Retrofit Intelligent switches reduce downtime and improve output in the production of glass wool

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Indu-Sol GmbH

FAULHABER Drive Systems

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To prevent production failures, switches with diagnostic features can provide valuable service. Read here how an insulation manufacturer introduced the smart helpers in a mature production environment.

Denise Fritzsche works in marketing at Indu-Sol. Nora Crocoll works for the Stutensee editorial office.

Automated industrial plants should reliably produce quality and be as efficient as possible. Therefore, after many years of use in many plants, a retrofit is inevitable. Defective components must be replaced and machines mechanically or software-wise updated to make the plant more effective and powerful again. This also includes adjusting the communication network in terms of performance. If the wear and tear of components in the past has led to production breakdowns, it makes sense to use switches with diagnostic features during the retrofit. This helps to better understand the causes in the future and to be alerted in advance. This path was taken by a large glass wool manufacturer together with HMR Automation and Indu-Sol.

HMR Automation and Process Technology GmbH specializes in the implementation of automation projects in various industries, from the automotive industry to the food industry to the production of medical devices. Indu-Sol is a specialist in industrial communication and network technology. Both companies were involved in revising the communication network of an insulation manufacturer at the end of 2023.

On the trail of causes of failure

The plant's network structure consisted of three rings. The emergency stop circuit repeatedly had problems before the retrofit. Dino Kovacic is the head of IT at HMR. One of his team's tasks is to plan and commission the networks for the automation level at customers. From this experience, he reports: "It takes some time before the insulation manufacturing plant can be restarted from a standstill. During this start-up phase, no salable goods are produced, only rejects. Therefore, it is extremely important for the manufacturer to stabilize the production process."

Even before the retrofit, Indu-Sol GmbH was therefore on site for measurements to determine the reasons for the failure. However, since the cause of the error was not permanently present, it could not be localized quickly. This would have necessitated a longer monitoring period. The aim of the network modernization was therefore to identify possible causes of plant failures at an early stage and convert them into simple maintenance tasks. The plant operator therefore decided to use Indu-Sol's diagnostic switches. In combination with the Maintenance Analysis software Promanage, conclusions about the causes of failure were to be drawn based on the millisecond-accurate recording of network communication. Information about whether, for example, packet runtimes are too long, there are errors in the line, or packets are lost should help to operate the network more stably.

Dino Kovacic has planned and implemented many networks in recent years. In the current application, he worked with Indu-Sol switches for the first time and states: "In my view, the diagnostic features provided by Promesh switches are unrivaled. Alternative solutions offer neither a leakage current measurement nor a line quality measurement, nor any other diagnostic features."

Support at eye level

Even before the project in the insulation production, HMR had bought cable certification measuring devices from Indu-Sol and received professional knowledge in a workshop. "This all happened on an equal footing and we experienced the same in the current project," recalls Dino Kovacic. For the commissioning of the plant, he asked to be accompanied by one of the network experts. Because it was his first use of the switches, he still lacked experience in defining thresholds. After a four-week runtime, the protocols were evaluated together. In advance, the network experts were also able to help with the implementation of remote access. There were technical challenges here in cleanly reading out the MNP files on the customer's OPC server.

In the near future, the automation experts plan to once again analyze how well the plant is running together with the insulation manufacturer. They will again receive support from the network experts in this regard. "Together, we will then look in the analysis software to see if there are still any errors. It might be that production practice reveals that we need to further optimize thresholds. In that case, we will make the necessary adjustments. And of course, we will also intervene where unplanned errors occur," outlines Dino Kovacic.

Commissioning made easy thanks to network analysis

The software Promanage NT used is just as important as the switches. Thanks to the intuitive operability, the automation specialists quickly found their way around and were grateful for the clear presentation of the diagnostic data. Dino Kovacic explains: "With many products, you can only mirror one port to another and then look at the packets, for example, using Wireshark software. However, their analysis is very complicated, not our day-to-day business and exceeds our competencies. Of course, we know that our colleagues from Indu-Sol can interpret this for us. However, it is easier if a software presents the relevant data in a comprehensible and clear way and we can perform this work ourselves."

The retrofit of the plant also benefited from the comprehensible presentation: During the recommissioning, an initial error that could have led to a plant failure was very quickly found with it. It was a line whose line quality was below 30 percent. The switch detected this, and the software visualized and warned about it. With this information, HMR Automation was able to take very accurate measurements at the indicated location. This revealed that the shield was incorrectly applied to a self-configured cable. An error that could be quickly eliminated with this information.

Delivers more than it promises

As an external service provider, HMR has little influence on the components used in the projects. Usually, the specifications dictate which switches should be used, or there are so-called release lists in which the devices that may be selected are listed. Dino Kovacic reports: "The price-performance ratio is unrivaled. The products deliver a multiple of the usual performance, but this is not reflected in the price." He therefore recommends the use of the switches because he has been convinced by the application, and also because he has seen how satisfied other customers are with them. An automotive customer, for example, relies on the devices. Dino Kovacic says: "There, the cycle times are extremely short and the demand for reliability is immense. This is also an argument that we put forward in talks with customers." The certification of the switches for Ethernet IP and Profinet is also advantageous. This facilitates international use. For the future, Dino Kovacic hopes that the switches will support Industrial Real Time and a firewall. Indu-Sol is already working on both topics.