Waste sorting plant

Eaton's Value Added Service (VAS) team will pre-configure and pre-wire switchgear assemblies in line with customer specifications. As such, machine builders no longer have to develop costly and time-consuming solutions in house. Customers receive tailor-made, fully integrated systems, consisting of pre-configured "plug and play" enclosures featuring tested and approved components, which only need to be connected to the mains at the relevant points, as this example of a waste sorting plant illustrates. Uwe Hempel, Managing Director at Hempel Automation comments: "For us, as a specialized supplier of automation solutions for recycling facilities, this service offers more than just huge time savings."

Background

In waste management, sorting is defined as the manual and mechanical separation of mixed waste into recyclable and non-recyclable materials, which takes place in large industrial facilities. Waste sorting plants vary greatly according to their intended use as there issorting plants for lightweight packaging separate tinplate, aluminum, plastics and cardboard composites. Earlier systems already used magnetic separators, trommel screens and air classifiers to separate the different materials. In today's plants, optical and electronic detection systems identify the various materials, which are then moved from the sorting belt to the appropriate containers by means of air blasts.

Challenge

A sorting facility of this type, with a total length of several kilometers, was built in Hürth near Cologne, Germany. Hempel Automation from Friedrichshafen, Germany was responsible for the automation equipment of the conveyor belts across the various process steps as a supplier of automation systems with a special focus on recycling facilities. For the Cologne system, the task was to install switchgear and controlgear products for around 200 remote drive motors and integrate them into the automation system of the waste sorting plant. A single, fully wired control panel had to be assembled that would function as the system's electrical control center. This remote control system makes it possible to control and deactivate each sub-section individually, for example, in the event of an emergency. The sub-sections also had to be separately controllable to facilitate maintenance and repair without any service interruptions and to safely deactivate upstream or downstream parts of the system.

Solution

The brief also required Hempel Automation to procure all the necessary components for the control stations. While planning the project and selecting the appropriate pilot devices from our supplier Eaton, Hempel Automation learned of the company's Value Added Service. After the initial discussions, it quickly became clear that it would make sense for us to outsource the assembly and configuration of the more than 200 enclosures to Eaton. Eaton's portfolio also includes the wiring, testing and verification of components. Additional factors in the decision were the product quality and Eaton's ability to deliver the switchgear directly to the construction site.

Specifically, the service provided by Eaton involved the assembly of more than 200 pre-configured switchgear units. The individual sorting sections of the recycling plant are integrated into a higher-level control system, but they can also be controlled separately and remotely. The control stations were assembled in the VAS section of Eaton's Meckenheim Distribution Center near Bonn, Germany. The VAS staff specializes in the delivery of tailor-made logistics, equipment combinations and installation solutions. 

"In September 2018, we designed and built more than 200 switchgear units for the sorting plant in Hürth near Cologne, so that they would be ready for delivery to the plant by November," says Dirk Bartz, Business Development Manager at Eaton. He also emphasizes the additional advantages of Eaton's Value Added Service. For instance, he identifies large, recurring projects with quantities of 50 units or more as the main target market for the service. Eaton also handles the necessary testing, approvals and heat calculations. According to Bartz, "Our customers tell us what they need, and we do the rest." For the customers, everything stays the same, except for the fact that their Eaton sales representative will also provide additional consultation services tailored to their needs. Eaton's portfolio ranges from simple controls to entire switchgear assemblies, as well as software downloads and tailor-made components, including variable frequency drives with customized load profiles for use in conveyor systems (of the type used in baggage carousels at airports, for example).

Result

For Hempel Automation, as well as any other customer, this offers the following advantages: Instead of many separate component orders, only one order comprising fewer devices is necessary. This simplifies the procurement process for the customer. In addition, orders are delivered directly to the installation site, which eliminates the need for off-site receipt and storage. For Hempel, the benefits are obvious: "In future, we will also be able to use Eaton's pre-configured control stations as standard. In fact, the pre-wired enclosures saved us a lot of time, since we didn't have to worry about procurement, processing and delivery", says Uwe Hempel, Managing Director at Hempel Automation. While I had to coordinate many suppliers and service providers during the critical phase, all my staff on site needed to do was take the switchgear units and install them directly."