Drive condition: See-at-a-glance

SEW-Eurodrive has launched what it calls its Complete Drive Management (CDM) service that integrates maintenance and servicing of industrial drives with an online databank

The CDM databank provides a complete overview of all the drive technology within a factory, or group of factories, including all the installed drives and those held in storage. A user can see at a glance the condition of each drive, access its service history and schedule maintenance by an SEW-Eurodrive engineer.

The system is designed to streamline, simplify and increase the efficiency of a plant's drive technology maintenance regime and SEW-Eurodrive says that it can reduce downtime, cut unnecessary stock, identify potential problems in advance and target older drive technology that could be replaced to improve energy efficiency.

The data is organised in an easy-to-use hierarchical system. After logging on through a secure DriveGate portal, a user is presented with an interface that makes it simple to navigate around all the drive systems installed on plant and equipment, as well as those in storage.

For example, where a company has two factories and a warehouse, a maintenance engineer could log on and select either Factory 1, Factory 2 or the warehouse. This would open a list of all the plant and equipment using drive technology at that site. It could show, for example, a list of all the production lines, a packaging facility and the stores.

Clicking on one of the production lines would take the user to a list of all the drive technology installed on that line. Each unit is given its own CDM tag with a unique code, so there's no need for crawling around in cramped spaces with a torch to read a drive's nameplate. The databank provides the name and location of all the drive components, including any units that have not been manufactured by SEWEurodrive.

Selecting any one of the components in the list will present all the relevant documentation and information relating to that unit. This includes a 3D CAD drawing of the product in the exact orientation it is installed on the line, a photo of the installed drive and all documentation, such as operating and installation instructions.

All the technical details are listed for each drive, including those that were not manufactured by SEW-Eurodrive. This information is comprehensive, with over 40 different fields including data on everything from input and output speeds to the permitted surrounding temperature.

At this level CDM also lists each drive's service history and any future planned maintenance events. Users can send a message to SEW-Eurodrive with queries or requests about the drive, without the need to supply any product codes or reference numbers.

A message could simply read: 'Order of on-site inspection for 7 June 2011 at 2pm,' and SEW-Eurodrive's engineers would arrive on the specified day, at the specified time, to inspect the unit. The inspection would be booked in as a future maintenance event so the user would know that the request had been acknowledged and booked in.

Additionally, condition monitoring such as vibration analysis and oil age monitoring can be linked with the databank.

With a complete inventory of all drive technology at a given site users are able to target older units that could be replaced with high efficiency motors, helical bevel gearboxes, or the latest technology MOVIGEAR, to increase energy efficiency.

An unexpected benefit of CDM came when one user had a problem with a failed drive unit. Using the detailed search function engineers were able to identify an identical drive on a palletiser that wasn't in use. The drive from the palletiser was used to replace the failed drive, enabling production to be restarted very quickly.

SEW-Eurodrive's UK service manager, Karl Rigg, says: "Because CDM is an interface it's a bit like having SEW-Eurodrive in the factory all the time as part of the user's maintenance team. And, in a sense, that's what it is. It's all about raising the bar, delivering excellence, minimising the total cost of ownership and increasing uptime for customers."