The Beumer Group has commissioned a complete packaging system including palletiser remotely for the first time - at a cement manufacturer in Azerbaijan.
Thanks to digitalisation, it is no longer uncommon for individual components to be parameterised and commissioned remotely, i.e. not directly on the device, but remotely. However, Beumer has now for the first time a complete packaging system including palletiser into operation - from over 4,000 kilometres away.
Helping customers with malfunctions or downtimes of existing systems is no problem for Beumer, even from a distance. The system provider was faced with a completely new situation when a planned commissioning with the On-site deployment of service personnel not carried out due to travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic could be realised. The company reacted flexibly and set the course for remote commissioning.
„The trigger was clearly the pandemic,“ explains Peter Teichrib, Head of Engineering. However, this is not the only scenario that makes the new service necessary. Anything that makes personal access to systems and users difficult or impossible requires new solutions.
Concrete example: the Packaging line of the cement manufacturer Norm LLC in Azerbaijan, which was already almost fully assembled on site. The system consists of two bag transport lines, a Beumer paletpac 5000 layer palletiser and the Beumer stretch hood A packaging machine.
„All the components were already in place. Only some electrical installations and commissioning still had to be implemented when our specialists had to leave the country due to the worldwide travel warning.“ This was a tricky situation for the customer: he had the capacity of the two packaging lines has already been planned. If the system does not start up, he faces the threat of supply bottlenecks and loss of market share.
Remote commissioning launched as a pilot project
In general, a number of requirements must be met before the remote commissioning project can even be considered. The system must be tested in-house in advance. „In the case of this system, we actually carried out an extended in-house commissioning, as the Beumer paletpac 5000 with the new S7-1500 PLC control system for the first time was running,“ says the department head. „We wanted to make sure that everything would work perfectly later on. Ultimately, this was what made remote commissioning possible in the first place.“
Expertise meets technology
Hardware side several IP cameras provide the necessary overview The Beumer Smart Glasses, specially developed data glasses, connect the Beumer experts audio-visually directly with the user on site. „Of course, a broadband internet connection must be available for this.“ The data glasses provide a detailed view: The support team sees the same thing as the wearer on site and can directly instruct the right actions. This guides the user step by step through the commissioning process.
The Cameras and smart glasses are part of the plug-and-play set for remote commissioning. This also includes a WiFi router for the Beumer Smart Glasses and a VPN client installed on an mGuard router. The IP cameras must be connected via LAN cable to ensure sufficient image quality and stable transmission. „We first set up the hardware and software components here on site and tested the configuration. We then sent the complete package to Norm LLC,“ explains Teichrib. This approach has proved successful and is also planned for future remote commissioning projects.
Remote commissioning: keeping an overview
For this project, the company a separate back office was set up at short notice: Using four monitors and a laptop, the service staff always had an overview of the images from the IP cameras, the field of vision of the smart glasses and the system data sent via the VPN client.
Source: Beumer
