Condition monitoring for drive application

The Munksjö Unterkochen GmbH mill has received several awards for its efficiency, despite the fact that machines and components are put under a high level of stress due to the harsh production conditions. Leine Linde’s encoders in the 800 series, with ADS Online, are used at the plant.

“I didn’t choose ADS Online to monitor the encoders,” says Udo Handschuh, automation director at Munksjö Unterkochen GmbH. “I know the quality of the encoders. What I wanted was to monitor the drive application.”

Klaus Korger, regional sales manager at Leine Linde, has worked with Munksjö Unterkochen GmbH for more than 25 years. In common with Munksjö Unterkochen GmbH, many of his clients use Siemens’ motors and drives. This is how he knows how well the Leine Linde Heavy duty 800 series works seamlessly with Siemens’ systems, but also how the existing challenges place stringent demands.

“These applications put a lot of strain on the encoders and drive systems,” says Klaus Korger. “The encoders need to be very robust for use in this harsh environment with heavy loads and high temperatures, in order to deliver their signals with high frequencies accurately and reliably.”

Further demands arise in the production process, where colour pigments swirl in the air. The encoders need to be able to handle being covered by colour dust followed by regular, thorough cleaning, often with strong chemical liquids.

“I’m impressed with the efficiency of this manufacturing unit,” says Klaus Korger. “And it is absolutely fascinating to see the variety of colours made in the machine. Some days the machine components can be completely white, and the next they can be completely black or some other colour. In between, they’re all shiny and clean.”

He explains how he uses ADS Online. Since every encoder can be connected to the ADS Online software, he can compare values such as temperature and vibration for any chosen time in each motor application. If, for example, a vibration value increases, this is a sign of a problem, but it is very rare that the root of the problem is in the encoder. More likely, wear has caused some imbalance in the motor, which can be detected and resolved before any damage occurs.

“Condition monitoring is very useful for efficient maintenance,” Udo Handschuh conludes. The production environment is rough on motors and components, but problems can be avoided and downtime minimised. A green LED on the encoder shows when all is as it should.