75 percent less time required to wire an enclosure

Zahnen Technik has built up a wealth of experience in all aspects of water treatment over almost 70 years. In Arzfeld in the Eifel region, the company builds water and wastewater treatment systems for worldwide use. The associated switchgear is technically sophisticated and can comprise up to 190 enclosures. The global market is booming and many outdated and inefficient systems need to be replaced. Climate change and increasing pollution from microplastics and trace substances are further driving the market. However, internal switchgear manufacturing had pretty much come to a standstill due to a shortage of skilled workers. To get the process back on track, Zahnen teamed up with two other companies also specialists in their field – Rittal and Eplan. 

Standardisation as the basis for consistent production

To establish “smart production,” the project managers methodically analysed every step of the manufacturing process. It quickly became clear that the Rittal VX25 in tandem with Rittal software was the perfect basis to enable automated workflow from planning and designing to assembly. VX25 is modular and scalable, fully digitised and has a high proportion of common parts. This streamlines processes in purchasing as well as production. 

The data basis is created in planning and designing

Eplan and Zahnen laid the groundwork for automation of all the subsequent steps during the planning and designing phase. Zahnen’s designers used Eplan Pro Panel software to facilitate this task. An exact digital twin of the enclosure was created on their PCs. This formed the focal point with regard to assembly since further research identified a significant bottleneck: experienced skilled specialists are hard to find, and semi-skilled staff from other production areas struggle with the more complex assembly structures. Therefore, Eplan recommended its Smart Mounting software, which simplifies the manual installation of mechanical and electrical parts in the enclosure. Based on the previously created digital twin, Smart Mounting shows installers step by step which component needed to be installed, how and in which position. It meant that a semi-skilled employee could also make an excellent job of the assembly, which is a huge help for Zahnen. “Assembly time is expected to be reduced by 30% once Smart Mounting has been rolled out across the board,” said Benedikt Ney.

Up to 75 percent faster

Unsurprisingly, wiring of the numerous electrical items for systems with up to 190 enclosures takes a lot of time. This is where the project managers achieved the greatest savings. Zahnen opted for Eplan Smart Wiring  – a software tool for enclosure wiring – and for the Rittal Wire Terminal, a machine for automated cable processing. 

For the designers of Zahnen, this also meant a change: instead of drawing in the familiar circuit diagram structure, they had to work according to the wiring sequence of the machine. However, this adjustment went smoothly and the Rittal Wire Terminal now assembles a complete set of cables for an enclosure every hour, each one neatly labelled.

From smart production through to commissioning

The very end of the process is to put the system through its paces with thorough testing. Here too, a tool from Eplan provided valuable support: eView. “We used eView for testing and commissioning and for any coordination work when making changes and modifications,” Ney reported.

Zahnen now relies on seamless end-to-end smart production. The shortage of skilled workers no longer slows the company down. The quality and speed of production are consistently high. And customers can continue to rely on an uninterrupted supply of healthy and clean water.