At a time when markets are changing rapidly and individualization is becoming increasingly important, manufacturing companies face the challenge of adapting their machines flexibly and efficiently to new requirements. Especially the ability to react quickly and error-free to changing product sizes or variants is becoming increasingly important. Due to the increasing demand for individualized products, the market is demanding ever smaller batch sizes with constant availability and quality. Retrofit solutions provide an economical alternative to investing in costly new systems. The targeted retrofitting of existing machines not only significantly reduces changeover times and sources of errors, but also sustainably increases process reliability.
A central element of this is automated and monitored format adjustment, which minimizes operating errors and enables flexible production. SIKO retrofit solutions come into play here: They enable optimized changeover in the required degree of automation – from the positioning drive to the monitored position display. This guarantees future-proof production that increases both efficiency and quality.
Consequently, retrofitting stands not only for modernization, but also for a sustainable, economical and safe path into the future of production!
A retrofit system is the combination of various retrofit devices in production plants and is tailored to the individual needs of existing machines and plants. The evolutionary steps in format adjustment range from manual to monitored and all the way to automated format settings with increasing efficiency and process reliability. Retrofit systems with monitored and/or automated format settings have a substantial economic impact.
Often, no machine control is integrated in existing systems or there are controllers with outdated interfaces. For this reason, plant operators often look for a solution with a separate control system when modernizing their plants that enables uncomplicated electrical installation and commissioning while requiring as little programming knowledge as possible.
The SIKO Easy Touch Control ETC5000 is just the right thing for this application. This plug-and-play system is completely pre-programmed and eliminates the need for costly conversion to a PLC. The ETC5000 provides a ready-to-use user interface to perform supervised or automated format setting. The SIKO position indicators and/or SIKO positioning drives are parameterized easily via a display. In practice, different recipes for different products can thus be stored in the controller, selected via the recipe management and transmitted to corresponding adjustment points.
In a system with an existing controller (PLC), monitored SIKO position indicators or SIKO positioning drives can be easily integrated via appropriate interfaces. Available interfaces are, depending on the device: Can bus, IO-Link, Profinet or other Ethernet interfaces.
If there is no possibility of integration into an existing PLC, upgrading is also possible with a SIKO controller. All SIKO devices in the area of intelligent format adjustment can be parameterized via a pre-installed controller via touch operation on the display. During operation, different predefined recipes can be specified for different products, which are stored in a recipe management system. When operating the system, these recipes can be selected via the display and thus the system can be converted to another product.
The target values are automatically transmitted to all axes, which are either automatically moved to by the positioning drive or set manually. The setting on electronic SIKO position indicators is not only monitored within the controller, but also by means of status LEDs (red/green) directly on the position indicator.
The degree of automation of a machine can be adjusted individually: for An automated version with powerful SIKO positioning drives is ideal axes that are frequently to be adjusted, while less frequently used adjustment points can be monitored by means of a more cost-effective electronic SIKO position display.
The convenient plug-and-play solution with the ETC5000 can be used individually despite the pre-programmed user interface: Operators of the production plant can configure parameters via the controller. Recipe management enables a structured organization of product-related setting values, enabling process engineers to define setpoint values and settings according to operational requirements.
SIKO retrofit solutions enable flexible and economical modernization of existing machines to adapt them to current market requirements – without major investments in new plants. Efficiency , flexibility and productivity are significantly increased thanks to monitored or automated format adjustment and the associated use of electronic position indicators and positioning drives The following applies for this: The more frequently axes need to be adjusted and the higher the quality requirements, the more successful the use of monitored or automated format adjustments will be. Setup times are reduced by up to >80%, error sources are reduced and product changes are faster and more cost-efficient. The turnkey plug-and-play system as well as the high installation compatibility with SIKO devices enable individual adaptation of existing systems to the desired degree of automation and provide the possibility to combine different SIKO components as required. The interchangeability of mechanical and electronic SIKO products is usually easy, so that both manual and automated format settings can be implemented. The system solution also includes completely pre-assembled cabling, making retrofitting convenient and easy.
A balance between budget awareness and production safety is achieved with the retrofit solutions from SIKO. Shorter set-up times, higher process reliability and error-free product changes are advantages in addition to clearly understandable user prompting and permanent position monitoring. Manual intervention is completely eliminated with automated format adjustment, because the adjustment is carried out at the push of a button; the position values are continuously monitored and readjusted. Communication of the components takes place centrally and scalably with the machine control.
Overall, your system gains higher efficiency, scalability and quality with lower running costs with SIKO retrofit solutions.
An application example illustrates the increase in efficiency thanks to SIKO Retrofit. A folding carton gluing machine required a changeover time of 45 minutes per format change before conversion with manual adjustment and mechanical position indicators. After a successful retrofit upgrade with monitored SIKO position indicators, this period was halved. SIKO positioning drives were installed in another system, reducing setup times by more than 80% to just 5 minutes. Retrofit therefore pays for itself in a very short time!
Suitable adjustment points for retrofit retrofits are located in places where precise and repeatable positioning is technically feasible, which must be adjusted regularly in the production process and which allow an exact return of the settings to fixed position values:
- Threaded spindles (rotating movement)
- Slide units (linear motion)
- Interchangeable format parts
Fixed reference points are essential to ensure reproducible and error-free adjustments; this applies to both manual and automatic format adjustments. On the other hand, adjustment points without clear reference values are prone to errors and are strongly influenced by external influences such as material properties, temperature or changing operating personnel.
When planning retrofitting, you should also consider whether there is enough space for the sensors and the necessary components such as cables, mating connectors or torque supports. For this reason, we always pay attention to the most compact design possible for our SIKO position indicators and SIKO positioning drives.
Digitalization, automation, increasing individualization of products at high cost pressure and, last but not least, an all-too-present shortage of skilled workers are issues that production plant operators are increasingly facing. The performance level and requirements for future-proof production are rising as are the demands of customers.
Plant operators will also have to adapt flexibly to individualized products in the future – keyword: Intelligent format adjustment. In addition to flexibility, speed also counts, which places high demands on production systems, because speed in production as well as and especially in the conversion to various product formats, is the essential factor for the efficiency of production systems. Another parameter is process reliability that should not be underestimated and which has a significant impact on the success of a production line. In times of a shortage of skilled workers, it is mandatory to develop safe processes that run error-free and person-independent even with a low degree of automation. In addition to an increasing degree of automation, the monitoring of manual adjustment points remains an important component of modern production systems
