In March 2020 the management of Spangler GmbH appointed a new authorised representative with power of attorney.

Spangler counts on a reliable and experienced employee with the 37-year-old Thomas Zenk who has been with the family-run company for 18 years and has proven himself as manager of the department Process Automation. After the appointment of Christian Brandmüller as Managing Director in 2019, Thomas Zenk now completes the management team as authorised representative.

Expertise in automation technology
Thomas Zenk has led the department Process Automation since 2008. In this position he has formed the transformation from programming plants and machinery to a successful service provider and advanced numerous further developments. Today, Spangler is in a strong market position with digital services such as virtual start-up, programming of SCADA systems or application development, without neglecting the conventional roots of the production of control systems.

Always on standby, also in private life
Despite all professional ambition Thomas Zenk primarily is a team player with familial values – not without reason he has worked at Spangler GmbH nearly half of his life. He lives and stands for these values inside and outside the company. The trained energy electronic technician is involved in the executive committee of the voluntary fire brigade and is a passionate host for his family and friends for barbecues.

Digitalisation in future
In future Thomas Zenk will also be responsible for the expansion of the automation and digitalisation competence at Spangler. For this he continues performing his tasks as manager of the Process Automation. For the new authorised representative it is obvious: “Digitalisation is one of the major aspects for Spangler’s success. In order to be in a position to offer our customers innovative solution concepts, it is essential to master and apply the latest technologies.”

Moosburg, a town in Munich’s surrounding, is certainly smaller than the nearby state capital, when taking the number of inhabitants into consideration. As regards sewage treatment the town does not need to hide behind as in Moosburg the latest state of the art technology has been installed in a future-oriented way over the last few years.

Prerequisite for the future
Starting point of the renewal was a SCADA and control system which already existed. Due to the design of the system as a central control unit for the entire sewage treatment plant, the increasing age of the programme was a challenge for the operators as regards updates and compatibility. Additionally, the hardware in form of a single PC was not secured with backups which would have led to a complete shutdown of the monitoring and control of the entire sewage treatment plant in case of a failure. For this reason it was decided to install a new SCADA system und to implement a new control concept. The new system will take over the complete control and visualisation of the plant technology.

In order to establish the prerequisites for a changeover, programmers of Spangler elaborated a concept which planned to convert the system during ongoing operation. As the sewage treatment plant was separated into several CPUs already during conversion a significant release of the main processor could be achieved. The next step was the modernisation of 15 remote stations (pumping station and storm water overflow tanks). They were connected via a mobile service connection to the control unit.

Open for the future
Spangler’s target of exchanging the SCADA system and decentralisation during ongoing operation was achieved. The operation safety can be guaranteed until the end of the year as planned. With this modern technology a transparent control of the sewage treatment plant Moosburg is possible and can be expanded at any time. The SCADA system enables remote control and monitoring of all external stations.

In many countries of the world sewage sludge is often used as fertiliser on fields. Meanwhile, sewage sludge is not only used as a waste product but also as energy source for recycling plants (e.g. incineration plants). The world’s largest solar drying plant for sewage sludge is currently established in Egypt. Liquid is withdrawn from the sludge by solar energy to compress it. Thereby, solids can be better transported and the odour nuisance during storage is reduced.

Energy-efficient and natural
Solar radiation in Egypt is used so that the drying of the sludge from the upstream wastewater treatment plant can be proceeded energy-efficiently and without additional energy input. The sludge is distributed by screw conveyors in more than a hundred greenhouses with each 100m x 100m. Huber Solstice sludge turners collect the material and turn it several times. Ventilators support the sludge drying with a special Spangler air-conditioning control. Afterwards, the result is loaded in containers. Spangler has programmed a SCADA system group which comprehensively controls this process automatically so that it works smoothly with all 128 sludge turners, 224 screw conveyors and 1152 ventilators.

The power of the sun, controlled by PLC
The dimension of the control technology with a total of 192 control cabinets and 64 sub-distribution boxes is just as impressive as the controlled plants. The control unit was implemented on eight independent process control systems installed by Spangler.

Overall, the project in Egypt was a logistical challenge as at no time the entire plant could be assembled in Töging for tests. The software was tested comprehensively prior to delivery. Several Spangler programmers, controllers from final inspection and customer representatives thoroughly checked the quality of the plant in Töging over a few days during a FAT programme.

The development of electromobility, either in the private sector or in public transport, is getting more and more important as regards the compliance of emission targets. In order to be able to develop busses, trains, scooters and even planes, powerful control cabinets simulate both the power sources, but also the energy consumers. Spangler produced such a test cabinet for a customer with which batteries can be tested.

Exceptional challenges
In order to guarantee an ideal test result, Spangler installed two supply units with electrical power of each 15kW. What is particular of the power supply units is that they not only serve as power source, but they can also simulate current collectors und for this they are designed in a bidirectional way. The Spangler engineers had to face the challenge to cool both supply units with a total performance of a heat of 30kW. In order to realise this ventilation slots at various places were planned and supported in advance by calculations of the electrical power dissipation with a 3D model.

Direct current instead of alternating current
Another challenge of this project was the built-in direct current technology for currents of up to 280 Ampere. Especially the high performance was the reason that no standard products could be built in. Thanks to the extensive contacts to producers of components and the know-how of Spangler, all necessary components for the required performance could be dimensioned and installed in the direct current range.

Control via the power supply unit
The complete control of the cabinet is taken over by these two power supply units. The system is connected to the SCADA system of the customer as well via these units which controls the whole testing station and change settings. Spangler planned and constructed this control cabinet within less than two months. Still during production the performance level was increased from c to d in agreement with the customer.

As a proof for the world-wide interest in electromobility follow-up orders and similar projects are waiting for Spangler.

As a long-time Siemens Solution Partner for Advanced Factory Automation, Spangler additionally was certified for the Siemens area of Industrial Strength Networks. Spangler is one of five South German automation suppliers of the currently only 27 partners in Germany that have this demanding certificate.

Two worlds in one plant
Modern plants are often empowered by industrial network technology to communicate and work in a network group. The conventional office network technology (IT world), however, considerably differs from the technology which is applied in control systems in the OT world (operational technology). Spangler has established important competences in network technology by intensive and regular training courses for employees and an increasing number of projects.

Many advantages for Spangler customers
In the age of IIot (Industrial Internet of Things) the requirement to the industrial network increases by the constantly growing number of devices and their different demands and protocols.

Customers and plant operators benefit directly from the increased plant safety by redundancy protocols of network components. Spangler integrates a professional network design including the infrastructure construction into the planning phase right from the beginning, especially with view to the increasing number of data throughputs which these plants can realise in future.

Spangler further develops its broad knowledge base to be able to realise projects of the latest generation. Plants for the future must be prepared already today to be networked with IIoT.