Electrical switching & drive systems & components


Geared servo motors for food and beverage project

First Quarter 2020 Electrical switching & drive systems & components

SEW-Eurodrive supplied 64 Movigear geared servo motors to a major local OEM. Based in Paarl, H.G. Molenaar in turn designed, manufactured and supplied a weighing conveyor system to a leading German company in the frozen fish and vegetable packing sector.

The system comprises a central conveyor fed by eight smaller weighing conveyors, each containing the various frozen food products to be mixed according to specification. Each conveyor has a separate loadcell to determine the exact weight of the component products. Meanwhile, the overall speed, precision and quality of the entire process is controlled by a master PLC.

The Movigear solution is ideal for this application due to its 200:1 speed range, together with the fact that these units are designed specifically for the strict hygiene requirements of the food and beverage industry. Panel space was a definite consideration with this project, which meant there was no space for centralised, bulky speed controllers. Hence the compact modularity of the Movigear units was ideal. Another feature is onboard input/output controls that interact directly with the Movigear electronics, meaning no additional wiring to the master PLC. Thus, all control is via the SBUS protocol directly from the master PLC daisy-chained to the drives themselves.

In addition, the turnkey solution provided by SEW-Eurodrive had to contend with an extreme temperature range from -25 to 25°C. A special oil for food and beverage applications was also required to protect against any harm caused in the unlikely event of any leaks developing.


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