More Productive through Integrated Data Flow

Knoll Maschinenbau GmbH, a leading manufacturer of conveying and filter systems for metal working, relies on EPLAN Cabinet for enclosure manufacturing – and has been profiting from a consistent data flow with reduced development times since then. An interface to machines for cable preparation and sheet metal forming was also realized. With the planned migration to EPLAN Electric P8 the develop-ment times will be reduced further since Designers can access macros and modules of the EPLAN Platform. Where metal cutting is carried out, chips arise that have to be removed from the machining area of the machine. At the same time the cooling lubricants, in the form of oil or emulsion, have to be recycled in such a form that as much of them as possible can be reused. Knoll Maschinenbau GmbH in Bad Saulgau is one of the leading vendors in this specialized field. The medium-sized company that em-ploys about 750 employees provides a comprehensive range of conveying and filter systems for chips and cooling lubricants in metal machining. Complete plants and system solutions with central or distributed functions are configured from product ranges such as pumps, pump back stations and chip reducers. List of customers: "Who is who" of machine tool manufacturers
Knoll's list of customers could be the "Who is who" of machine tool manufac-turers. Knoll often develops compact series production devices for mounting di-rectly to the machine often for the machine manufacturer. But the engineers from Bad Saulgau also develop tailor-made plants that can reach impressive dimensions directly for end users. For example, Knoll developed and built a central filtering system for the transmission manufacturing plant of ZF in Friedrichshafen that recycles the cooling lubricant of 50 tool machines – with 160,000 liters of reser-voir capacity and a throughput rate of 14,000 l/min. Plants with a considerable output
Such plants – whether central or distributed – have a notable performance: Then cooling lubricants can be reused to a great extent, the chips are "spade dry" and can also be used as a material. Prerequisite is not only well-thought-out proc-ess engineering as well as electrical controlling of the filter plants. The larger plants therefore require large enclosures respectively that control the three main tasks of supplying, cleaning and temperature control. The control technology therefore plays an ever increasingly important role since energy efficiency is of increasing importance at the plants. Anton Forsten-häusler, Head of the electrotechnical design at Knoll Maschinenbau GmbH: "The delivery pumps are usually rotary-speed controlled. The filter plants also operate as-required and automatically adjust to modified process conditions such as vol-ume flow rate, material and the amount and size of the particles." This sophisti-cated control technology results, for example, in a high-performance cooling lu-bricant filter of the VLX series saving up to 60.000 kWh of energy per year. This amount of energy is, for example, enough to illuminate the complete Eiffel Tower for six nights. Development with modern CAD tools
Knoll also works in the field of electrical engineering with great expertise and a high in-house production depth – and the engineers use state-of-the-art tools. The electrotechnical designers in the team of Anton Forstenhäusler have been using EPLAN Cabinet, a 3D system for panel layout, for about a year. This tool effectively supports the complete product creation phase in enclosure manufactur-ing and contributes to reducing the "time to market" factor. With the schematic serving as the starting basis. In EPLAN Cabinet all the components are placed exactly in the enclosure – with integrated collision control that takes minimum distances into consideration. Data transfer to cable preparation and enclosure working
The designers are very satisfied with this facilitation of their work. Anton Forstenhäusler: "The panel layout has become much simpler. The components hang as it were from the pen and only have to be placed." EPLAN Cabinet then also determines the cable length resulting from the placement. When the enclosure has been laid out by this means – initially virtually, i.e. on the computer, the corresponding data are then transferred to the transferred to the enclosure manufacturing in the own company. One record goes to the cable prepa-ration, a second to the automated enclosure working that works the sheet metal on the basis of the data. Continuity from engineering to manufacturing
Knoll has thus created continuity from engineering to design. In cable prepa-ration this connection already existed. However, with a software program that came from the machine manufacturer and was already installed approximately four years ago. This routing software has now been replaced by the 3D-Routing module of EPLAN Cabinet. Anton Forstenhäusler: "This was a logical step since our aim is to process all the electrotechnical tasks with one system and without interfaces." In the meantime this functions well after the corresponding preliminary work had been done. Anton Forstenhäusler: "We save a lot of time, because the usual preparatory work previously required is no longer required. We initially had to do more in order to enter the components, but this time was a sensible investment since the time saved is very high." The designers are therefore already using EPLAN Cabinet for 90% of the projects. This was also accompanied by a rethinking on the part of the employees in enclosure manufacturing: When in the past there were deviations from the plan-ning, these were implemented in manufacturing - however without defined proc-ess and control possibility. On the face of it this worked much faster sometimes – but there was the risk that changes were not documented completely. Now the manufacturing personnel returns the changes to the enclosure design team that documents them directly in the EPLAN Cabinet project so that they can be repro-duced. At the beginning the manufacturing team sometimes felt this defined proc-ess to involve too much effort. In the meantime the designers have, however, managed to convince them that a consistent data flow avoids errors and thus en-sures a uniform level of quality – which is what Knoll's customers expect. Saving of time during the documentation
In addition to the general advantage of the time saved, the designers empha-size the collision control as a useful feature of EPLAN Cabinet. It allows one to ensure that the components in the enclosure doors fit optimally and that the indi-vidual minimum distances are ensured. It is also advantageous to use the EPLAN Cabinet data for the documentation: Schematics, bills of materials and terminal diagrams pass from EPLAN directly into the documentation and the quotation generation – directly in the desired language. This also saves time and improves communication with customers and suppliers decisively. Interesting also for the preliminary calculation
Knoll has decided to continue along its way towards a continuous data flow and will soon also be using the EPLAN data for preliminary calculation. The prices of the components are already stored in the bills of materials. The mounting times from the ERP system that are to be combined with the EPLAN data on a project level are not available yet. Then continuity will also be available on the calculation level and the CAx system will exchange information with the ERP system. Next step: Migration to EPLAN Electric P8
A next step toward integration is also being implemented and has already reached an advanced stage: Knoll is engaged in the migration from EPLAN 5 to EPLAN Electric P8 and will thus map the entire electrotechnical design to the new EPLAN Platform. Then the designers can access macros and work even faster. In addition, the utilization of existing modules ensures a uniform "look" in the enclosure and a uniformly high level of quality. Anton Forstenhäusler: "We are working with a higher production depth. A continuous workflow also on the design level is thus even more important. The EPLAN Platform allows all the par-ticipating colleagues to use the respective current data material: Without uncer-tainties, without delay and with a clear authorization assignment. All the depart-ments in engineering, manufacturing, purchasing, product management and mounting will profit."