“The Marquise Diamond is our most advanced machine,” says Sean Morgan, Full House development engineer. “We went to the Siemens PLC control system because of the flexibility of being able to reprogram and change out parts. The technical support and service has been great. It feels as if we are Siemens’ only customer. We are definitely going to stay with Siemens for the foreseeable future.”
The S7-200 PLC controls all operations of the Marquise Diamond via an AS-interface bus -- an open, multi-vendor bus system that transfers process- and machine-level digital and analog signals. Data and supply voltage are transmitted over a two-wire cable.
Morgan says the company chose AS-interface bus technology because it eliminates expensive parallel wiring and offered a great deal of flexibility for add-on features.
“The AS-interface system is plug and play,” Morgan says. “The installers here have mechanical backgrounds and did not want to do much electrical wiring. The AS-interface requires minimal electrical knowledge, and that is a feature we like to promote to our customers. Once you understand the basics of the AS-interface system, you cannot make wiring mistakes.”
Streamlining Production
The decision to go with Siemens PLC control on the Marquise Diamond Door & Jamb Machine offers Braid’s customers greatly reduced maintenance and simplified operation. It also requires fewer service calls from Full House than are typical for the company’s pneumatic lines.
“Compared to a pneumatic-controlled machine, the Marquise Diamond has reduced downtime at the customer’s shop,” Braid says. “No longer are air quality issues -- incorrect air pressures and water in the system -- causing problems”.
“Also, we can perform diagnostics and control the machine over the Internet,” he continued. “That is certainly better than sending a service tech overseas to handle a very small problem.”
Braid said he and Morgan designed the Marquise Diamond from a marketing and sales standpoint by offering features most requested by their customers, including Siemens PLC and touch screen technology that play a big role in ensuring consistency in each door unit produced, he says.
“The Marquise Diamond takes a door slab and machines it for the hinges and bores it for the lock,” says Carl Obrerg, Full House production manager. “If the hinge locations are off or the door lock is off, you result with poor quality. Consistency is the key. If a problem does arise, it is corrected much faster with the PLC than with pneumatic control.”
Braid said the Marquise Diamond’s SIMATIC TP-270 HMI helps his customers reduce labor and material costs by greatly shortening the time it takes to make changes or correct problems on the door-and-jamb machine.
“It is much easier for our customers to make changes because of the touch panel, especially for special jobs,” Braid says. “Many of the door shops today are doing more 8-foot doors in various sizes and various frames. Now, all they have to do is touch the screen to change hinge locations, lock bore height, and other variations. In the past, changes were time-consuming mechanical procedures. Now, anybody can do it.”
Speedy Changes
In addition, Oberg says the AS-interface bus system plays a big role in simplifying and making speeding changes to the machine. In the past, an entirely new wiring system would have to be installed to accommodate add-on features. When using the AS-interface bus system, no additional wiring is required to make changes.
“All customers have to do is clip on to the AS-interface bus,” Oberg says. “If we offer a new option, it is very easy to meet customers’ needs because no additional wiring is required.”
Further, Oberg says Full House can now instantly change hinge and lock locations. In the past, he says, with pneumatic machines, it was expensive to make a mechanical change to a machine.
“It now takes seconds compared to one hour to make changes,” Oberg says. “The Marquise Diamond is doing a lot more than any of the machines currently out there, especially with special orders. Specials are usually very labor intensive. Now a special can run through the Marquise with no problem. Sometimes it would require running a door through a machine twice. That could take up to seven minutes. It now takes less than one minute.”
Today, Full house offers 25 different door manufacturing machines. Braid plans to begin transitioning to Siemens PLC and touch screen technology on all the company’s units in the near future.
“By standardizing on one platform for all our machines, it is much easier for us to maintain them in the field and over the Internet, especially for overseas machines,” Braid says. “Our machines are all similar but we offer up to 10 different options. The nice thing about the Siemens S7-200 PLC platform is a customer can start with a couple of options and add others later. As a result, the machine never becomes obsolete. We couldn’t offer that with a pneumatic system.”