As basic safety components brake systems require regular testing. The company Knorr Bremse AG is one of the leading international manufacturers of brake systems for rail and utility vehicles. The US subsidiary of the group, the Knorr Brake Company, has now installed a hydro device test stand which systematically checks the brake systems of rail vehicles.

SPANGLER planned the electrical part of the test stand according to the American Standard UL508A and manufactured the necessary control technology. This standard regulates the entire production process for the control cabinet construction for the sector of the North American market. All brake systems manufactured by Knorr can be checked on the test stand.

Individually adjusted

The planning and adjustment of the test stand to the American framework conditions was a special challenge for all people involved. This means that among other things special adapters had to be installed upstream in order to be able to connect the American systems. Knorr Bremse had to adjust certain mechanical and hydraulic components to country-specific requirements.

As a special feature SPANGLER has isolated the plant control’s power supply of the remaining supply network of the site via a separating system so that the hydro device test stand is controlled via its own IT network. By using high-performance laboratory power supply units and the direct access to the test stand, particular attention had to be paid to protection of the staff. Therefore, an important measure was the use of an insulation monitor and consequently the potential separation of the circuits.

Wedding in Töging

SPANGLER has assumed the integration of the mechanical and hydraulic components with the control technology. “We have carried out the so-called wedding at our production site in Töging and thoroughly examined the test stand so that the start-up in the USA proceeds as smoothly as possible,” Project Manager Anton Höcker reports.

Concrete buckets bring large amounts of concrete from the truck mixers to the installation site. The Florian Eichinger GmbH located in Mühlhausen manufactures installation site equipment under the keywords “Robust.Orange.Eichinger” which enjoys an excellent reputation not only in Germany but also around the world.

Surface treatment at your option

SPANGLER received the order to modernise an existing circulation plant for surface treatment. A new control system with Siemens CPU S7-1515-2PN and a touch panel TP1500 as control box were delivered.

At the Florian Eichinger GmbH the welded silos are hung on a rail system circulating on the ceiling and thus automatically transported to the different processing steps. The plant operator decides on the surface treatment and selects the desired operation via a local control box. The selection is saved in the control system and the further transportation route is automatically specified.

Over the turn of the year

Upon customer request, SPANGLER carried out the exchange of the control during the company holidays at the turn of the year. As a first step the new parts of the mechanical engineering and sensor technology were cabled in parallel to ongoing operation. After the production stop, all control systems were professionally disassembled by our employees, the new control technology was installed and the systems engineering connected. Finally, for the start-up and production support a team of electricians, programmers and project managers were on site for several days.

Implementation according to plan

Thanks to the good preparation and cooperation of all people involved, the control processes could be optimised and thus an increase in productivity reached. The management of Florian Eichinger GmbH was pleased about improving the efficiency and thanked us for the very good planning and communication.

The know-how of SPANGLER Automation has already been used in more than 30 production plants for biogas. The latest project was realised in Croatia.

Cycle of biogas production

Biogas plants are fed with different organic substances such as energy crops, organic waste or liquid manure. In the plants the raw materials are bacterially processed into biogas which is mostly used for electricity and heat generation on site. Alternatively, the gas can be prepared to biomethane and fed into the natural gas grid. The remaining solid or rather liquid substances are used as agricultural fertiliser.

Safety first

Behind this accelerated fermentation process, with large containers and heavy mechanics, a comprehensive and sophisticated electrical engineering can be found. For the operation of modern biogas plants more and more control systems are used in order to be able to visually present and operate the entire process of the gas production. The access to the plant control is primarily made via a PC at the plant. Instead of permanently installed local control boxes this function is taken over by a tablet PC which enables a wireless intervention and parameterising in the plant. In addition to guaranteeing an error-free production process, the safety for the operator must always be at first priority. Hazard-critical components, which could cause a risk of injury, are therefore controlled by a safety PLC such as the Siemens 1516F-3 PN/DP.

All over the world

SPANGLER realises biogas plants for various customers. Besides Germany, these were delivered among others to Singapore, Croatia, Chile or Russia. Thereby smaller plants with 500 KW and a silo filling by food waste as well as industrial plants with more than 3 MW and a feeding by energy crops were implemented. With every realised and programmed plant the know-how gained at SPANGLER is enriched and leads to a smooth process for the following plants.

Innsbruck is a trendy winter sports centre, student city and Austria’s fifth largest populated area. There, SPANGLER has accompanied the extension of the municipal wastewater treatment plant, which energy-efficiently cleans the wastewater of the region and thus provides capacities for further population growth.

Service-optimised interpretation

Six HUBER sludge dewatering machines which had been put into operation by SPANGLER a few years earlier were the basis for the interpretation. In addition, the sludge dewatered by these machines is further reduced of humidity in a dryer. For this SPANGLER automated a belt dryer HUBER BT16. For the control it was almost exclusively relied on Siemens components with bus interface. The operator benefits from the fact that the data consistency is secured and that the plant can be accessed via remote maintenance at any time. Therefore, in addition to programme updates, our employees are also able to process service cases from a distant location.

Central collection point

The machine and process sequence was programmed with the software Siemens TIA Portal. The visualisation and operation is done via two IPCs installed in the control systems. A camera with its own monitor and remote access supports the operator with the monitoring of the sludge supply to the dryer. In addition, the data connection of the belt dryer to the already existing control system of the wastewater treatment plant is made via the protocol OPC-DA. The SPANGLER solution also functions as collection point for data of other trades such as the dry sludge silo, the hot water plant or the sludge dewatering plant.

Extended specification sheet

Before starting the project, an extended specification sheet was formulated which describes not only the required electrotechnical functions but also the procedural way of proceeding. This is why our programmers could solve open questions nearly without consulting the process engineer. Therefore, HUBER and SPANGLER could fulfil the demand of a fast implementation.