Benefits of decentralized automation concepts for manufacturers

Automation insights

• Modularization and prefabricated connectors drastically reduce wiring costs and errors, revolutionizing efficiency in control cabinet installations.
• Decentralized automation, removing power supplies from central cabinets, enhances flexibility, efficiency, and sustainability in manufacturing processes.

Wiring is the biggest cost factor when installing control cabinets, typically accounting for more than 50% of installation costs. The combination of modularization and prefabricated connectors has provided a leap in efficiency while also helping to minimize wiring errors.

Increasing flexibility and time-to-market are gaining importance in manufacturing and are starting to shape plant design, along with the quest for greater energy efficiency, CO2 reduction and more sustainable production. So, pretty much everything that has been relied on in traditional manufacturing processes is currently under review.

For automation in car body manufacturing, for example, this means getting out into the field, decentralising, modularising, combining technologies, and becoming more energy efficient. The basic idea behind decentralisation is simple. First, the power supply, as well as other standard components such as fuses or circuits, are removed from the central control cabinet and packed into smaller, decentralised enclosures which are then placed directly on the machine.

The same applies to the industrial PCs which handle communication and control of the system or of individual machine parts.

Hissing and whistling

In the halls of a typical automotive body shop, there is still a lot of hissing and whistling because compressed air still drives the pneumatic clamps there. Every hiss and whistle is proof that pneumatics are a less than ideal way to get things done – with an efficiency of between just 10 and 20% – and it is expensive.

In contrast to pneumatics, process data including the position of the mechanics, or the required torque, can be recorded and analyzed during the motion cycle when using servo motors. They replace the measuring systems and limit switches. Double sheets can be detected in this way. Commissioning is 80% faster thanks to simple “teaching” instead of “shimming.” Additionally, multiple clamping points and variant production with different material thicknesses – keyword batch size 1 – are possible without new teaching. Pneumatic clamps, on the other hand, need to be readjusted several times a week. This pays off in terms of sustainability and CO2 targets because regenerative electric clamps save energy, which in turn protects the environment.

A decentralized automation solution in the form of a modular, flexible automation platform with which all automation functions can be implemented without a control cabinet for the first time on an as needed and decentralized basis.

– This originally appeared on Control Engineering Europe. Edited by Chris Vavra, web content manager, CFE Media and Technology, cvavra@cfemedia.com.

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