In 2017, Nobilia, Europe's largest professional kitchenware manufacturer headquartered in Welsh, Germany, delivered an astonishing 675,000 sets of complete kitchen appliances. The company's intelligent and efficient production logistics, along with consistent transparency in parts and production data, are prerequisites for achieving such high production capacity. Beckhoff's PC-based control technology provides a solid foundation for these goals, such as the recently automated Horstkemper parts conveyor system, which is equipped with transverse conveyors and roller conveyors in Factory No. 2.
Since 1989, Nolte has been using Beckhoff's PC-based control technology to automate equipment and production facilities at its two production sites in Welsh. Despite using heterogeneous machine clusters, Nolte maintains homogeneous ordering and spare parts inventory in its central database, which is key to Nolte's ability to continuously improve production efficiency and flexibility over the years and to implement Industry 4.0 solutions early on.
Last year, Nolte's daily production reached 3,100 sets, placing considerable demands on production technology and logistics. To further tap the capacity potential of its 140,000-square-meter Plant 2, they automated the parts transportation and distribution process using lateral conveyors and roller conveyors from Horstkemper Maschinenbau GmbH (headquartered in Rietberg). Norbert Horstkemper, the company's managing director, explained, "We provided Nolte with a customizable logistics solution, in this case, lateral conveyors for handling and transporting kitchenware components, with the focus on improving availability and reducing installation and maintenance time."
Fully automated horizontal conveyor replaces manual roller trolley
Automation has been added to the transport areas at the exits of multiple panel cutting systems within the parts production area. Previously, workers used manual roller carts to sort stacked kitchenware parts onto various buffer tracks, then manually distributed them from the buffer zones to the control stations in front for cleaning and inspection of each part, before finally transporting them to the automated warehouse via a separate conveyor system.
Norbert Horstkemper believed their technological challenge at the time was automating the transportation and distribution process to transport stacked parts to their respective destinations in the correct order, and to evenly sort them using two lateral conveyors with a fully automated destination allocation function. Horstkemper stated, “The fully automated surface inspection area remained open to workers and forklifts. The project was planned to begin in early 2017, implemented in May, and completed in October. Besides being reliable and easy to use, the system allowed for the rapid integration of new features (some during continuous operation) into the existing system, from which Nolte benefited greatly. Nolte continued to invest in automation across its various transportation areas; although the refurbishment was significant, capacity quickly returned to normal levels and has maintained steady growth ever since.”
Significantly improves the performance of the panel detection area
Nolte utilizes a total of 10 transverse conveyors to automate eight transport zones equipped with 250 roller conveyors. Three of these zones are used for kitchenware surface inspection and finishing. Lars Eberlei, Production and Shop Planner at Nolte Kitchenware, explained: “In addition to the upstream inspection system, our workers also perform 100% comprehensive inspection of the front panels. We currently operate on a shift system, producing 26,000 parts per day. The automation achieved using transverse conveyors—numerous infeed and outfeed, overlapping coverage areas, and redundancy schemes—is a key step in moving stacked parts to the right locations as efficiently and timely as possible. Besides the large transverse conveyors used for large cabinet packaging, performance is now 15% higher than the previously entirely manual transport logistics system. This means that even with increased production capacity, no additional personnel are needed.”
Different transverse conveyor vehicles travel at a speed of 85 meters per minute, which will not endanger the safety of passing workers and forklifts.
Eberlei believes that implementing the new visualization system on Beckhoff's 24-inch multi-touch control panel CP3924 was another key factor in the success: "Realistically reproducing the transport area consisting of all roller conveyors and transverse conveyors on a zoomable HMI is crucial for improving efficiency. Previously, inspectors often had to walk nearly 14 kilometers a day to find all the materials they needed, but now they can easily find the required pallets through the visualization interface. The smooth interaction of the following three components is the foundation for this functional improvement: after automation through PC-based control technology, the visualization interface and system are used to control the material flow throughout the entire production process. Only in this way can data from all equipment, transport, and inspection areas be integrated so tightly and transparently, optimizing the access to parts and avoiding line congestion caused by parts piling up."
Eberlei explained that the efficiency gains achieved through material handling technology far exceed those of a central parts tracking system: “We also implemented shipping prioritization to ensure smooth and efficient workflows. We also took employee workload and comfort into account. This is why workers can’t simply assign the next batch of available parts for inspection; instead, they are assigned furniture parts of varying weights to reduce physical labor. Other features, such as remaining pallet identification, are also included in the programming.”
The transverse conveyor is fully functional and highly safe.
The number of lateral conveyors managed by the system varies between 1 and 7 across 8 different transport zones. The maximum number is unlimited; generally, each transport zone is equipped with one C6930 control cabinet PC. The cross-departmental transport design allows operators unrestricted manual destination assignment. Automated navigation through multiple conveyors and transport zones enables the selection of remote transport destinations. Existing and additional transport segments and lateral conveyors can be calculated at any time using parameter tables. These factors are then automatically taken into account for destination selection, transport logistics, and visual representation.
Lateral conveyor trucks typically have a load capacity of 4 to 5 tons; in some areas, only 2 tons are needed. To transport as many stacks of parts as possible at once, each truck must be able to handle 4 to 6 stacks. Norbert Horstkemper added, “Depending on available space, the width of a transverse conveyor typically ranges from 2.5 to 4.5 meters. Some conveyors are equipped with multiple roller conveyors, a lifting device, and protective baffles. A 19-inch multi-touch panel PC CP3219 with TwinCAT NC PTP software handles all control tasks (such as width measurement) to determine the stacking position of parts on the conveyor. For motion control, AM8000 servo motors are used, along with compact EL72xx series EtherCAT servo motor terminal modules (for example, for controlling the baffles) and AX5000 servo drives equipped with AX5805 TwinSAFE cards. The transverse conveyor absorbs the necessary energy through a contactless power source called Inductive Power Transfer (IPT). A floor-mounted contactless absolute position feedback system further ensures trouble-free operation. The system transmits data to the central conveyor area via WLAN. Each transverse conveyor receives transport instructions from this computer and then picks up and transports materials.”
The visualization system realistically recreates the transport area with roller conveyors and transverse conveyor vehicles; multi-touch functionality allows for easy zooming in and out, and switching between detailed information display and overview.
Through EtherCAT terminal modules, servo drives, industrial PCs, and control software, PC-based control technology provides a complete solution for automating more complex production processes, such as those encountered at Nolte.
The transverse conveyor travels at a very high speed, up to 85 meters per minute. Given the numerous workers and forklifts moving along its route, the integration of TwinSAFE-based safety technology is equally important. Lars Eberlei explains, “Almost 90 percent of the parts transport at Nolte is fully automated. However, achieving full automation in this situation is very difficult, if not impossible, due to the existence of secondary areas and separate material flows. The transverse conveyor and PC-based control technology provide us with the flexibility needed to smoothly integrate these unique processes.”
PC-based control technology helps achieve full automation of complex production processes.
Take the transport area of the Nolte Plant 2 as an example. Its design is highly complex, with approximately 1,500 roller conveyor motors. Beckhoff's PC-based control technology, with its excellent openness and versatility, provides a solid foundation for automation. The modular I/O system, composed of EtherCAT terminal blocks, can meet the specific needs of each area and easily adapt to system expansion or modernization. Furthermore, the control functions integrated through TwinCAT software allow for the convenient consolidation of previously separate system areas, including safety-related areas, using TwinSAFE. Powerful data communication offers further advantages. The ultra-high-speed EtherCAT protocol is indispensable for the safe operation of lateral conveyors, and ADS communication within TwinCAT enables upper-level communication during production and connection to Nolte's Ethernet-based enterprise network. This allows for rapid expansion of the transport system using existing IT infrastructure as needed.
Beyond the technological advantages, Norbert Horstkemper also saw another benefit in PC-based control technology: “Our company, as the equipment manufacturer, Beckhoff, as the control system supplier, and Nolte, as the end user, have been working together for many years. Furthermore, the geographical proximity of the three of us makes many things much easier.” Lars Eberlei agreed: “PC control technology, along with the geographical proximity of our partners, has been beneficial to us. Therefore, we have standardized our existing systems using PC control technology.”
When automating the transportation area, PC-based control technology demonstrated exceptional flexibility and integration capabilities. Previously, control workstations had to be manually configured in semi-automatic mode for testing and optimization to avoid production interruptions. Eberlei stated, “We encountered no problems implementing automation, nor did it impose any limitations on the production process. In addition to the PC-based control technology, the extensive experience of our long-term partners also played a crucial role in the transition to full automation.”
Personnel involved in implementing the automation of the transportation process: (from left to right) Christian Pankoke, Beckhoff Systems Engineering Department, responsible for technical documentation and work preparation; Arndt Tischler, Beckhoff Software Project Manager; Lars Eberlei, Production Planner at Nolte Kitchenware; Norbert Horstkemper, General Manager of Horstkemper Maschinenbau; and Markus Laumeier, Project Manager from Beckhoff Systems Engineering Department.
Unlocking Future Optimization Potential
The ongoing expansion of Industry 4.0 solutions has opened up even more optimization potential for Perrier. For example, it enables transparent parts tracking and fully automated target allocation through connectivity and data throughput across all equipment and manual workstations. By recording key transport parameters, the capacity utilization of each lateral conveyor and roller conveyor can be determined. In the future, this information can serve as the basis for further optimization of the transport infrastructure. Lars Eberlei concludes, “Easy-to-use and easy-to-understand applications and corresponding HMIs are crucial for successful production and the training of new operators in the future.”
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