In-House Pre-Commissioning of Intelligent Networked iMCC panels including client PLC’s.
These Days all Motor Control Centers up to 6000 Amp main-busbars suppliers have their MCC’s manufactured in East of Europe, they only test the MCC on electrical properties (i.e.. Isolation and overvoltage and type Tests) and do commissioning by Manual Starting by local start/stop buttons (sometimes buttons are embedded as soft keys on local HMI displays on the withdrawable motorstarters) but they do not test the entire MCC system on a connected networked Client Controller (PLC).
To be able to do that the Customer has to pay for extra days consuming space in the East Europe workshop and by that preventing progress in the production of your 2nd ordered MCC or preventing availability for another customer his production planning so the manufacturer will not be very cooperative in here.
Another issue is how to get your own existing or new (project) PLC Controller shipped to the MCC facility in East of Europe, by car or in the Plane as hand luggage ??
If above worked out well you have to be there with a limited team (cost for travel and expenses) in a Hotel with limited working hours and what if you have a big project with i.e. 34 MCC’s (I recently had such a project).
Practical result is that there will be only MCC Network configuration and commissioning and Testing to the PLC and HMI in the onsite project, where all the upcoming issues have to be fixed and worked out unexpected and the duration for Startup might be much longer than expected and required with the result that the project is delayed and also Production is delayed and your own Customers might receive the products much later dan expected which can also cause secondary Logistic problems
This all can be prevented by shipping the MCC’s one by one to our Electrification-Consultancy Facility in Edam where the MCC can be unloaded from the truck into our Workshop where the MCC panel sections can be powered with 3x400V and Busbar Sections can be interconnected with wires to bring all the busbar sections alive.
Intermediate external storage can be used if multiple (big) MCC’s are ordered.
Now the Client Project controller or a Test PLC can be shipped by car and connected to the Intelligent MCC’s Network and a complete test can be performed and documented as a full FAT. On the First Floor in our Facility in Edam we can install the Client HMI PC, here we can also provide the lunch.
Now people can go back home by car or bus (the busstation is nearby on 5 min. walking distance) or do overtime and start fresh next day to proceed with the FAT or work out a fix if there is a Network or configuration Issue.
But if you come from far or don’t want to drive home, Edam has plenty of hotels and restaurants, they are nearby to EC, some of them are on walking distance. Hence the brand new Van der Valk Hotel/Restaurant Volendam busstop is by bus only 15 minutes away. There is also plenty of sight seeing in the touristic Edam-Volendam municipality or you can Rent a Roompot Holiday house as a Team.
Ofcourse you can also choose to leave the Pre-Testing and PLC/HMI testing fully up to us. We can also connect a Test Motor to each DOL/SD/SS bucket or VSD.
Once the Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) is DONE the MCC can be shipped out and the Next MCC can be tested, it wont cost you more time, you only do this planning wise in parallel instead of after and you don’t have to await completion of your floor and building to be wind and water tight.
When the MCC panel is installed in your Factory it will be plug and play so in combination with a proper planning a lot of stress and delay and risk for Operational losses can be prohibited!
The Industry 4.0 Network configuration en Configuration of Intelligent Motor management modules can be quit time consuming, especially the first project when all the typical’s need to be tested and customized on the PLC software.
Additional it gives you the opportunity to configure and implement and test the (Predictive Maintenance) KPI improvements NOW. Under pressure of commissioning and startup planning this is something that is usually done much later.
The iMCC gives a lot of extra Industry 4.0 Data. The difference with a classic MCC is that you can now predict when a machine will fail in time so that unwanted repairs can be announced and combined for planned repairs and no longer unexpected which gives a lot of logistic issues and downtime and production loss.