Intelligent Drives Chosen for Precision Metal Cutting

The Challenge

In order to meet market demand and produce a more competitive product, CAMU needed to reduce the maintenance required and increase reliability of their drives.

The Solution

As part of the upgrade project, CAMU switched from DC to Control Techniques’ AC drives for all of its re-designed cut-to-length machines, straighteners and slitting lines, with drives ranging from 0.75kW up to 1.5MW. Unidrives were used for a variety of applications, from open-loop control for material handling, closed loop control for slitting lines and servo control for high-precision feeding and cutting. Capitalising on the Unidrive’s versatility, CAMU employed drives in different modes using the plug-in SM applications modules to provide on the spot precision control and maximum dynamic performance to achieve the best possible control of speed, tension or positioning precision, depending on the task at hand. On-board programming minimized, and in some cases eliminated, the use of additional PLCs. This meant control cubicles could be reduced in size, enabling the whole machine size and footprint to be minimised. SyPTPro programming software allows the company to carry out its own programming reducing project time and start-up time.

The Benefits

The long-term relationship between CAMU and Control Techniques has built up a lot of trust, as Loris Basso, owner of CAMU explained: “We have considerable confidence in Control Techniques. We receive excellent support from the Vicenza Drive Centre and their applications knowledge has helped us to produce better solutions for our customers.” CAMU’s customers are pleased with the versatility and additional savings that Unidrive has brought, including reduced programming, reduced build-time and wiring, greater reliability and customer energy savings. In addition, CAMU likes the fact that each drive can, if required, be fitted with communication modules allowing communications with standard PLC and HMI systems to meet the most demanding end-user specifications.