July 2003Motion Control & Drives
Products & Solutions
Shatterprufe, the leading manufacturer of automotive safety glass in South Africa, imported a glass-toughening furnace for its plant in GaRankuwa, north of Rosslyn from the USA in 1991.
The glass toughening process involves cooling the glass down rapidly after the bending process. Two large fans, each driven by two 750 kW AC motors in a master-slave configuration, are used to uniformly cool down the bent glass from the upper and lower surfaces. Each fan can produce an air pressure of 95" water column at 1200 m above sea level.
To control the fracture (toughening quality) of the glass, one needs to consider two factors:
* The cool-down rate (air pressure) needs to vary from glass to glass.
* One needs to compensate for ambient changes such as time of day and the season.
The furnace was supplied with variable speed drives. After some years' of service the drives would regularly trip and they struggled to start the fans once they had been switched off.
Each time a drive trips, anything from 20 to 40 pieces of glass are lost because they have not been adequately toughened. Spare parts and service were very expensive as there were no agents for the drives in South Africa. The drives also generated a lot of heat that affected the overall working conditions around the furnace.
Shatterprufe has standardised on Allen Bradley control equipment since 1993 and approached Rockwell Automation South Africa to look at the problems associated with the outdated drives. Rockwell Automation supplied, installed and integrated four new Reliance 750 kW water-cooled AC drives with a chilled water plant, as a turnkey project at an affordable price. The drives and chilled water plant are connected via ControlNet to the existing Allen Bradley PLC5 system. The changeover took three weeks and was performed during Shatterprufe's annual shutdown in December 2001. The Reliance drives have been running since start-up last year with minimal problems and downtime.
For more information contact Johan van Vuuren, Rockwell Automation, 011 654 9700.
Quality gearboxes for irrigation SEW-Eurodrive
Editor's Choice Motion Control & Drives
SEW-EURODRIVE is offering a complete gear solution for centre pivot irrigation systems as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) closer to South Africa’s farming sector.
Read more...Improving safety and belt life Bearing Man Group t/a BMG
Motion Control & Drives
BMG’s Power Transmission division has the solution to avoid dangers during installation and maintenance procedures in many industries. An easy to operate rotation device from Gates enhances safety for operators during installation and maintenance processes.
Read more...Powering business resilience and field operations
Infrastructure Products & Solutions
[Sponsored] The Anker 757 Portable Power Station emerges as a strategic asset for businesses looking to overcome power instability and the demand for operational efficiency in remote and field-based environments.
Read more...More movement on the market
Motion Control & Drives
If you want to move something, you have to be able to control the movement. When positioning in the nanometre range everything matters and requires high performance motion control. Six years ago, Aerotech therefore set itself the goal of revolutionising the market for precision motion and machine control systems.
Read more...Highly customisable robotic hand
Motion Control & Drives
NSK and the German Aerospace Centre are developing a robotic hand system that will help automate manual tasks. The concept centres on a customisable robot hand comprising individually configurable finger modules, an industry first.
Read more...Electrically-operated diaphragm pumping solutions Bearing Man Group t/a BMG
Motion Control & Drives
BMG has extended its range of Ingersoll Rand ARO fluid handling products to include the new EVO series electric diaphragm pumps, designed to enhance energy efficiency and improve fluid handling productivity.
Read more...Grease degradation diagnosis technology
Motion Control & Drives
NSK is developing a world-first: a high-accuracy way of rapidly and accurately diagnosing the remaining life of lubricant grease. The company will provide the solution as a mobile app, enabling users to perform the onsite analysis of lubricant condition in bearings and linear motion systems.
Read more...New compact VFDs with higher power ratings
Motion Control & Drives
Invertek Drives has revealed the extension of its industry-leading Optidrive Coolvert variable frequency drive with the launch of two new compact frame sizes with higher power ratings.
printer friendly version