UHF RFID identification in SwitchGear, a medium-voltage switchgear expert
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The greater the variety of products, the more difficult the management of the resulting manufacturing complexity. This is also the situation faced by switchgear component manufacturer SwitchGear. Therefore, the company uses the UHF RFID system from Turck to track the production of the DR-6 series with many different models.
Safe and efficient For example, the correct data is automatically loaded in the test equipment, which significantly reduces any possible manual errors. Turck Multiprox also used Codesys to program the control of the RFID system on the BL20 gateway. This can improve production efficiency and flexibility, while ensuring 100% quality assurance.
Until a few years ago, SGC was mainly dedicated to the DF-2 modular medium voltage cabinet. Customers combine different modules according to their needs, such as transformers, measuring units, distribution boards and other components. If a problem occurs, such as leakage current, an arc flame may occur. This may cause one of the modules to explode, in which case the exploded module must be replaced. Since the service life of the entire switchgear is usually more than 30 years, this solution is often the most economical.
However, the market requires cheaper solutions, while the security aspect is not affected. SGC subsequently developed the DR-/DT-6 product series. These compact units combine the different functions of the medium voltage cabinet in a single enclosure, which is called a ring main unit (RMU). SGC mainly used single-piece production when it first produced ring network cabinets. However, as demand increases, an automated production line is required. Manual operation must be minimized in order to produce RMU economically.
Throughout the production process, the label is kept at the bottom of the medium voltage cabinet/RMU
Huge product differences require intelligent production RMUs to have a large number of product categories, from stand-alone (combined with different switchgear functions) to expandable units, each of which can choose whether to carry an “arc extinguishing device”. If manual production is used, such a variety of products need to be maintained to the greatest extent in the production documentation, especially the tests that must be carried out by the RMU during and after production.
In order to ensure efficient and error-free production without being affected by high complexity, SGC decided to use an RFID system. This requires a one-time identification code to identify each RMU at any time during the production process. Therefore, all relevant data from the ERP system is linked with the identification code and is available at any time in the production environment.
The read-write head also records the time when the product enters and leaves the internal warehouse
The large detection distance of UHF system is far from enough. The size of the switch cabinet varies greatly, so the precise position of the label cannot be determined to ensure reliable reading with the HF read-write head.
Through the programmable BL20 gateway, Turck is able to provide a solution to take over the control task, which is independent of higher-level system operation. The system communicates with SGC’s ERP system through TCP/IP. SGC allows only one read-write head of the BL20-RFID interface to perform reading, which has minimized the risk of double reading.
“The biggest benefits of an RFID system are better flexibility, higher security, permanent traceability of each production step, and minimal manual operations required.” Sophie Vandoorne explained.
The test equipment obtains the appropriate test parameters of the actual product from the ERP system
The programmable BL20 gateway is not only an interface with the read/write head, but also can communicate with the ERP system
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