Visualization and control of the profiling machine used to manufacture cable support systems at the Legrand Nederland production plant

May 4, 2015 | Reliance SCADA

Headquartered in the town of Boxtel, Legrand Nederland B.V. is part of the global Legrand Group. In the Netherlands, Legrand serves the market of residential and commercial construction, machine and panel builders, and industry by providing the following services and solutions: distribution and control apparatus, trunking, data networks, cable support systems, door communication, home automation, and switching equipment. Legrand systems are optimally matched to one another and therefore can be mounted easily, safely, and quickly.

Control system

A request from Legrand was to make a control system for a part of the cable-tray production line at the company's plant. It was solved by the installation of the Reliance SCADA/HMI system, which makes it easier to operate. Another request was to reduce the time needed to adjust different axes.

The control panel was designed and built by RTP Elektrotechniek. To adjust all axes, 38 Lenze highline drives were applied. For operation, a comfort Siemens panel (SIMATIC S7-1511) and two Reliance Control modules are used.

The Reliance SCADA system enables the operator to choose a product (recipe) to make. The details of this recipe will be available to the PLC and the Lenze drives. Reliance communicates with a Peak CAN card, which is the master for the 38 Lenze drives. The Peak card gets the right data from the recipe through an OPC server. Once released, the axes simultaneously move to
a new setpoint.

Legrand's production plant

These high-performance components increase the accuracy and speed of the adjustment. This part of the machine is ready for the future.

The decision to choose the Reliance SCADA software was made by the installer. They have several years of experience with Reliance SCADA, which is an important factor because they are the ones who created the project. Most SCADA programs can do pretty much the same, so the price and quality of the SCADA software were important in making the choice.

A lot of machine builders have had their own SCADA software developed. If any adjustments are required, they always need to ask the developer to make those adjustments. For Legrand, it is important that they can adjust the SCADA software themselves if required. It can be done by changing the SCADA project.

PLC devices

Reliance 4 SCADA is installed on an industrial PC with a touch screen. A stylus pen is used for the operation of the on-screen keyboard.

OPC communication is used for data exchange between Reliance and the Siemens SIMATIC S7-1511 PLC. This is a proven concept that helps to minimize the chance of problems.

By using Lenze 8400 HighLine frequency inverters (communication via a CAN bus) in this project, a direct link to Reliance is possible. Because all data from and to the frequency drives is exchanged without the intervention of a PLC, a good link is very important. The machine operators must be able to navigate easily through the screens and make changes in recipes and settings.

The technical department of Legrand can easily adjust the source of the recipe and also grant access to the PC for any operation/diagnostics through other software tools.