In this year’s Pneudrive Challenge, engineering students have been challenged to design a game changer for a food and beverage factory. Motion Control’s editor paid a visit to SEW-Eurodrive’s marketing and communications general manager, René Rose to find out what motivated this choice.
Motion Control: What were your reasons for choosing a food and beverage theme?
Rose: Our choice of topic is related to our specific markets, what’s happening in the industry and what we learn from customer feedback. We chose a food and beverage theme for this year’s Pneudrive Challenge as this industry has been earmarked by government for investment and growth. It is also a big growth area for SEW-Eurodrive as we have products that are very specific to the food and beverage industry that also tie in with the drive for energy saving. Also, customers in this industry are more open to upgrading their plants and improving efficiency, while profitability and uptime are very important to them. All these factors point to food and beverage as an industry to focus on.
Motion Control: How does the Pneudrive Challenge tie in with your marketing strategy?
Rose: We use the Pneudrive as a marketing tool. It can help promote specific products that we are trying to educate customers about. A lot of our products are quite new in the industry and some customers will have resistance to this. They’re used to using one product, they know how to work it, and they’re wary about the cost of replacement and the expected complexity of a new product; but a student will figure it out very fast – that’s what it is all about, how easy it is to install, and how easy to run. The student then goes out into industry knowing the product and can promote it on the job. Through our roadshows we touch everyone with the SEW-Eurodrive brand. It doesn’t matter if students don’t participate as they get an idea of who we are and our brand. Typically 500 students will apply in a year and this is honed down to about 25 final competitors as the universities only submit the best entries. Meanwhile we have reached 500 and engaged with the cream of the crop.
Motion Control: How is SEW-Eurodrive involved in the food and beverage industry and what are the specific products?
Rose: There are a wide range of control applications in the food industry where you would find us – conveying, filling, separating, packing, palletising and cutting, for example. We have many food and beverage clients in the bottling plants and this is a major part of our business. Two of our products that are specifically focused on the food and beverage industry are the aseptic motor and the Movigear mechatronic drive. This year students will use both of these in their designs.
The aseptic motor is very specific for the food and beverage industry because it is specifically designed to handle a wet environment and can be hosed down safely. The aseptic motor also has a smooth surface so dirt doesn’t get trapped, unlike normal motors which have sharp fins that collect dirt. With convection cooling, this motor runs at a cool temperature, which is an important factor in this industry. Servo technology gives the millisecond precision and accuracy needed to fill bottles with exactly the right amount of fluid. All this requires a very good control system and the Movidrive inverter fits the bill perfectly.
The three-in-one Movigear mechatronic drive is specially focused on energy saving. Normally drive systems have three separate entities, the gearbox, the inverter and the motor. With Movigear these are all in one unit, resulting in an energy saving of around 50%. Initially they are more expensive, but the energy saving means that the drive can be amortised much sooner. Another different thing about this product is the servomotor, which is developed for precision and accuracy. It is also easy to mount as it just slides onto a shaft, and cabling is very simple compared to what you normally see on a conveyor. This makes maintenance very easy. You just slide on a spare unit and send the other one in for repair. This avoids time lost in fault finding on three separate units.
Movigear is locally assembled and stocked in Cape Town so there is no waiting period.
For more information contact René Rose, SEW-Eurodrive, +27 (0)11 248 7000, [email protected], www.sew.co.za
| Tel: | +27 11 248 7000 |
| Fax: | +27 11 248 7289 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| www: | www.sew-eurodrive.co.za |
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