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01/12/2011
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Italian engineering firm Stema Service and variable speed drives firm Control Techniques are reporting energy savings, increased production and reduced maintenance costs at a major Italian tyre manufacturing plant, following a collaborative venture.
 The unnamed tyre plant had, until recently, still been using dc technologies for applications ranging from rubber mixers to calendar lines. Studies with Stema and CT revealed that changing to ac would not only cut the energy bill but also significant reduce downtime and improve throughput and quality
With the maintenance requirements of its dc motors eliminated, the company turned its attention to the plant control system, leading to a new approach using PLCs and a digital communication bus based on Ethernet.
In brief detail, the tyre plant has a mix of induction and synchronous motors, all now Unidrive SP ac drives from Control Techniques. Mixers rated at up to 400kW, for example, use Unidrive SPM modular drives, while the calendar line (where motor powers vary from a few kilowatts to 90kW) harness SP drives in open loop, closed loop and brushless servo configurations, with Ethernet fieldbus communications.
Some drives also feature SM-applications modules, bringing motion control down to the drive level, so massively reducing wiring and the risk of interference.
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Author
Brian Tinham
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