The sorting and distribution center in Melbourne, Australia, claimed that 35,000 parcels could be sorted per hour, which made Toll IPEC, the country’s largest freighter, stand out from the booming e-commerce transportation industry. Its transportation solution provider, BCS, has created a modular smart device that can quickly and efficiently collect, sort, and load packages onto trucks. For drive unit configuration, BCS relies on the Nordstrom Drive Group's expertise. It chooses a large number of Nord's transmissions, and attaches particular importance to its ease of installation and maintenance.
Fig. 1: More than 1,000 motors for driving various conveyor belts in modular equipment in parcel distribution centers
Melbourne's new distribution center can sort 35,000 parcels per hour, its courier service provider Toll IPEC has tripled its business in the country, and the international airport has also become its main transportation hub, becoming the fastest package in Oceania. Sorting center. To this end, equipment manufacturer BCS designed and developed automation equipment with more than 1,000 conveyor modules. The large device can handle a range of tasks from parcel arrival warehouse to registration, to entire equipment tracking, overall system control, high-speed sorting and truck loading. In this process, the conveyor needs to extend for several hundred meters or more, which usually requires changing the speed of the belt or reversing in any direction. "We need more than 1,000 drives," said Frank Kassai, engineering manager at BCS Group. "They range from 0.37 to 5.5 kW."
Single source driver package
Nordstrom Drive Group has configured the required drive equipment specifications based on the internally manufactured geared motors and frequency converters. Its main product is NORDBLOC.1 two-stage spiral bevel gear reducer developed specifically for internal logistics applications. The gear motor is very compact, easy to operate, durable and long service life. Its wide gear ratio (i = 3.58 to 70) can be precisely configured for various requirements. For BCS, it is essential that the geared motor be mounted on different size shafts without changing the shaft. Therefore, although the device contains various types of conveyor modules, its management of various different drive devices is still within the controllable range. Kassai also highlighted the high efficiency of the geared motor. The frequency converter is also designed for transport applications. Electronic drives with motors can be fully integrated into mechatronic drives. The NORDAC FLEX frequency converter range is rated from 0.25 to 22 kW and its interfaces for all commercial fieldbuses (eg Industrial Ethernet Protocol) can also be used for field network AC vector motors and can be connected to the system controller.
Fig. 2: The drive consists of an elongated spiral bevel gear reducer, a high-efficiency motor and NORDAC FLEX inverters
Simple and time-saving installation and adjustment
"Toll is the largest express delivery project delivered by BCS in Australia," said Kassai. "Therefore, the installation and commissioning processes need to be seamlessly connected. We can save a lot of commissioning time because the driver packages provided by NORD are readily available and have been pre-installed and pre-parameterized." Each unit has been assigned according to its assigned location Ordered numbering, so it is easy to correctly match the conveyor module during installation. Hollow shaft geared motors can be mounted directly on the machine shaft via a shrink disk. They are all equipped with a torque arm that can be tightened to the rack with only one point. Therefore, compared with the flange mounting of 8 screws, the installation workload is greatly reduced. Kassai added: "Nord can also provide plug-in connections, which makes maintenance and installation easier. The operator only needs to replace the motor drive device in minutes, without an electrician reconnecting the new device." Nord also for each One AC vector motor is equipped with a maintenance switch to facilitate the safe shut off of the power supply. If you need to replace the AC vector motor, you can use the pluggable EEPROM module to transfer the parameters to the replacement unit.
Figure 3: The drive electronics are equipped with maintenance switches that safely shut off the power and are easily replaced
Integrated load monitoring and braking management
Since Nord has very powerful drive electronics, it can provide fully integrated pluggable drive units, which greatly reduces the wiring work required by BCS. Distributed frequency converters also have mechanical resistance and high overload capacity and can withstand typical disturbances such as fluctuating supply voltages or rapid temperature changes. Thanks to the integrated protection mechanisms, BCS saves the cost of installing and wiring control cabinet components, such as motor protection switches and reversing contactors. The inverter can also monitor overvoltage, undervoltage, overheating, short circuit, short circuit to ground and overcurrent (I2t) to prevent shutdown, motor damage or power supply network interference. At Toll IPEC Distribution Center, Nord's products are generally used to drive horizontal and inclined conveyors. Its lifting technology is another standard application of these systems and has been tried and tested many times. The frequency converter supports four-quadrant operation and can accelerate and brake in both directions. They enable wear-free actuation of the brake, precise speed control, high starting torque and safe torque.
Figure 4: NORDAC's FLEX Distributed Drives can drive both horizontal and inclining conveyors and can handle more demanding brake management related to tilt loads
in conclusion
The distribution center is not the first cooperation project between BCS and Nordstrom Group, nor will it be the last one. In addition to this type of equipment, they have also cooperated in the baggage handling system at Australian airports. The cornerstone of the long-term cooperation between the two parties is that Nord’s reliable customer service always meets the high expectations of BCS. Kassai said: "We are very satisfied with Nord and there are no problems."
About Norder Drive Group
As a developer and manufacturer of drive technology, Norder Drive Group has been established for more than 50 years and now has 3,400 employees. It is one of the world's leading comprehensive and integrated drive solution providers. Nord's product range includes standard drives and demanding custom solutions such as energy-saving or explosion-proof drives. In 2016, Nord sales totaled approximately 560 million euros. Nord has subsidiaries in 89 countries around the world. At the same time, it has established a large distribution and service network to ensure the shortest delivery time and provide customer-oriented services in the shortest possible time. Nordisk's various transmissions have a torque range of 10 Nm to 250,000 Nm. They also produce motors with output powers from 0.12 kW to 1000 kW, and electrical controls including 160 kW inverters and servo controllers. Nord can not only provide the traditional centralized cabinet inverter, but also can provide the distributed control inverter integrated machine products.
SHENZHEN CHONDEKUAI TECHNOLOGY CO.LTD , https://www.szfourinone.com