The cooperation between Weidmüller and Aventech, part of the Reyes Group, has been very fruitful

Standardization, automation, and full-process solutions greatly increase the potential for process optimization, especially for time-consuming and laborious human operations. The collaboration between Aventech, a member of the Reyes Group, and Weidmüller shows the promise of process optimisation in the factory of the future, all on the basis of a new generation of automation lines. About a year ago, a partnership was established with the aim of optimising yields based on solutions developed by Weidmüller in the field of automation systems. Aventech's semi-automatic and fully automated plant lines are equipped with Weidmüller's Workplace Solutions.

The cooperation between Weidmüller and Aventech, part of the Reyes Group, has been very fruitful

Aventech is a mid-sized company with nearly 50 years of experience in the field of electromechanical equipment integration. Headquartered in Valence, Deloon, France, the company has three production sites in France with a total production area of 35,000 square meters, as well as factories in Tunisia and China. The company is deeply engaged in the development, industrialization and production of electrical high and low voltage equipment, and has an outstanding performance, and now has 300 employees. Aventech focuses on specialist malls with high skill requirements that meet country-specific standards, including: nuclear power, hydropower, power distribution, rail, oil/gas and alternative power (e.g. biogas, hydrogen), energy storage or charging stations.

Digitalization offers new opportunities for production optimization

Standardized, automated, and full-process solutions are among the building blocks for the production of highly flexible, self-maintaining, custom-made production equipment. This opens up considerable potential for optimization of production equipment, especially in non-systematic process procedures and time-consuming manual work. As a pioneer in this field, Weidmüller offers tailor-made solutions in this area with its "Workplace Solutions", helping manufacturers to be prepared for the challenges of the future.

This optimization concept is mainly used in the time-consuming operation phases such as planning, creating wiring diagrams, equipment installations, wiring and identification. Weidmüller's France subsidiary, headquartered in Serge, also offers innovative automated dispensing systems.

At the beginning of the project, both sides were considering how to use Weidmüller's expertise in automation and Aventech's expertise in automated production machinery to improve the existing solution. Sébastien Cerise, Managing Director of Aventech, said: "We are consolidating the largest low-voltage electrical production facility in France into a 15,000 square metre facility. "The Factory 4.0 concept has had a huge impact on the company's business. Today's electrical profession is going through a revolution, which is why we decided to work with Weidmüller so that we can grow together. We are very satisfied with this decision – we are just getting started: we have many other ideas and we are planning to develop new projects together." According to Aventech, the redefinition of the value of digitally automated machines, such as Weidmüller's products, from development to production, is significant.

Now that we're on the way to semi-automation or full automation, the next step is to improve the digital consistency of your data. Data is the foundation for engineering simplification, production automation, and documentation. At the same time, however, it is important to provide support to workers and ensure that they support the digital transformation. Aventech intends to preserve certain special features of the trading community in order to improve the productivity of the matching or switching box.

Loïc Colin, Managing Director of Weidmüller France, remembers that "the Wid Harness Machining Centre (WPC), Klippon Automated Rail Equipment and Klippon Automated Laser Marking are the most ambitious workplace solutions that work directly together. We also understand that Aventech is also interested in this approach. In mid-2019, we started to introduce the concept to the company's professionals, what our equipment can do in a state-of-the-art workplace like Aventech, and to get a tentative idea of what they had in mind. "In addition to our innovative skills, our comprehensive support and advocacy also play a key role in the creation of new collaborative partnerships.

This skill offers a unique selection advantage for careers such as power, oil and gas, and renewable power. Cerise emphasized that the two companies are working together to reshape the mall landscape in line with their own unique development philosophy. Digital skills bridge the gap between customers, fabrication facilities and installation companies. This is in stark contrast to the early days when the customer needed to plan holistically and the factory was only responsible for the production of equipment. "Digital stuff has allowed us to revolutionize this approach. The use of this kind of thing can be efficient and harmonious between the three elements of price, construction period and quality control, so that we can really be sharp; or together in the planning work in order to adjust the equipment design according to the intent of the automated machinery". He not only described the advantages of the start-up process, but also highlighted the many benefits of a repeatable production process. "We are able to ensure that the process is traceable and the equipment is in good quality. We are significantly improving our team's standards for operational reliability, quality of work, and ergonomics. We are able to directly use the 2D/3D floor plan to generate tested and finalized sub-assemblies. Our staff love the new equipment and the process makes the work much more comfortable," says Cerise.

Aventech leverages Weidmüller's expertise in the development of machinery and equipment and contributes to the realization of the company's business vision at the site. Aventech has now successfully commissioned two fully automated machines: the Rail Laser Marking Machine and the Rail Equipment Installation Machine. With the two machines in place, Aventech began experimenting with digital production and is in the process of creating a continuous production process with a consistent level of quality.

Automatic terminal assembly and printing

In combination with the Weidmüller WMC software, the Klippon automated rail device setup completes the fully automatic installation of the terminal blocks. This lays the foundation for the factory floor's ambition to improve process efficiency. Using the data obtained from the planning process, the rail equipment device controls the entire production process of terminal blocks. Manual picking, dispensing, positioning, rigging, and viewing individual terminal blocks are a thing of the past. The machine has a total of 48 component positions and 20 deflector rail positions. The fixture searches for the specified terminal based on the data transmitted to the device and then attaches it to the rail. In this way, the machine is capable of producing small terminal strips with only a few terminals as well as large terminal strips with a length of up to 1.20 meters and a number of several hundred terminals. There are countless solutions with great potential and can be individually adapted to the customer's application.

Aventech is also able to use the same data to operate the Klippon automated rail laser markers, which are fully automated with pre-assembled terminal blocks. The individual symbol levels are generated by the eCAD system and the digital twin of the Weidmüller WMC software and transferred directly to the Klippon automated rail laser marking machine to control the terminal block marking. The continuous and direct use of program data eliminates the need for manual production processes. Both self-produced and manually assembled terminal blocks can be symbolized using this skill.

At the heart of the Klippon automated rail laser marking machine is a picture processing system that compares the theoretical orientation of the digital model with the actual orientation on the terminal block and automatically makes the necessary corrections.

Before the symbolic terminal rails, it is possible to supplement other or bulky products that cannot be handled by the device fixture. The entire terminal strip is then laser-symbolized to achieve the desired symbol quality and repeatable operation.

As soon as the two machines were launched, the advantages of automated production were immediately apparent. In the future, Aventech will use Weidmüller solutions in the production of pallets for OEM, biogas, rail and nuclear applications. The collaborative partnership between Weidmüller and Aventech is paving the way for the opening of new stores. In addition, the high degree of automation of the process is expected to help the group recover its long-lost stores in Europe. Through collaboration, the two sides will pay more attention to Industry 4.0 innovation proposals

The cooperation between Weidmüller and Aventech, part of the Reyes Group, has been very fruitful

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