A range of Beckhoff automation software and hardware is optimising the performance of a German production line for metal door frame manufacture.
A range of Beckhoff automation software and hardware, as supplied by Hayes Control Systems, is being used to optimise the performance of a production line in the factory of the specialist German door frame manufacturer, Hormann KG Werne. The open controller scheme incorporates Beckhoff Industrial PCs, Bus Terminals and Beckhoff TwinCAT software and Lightbus fibre optic fieldbus to produce a flexible, cost effective production control system. In order to meet increasing production levels, demands for shorter fabrication times and greater design variety, Hormann KG Werne invested in a range of additional bending, sawing and stamping machinery for its door frame manufacturing line.

To achieve even greater flexibility and throughput, the company also decided to incorporate PC automation control into the entire production circuit.

The Beckhoff software and hardware selected includes a series of industrial PCs, each utilising TwinCAT automation software, which allows each PC to function as an IEC 61131-3 software PLC.

The PCs also operate a Fieldbus networking scheme, which uses several hundred Bus Terminals to co-ordinate digital, handling sensor and actuator signals fed from locally situated terminal boxes and encoders.

In this way, the operation of the bending and sawing machines can be both monitored and controlled to maximise the efficiency of the production process.

In practice, the Beckhoff system controls nine servo-axes, and continuously interrogates more than 500 inputs and outputs for the precise positioning of production equipment, allowing users to access and control parameters such as material thickness and rebate depth, length, width, bending and stamping requirements.