selection criterion for the power supply is its theoretical life expectancy. It’s worth taking a close look at the datasheets when selecting the power supplies: Comparable devices may differ significantly upon closer inspection. A long life expectancy is usually also associated with low heat generation and low power loss. The example of power loss makes clear that intelligent selection and dimensioning of power supplies can also reduce energy costs.

The Crucial Difference: the Right Control Cabinet Cooling

The higher the power loss is, the more the power supply heats up. That affects the control cabinet air conditioning in particular: The costs for cooling the control cabinet increase. Even a couple degrees of extra heat in the control cabinet mean significantly higher energy consumption. Therefore, manufacturers of air conditioners for control cabinets recommend a temperature of 95 °F (35 °C). However, if a higher temperature is set, as is the case with some automotive industry users, for example 100 °F (38 °C), the delta of five degrees contributes significantly to reducing the energy costs and CO2 emissions. The control cabinet components and the power supplies must however be appropriate for this. The designers need to take the derating curves of individual components into account. But not with the new WAGO Pro 2 Power Supplies, which can operated up to +140 °F (+60 °C) without derating.

Pro 2 – the New Heart of Your Control Cabinet

WAGO’s efficient power supplies always deliver a constant supply voltage – whether for simple applications or automation with greater power requirements. A high-efficiency design permits space-saving dimensions; a uniform housing design and a digital twin make the implementation very easy. Another advantage: Plug-in connections enable pre-assembled cabling and faster installation.

Power with Communication for Industry 4.0

The WAGO Power Supply Pro 2 is structured in such a way that the most important operating status information can be read off the front, or further valuable data can be retrieved through the controller. Real-time status information is essential in order to assess situations in real time and respond deliberately. Therefore, the WAGO Power Supply Pro 2 has various functions and components that keep the user informed. The LED bar chart on the front provides a reliable indication of the current output power, as well as overloads/load reserves. Furthermore, the LEDs indicate the selected operating mode, warnings and errors.

In terms of data collection and read-out of status information, the Pro 2 Power Supply can be connected to a dedicated communication module at any time, allowing selection of the desired protocol for coupling to the automation and control level.

Intelligent Overload Behavior

Applications with high output requirements call for professional power supplies capable of reliably handling power peaks. The WAGO Power Supply Pro 2 gives you the power of the possible for all projects. Its load management features corresponding intelligence – after all, the point is to supply power reliably to your equipment and protect it at the same time. With TopBoost, PowerBoost and further parameterizable overload behavior, the WAGO Power Supply Pro 2 protects your equipment and provides intelligent current and switching modes. 150 % PowerBoost and up to 600 % TopBoost are available for reliable, fail-safe equipment availability.

Resource-Efficient Energy Use

Small but powerful: The difference lies in the details. We can show how with a small example: The typical efficiency of a simple power supply with nominal power of 960 W is 91 %. With the Pro 2 Power Supply, the efficiency is 96 %. At first glance, this five percent doesn’t seem like much, but it makes all the difference: The superior efficiency of the Pro 2 Power Supplies eliminates 55 W of power loss. Calculated with respect to an operating time of five years, this means significant savings of energy costs and one metric ton of CO2 at the same time. For comparison: A 80-year-old beech tree growing 75 feet (23 m) tall can store one metric ton of CO2 – so with several hundred power supplies in a production line, that would already be a whole forest. As you can see, a small difference but a big effect!

Challenging Environmental Conditions

Whether in the arctic or the desert – the WAGO Power Supply Pro 2 can be started and operated from −40 °C to +70 °C. Low derating begins > 60°C and allows 70 % output power even in 70°C applications, and even at an elevation of 5,000 m above sea level. Furthermore, the wiring in the WAGO Power Supply Pro 2 is very robust against transients. Overvoltage category III ensures safe operation in power grids with overvoltage surges or control cabinets with regenerative drive controllers.

For more information, Website: https://www.wago.com/in/power-supply-pro2

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Artificial intelligence for existing robots and sealing https://industrialautomationreview.com/artificial-intelligence-for-existing-robots-and-sealing/ https://industrialautomationreview.com/artificial-intelligence-for-existing-robots-and-sealing/#respond Wed, 04 Aug 2021 12:14:37 +0000 https://industrialautomationreview.com/?p=3109 Artificial intelligence for existing robots and sealing

Identifying defect sources, determining the optimal maintenance schedule, improving manufacturing processes: until now, artificial intelligence only made this possible in a paint shop equipped with state-of-the-art robots. Now, however, Dürr is significantly expanding the scope of its AI applications with the enablement of analysis software from the DXQ product family for sealing. In addition, a […]

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Artificial intelligence for existing robots and sealing

Identifying defect sources, determining the optimal maintenance schedule, improving manufacturing processes: until now, artificial intelligence only made this possible in a paint shop equipped with state-of-the-art robots. Now, however, Dürr is significantly expanding the scope of its AI applications with the enablement of analysis software from the DXQ product family for sealing. In addition, a unique interface solution makes it possible to incorporate robots from existing paint shops for the first time.

Factories in the automotive industry have enormous amounts of latent data about manufacturing processes, raw materials and products. The key to leveraging this asset is connectivity – in other words having the right interface at the control level to get at the information provided by robots, ovens, cathodic electrocoating systems or conveyor technology in the first place.

Increasing application quality and plant availability using modern IT technologies involves recording relevant machine data, such as axis positions and temperatures or events like alarms and the start and end times of programs, in real-time and uploading them to a database. “Without this basic prerequisite, software from our DXQ family cannot determine the current state of plant components. The goal is then to combine this with historical data and machine learning to detect previously unknown defect sources or to precisely plan maintenance intervals,” explains Jens Häcker, Vice President Control Systems at Dürr.

Connectivity for existing plants

Although the demand for digital applications is high, operators in existing plants are constrained because most of their systems do not have connectivity and the right interface for data acquisition is found only in the later generation of Dürr robots. Previously, earlier models, robots from other manufacturers and technology outside of paint application could not be connected. But Dürr found a way to bring connectivity to almost all common robots and disciplines.

Detailed information from all process steps

The solution is an adapter made up of hardware and software components that can connect to all current fieldbus technologies and that provides data in the necessary high temporal resolution of a few milliseconds. The adapter is offered by Dürr in cooperation with Techno-Step, a specialist in systems for process data analytics and diagnostics that has been part of the Dürr Group since 2020. “Operators are thus able to read the available sensor and actuator data from their existing plants and to integrate the entire spectrum of disciplines, from pretreatment to application to conveyor technology, into one piece of analytical software. With DXQ equipment analytics they get detailed insight into the various process steps and all the systems involved in them along the entire value chain,” says Jens Häcker.

Expertise in mechanical engineering and IT

The DXQ equipment analytics software package includes the Advanced Analytics module. It is the first market-ready solution to date to use artificial intelligence (AI) to increase overall equipment effectiveness in the paint shop. Dürr has expanded this module for sealing by adapting the AI models that analyze the robot and process data for this discipline’s specific requirements. To meet this challenge, Dürr utilized their comprehensive expertise in production technology and manufacturing processes in the automotive industry and a high level of digital knowledge. This combined expertise will make it possible to use AI in the future to precisely detect defect sources at an early stage when applying high-viscosity materials and to determine optimal maintenance schedules. One example is the detection of nozzle clogs. The sealing material partially clogs the application nozzle, changing the material jet and leading to quality defects that require rework to fix. Unlike conventional control technology, the DXQ software detects this defect and enables earlier intervention.

Dürr Systems AG logo

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