Contact us today:
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Contact us today:
(847) 934-4500
tdaro@bernardandcompany.com
The Intralogistics segment will provide a holistic, systematic approach for materials handling
Siemens recently announced the formation of the new Intralogistics vertical that brings best-in-class material handling thought leadership, hardware automation, software and service solutions to customers in the United States. Siemens is leveraging its broad technology to address the market needs for digital transformation, cybersecurity, safety and sustainability. This new group will operate both as a vertical industry group and a horizontal business operation. It will reside within the Siemens Digital Industries — Motion Control business and functions in tandem with the organization’s existing additive manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, food-and-beverage, and other industry verticals.
Joel Thomas is the head of the Intralogistics vertical. Besides management of the group, Thomas will also work closely with trade associations who serve the intralogistics industry and will foster programs at Siemens to educate the next generation of engineers, programmers, software developers and plant operations personnel who will manage the warehouses of the future.
Products and software, plus the communications protocols needed to gather, prioritize and act upon plant conditions, will be key deliverables for this unit of Siemens.
This new group will serve machine builders and end-customers alike. For example, using the Siemens TIA Portal, a warehouse facility or postal clearing house will be able to integrate all its motion control hardware, software systems and communications protocols, internal and external, as needed. Additionally, Siemens digital twin and simulation technologies allow a warehouse or manufacturing operation to test all the “what ifs” before taking action on a material handling challenge.
Further, notes Joel Thomas, “The goal for all companies should be smart manufacturing and automated material flow, which is adaptable to changing market and technology conditions. This is especially challenging in older brownfield operations, where the legacy equipment might not handle the needs of the company, tomorrow or even today.”
Joel Thomas, head of the Intralogistics Vertical, Siemens Industry, Inc.
Predictive analytics and predictive maintenance will also be among the key drivers for the Siemens Intralogistics business, as it strives to offer users the needed system components to maximize productivity and to gather the data needed to monitor and maintain the operation. The biggest challenge for this new group, according to Thomas, is to identify and bring the necessary skills and solutions to the resident knowledge base for each customer. He notes this varies considerably based upon each company’s size and onboard skill sets.
Thomas also comments how sustainability, which involves energy consumption and the ability to anticipate what equipment and software will be needed in the future to keep the plant running at maximum efficiency, will be a critical factor in the service package provided to customers.
Lastly, with use of this digital-to-real world technology, the Intralogistics business will help companies achieve a more productive eco-system and, with various Siemens solutions and services, a homogenous environment in the future-proofing of their operations.
Siemens Digital Industries (DI) is an innovation leader in automation and digitalization. Closely collaborating with partners and customers, DI drives the digital transformation in the process and discrete industries. With its Digital Enterprise portfolio, DI provides companies of all sizes with an end-to-end set of products, solutions and services to integrate and digitalize the entire value chain. Optimized for the specific needs of each industry, DI’s unique portfolio supports customers to achieve greater productivity and flexibility. DI is constantly adding innovations to its portfolio to integrate cutting-edge future technologies. Siemens Digital Industries has its global headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany, and has around 75,000 employees internationally.
Siemens Corporation is a U.S. subsidiary of Siemens AG, a technology company focused on industry, infrastructure, transport, and healthcare. From more resource-efficient factories, resilient supply chains, and smarter buildings and grids, to cleaner and more comfortable transportation as well as advanced healthcare, the company creates technology with purpose adding real value for customers. By combining the real and the digital worlds, Siemens empowers its customers to transform their industries and markets, helping them to transform the everyday for billions of people. Siemens also owns a majority stake in the publicly listed company Siemens Healthineers, a globally leading medical technology provider shaping the future of healthcare. In addition, Siemens holds a minority stake in Siemens Energy, a global leader in the transmission and generation of electrical power. In fiscal 2022, which ended on September 30, 2022, Siemens Group USA generated revenue of $18.6 billion and employs approximately 45,000 people serving customers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
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Allows all Siemens CNC community members to interact with a product expert and get answers to programming and operations questions on-demand
Siemens today introduced the Virtual Product Expert (VPE), a new support program for its CNC machine tool users, machine builders, dealers and importers. Through the VPE program, customers can now interact directly with a SINUMERIK CNC product expert and have their specific operation and programming questions answered — from the basic functions of the control to the most advanced machining technology aspects of the hardware and software suites. Best of all, this service is offered to all Siemens CNC community members at no cost.
Machine tool customers can contact Siemens to arrange an online session, tailored to their specific needs, regardless of where the programmer, operator or the machine are located. Sessions are typically one-hour in length and are being scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis.
John Meyer, the Marketing Communications Manager for the Siemens Machine Tool Business, notes, “With the rapid advancement in our SINUMERIK CNC technology on both the automation hardware and software sides, we see our Virtual Product Expert program as a vital part of our support offering. We know it will benefit our machine tool users, who are looking for immediate answers to their operation and programming challenges in order to keep their production running. It’s like having a Siemens CNC expert in your back pocket.”
For more information on the Virtual Product Expert, please visit: http://usa.siemens.com/vpe.
For additional machine tool CNC training offered by Siemens, users can visit: http://usa.siemens.com/cnc-training.
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Siemens Digital Industries (DI) is an innovation leader in automation and digitalization. Closely collaborating with partners and customers, DI drives the digital transformation in the process and discrete industries. With its Digital Enterprise portfolio, DI provides companies of all sizes with an end-to-end set of products, solutions and services to integrate and digitalize the entire value chain. Optimized for the specific needs of each industry, DI’s unique portfolio supports customers to achieve greater productivity and flexibility. DI is constantly adding innovations to its portfolio to integrate cutting-edge future technologies. Siemens Digital Industries has its global headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany, and currently employs approximately 75,000 people internationally.
Siemens Corporation is a U.S. subsidiary of Siemens AG, a global powerhouse focusing on the areas of power generation and distribution, intelligent infrastructure for buildings and distributed energy systems, and automation and digitalization in the process and manufacturing industries. Through the separately managed company Siemens Mobility, a leading supplier of smart mobility solutions for rail and road transport, Siemens is shaping the world market for passenger and freight services. Due to its majority stakes in the publicly listed companies Siemens Healthineers AG and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Siemens is also a world-leading supplier of medical technology and digital healthcare services as well as environmentally friendly solutions for onshore and offshore wind power generation. For more than 160 years, the company has innovated and invented technologies to support American industry spanning manufacturing, energy, healthcare and infrastructure. In fiscal 2018, Siemens USA reported revenue of $23.7 billion, including $5.0 billion in exports, and employs approximately 50,000 people throughout all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
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Embarking on the digital journey with SINUMERIK ONE reduces product development cost and time-to-market, plus the company will display an expanded hardware, software and service portfolio to help pave the way towards digitalization
During IMTS 2022, Siemens will present its hardware automation and software technology portfolio, highlighted by the first-ever, digital-native CNC platform, SINUMERIK ONE, for machine tool applications. In addition, Siemens will present its solutions and services for the industrialization of additive manufacturing. In booths 133346 and 433028, the company will highlight how machine users can quickly and easily embark on their digitalization journeys — from part concept to design, digital twin to simulation, part and machine production, as well as total integration of these processes into the digital enterprise for job shops and production departments alike.
In the Controls and CAD-CAM pavilion (East Hall) in booth 133346, Siemens will demonstrate the end-to-end production and installation of a transmission housing and bracket for the eRod, an autonomous electric vehicle that will be in the booth for visitor inspection. The parts are made by additive and subtractive machining processes. At every stage of the part’s development, including machining, display kiosks will take visitors through the digital process. From the popular Siemens NX CAM design software, which enables the use of 3D models, data and processes to seamlessly connect planning and shopfloor operations on a digital thread to the powerful SINUMERIK ONE, the digital-native CNC that permits a digital twin of the machine and its full operation in production, Siemens has streamlined machine shop operations as well as leading automotive, aerospace, off-highway and medical part production facilities worldwide.
In the Additive pavilion (West Hall) in booth 433028, Siemens will demonstrate its CNC implementation into the additive and additive / subtractive production worlds, displaying part production processes from design to the finished part. Visitors can discuss their manufacturing challenges with Siemens to determine the optimum method of part design and manufacturing, whether one-off or full production runs, all performed with digitalization methods for validation and time / cost containment.
Additional highlights of the Siemens booths will include:
For specific product information and inquiries, send an e-mail to: cnc.marketing.us@siemens.com
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Siemens Digital Industries (DI) is an innovation leader in automation and digitalization. Closely collaborating with partners and customers, DI drives the digital transformation in the process and discrete industries. With its Digital Enterprise portfolio, DI provides companies of all sizes with an end-to-end set of products, solutions and services to integrate and digitalize the entire value chain. Optimized for the specific needs of each industry, DI’s unique portfolio supports customers to achieve greater productivity and flexibility. DI is constantly adding innovations to its portfolio to integrate cutting-edge future technologies. Siemens Digital Industries has its global headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany, and has around 75,000 employees internationally.
Siemens Corporation is a U.S. subsidiary of Siemens AG, a global powerhouse focusing on the areas of power generation and distribution, intelligent infrastructure for buildings and distributed energy systems, and automation and digitalization in the process and manufacturing industries. Through the separately managed company Siemens Mobility, a leading supplier of smart mobility solutions for rail and road transport, Siemens is shaping the world market for passenger and freight services. Due to its majority stakes in the publicly listed companies Siemens Healthineers AG and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Siemens is also a world-leading supplier of medical technology and digital healthcare services as well as environmentally friendly solutions for onshore and offshore wind power generation. For more than 160 years, the company has innovated and invented technologies to support American industry spanning manufacturing, energy, healthcare and infrastructure. In fiscal 2018, Siemens USA reported revenue of $23.7 billion, including $5.0 billion in exports, and employs approximately 50,000 people throughout all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
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As part of the digitalization group at Siemens and currently working with the machine tool systems business in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, near Chicago, Chunrong “Shelly” Shan is a digitalization software pre-sales engineer, primarily focused on the company’s advanced Industrial Edge technology. Edge brings machine tool users the ability to capture operational data from a machine or production line, feed it up to the cloud and analyze it in real time, in relation to a preset battery of monitored conditions. This technology, on a very practical level, enables the small job shop with a few CNC machines or a large production department with hundreds on the factory floor to maintain the highest levels of output coupled with consistent and constantly evolving manufacturing control, largely running through the algorithms in the machine’s control.
Shelly finds such work very stimulating. “In my current role at Siemens as pre-sales engineer, my primary task is to help our customers develop customized programs based upon our Edge technology platform to improve their manufacturing productivity.” She cites a recent example of her work, where she developed a software application for a top U.S. automotive manufacturer to capture the high-frequency data from the CNC on their many machine tools, then send that data to what Shelly calls the “data lake” for production optimization. Through the use of Edge devices on the various machines, such data are extracted from the machine controllers and fed to that data lake. Shelly notes it was a very big challenge, since the end user’s data lake uses a very specialized, proprietary protocol not supported by the standard Siemens solution. “That’s where it got interesting,” she muses.
Through a series of customized adaptations in the software, Shan was able to create a smooth interface between the data gathering and the host protocol, resulting in an optimal solution for the customer. One of the most significant challenges in Edge technology is something of a “too much of a good thing” scenario, as the power of Edge allows massive data sets to be gathered. The software needs to separate the data, prioritize it, compare it to preset levels or limits, then take the appropriate corrective action, all within milliseconds.
Shelly Shan brings an impressive skill set to the task, as she holds a Master’s degree in computer science from Penn State, as well as a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Beihang University in her home country of China. She first worked for Siemens in China for 11 years and now four years at the company’s U.S. machine tool headquarters in Chicago.
Shelly’s skills range from software development to AI, big data and cloud computing. She came to the U.S. when her family migrated.
In reflecting on her reasons for entering the engineering field, Shelly states, “I think it involves a combination of my personality and my technical interests. I feel most comfortable and engaged when I’m solving problems for a customer. That gives me a lot of strength and confidence, as well as joy in helping others.”
She makes mention of her mentor in China. “I had one colleague there who was simply good at everything! He could master technologies, problem-solve very quickly, and he was capable of numerous achievements simultaneously. His top skills were controller commissioning and debugging, as well as digitalization coding. I would say he definitely gave me a lot of help and guidance, as I worked to find the right directions in my career.”
Shelly enjoys her variety of tasks in customizing Edge application development and she seeks to do further software development for Siemens.
As a woman engineer, she notes there are both advantages and challenges. “Everyone tends to be very friendly to the often-lone woman in the room, which is nice,” Shan notes, also noting that it is sometimes difficult to talk to anybody about makeup or clothing styles. On the business side, she believes females tend to be more careful about details and can often communicate more easily with customers. The issue of work-life balance can also be a challenge. “Women often feel the need to take care of family as well as work, plus travel can be difficult, but I handle it. The company is also very supportive and flexible in helping me achieve my goals.”
From her performance and track record in the industry with a major corporation such as Siemens, Shan seems to handle it all quite well.
Asked where she sees herself in the coming years, Shelly observes, “I am sure I’ll still be working as an engineer and I’d like to make more contributions to the technology. I think the future for women in engineering is very bright and promising, as it will continue to drive the development of many technologies and improvements in our world.”
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Displays include hardware automation and software solutions specific to today’s material handling / intralogistics challenges
Siemens will exhibit at MODEX 2022 in Atlanta at the Georgia World Congress Center from March 28-31, 2022. MODEX is the premier supply chain event, attracting industry professionals from across the globe.
Highlights will include the new SIMATIC MICRO-DRIVE, designed for ultra-low-voltage applications, in a demonstration of an automated guided vehicle (AGV). Also featured will be the new SINAMICS G115D, a recently released distributed drive system, specifically designed for conveyor applications.
Displays in the Siemens booth will include drives for motion control, material handling and intralogistics applications that are controlled by SIMATIC PLCs with unified HMI panels
and integrated safety, all programmed in the Siemens Totally Integrated Automation (TIA) Portal. Additional topics in the booth include Industrial Edge and cybersecurity.
Another highlight will focus on a project Siemens recently completed for a customer in Kentucky. Siemens supplied a fully automated mega warehouse with 200,000 pallet positions as a turnkey project which distributes laundry and home care products to 60% of the U.S. market, with all logistics operations performed at this production site. The benefits Siemens offered, in addition to all mechanical deliveries, include a modular automation standard by SIMATIC, SINAMICS, SIMOTICS and SIMOGEAR standard components and INTRALOG TIA software modules resulting in increased delivery reliability (on-time and defect-free.)
In the booth, Siemens technical experts will be available for hands-on demonstrations and to answer questions. Editors are welcome to stop by.
For specific product information and inquiries, send an e-mail to:
mc.us@siemens.com
Smart factories, the foundation of smart manufacturing, connect the digital and physical worlds to monitor an entire production process — from supply chain management to manufacturing tools and even the work of individual operators on the shop-floor.
Explore the Siemens Automation portfolio for a fully integrated, collaborative manufacturing system on your journey to a digital transformation.
Siemens Digital Industries (DI) Siemens Digital Industries (DI) is an innovation leader in automation and digitalization. Closely collaborating with partners and customers, DI drives the digital transformation in the process and discrete industries. With its Digital Enterprise portfolio, DI provides companies of all sizes with an end-to-end set of products, solutions and services to integrate and digitalize the entire value chain. Optimized for the specific needs of each industry, DI’s unique portfolio supports customers to achieve greater productivity and flexibility. DI is constantly adding innovations to its portfolio to integrate cutting-edge future technologies. Siemens Digital Industries has its global headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany, and has around 72,000 employees internationally.
Siemens Corporation is a U.S. subsidiary of Siemens AG, a global technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for more than 170 years. Active around the world, the company focuses on intelligent infrastructure for buildings and distributed energy systems and on automation and digitalization in the process and manufacturing industries. Siemens brings together the digital and physical worlds to benefit customers and society. Through Mobility, a leading supplier of intelligent mobility solutions for rail and road transport, Siemens is helping to shape the world market for passenger and freight services. Via its majority stake in the publicly listed company Siemens Healthineers, Siemens is also a world-leading supplier of medical technology and digital health services. In addition, Siemens holds a minority stake in Siemens Energy, a global leader in the transmission and generation of electrical power that has been listed on the stock exchange since September 28, 2020. In fiscal 2020, Siemens Group USA generated revenue of $17 billion and employs approximately 40,000 people serving customers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
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With SINAMICS PCS, Siemens presents a new power conversion system for battery storage applications. The SINAMICS PCS grid converter makes locally generated batter power usable for industrial and public power grids. SINAMICS PCS controls the charging and discharging process of the battery and helps to handle load peaks and grid disturbances via the battery storage, to store the electricity in an energy- and cost-efficient manner, and to bring the energy stored in batteries efficiently and reliably into the grid.
The grid converter is based upon the industry proven technology of the SINAMICS S120 drive platform and works very energy-efficiently thanks to liquid-cooling. The compact and robust power conversion system includes connection technology and control, line filter, drive and liquid-cooling, and can be easily integrated as a complete system in control rooms or containers.
SINAMICS PCS is certified in accordance with the “Technical Connection Rules” VDE-AR-N 4110, which is valid in Germany. This means that stationary battery storage units can be connected to the public medium-voltage grid with minimal system certification effort.
A validated Matlab/Simulink simulation model simplifies and accelerates the planning, optimization and grid integration of the power conversion system — and thanks to the SINAMICS Startdrive tool in the TIA Portal engineering framework, the grid converter
can be easily integrated into the drive world. Operating states and system parameters can be read out via the Profinet communication interface, which allows data from operation to be monitored and analyzed and makes precise statements about upcoming service work possible.
For specific product information and inquiries, send an e-mail to:
mc.us@siemens.com
Siemens presents SINAMICS PCS, a liquid-cooled, robust power conversion system for battery storage systems.
For more information about SINAMICS PCS, please visit: http://siemens.com/sinamics-pcs.
Siemens Digital Industries (DI) Siemens Digital Industries (DI) is an innovation leader in automation and digitalization. Closely collaborating with partners and customers, DI drives the digital transformation in the process and discrete industries. With its Digital Enterprise portfolio, DI provides companies of all sizes with an end-to-end set of products, solutions and services to integrate and digitalize the entire value chain. Optimized for the specific needs of each industry, DI’s unique portfolio supports customers to achieve greater productivity and flexibility. DI is constantly adding innovations to its portfolio to integrate cutting-edge future technologies. Siemens Digital Industries has its global headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany, and has around 72,000 employees internationally.
Siemens Corporation is a U.S. subsidiary of Siemens AG, a global technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for more than 170 years. Active around the world, the company focuses on intelligent infrastructure for buildings and distributed energy systems and on automation and digitalization in the process and manufacturing industries. Siemens brings together the digital and physical worlds to benefit customers and society. Through Mobility, a leading supplier of intelligent mobility solutions for rail and road transport, Siemens is helping to shape the world market for passenger and freight services. Via its majority stake in the publicly listed company Siemens Healthineers, Siemens is also a world-leading supplier of medical technology and digital health services. In addition, Siemens holds a minority stake in Siemens Energy, a global leader in the transmission and generation of electrical power that has been listed on the stock exchange since September 28, 2020. In fiscal 2020, Siemens Group USA generated revenue of $17 billion and employs approximately 40,000 people serving customers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
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SINUMERIK ONE digital-native CNC selected as the control of choice for new line of milling and turning production machines
Siemens announced today that its SINUMERIK ONE CNC platform has been selected by TRAK Machine Tools (Southwestern Industries, Inc.) as the control of choice for their new VMC-series milling and TC-series turning machines. These new machine tools are intended to work in the high-volume, price-sensitive job shop market.
According to company president Steve Pinto, “TRAK wanted to partner with a large, well-established CNC leader with a global footprint for a new line of production machines, aiming
to reach a new level of digitalization — one that reflected that trend in every area of life today.”
Throughout the process, Siemens employed a consulting approach, selling the value of SINUMERIK CNC and the entire Siemens portfolio of product, software, communications and cloud-based data analytics. The transition to Siemens CNC was made easier, as conventional programming and HMI with SINUMERIK ONE had the same look-and-feel as the TRAK captive control. Wanting to offer automation in its portfolio, Siemens gave TRAK Machine Tools a wide range of possibilities, with the digital-native CNC.
Siemens is providing user support by ramping up its standard CNC offerings for the job shop market with SINUMERIK ONE, standard PLCs for mills and lathes, custom HMI screens and
it has worked closely TRAK Machine Tools for training. TRAK staff including application engineers, sales, service and dealers were offered SINUMERIK online web-based training,
in-person training, and time on the machines for benchmarking and test cuts. As always, Siemens is offering spare parts, 24-hour service and a quick repair turnaround to support its products and TRAK Machine Tools’ dealers.
In the future, TRAK Machine Tools also plans to develop a 5-axis and horizontal CNC offering with SINUMERIK ONE. The company is looking to brand-label a robot to automate their CNC machine with the SINUMERIK Run MyRobot application, integral to the SINUMERIK ONE CNC platform.
Brian McMinn, head of the Siemens Machine Tool Systems business, observed, “This development marks the first US-based OEM that has accepted the digital-native CNC concept of SINUMERIK ONE. At every stage of development — from concept to the Digital Twin of the machine known as Create MyVirtual Machine — to the prototype and runout, Siemens has collaborated with TRAK in a very unique way. The result is an exciting line of CNC machines that will significantly impact the job shop market, almost immediately. We are proud to partner with this forward-thinking machine tool builder.”
Steve Pinto concluded, “Having found the right technology partner in Siemens, we can now offer machine technology solutions to help TRAK customers confidently take the next step into digitally-enabled production.”
For more information about SINUMERIK ONE, please visit usa.siemens.com/sinumerik-one.
For specific product information and inquiries, send an e-mail to: cnc.marketing.us@siemens.com
Siemens Digital Industries (DI) is an innovation leader in automation and digitalization. Closely collaborating with partners and customers, DI drives the digital transformation in the process and discrete industries. With its Digital Enterprise portfolio, DI provides companies of all sizes with an end-to-end set of products, solutions and services to integrate and digitalize the entire value chain. Optimized for the specific needs of each industry, DI’s unique portfolio supports customers to achieve greater productivity and flexibility. DI is constantly adding innovations to its portfolio to integrate cutting-edge future technologies. Siemens Digital Industries has its global headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany, and has around 75,000 employees internationally.
Siemens Corporation is a U.S. subsidiary of Siemens AG, a global powerhouse focusing on the areas of power generation and distribution, intelligent infrastructure for buildings and distributed energy systems, and automation and digitalization in the process and manufacturing industries. Through the separately managed company Siemens Mobility, a leading supplier of smart mobility solutions for rail and road transport, Siemens is shaping the world market for passenger and freight services. Due to its majority stakes in the publicly listed companies Siemens Healthineers AG and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Siemens is also a world-leading supplier of medical technology and digital healthcare services as well as environmentally friendly solutions for onshore and offshore wind power generation. For more than 160 years, the company has innovated and invented technologies to support American industry spanning manufacturing, energy, healthcare and infrastructure. In fiscal 2018, Siemens USA reported revenue of $23.7 billion, including $5.0 billion in exports, and employs approximately 50,000 people throughout all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
About TRAK Machine Tools (Southwestern Industries, Inc.)
TRAK Machine Tools is well-known for its ProtoTRAK brand of CNCs and TRAK Machines. Founded in 1952 as a job shop serving the aerospace industry, it has been manufacturing ProtoTRAK CNCs since 1984 and selling them throughout North American and Europe. TRAK Machine Tools fields direct-to-customer Sales and Service Organizations throughout the United States in many of the areas that have high concentrations of manufacturing. Where it does not have its own field sales and service, TRAK Machine Tools serves customers via close relationships with independent distributors that share the core values of service to customers and community that has been the key to the enormous popularity of the ProtoTRAK and TRAK brands. The new initiative with SIEMENS will utilize the talents and reach of TRAK Machine Tools beyond the toolroom and into production and automation applications. For more information, please see www.trakmt.com.
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Fully automated non-manned coil handling cranes and coil transfer cars integrated with motion control and communications hardware; zero downtime after six months of operation
A major U.S. steel mill in Arkansas required an entirely new approach to coil handling for its rolled-to-order production strategy. Its engineering and materials handling equipment partner, Morgan Automation, devised and implemented a fully-automated, non-manned series of three cranes to work with two coil transfer cars accepting hot coils off the walking beam from the hot mill. In manufacturing this system solution, Morgan turned to its longtime drives and motion control partner, Siemens, who provided a full complement of drive, plc, safety I/O, power quality meters, PCs, wireless hardware plus communication software and its TIA Portal for commissioning and monitoring on the project. According to the president of Morgan Automation, Mark Sharamitaro, “The excellent reliability and performance of the Siemens solution on this project was invaluable in helping us achieve complete operational efficiency and zero downtime during the first six months of operation.”
This greenfield project involved the handling of approximately 1000 coils or 30,000 tons of steel a day at the mill. A typical coil in this yard is approximately 83” OD x 82” W and weighs 28 tons on average. As the mill operates on a “made to order” mindset, there is a dual challenge of handling hot coils from the mill and organizing their staging for shipment by truck, rail or barge, with an additional quadrant on the ground for coils heading via the coil transfer cars provided by Morgan to the Pickling Line Tandem Cold Mill (PLTCM) on the premises. In the proposed and enclosed coil yard, the walking beam would deliver the coils from the hot mill, then the crane grab would secure the individual coil and place it in the coil transfer car or on a saddle in the appropriate quadrant on the floor. During low production times, the system would defrag the coil assortment into the proper positions to conserve storage space with full tracking in real time. Each crane has a thermal imaging camera for temp sensing plus a patent-pending laser positioning system. The comprehensive data tracking is clearly displayed in the mill control room with real time KPI calculations.
The goals for this new autonomous coil yard (ACY) included the indoor facility to reduce rust and corrosion, improved coil handling to meet the shipping protocols, reduced energy costs by eliminating lift truck handling and reducing physical distancing of coils, plus faster location of the coils on their saddles for crane handling into shipment staging areas. Critical overall was the safety of the personnel, so a system of nine remote I/O cabinets and 21 safety gates was to be implemented. Integration of the entire operation was to be handled by the proprietary Morgan CEPHAS logistic management system with a rules-based engine for algorithmic decision-making. All the information management would be transmitted and handled by mill personnel, using the in-house platform and virtual private network (VPN).
With those logistics, performance goals and system integration requirements, Morgan began the process of working with the Siemens team to utilize the full range of product and software options for construction of the optimum materials handling, motion control and data management system for the ACY. According to Mark Sharamitaro, “We were bringing our established CEPHAS warehouse management system to this challenge and seeking to marry it to a single user interface, driven by the rules established by our customer, so there’s essentially a single bucket of data on each coil.” In that “bucket” are all the physical characteristics and temperature of the coil plus the determined location for placement. All these data are transmitted through a series of Siemens SINAMICS drive modules, SIMATIC PLCs and the SINEMA network monitoring server, complemented by WinCC V16 supervisory control for monitoring over long distances. In addition, Siemens offered its SCALANCE wireless suite of ethernet switches and access points to communicate the ring topology and VLAN data to the mill control room personnel.
The Siemens SIPLUS controller components were used outside of the e-house because of the higher ambient temperatures, as these devices are built for more hostile environments. Sharamitaro reported that the Morgan team actually tested these components beyond their published ratings, so his team knew they would perform in this application, especially at the moment when the crane would pick up a hot coil and hoist it up near the trolley with the controls onboard.
Sharamitaro also noted the need for an embedded quality system to identify secondary coils on the floor and determine their transfer path. As each coil is grabbed, a full battery of sensors, switches, I/O power supply, drives, PLCs and wireless communication sends information from the crane trolley directly to the control house. The three 190-ton cranes are thus fully synchronized for handling the incoming coils from the hot mill plus the placement of the coils in the transfer cars and staging lines. The information feeds the CEPHAS system of Morgan Automation, which makes the algorithmic determinations for each coil, based on predetermined parameters set by the mill. An extremely efficient and reliable system of coil handling is achieved, as a result.
Mill personnel (as shown in the video link) cannot access any of the four quadrants in the ACY if the lockout devices are engaged. The ground-based safety system literally “asks” the crane for permission before allowing personnel to access the area.
Leading the project for Siemens were Roland Najbar, business development manager, as well as Rick Ludlow, account manager, both focused in the crane industry. Najbar comments on this project, “Once we had the full requirements from Morgan, we went to work assembling our motion control and material handling product and software suites to accommodate them. The need for fully unattended operation and wireless communication in the mill presented some challenges, but our team responded with a combination of time-tested drive, wireless and PLC products as well as some newer offerings such as the SINEMA network monitoring system.” He further noted that Morgan took the Siemens offerings to new heights of performance, through the integration with CEPHAS, the Morgan logistic management system that performs inventory tracking and routes every coil from the mill to the shipping stage in a time-sensitive and deterministic order of motion.
The SINAMICS drives interface with the SIMATIC S7-1500 PLCs on this application to seamlessly distribute data and commands through a network of safety I/O, also supplied by the Siemens crane team.
Najbar also cited the intentional redundancy in the drive safety and production isolation that allowed the cranes to keep working independently but in a highly integrated manner to achieve a non-stop production environment at the mill. Through the Siemens SIMATIC S7-1500TF PLC, integrated safety is provided, along with the drives in this system. The open communication protocol on the PLC allows for C++ high-level language applications, such as protocol converters, database connectivity, complex algorithms such as those on the Morgan CEPHAS system plus integration of crane vision systems and laser trackers.
To evidence the energy savings, Siemens also provided its PAC3200 power meters that track and record power consumption ongoing in a system and efficiently communicate data over a network protocol. Another key component in the Siemens solution here was the SINAMICS S120 Smart Line Module for crane applications, which features onboard regenerative drive. This feature takes the excess motor power from a crane hoist, for example, during descent and feeds it to another component in the system or back to the grid for trackable energy savings to the customer. Further, this Smart Line Module has particular application in the crane world, as it features a line-commutated infeed that is enhanced by the use of IGBTs that avoid commutation faults typical of thyristor-based rectifiers.
Morgan Automation is sister company to Morgan Engineering and part of the Morgan Industries group of companies, which has served the steel industry for over 150 years. Morgan designs, engineers, builds, commissions and services its systems. Morgan Engineering is well known throughout the world as the leading designer of overhead electric traveling cranes, a holder of thousands of patents and designs, and manufacturer of more than 30,000 cranes. In addition to custom overhead cranes for aluminum companies, steel mills, electric power plants, refuse facilities, container handling and general industry, Morgan manufactures equipment such as transfer cars, ladles, scrap buckets, presses, manipulators and large fabrications. It has been in a close supplier relationship with Siemens Motion Control for over a decade.
For a full video on this coil handling operation, please click here:
Stainless steel housings suited to high standards of hygiene and cleanliness; three sizes to 2kW (2.68 hp) power range and up to 14 Nm (10.32 ft-lbs.) torque
Siemens is introducing the new SIMOTICS S-1FS2 line of servomotors, designed for the clean condition requirements of the food, beverage, sterile packaging, pharmaceutical and other process industries. These new servomotors are offered in a variety of power ratings, from 0.45–2kW (0.60–2.68 hp) with torque from 3.1–14 Nm (2.28–10.32 ft-lbs.). Crafted with housings of 1.4404 (AISI 316/316L) stainless steel, EPDM seals and bearing grease with NSF H1 approval, these new servomotors are highly resistant to corrosion and acidic chemicals found in the process industries. This extremely high degree of protection is in accordance with IP66/67 standards on the entire motor, with IP69k (30-bar) protection provided on the motor housing.
High dynamics due to low inherent inertia plus high overload capacity for use in pick-and-place applications, plus precise movement of heavy loads, are added features. One cable connection is provided for easy installation and cleaning. The standard absolute encoder is 22-bit multi-turn.
The SIMOTICS S-1FS2 family of motors is suitable for clean-in-place (CIP) processes and for use with all commercially available cleaning agents used with washdown motors.
Quality construction further highlights this new family of motors, providing the machine builder and end-user long service life. These motors are especially designed for the 3-A (U.S.) and EHEDG (Euro) requirements of the food and beverage industries.
Options include a holding brake, stainless steel shaft with or without feather key, cable tail for direct drive connection and a MOTION CONNECT coupling. MOTION CONNECT is the Siemens fully assembled power and signal cable design for use on production machinery of many types.
SIMOTICS S-1FS2 is compatible with the SINAMICS S210 drive system.
Selection/configuration data, dimensional drawings, CAD models, data sheets and full specifications for SIMOTICS S-1FS2 servo motors are available immediately from Siemens.
Siemens introduces the new SIMOTICS S-1FS2 stainless steel servomotor for food, beverage, sterile packaging, pharmaceutical and other process applications
For more information regarding SIMOTICS S-1FS2 servo motors, please visit:
usa.siemens.com/simotics-s1fs2
Siemens Digital Industries (DI) is an innovation leader in automation and digitalization. Closely collaborating with partners and customers, DI drives the digital transformation in the process and discrete industries. With its Digital Enterprise portfolio, DI provides companies of all sizes with an end-to-end set of products, solutions and services to integrate and digitalize the entire value chain. Optimized for the specific needs of each industry, DI’s unique portfolio supports customers to achieve greater productivity and flexibility. DI is constantly adding innovations to its portfolio to integrate cutting-edge future technologies. Siemens Digital Industries has its global headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany, and has around 75,000 employees internationally.
Siemens Corporation is a U.S. subsidiary of Siemens AG, a global powerhouse focusing on the areas of power generation and distribution, intelligent infrastructure for buildings and distributed energy systems, and automation and digitalization in the process and manufacturing industries. Through the separately managed company Siemens Mobility, a leading supplier of smart mobility solutions for rail and road transport, Siemens is shaping the world market for passenger and freight services. Due to its majority stakes in the publicly listed companies Siemens Healthineers AG and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Siemens is also a world-leading supplier of medical technology and digital healthcare services as well as environmentally friendly solutions for onshore and offshore wind power generation. For more than 160 years, the company has innovated and invented technologies to support American industry spanning manufacturing, energy, healthcare and infrastructure. In fiscal 2018, Siemens USA reported revenue of $23.7 billion, including $5.0 billion in exports, and employs approximately 50,000 people throughout all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
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Under the theme “Digitalization in Machine Tool Manufacturing — Infinite opportunities from infinite data”, Siemens will demonstrate how the full potential of data can be used for increased productivity during this year’s EMO Milano tradeshow, October 4-9, and during the virtual Siemens Machine Tool Days 2021 event.
The challenges are quite large: the Covid-19 pandemic has significantly accelerated the pace of change in manufacturing markets. Added to this are growing demands of individualization and the urgent need for more sustainability — and these can be achieved with the help of digitalization and automation. Siemens brings together the extremely large volumes of data generated in this process during a continuous cycle between the real and digital worlds. This enables the employees of industrial manufacturers to make the appropriate decisions based upon data and respond more quickly to trends and changes.
SINUMERIK ONE is core element of highlight case with two technologies
During EMO in Milan and the Siemens Machine Tool Days virtual event, Siemens will demonstrate how to react quickly to trends with the new SINUMERIK ONE CNC, which was introduced in the North American market as a digital-native control. To demonstrate this, the focus of the real and virtual Siemens booth is a production line that shows two machines controlled with SINUMERIK ONE — a 5-axis milling center and a robotic-based additive manufacturing machine.
With these two machines, for example, the gears of large gearboxes can be repaired instead of replacing them. Such large gearboxes are used in industries such as wind energy, where they are subject to natural wear-and-tear due to the enormous frictional forces and must be replaced at certain time intervals. Siemens will demonstrate how the gears are initially milled flat in the milling center. Next, a robot is used to rebuild the teeth in an additive manufacturing process. And the final precision grinding takes place at the end again on the 5-axis milling center.
Instead of new production, the repair not only saves material resources, but also approximately 60 percent of energy. SINUMERIK ONE, the first digital-native CNC, represents the core element for the digital transformation of the machine tool industry. Thanks to the Digital Twin known as Create MyVirtual Machine, both machines could be developed, tested and functionally approved simultaneously, long before the real machine was put into operation. This gives machine tool builders the advantage by getting to a better machine faster, while machine tool users can get to the right workpiece even faster.
With the Digital Enterprise portfolio, Siemens supports manufacturers exactly where the current challenges lie. With the help of Digital Twins, such as SINUMERIK ONE, the use of future technologies such as artificial intelligence or industrial edge computing, and the Siemens digitalization portfolio, machine builders and machine users can collect, analyze and understand the data generated and use it in a productive way. This allows them to react quickly and flexibly to challenges, adapt their products and manufacturing processes to new requirements and save resources.
Greater flexibility and innovative technology for machine operation
SINUMERIK ONE offers new functions and technology updates that further increase manufacturing performance, flexibility and modularity. Visitors to the Siemens booth during EMO in Milan, as well as the visitors attending the virtual Siemens Machine Tool Days event, will have the opportunity to see new SINUMERIK ONE Machine Control Panels (MCP) in action.
With the new SINUMERIK ONE MCPs, Siemens brings intuitive machine tool operation to CNC users including more comfort, increased efficiency and greater flexibility. The new ergonomic metal design can be integrated into existing operating concepts and fits 19-inch to 24-inch panels. The new MCPs can even be configured individually for customer-specific requirements.
New functionalities make machine operation even easier. Powerride combines the override switch with the NC start button for easy and efficient machine setup. With the integrated LED scale in Powerride, ACTUAL values can now be visualized. With Powerride, the feed is automatically reset after the end of the set, which makes operation effective and easy. In addition, Powerride provides haptic feedback through short vibration as soon as a defined limit value is exceeded. This increases the perception of these values and supports the blind operation of the panel.
The QWERTY keyboard is provided as standard for the MCPs for the 22-inch and 24-inch variants, so users no longer need an additional keyboard. An integrated RGB LED in the QWERTY keyboard enables customizable color concepts for simplified work. The SINUMERIK ONE MCP can be used in harsh industrial environments thanks to its IP65 protection class rating.
Siemens Industrial Edge — extensions for machine tools
With Industrial Edge, Siemens offers a concept in which both machine tool builders and machine users can flexibly use the advantages of data processing using Edge or Cloud computing as required. Siemens is also expanding its Edge computing portfolio for machine tools that will enable real-time analysis of data on-site during production. During EMO and Siemens Machine Tool Days, the scalability of Edge hardware will be presented with new Industrial PCs IPC 127E and IPC 427E hardware variants.
For specific product information and inquiries, send an e-mail to: cnc.marketing.us@siemens.com
Contact for journalists:
Siemens
John Meyer
(847) 952-4158
john.meyer@siemens.com
Siemens Digital Industries (DI) is an innovation leader in automation and digitalization. Closely collaborating with partners and customers, DI drives the digital transformation in the process and discrete industries. With its Digital Enterprise portfolio, DI provides companies of all sizes with an end-to-end set of products, solutions and services to integrate and digitalize the entire value chain. Optimized for the specific needs of each industry, DI’s unique portfolio supports customers to achieve greater productivity and flexibility. DI is constantly adding innovations to its portfolio to integrate cutting-edge future technologies. Siemens Digital Industries has its global headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany, and has around 75,000 employees internationally.
Siemens Corporation is a U.S. subsidiary of Siemens AG, a global powerhouse focusing on the areas of power generation and distribution, intelligent infrastructure for buildings and distributed energy systems, and automation and digitalization in the process and manufacturing industries. Through the separately managed company Siemens Mobility, a leading supplier of smart mobility solutions for rail and road transport, Siemens is shaping the world market for passenger and freight services. Due to its majority stakes in the publicly listed companies Siemens Healthineers AG and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Siemens is also a world-leading supplier of medical technology and digital healthcare services as well as environmentally friendly solutions for onshore and offshore wind power generation. For more than 160 years, the company has innovated and invented technologies to support American industry spanning manufacturing, energy, healthcare and infrastructure. In fiscal 2018, Siemens USA reported revenue of $23.7 billion, including $5.0 billion in exports, and employs approximately 50,000 people throughout all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
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