A case study exploring the use of Parker SSD Drives to aid with the flexible production of hemp material was recently conducted.

Problem

A certain factory needed to design a flexible production line due to fluctuating customer demands.  A section of the machine was thus required to act as a buffer between the continuous productions of hemp insulating material while the discontinuous conditioning section linked to demands from customers.  The new production line was expected not only to be extremely flexible, but also to use as less energy as possible.

Solution

Eighteen common bus AC890CD drives were installed to control the continuous process section of the machine.  They were powered by an AC890CS DC supply module on a common DC link.  The drives were synchronized on a high-speed Firewire bus, thereby maintaining flexible shaftless control of the machine.

Twenty-one economical AC650V inverters were running ancillary axis.

Three Compax3 servo drives were used to get high-precision positioning in the conditioning section.

Customer Value

• Optimum energy consumption: the common DC link architecture allows load sharing between motoring and regenerating sections, which reduces the overall energy consumption.
• Flexibility: fluctuating customer demands no longer disturbs the continuous production of insulating material.
• Productivity was improved thanks to the smoother control of the continuous section with the shaftless link.
• Compactness: Up to 42 drives can fit into a single cubicle.
• Less waste during production changes.

Featured Products: AC890, TS 8000

Market: Production Paper and Textile