French automation specialist Création Technique has employed a series of 0.37 and 0.75kW Lenze smd drives on a new conveyor system for Yoplait foods. The drives were chosen primarily because of their simplicity and cost effectiveness; food manufacture on this line is based on three 8hour shifts and perfect timing is essential for achieving a high process consistency and quality in sensitive milk based products such as yoghurt.
The smd drives are used to power Lenze geared motors that control the speed and direction of a combination of conveying for packaging operations - where time and temperature are crucial factors. Linked to a central machine controller the smd drives provide fine tuning for conveyor speed control and constant torque to ensure high levels of accuracy with a fluctuating load.
The programmable EPM chip feature also proved to be a positive deciding factor when selecting the drives for this application; because there are over 85 drives used across a number of production lines, being able to programme one chip for each operation and then copy it in a few seconds using a desktop EPM programmer module saved a huge amount of time when commissioning the machinery.
The EPM chip carries all the operating parameters for each smd drive and acts as a reference database for the drive’s firmware that remains resident in the main control board of drive. The result is that the resident maintenance contractor at Yoplait can perform the majority of the basic servicing and maintenance tasks on the machine, including the drives. If a drive has to be moved, replaced, or the programme updated then it is simply a matter of copying the existing (or new) parameters across to an EPM chip and plugging it back into the front of the drive.
The process involving milk cannot wait, so in case of any problems, the conveyor has to be up and running as fast as possible; thanks to the EPM chip feature, the smd drive requires a minimum amount of time to solve a glitch or replace a drive unit - a problem can often be fixed in a matter of minutes by a maintenance contractor rather than an Applications Engineer or Programmer that would usually hours rather than minutes to find a problem and re-commission a drive.
The drives are located in cabinets above conveyors, due to their small size, there is plenty of cabinet space available and so cooling is also not an issue. The smd drive also proved highly cost competitive when compared to other drive options, providing an added bonus for the customer.