Shangdong Shenzhou Machinery Co. Ltd, has been manufacturing and servicing industrial cranes since 1989. Its products have been widely used in equipment manufacturing, paper making, energy and electric power, automobiles and ships, metal processing, aerospace, and steel manufacturing, among other fields.
- Build a smart unmanned crane to improve personnel and equipment safety and increase operational efficiency
- Crane automation solution built on ControlLogix™ Controllers and PowerFlex® 755TR Low Voltage AC Drive with TorqProve™ Technology to verify control of the load, Anti-sway capability, and regeneration capability
- Reduced potential for personnel pinching accidents to zero
- Increased daily dispatch capability by 10% - 30%
- Achieved high position accuracy: within +/- 3mm
- Increased efficiency by 5 – 10%
Challenge
Modernizing Crane Operations
The crane is one of the oldest and most important pieces of equipment in industrial production and logistics. Traditional control of overhead cranes is performed manually. Heavy loads and manual operation can lead to safety issues for personnel or equipment. This type of operation is also inefficient.
Upgrading crane control to be intelligent and unmanned has the potential to accelerate digital transformation across the heavy industries.
Solution
Optimizing Productivity and Safety with Crane Automation
Shenzhou Machinery approached Rockwell Automation with a goal of developing a solution for operating overhead cranes that was unmanned and intelligent. The solution had to provide safety, reliability, and productivity for the customers who would be using it – and had to include features like anti-sway, skew control (floating control), precise positioning, and user-friendly operator controls. While initially targeted at material warehouses and waste disposal, Shenzhou wanted a solution that could be applied anywhere overhead cranes are used.
Rockwell Automation developed a Smart Overhead Crane System solution based on Allen-Bradley® CompactLogix™ controllers, PowerFlex® 755T drives, PanelView™ Plus 7 enhanced operator interfaces (HMI), encoders, sensors, and wireless network.
The Allen-Bradley CompactLogix controllers serve as the crane’s “brain,” and provide efficient, integrated logic control and motion control.
The PowerFlex 755TR drive controls both crane position and speed. Built-in anti-sway capabilities improve safety and efficiency by reducing the swinging of a moving load. TorqProve Control helps verify control of a load in lifting applications. In addition, the drive has regenerative capabilities, which allow stored energy to be transferred back to the incoming power supply line – reducing energy consumption. Finally, the drive has a built-in preventive maintenance function that can identify maintenance issues and alert maintenance staff before downtime occurs. This function monitors operating temperature, voltage, and current, while calculating the remaining service life of key components.
Real-time data gathered from the encoders and sensors is transmitted wirelessly via EtherNet IP and made visible to operators. This information can be used to identify issues and implement fixes quickly.
Result
A Smarter, More Efficient Generation of Industrial Cranes
The smart overhead crane system supports manual control mode, remote control mode by HMI touch screen, simulation mode, and autonomous control mode with the warehouse management system. Onsite operators are no longer positioned below the cranes. Now, they sit safely in a remote control room to monitor crane operation – reducing the possibility of personnel pinch points to zero.
The autonomous crane solution can complete material loading, collection, intelligent storage, material discharge, and preparations for storage and taking without human intervention – freeing up operators to attend to more critical matters and increasing daily dispatch capability by 10 – 30%.
Crane operation is optimized with the PowerFlex 755TR anti-sway technology. The solution delivers position accuracy +/- 3mm. Reduced sway and optimized control improve overall crane efficiency by 5 – 10%.
Energy use is reduced with built-in regenerative capabilities.
And perhaps most importantly, the system can be easily integrated into manufacturing systems or warehouse automation systems.
He Wei, Chairman of Shandong Shenzhou Machinery Co. Ltd., spoke highly of the results. “Rockwell Automation’s digital solutions have met our needs and greatly helped us develop an intelligent unmanned crane. We will continue to work with Rockwell Automation in the future to apply our successful experience and solutions to a wider range of products. Such an approach aims to speed up digitalization and intellectualization, and further enhance our core competitive advantage.”
Learn more about the Rockwell Automation Smart Overhead Crane Solution here.
Published November 29, 2023