Siemens Drives

 

Our 18.5kW Drive Package

Optima are one of only 7 official Drives & Motion Integration partners in the UK for Siemens. Optima’s expertise in high-speed, complex variable speed drive and motion applications combined with one of the largest integrated automation providers in the UK gives our customers excellent machine control combined with the worldwide backup and support of Siemens.

From low to high power ratings and medium to high-performance drives, Optima can integrate the entire low voltage range of AC asynchronous, synchronous and servo drives to meet any demanding application.

Below you will find details on the full range of Siemens drives we supply and install on our applications.

V20

The SINAMICS V20 is a range of inverters designed for controlling the speed of three phase asynchronous motors in low-performance fan/pump applications. The drive comes with a range of macros that provide a set of parameter settings for a specific application. These can be used in simple pump or fan applications, compressors or conveyors. Other features include the ability to perform a flying start on already running motors with a heavy inertia load so that the motor runs up to the setpoint without causing damage to the equipment. The drive also features an integrated PID controller to support all kinds of simple process control tasks, e.g. controlling pressures, levels, or flow rates. We would recommend commissioning these drives with the V20 Smart Access module. This greatly simplifies setting up the drive from your smartphone. No more trawling through endless parameter lists. It’s a great little piece of kit and should be in every drive commissioning engineers’ toolkit. SINAMICS_V20-Smart_Access-Flyer

V90

The V90 is an excellent little servo drive. It combines a perfectly-matched motor and drive combination to meet medium-to-high demand position control tasks. It can be used in high-speed motion drives, but also due to it’s competitive cost and ease of integration can be used to modernise slitting and winding machines that traditionally used permanent magnet DC Motors and simple DC Drives. When coupled with a Siemens S7-1200 PLC and HMI on PROFINET the integration options become very attractive indeed. They are one of our favourites here at Optima.

Recent Posts

Safety Scanner Issues and EN999

Optima were recently asked to advise on a safety guarding application for one of our customers. 

There had been a number of false trips of the laser scanner causing the machine to stop. As a result of this, a plastic chain ‘barrier’ had been fitted as a temporary measure with instructions to operators to not breach the barrier whilst the machine was running. 

The customer naturally wanted this rectifying as soon as possible, so Optima performed a short-notice service visit to site.

On the site visit, our engineer noted that the scanner was showing a code which indicated that the front screen required cleaning.

Once the screen was cleaned thoroughly the scanner did not show any faults or errors and was in normal run mode.

However, we performed further checks on the original software to ensure that the scanner configuration still met the requirements of the safety guarding application. 

The diagrams to the left show the Warning Field configuration (Yellow) and the Protective Field (Red). Both of these were confirmed to be operational. 

The warning field causes the klaxon to operate and the protective field caused an emergency stop of the machine.

We did, however find a few concerns that needed to be addressed.

1. None of the scanner safety circuit had been documented on any drawings.

2. Non-compliance with EN999 ‘Safety of machinery – the positioning of protective equipment in respect of approach speeds of parts of the human body’ includes a formula to be used to calculate the distance from a hazard that a safety zone must be triggered. Based on the stopping times of the machine, the scanner was placed too close to the machine to be effective in an emergency.

We are working closedly with our customer to assist them with this application and help them achieve a safe and effective solution to this.

If you need any support with safety applications or other upgrades, please get in touch.

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