Drive and automation specialist Baumüller recently provided a clear example of how its ProSimulation software helps users solve problems in production remotely from their desks. It all began when a customer based abroad made an engineer break into a sweat, explaining over the phone that his glue roller plant was acting up. In this particular plant, a large rolling mill is driven by a comparatively small motor to apply the adhesive used for manufacturing corrugated board and to move the board to the next processing step. The challenge in this set-up is the high load-inertia ratio of 1:218, which makes it difficult to configure the controllers.

Faced with this predicament, the engineer turned to simulation specialist Michael Stiegler at Baumüller: "Michael, I need your help. A customer's plant is on the blink - both the coupling and gearboxes are already broken. I don't dare reconfigure the parameter settings anymore. Could you help me out by creating a simulation model?" No sooner said than done. Based on the data sets and measurements provided by the customer, which included information about the speed profile and current flow, Stiegler designed a virtual simulation model. "After I had automatically imported the data into the system, I was able to first compare the simulation model with reality. I then used this model to safely determine the ideal controller settings and thus optimize the glue roller’s control behavior," says Stiegler, outlining how he saved the day from the comfort of his workstation.

Baumüller Nürnberg GmbH (90482 Nuremberg, Germany)
Website: https://www.baumueller.com/en/company/baumueller-group