Digitalising the value chain for control cabinet engineering

The company 3CON, based in Tyrol, Austria, designs and produces customer-specific interior production systems for car manufacturers and their suppliers all over the world. By switching to EPLAN software products for their electrical engineering designs, the company was able to cut its development times in half and create a digital twin for every control cabinet. The digital twin is the foundation for digitalising assembly and mounting processes as well as for the fully automatic mechanical processing of sheet-metal components for control cabinets using a NC machining centre from Rittal. This considerably accelerates production processes while simultaneously increasing quality.

Automotive industries are undergoing radical changes. Alternative drive systems are replacing the traditional combustion engine and internet-supported assistance systems are changing operating concepts for all of the industry’s products. However, what hasn’t changed are customer demands for impeccably finished interiors, where there are no gaps that reveal the sheet metal beneath and the seam between two leather pieces follows the exact contour of the armrest. This type of interior ensures a high-quality appearance and provide a sense of cosy luxury and security.

Automation for Car Interiors

Just a few decades ago, a high-quality automobile interior required a substantial amount of manual labour during production. First-class quality workmanship was reserved for the top-of-the-range models of premium car manufacturers. Nowadays, parts and assemblies such as door and side panels, interior mirrors, headliners, mats, compartments and covers for car interiors are produced mostly by subcontractors. A high degree of automation ensures that owners of popular mass-produced vehicles can also enjoy car interiors of outstanding quality.

The company 3CON Technologies is one of the global market leaders in developing and manufacturing customised car interior production systems for the automotive industry. The 3CON portfolio, which is continually evolving, includes tools and systems for fully automatic sewing, hot-air cutting, press laminating, vacuum laminating and edge-folding as well as joining equipment. Sophisticated technologies and smart processes make it possible to manufacture interior fittings with the greatest possible design flexibility, efficiency and consistently outstanding quality.

From Toolmaking to Machine Engineering

Originally, 3CON only designed and manufactured tools. In 2001, plant engineering followed as the next logical step to enable clients to benefit from 3CON’s extensive experience with toolmaking. From the very start, for mechanical engineering the 3CON engineers used one of the market-leading software packages for 3D CAD, one that was widely used in the automotive industry.

3CON plant systems are highly complex mechatronic systems with a great deal of electronic technology. This ranges from drive and positioning technology, including robotics, to the design and control of heating elements to activate the adhesives used in the joining and laminating processes. Yet the electrical planning at that time, when the scope of the designs was far less complex, used products from a less-well-known manufacturer.

A Fresh Start

Some 3CON plant systems are very drive-heavy, with up to 20 shafts, while others have well over 500 feed-in and output points. The electrical schematics of an average 3CON system run up to 1,500 pages and fill several binders. “With our previous software it was only possible to process and maintain them by hand,” says Karl Oberst, director of electrical planning at 3CON. “It was therefore very time consuming and error prone.”

Since the previous CAD system in use was increasingly stretched to its limits, 3CON invested in completely new software for their electrical engineering design. To cover all the subtasks within the plant systems without having to deal with discontinuities, the company decided for the EPLAN Platform, including the tools EPLAN Electric P8 for electrical designs and EPLAN Pro Panel for panel building and control cabinet engineering in 3D.

No data was transferred from the previously used CAD system. Eplan is now always used when new system components must be created. This way, as the company’s old stocks are gradually replaced no time is wasted on conversions.

Twice as Fast

All EPLAN products use a common database, which always guarantees the consistency of all the data relationships across all the parts of the entire system. This means that the system can take all the dependencies into account. For example, adding or removing an option in one aspect of the planning – i.e., in the schematics – automatically affects all the other subplans, such as the terminal diagram or the control cabinet layout.

The electrical designers can completely rely on the software and do not have to double-check and reproduce every change in all the subplans, as was previously the case. The resulting acceleration of the subsequent evaluation and reporting runs (among other things) considerably shortens the time required for the six electrical designers to complete their work. The same holds true for the use of ready-made data sets for the components taken from the EPLAN Data Portal and the designing of the cooling system using thermal design integration.

“A project that used to take us a week on the previously used software can now be completed in just two to three days,” Oberst says. “That’s a valuable contribution to our competitiveness that, to a large extent, is due to 3CON’s ability to respond extremely quickly to individual customer requirements.”

Speeding Up Production

In addition to saving time and avoiding mistakes in the electrical engineering designs, 3CON’s software changeover also brought advantages for its panel building and control cabinet production. “The current products of the EPLAN Platform make it possible to create a complete digital twin of the control cabinet,” says Engineer Alexander Schmid, regional sales director for North & South Tyrol and Vorarlberg at EPLAN Software & Service. “This forms the foundation for a considerable acceleration of manufacturing processes.”

The ability to review and verify the entire product in a 3D view, even before the first steps are taken in the workshop, contributes to this acceleration. The company-wide use of the EPLAN Cloud and its applications, including eVIEW and eMANAGE, has also significantly simplified production. These cloud-based software systems can be used to collaboratively share and comment on data for electrical engineering projects.

Reliable and Interactive Processes

EPLAN eVIEW, which received the Automation Award in 2020, increases process security for panel building and control cabinet engineering at 3CON. As Oberst explains: “Instead of a bothersome pile of papers, control cabinet assembly technicians have a monitor within reach where they can easily find what they need and get a good overview of the current project status. Furthermore, they can be sure that the assembly, cabling and installation for the control cabinet are based on up-to-date and approved plans.”

This eliminates a notorious source of errors and reduces the time spent on making corrections. The possibility for redlining simplifies the provision of feedback to the design department, for example with constructive measures to facilitate manufacturability as part of a continuous improvement process.

Improving Interdepartmental Collaboration

Another important contribution to streamlining and stabilising the value chain is the direct connection of the technical software to the ERP software at 3CON. This allows the exporting of the mechatronic bills of materials without the previously necessary detour through Excel files.

In future, the company is also planning to use the Electric P8 package element Select Plus, with its PLC functionality and integration to the Siemens TIA Portal and Siemens TIA Selection Tool, the development environment for the PLC software. Preparations are also underway for the introduction of EPLAN Engineering Configuration for the automatic generation of engineering data and documentation including the schematics, the control cabinet layout in 3D and technical documentation based on data from a variant configurator.

Automated Processing

3CON had already been using stripping and crimping machines to support its production processes for some time. Until recently, however, the mechanical processing of mounting plates, housing parts and doors for the control cabinets was carried out by hand. “Our control cabinet fitters used hand drills and jigsaws for this,” Oberst says. “The work was very strenuous and tedious, which made it extremely unpopular, and it was also quite difficult to guarantee good quality.”

In 2021, as part of the construction of a new control cabinet production facility, 3CON took a significant step towards increasing manufacturing efficiency by purchasing a CNC-controlled sheet metal processing centre. The machine is a Perforex BC 1007 HS made by Rittal.

The drilling and milling machine provides the mounting plates, housing parts and doors of the control cabinet with the required holes, threads, cut-outs and engravings, all fully automatically. “The automated mechanical processing of the sheet-metal components is the logical continuation of the value chain based on the digital twin from the EPLAN programs,” says Rittal’s Thomas Bauer, technical sales Western Austria. “The Perforex BC 1007 HS takes all the relevant data directly from the 3D control cabinet construction tool EPLAN Pro Panel and converts it into the corresponding NC program.”

Higher Quality at Lower Costs

Aside from significantly accelerating the manufacturing process, the fully automatic processing of the sheet-metal components additionally guarantees consistently high quality. “With the Perforex BC 1007 HS, we have a time savings for processing of around 60 per cent, such that we expect the investment to have paid for itself in three years,” Oberst says. “We additionally benefit from reproducible quality, with straight cable ducts as well as burr-free cut-outs with perfect right angles.”

User acceptance was also very rapid, not only for the machining centre, which eliminated the less-popular work steps, but also for the paperless production. Oberst says: “Our employees very quickly learned to appreciate the shortened search times and the elimination of notorious error sources. After just a few weeks, even the biggest sceptic doesn’t want to go back to designs on paper.”

User

Founded in 1998 in Oberaudorf, Germany, 3CON now develops and produces innovative tools and plant systems for manufacturing automotive interiors – including door panels, armrests, cockpits, and so on – in Ebbs in Tyrol, Austria. With around 600 employees in five countries, including 25 trainees, the company has annual revenues of more than 80 million euros and is one of the world market leaders for designing and manufacturing special-purpose machines for the automotive industry and its suppliers.