I'd go further - get your customer to get someone in to advise them if it's not your thing - do the mechanical work required, and let them work out the electrical stuff direct - any issue and you will get dragged in each time - from "this motor won't run" . . to "someone's got stuck inside and cooked " . . . in the news today, a company near my mum, defeated or not installed safety features allowed a robot to kill a maintenance engineer . . .
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daleyd
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Yes, agreed.
northwest
Searching for the Holy Grail.........
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Danfoss, Lenze, Abb all great brands. My preference would be Lenze but only because I am familiar with them and the software. What nobody has mentioned is that with the modern managed drives you can just plug your laptop into them and set up all the parameters. You can also save a config file and copy and paste it into each subsequent drive, all running exactly the same configuration. Saves hours.
daleyd
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Lenze you used to need the extra Lecom module to communicate with the drives (was quite expensive) but the software was free, don’t know if it’s changed since then it’s been about 7-8 years since I’ve touched one. They also used to come with a removable keypad which was good for transferring parameters between drives.
Mitsubishi are good because they use a standard usb cable, and the software is free.
mike os
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Plenty of choice, really comes down to what you want them to actually do.
In a food environment you will probably require suitably ip rated enclosures, possibly in stainless,,, which will cost more than the inverter and switches
In a food environment you will probably require suitably ip rated enclosures, possibly in stainless,,, which will cost more than the inverter and switches
500e
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Both the Jaguars have been reliable they both had a hard time when mate was building his traction engine.
One was already 7/8 years old still OK now 10years had queries about jog settings and remote control pad no problem
One was already 7/8 years old still OK now 10years had queries about jog settings and remote control pad no problem
Up to you, but changing how it works, which I would suggest changing the drives would do, may well bring it under Supply of Machinery regs - and who will the company owners point the finger at . . .
Brad93
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I'm not wiring the machine.
There's a bloke in their tech department cant remember his name but there aint much he don't know about this sort of stuff
Might not be the cheapest but i don't even bother looking anywhere else I'm pretty confident if there ever was a problem they'd sort it asap
I used to work in a food factory & we got in a second hand machine that someone had removed the mechanical variable speed gearbox & fitted an inverter setup. The machine applied breadcrumb to chicken burgers running through it on a wire mesh conveyor belt. So it was a dusty environment, like a bakery plus it got washed weekly so there was water to contend with as well.
No matter how well we sealed the inverter drive up the dust & water got in eventually & wrecked the inverter. The inverters also ran hot due to lack of ventilation and would sometimes trip out on over temp!
After several blown inverters & lost production time we changed the machine back to a stroter variable speed gearbox like it was when Koppens made it, an expensive job but utterly reliable!
So I would think long & hard about installing a vfd in that environment unless you want lots of call outs to fix faults!
No matter how well we sealed the inverter drive up the dust & water got in eventually & wrecked the inverter. The inverters also ran hot due to lack of ventilation and would sometimes trip out on over temp!
After several blown inverters & lost production time we changed the machine back to a stroter variable speed gearbox like it was when Koppens made it, an expensive job but utterly reliable!
So I would think long & hard about installing a vfd in that environment unless you want lots of call outs to fix faults!
Brad93
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The machine at the minute has more than 10 separate chain drives. It breaks down continuously.I used to work in a food factory & we got in a second hand machine that someone had removed the mechanical variable speed gearbox & fitted an inverter setup. The machine applied breadcrumb to chicken burgers running through it on a wire mesh conveyor belt. So it was a dusty environment, like a bakery plus it got washed weekly so there was water to contend with as well.
No matter how well we sealed the inverter drive up the dust & water got in eventually & wrecked the inverter. The inverters also ran hot due to lack of ventilation and would sometimes trip out on over temp!
After several blown inverters & lost production time we changed the machine back to a stroter variable speed gearbox like it was when Koppens made it, an expensive job but utterly reliable!
So I would think long & hard about installing a vfd in that environment unless you want lots of call outs to fix faults!
winchman
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Reliability was the reason we used Newton Tesla, they offer an on site repair service and did an excellent job for us on every occasion, repairing different drives on site.
Nice people to deal with too.
Munkul
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I would respectfully submit that drives and power panels do not belong anywhere near the "coalface" of production lines. They belong out of the way in a nice environment.
Put the controls in a separate box next to the line, of course, but keep the expensive electronic bits safe and out of the way!
We installed Higgins and Hewins air purifiers to blow clean air through our production line panels, they are out of the way but the traces of fumes in the air in the building wreak havoc on copper and electronics, and they said it was a measurable difference in how long components were lasting after they were installed.
Not that you'd need this in a bakery, but it's not difficult to make remote controls for drives, and keep clean filters in your drive panels.
Put the controls in a separate box next to the line, of course, but keep the expensive electronic bits safe and out of the way!
We installed Higgins and Hewins air purifiers to blow clean air through our production line panels, they are out of the way but the traces of fumes in the air in the building wreak havoc on copper and electronics, and they said it was a measurable difference in how long components were lasting after they were installed.
Not that you'd need this in a bakery, but it's not difficult to make remote controls for drives, and keep clean filters in your drive panels.
northwest
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Not so sure, I can make a hell of a flame with flour dust!
Agreed, always better to keep sensitive electronics / electrical equipment away from the process. Another thing to think about are is the bakery electrical equipment required to be ATEX certified given the high volume of fine dust, which given the right conditions can be highly explosive. maybe didn't need to be when it was initially installed, but this could be classed as a major refit so would the latest regs apply? 
best to check.
Sounds like there's more to it than at first sight...
best to check.Sounds like there's more to it than at first sight...
Agroshield
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The HSE stuff does not really mention bakeries, more the flour mills. It's here if you want to read it: https://www.hse.gov.uk/food/dustexplosion.htm
