Lutèce B.V. in Velden (near Venlo) processes fresh mushrooms to a long lasting product. Using three fully automated production lines there are tons of mushrooms being cut, canned etc. each day. Also the labeling and placing everything on pallets is fully automated. Van den Akker Electric Engineering from Rosmalen carried out the complete control of the production lines with PROFINET, with which a solution was created based on the future. Using PROFINET for the control of the SEW MOVITRAC ® 07 frequency controllers was even the first event in the whole world.
The SEW MOVIDRIVE ® B application controller with PROFINET-card DFE12B (left) controls the SEW MOVITRAC ® 07 frequency controllers.
First PROFINET event
To have a better efficiency Lutèce decided in 2005 to close one of the production locations in Horst and to move the production line to Velden. It took Van den Akker Electric Engineering only four weeks time to complete the removal, the installation and the automation of this, for Lutèce in Velden third production line.
The production line works 17 to 18 hours per day.
You can find an interview with Van den Akker Electric Engineering in Aandrijf Magazine number 82 of september 2004 – see www.vector.nu/persberichten - interviews.
At first Arno van den Akker, director of Van den Akker Electric Engineering, wanted to use the ”old fashioned” Profibus system for the automation of the ”new” production line. Soon it became clear that because of the big distances there were many repeaters necessary. Due to these extra costs, the huge quantity of data and the future plans of Lutèce he choose PROFINET after consulting Vector Aandrijftechniek and Siemens, a system that will still be up-to-date after 10 years! Using 13 SEW-MOVIDRIVE ® B application controllers, with the PROFINET-card DFE12B, 70 SEW-MOVITRAC ® 07 frequency controllers are being controlled. The use of PROFINET for the control of the frequency controllers is even for the first time in the world.
Advantages PROFINET
Arno van den Akker is talking enthusiastic about the many advantages. ”Besides reaching great distances without repeaters, the on ETHERNET based PROFINET-interface has a high data velocity of 100 Mbaud/s, in combination with real time behaviour.
Thijs Nijpjes (l) gives Stefan Masius (Control technician with Lutèce) an explenation about PROFINET.
Thijs Nijpjes, with Van den Akker also responsible for the programming and installation, endorses this and points out even more advantages. ”I can do network expansions without interruption and “place a port” without disconnecting any cables. The production just can continue and the down-time is zero. I only need one device for wireless communication and configuration of for example the frequency controllers, PLC's and control panels. It is also possible to do this from any location in the company. Concerning connections the TCP/IP based technique is reasonable simple and less sensitive for interference”.