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The Champagne operator has called on Leroy-Somer, an entity of Emerson Industrial Automation, to gradually replace drive systems in its manufacturing process. The series began with a demanding application of fast conveyor at different paces. Technical expertise, assistance and geographical proximity have made the difference. The Nicolas Feuillatte Wine-Champagne Centre (CV-CNF), located in Chouilly in the Marne, is the first union of Champagne producers. It comprises 80 cooperatives representing more than 5,000 winemakers. It is one of the most automated and robotic houses in its class. With a workforce of 235 people, half of whom are dedicated to production, the company produces 23 million bottles a year, making it one of the top champagne producers.
"We needed to gradually replace a series of training systems. We looked at the original supplier, as well as other big names in the sector. All were able to provide equipment that would no doubt meet our expectations, but our desire was more to establish a partnership with a company capable of providing the level of service we needed. That's why we chose Leroy-Somer," explains Frédéric Lopez, head of automation at the Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne Wine Centre.
The first application was to replace the drive system of a conveyor belt. Located at the beginning of the chain, it imposes a very precise positioning of empty bottles before cleaning and filling. The bottles are loaded onto the conveyor via 1200×1200 pallets, then extracted in rows of 4 to 12, depending on their size, on a perpendicular conveyor. "This line has a rate of 4,000 to 6,000 bottles per hour and must perform its function with maximum availability. Leroy-Somer immediately invested, both to design the solution that suited us and to realize the programming of the dimmers, "says Frédéric Lopez.
The initial drive system consisted of an automaton, an axis card, a dimmer and an engine. The solution put in place has freed itself from the axis map. It consists of a Unidrive M700 dimmer, connected to the same automaton, combined with a Dynabloc reduced-game Pjn1102 servoreducer set. The latter offers a high overload capacity, very high torsional stiffness and great precision: the angular play varies from 12 to 1 min, depending on the options. An MCi200 card has been integrated into the dimmer to simply manage the positioning by enslavement. The M700 model in the Unidrive M range is also particularly well suited to this type of application with a cycle time of 250 microseconds, the Ethernet Real Time mode and an extensive toolbox that can manage motion sequences. The programming, very simple to make, was done in structured language under Codesys. The system uses the internal position loop to the dimmer. In the final configuration, 15 different recipes were put in place to fit the different bottle sizes. Each recipe is associated with a long step with a specific movement profile (position, speed, acceleration and deceleration), a short step with a second movement profile (positioning, speed, acceleration and deceleration) and the number of short steps to be made. The current recipe is selected by 4 logical entries. The cycle is launched automatically. The long step is made and then the short steps (associated with the chosen recipe) are chained as long as the track is clear (information given by a sensor managed directly by the M700 dimmer). Long end-of-movement and completed cycle information is assigned to logical outputs from the dimmer and used directly by the customer system. On-site programming and training was provided by Leroy-Somer's support teams.
"We've taken full control of the application, so we can make our own adaptations. Because of its technologies, expertise and service, Leroy-Somer responds to our expectations in every way and we continue to deploy their solutions throughout our site," concludes Frédéric Lopez.
Premium service center: a new concept in service
The installation and start-up were carried out by Poulain Bobinage, the Leroy-Somer Premium Service Centre near the Nicolas Feuillatte Wine Centre . Its leader, Dominique Pardailhe, explains the course of this: "As a company with this service label, we applied the Group's method during installation and start-up, in accordance with the established specifications." Based on his accumulated experience, Leroy-Somer has defined several hundred checkpoints to be carried out during the installation and start-up of engines and dimmers. These checkpoints range from the simplest (connections, greasing...) to the most advanced (control of anti-harmonic filters or recording responses for dimmers). Properly installed, the risk of failure is almost zero and energy consumption is optimized. It should be noted that lubrication, lineage and stalling generate gains of 1 to 5%, while correct sizing saves 1 to 3%. "The Nicolas Feuillatte Wine Centre - Champagne was looking for a technical partner on which to rely. This is what we bring, as well as a great reactivity to any request," says Dominique Pardailhe.
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