ABB Automation GmbH uses EPLAN Electric P8 for electrical engineering design
In electrical engineering design ABB was one of the first to use EPLAN Electric P8 – successfully.
ABB Automation GmbH is extraordinarily successful both in product-related growth and in selected application solutions with robots. In electrical engineering design ABB was one of the first to use EPLAN Electric P8 – successfully. Migration from EPLAN 5.70 to P8 has been successful - the company is highly satisfied, as shown in an experience report of the "Robot Automation & Products" division. One robot alone does not yet make an automation solution. A user who wants to automate extensively requires a complete system of which the robot is only one component – even if the most important one. This system encompasses, amongst others, an individually developed complex gripper, the required safety technology and often additional positioners as well. In addition, the automated work center has to be embedded in the overall process. This applies both for the hardware, where the corresponding conveying and handling technology is required, and for the software. Here interventions are frequently required in the control systems of the adjoining machines in order to embed the robot optimally into the production process.
Application solutions "focused on robots"
This is precisely the field of activity of ABB Automation GmbH in Friedberg in Hesse. Individual solutions for the systems business as well as function packages for defined applications are developed here – on the basis of the extensive range of ABB robots. The company is structured into several divisions. The "Robot Automation & Products" (RAP) division with about 120 employees develops and manufactures, amongst others, complete robot cells for the automotive supplier and general industries. In a typical application, for example, robots remove unmachined parts from a machine, debur and machine them and then also carry out packaging and palletizing.
Development in motion
The robot forms the starting point also when engineering these system solutions. However, in contrast to most other designers in mechanical engineering, the engineers in the ABB RAP division do not start from static drawings, but rather from moving models. Key user Marc Haarmeyer, electrical engineering: "We start from a 3D model that completely virtualizes the motion sequences of the machine and robot." The individual robot types exist as models in the library of this simulation program. The respective ambient conditions are entered individually. Time-dependent factors, such as the throughput and the cycle time, can also be simulated clearly by these means. ABB uses its own tool "RobotStudio" on the basis of a virtual robot control, amongst others.
Electrical engineering with EPLAN Electric P8: Convinced immediately
The tasks on hand in electrical engineering include the planning and documentation of the complete electrical and electronic systems including robot programming and the PLC programming for the peripheral devices. In the process one cooperates closely with colleagues from other departments. Marc Haarmeyer: "The mechanical and electrical design teams specify the design parameters together with the project manager and regularly review the progress in work." When EPLAN presented the EPLAN Platform and as part of it the EPLAN Electric P8 CAE system, the electrical engineering designers never doubted that they wanted to use this system at an early stage: The combination of graphical and object orientation convinced those responsible immediately, just as did the easy-to-handle user interface and the navigators that facilitate work.
Automation of a press line: The unstacking and charging unit as well as the washing and oiling station of ABB Robotics are flexible with regard to the automatic handling of formats and materials.
Structure of a control panel with dimensioning and stored logic in EPLAN
Connection of various bus modules to the CAN-DeviceNet used internally at ABB.
Template projects converted from EPLAN 5.70
However, migration had to be prepared with great care. For, since daily designing is characterized by projects with standard modules, such as specific grippers, the designers stored these modules as a page in the past, i.e. in EPLAN 5.70. Marc Haarmeyer, key user of the department: "By this means we had template projects for, for example welding robots, available at the click of a mouse. Which simplified our work considerably." However, in order to transfer these modules to the new EPLAN Platform, the individual pages had to fulfill certain requirements that were defined commonly by EPLAN and ABB in a first step. Subsequently, the data was converted and since then the electrical engineering team has been profiting from the advantages provided by EPLAN Electric P8. Marc Haarmeyer: "The designers find the Schematic Generator to be a great help, for example, that makes repetitive work superfluous during detailed work on terminals and other components. The Windows-oriented handling is much easier, while at the same time several options for automatic generation are available: Bills of materials and order lists can, for example, be generated rapidly, and in particular, separately. Thus, the bill of materials is structured for each item in the schematic and the purchase department receives a combined order list after design has been completed. The navigators and the block editing function furthermore accelerate the project. For us, this automation in engineering represents the future of CAE."
Integrated working
The advantages will become even clearer when the Swedish colleagues of the developers in Friedberg migrate from EPLAN 21 to EPLAN Electric P8. For then the schematics of the robot and of the application can be developed in a single system. Even now work is already profiting from integrated engineering between the mechanical and electrical fields. For the MCAD colleagues use Autodesk Inventor, i.e. a system that EPLAN also offers and supports. Marc Haarmeyer: "This is an excellent match – both fields work on almost one platform." Other departments in Friedberg with their own electrical engineering design are preparing the introduction of EPLAN Electric P8, for example the "Paint" division, which develops robot-supported system solutions for painting applications.
The virtual prototype arises
Parallel to the project progress on the ECAD and MCAD level, the project-specific simulation is continuously been kept up-to-date. For example, the robot programming is transferred to the simulation software as soon as it has been written. Then the virtual work processes or the robot cell or line can be monitored realistically on the computer and the performance of the system required in the specifications can be verified long before commissioning. These virtual prototypes accelerate the development and also demonstrate the project progress to the customer.
On the way to mechatronics designing
For Marc Haarmeyer and his colleagues the next steps in the automation of the engineering process are the inclusion of the pneumatics design using EPLAN Fluid and the usage of schematic macros with defined value sets. In the medium term one also wants to use the EPLAN Engineering Center, which allows an even higher degree of automation. Then electrical and mechanical engineering design will interact even more closely, since they design with common modules and on a common data basis.
On the Automatica: Current trends in robot technology
ABB Robotics is one of the leading robot manufacturers worldwide and will present not only new robot generations, but also current trends in robot technology on the Automatica. These include, for example, new safety concepts: In future humans and robots will increasingly work hand-in-hand and without a separating safety guards. Cooperation between robots is also already reality: ABB Automation has for example implemented solutions for the automatic production of solar modules in which four robots solder a module simultaneously. A further trend is the increased inclusion of the sensor equipment with the aim of optimizing the machining processes: With "Force Control" ABB has presented a system that measures the forces acting on a workpiece during robot-supported machining steps, such as milling, and controls the robot correspondingly. Two major trends in the overall automation technology are mechatronics, i.e. the increased linking of mechanical and electrical engineering, and the automation of the development and design processes. ABB Automation takes these trends into account with the use of the EPLAN Platform and the simulation software.
