Click on the advert above to visit the company web site

Product category: Plant- and Machine-Wide Communications
News Release from: Open DeviceNet Vendor Association | Subject: DeviceNet Open Automation System
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial Team on 22 August 2000

Ford Halewood links up with DeviceNet

When the Ford Motor Company installed a new gearbox assembly line at its Halewood Transmission Plant on Merseyside it implemented the largest PC-controlled automotive assembly facility in Europe.

When the Ford Motor Company installed a new gearbox assembly line at its Halewood Transmission Plant on Merseyside it implemented the largest PC-controlled automotive assembly facility in Europe This "edge of technology" plant uses the DeviceNet Open Automation System supplied by Cutler-Hammer, the leading manufacturer of industrial controls and power distribution systems

The new IB5 line cost £6.5 million and was built for Ford by Ingersoll- Rand.

It is capable of producing up to 3,000 gearboxes a day for Ford Puma, Fiesta and Escort models worldwide.

The control architecture of the original assembly line, built in 1978, was fairly typical of manufacturing plants installed in the last two decades.

A PLC based system, there was little in the way of graphical user interfaces, all control devices were wired to the PLCs and there was limited third party connectivity.

This meant a complex and inflexible wiring system that was difficult to set up, trouble-shoot and change, with over 200 cables connected to a typical control panel in the original assembly line.

Three separate processors were also required: A PC to configure the system; a PLC to run the control program; and a human machine interface to collect and display process and quality data.

Josephine Robinson was Manufacturing Engineer at Ford Halewood in charge of the implementation of the new assembly line.

"As we adopt more advanced information systems, control systems that can network openly with higher-level data management systems become critical to ability to respond to quality and cost trends," said Ms Robinson.

"This required the re-evaluation of traditional solid-state PLC control technologies in favour of the emerging 'edge of technology' options." The aim of the new line was to reduce manufacturing lag time by cutting the number of gearboxes rejected at the end of the line and reducing unplanned downtime.

"The key was to have a modular systems that gives us flexibility, based on the principle of building blocks, which should make it easy to change any part of the process," said Ms Robinson.

The IB5 line uses an Open Automation System based on 80 Cutler-Hammer D720 touchscreen industrial PCs connected together on a DeviceNet open protocol local network.

DeviceNet reduces hardwiring by enabling devices to be daisychained onto the network, rather than being wired directly back to the PLC, and provides access to device-level diagnostics.

It provides a low-cost open link to connect devices such as switches, sensors, starters and operator interfaces from different vendors onto a single network.

Cutler-Hammer is a founder member of the Open DeviceNet Vendors Association (ODVA), and provides a wide range of DeviceNet products and services.

"Using the Cutler-Hammer Open Automation System has enabled us to realise a 25% increase in production to over 2,000 gearboxes a day," said Josephine Robinson.

"We also have the flexibility to increase even further to 3,000 a day, something that was never possible on the old PLC-controlled line.

It's faster to configure and modify the system so we have much more flexibility, which is essential to the modular nature of the line." The openness of the DeviceNet protocol was another attraction for Ford.

"Not being locked into a single manufacturer's technology also means we are able to adopt the best technology available for a particular component," said Ms Robinson.

"No single company makes the best control devices, sensors, switches and solenoids, so we can now use the best products in their class." Other DeviceNet vendors involved in the Halewood project were Rockwell Automation, Festo and Wago.

While many proprietary control and automation vendors may see this openness as a threat to their maintenance and upgrade aftersales, users are increasingly demanding "plug and play" technology that allows them to simply plug devices from different suppliers onto the same network.

Vendors who cling to proprietary systems that cannot interface with other suppliers' products will ultimately be rejected by users wanting the freedom offered by open systems, and will miss out on the opportunity to sell their products into the growing number of open manufacturing environments like Ford Halewood's IB5 assembly line.

• Open DeviceNet Vendor Association: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Engineeringtalk email newsletter
• Engineeringtalk Home Page

Search the Pro-Talk network of sites

Put your news on Engineeringtalk  |   Advertise  |   Get the free Engineeringtalk newsletter  |   Engineeringtalk Home
About Engineeringtalk  |   Copyright © 2000-2008 Pro-Talk Ltd, UK