Since the coronavirus pandemic, online retail, which was already booming, has grown enormously once again. Shoppers expect lightning-fast deliveries. Intralogistics processes must therefore be precise, fast and reliable. At the same time, the demand for efficient, sustainable solutions in terms of climate protection is increasing. It is not only the total cost of ownership (TCO) that counts as an aspect of economic sustainability, but also energy-saving and resource-conserving operation. For the logistics center of mail order company Witt Group, intralogistics specialist Beumer was looking for an efficient and intelligent drive solution to replace the conventional pneumatic drives in the flap control of its sorting system. The choice fell on the brushless internal rotor servomotors of the ECI 63 series from ebm-papst.

Witt in Weisen in the Upper Palatinate is one of the oldest mail order companies for textiles in Germany. It primarily sells women's clothing, underwear and home textiles by mail order to more than 20 million customers worldwide. With the growth of the online business, the decision was made in 2020 to expand the existing logistics site in Weiden and thus increase the existing capacity by at least 50 percent. Looking to the future, the most important concern is to find the most efficient and sustainable solution possible. Both requirements are met by the sorting systems from intralogistics experts Beumer. "Our high-performance sorter was ideally suited to this challenge for the very broad mix of items. This is because the BG-Sorter Double-Belt can pick up the consignment via one or two load carriers, depending on the dimensions," explains André Sielemann, Controls Manager Logistic Systems at Beumer.

Actuators open and close the flaps

The 275-metre-long sorting system has been in operation at the logistics center in Weiden since 2021. It receives pre-picked order batches via five semi-automatic infeed units, automatically identifies the items using camera reading and measures their volume for the correct dimensioning of the parcels as well as other evaluation functions. At its outfeeds, it sorts the items into the original customer orders in more than 290 chamber end points - more than 10,000 items per hour, 20 hours a day, six days a week. The flaps on each sorting chamber remain closed while the items are buffered and open with the help of drives when the order is complete. They then fall into the designated storage boxes and are transferred to the conveyor system.

Depending on the batch run times, this happens 2,000 to 4,000 times a day. Pneumatics are no longer used in the entire system, as Beumer relies on servo drives instead of pneumatic drives to open and close the flaps. The ECI-63 drive from ebm-papst is used, which not only offers the desired efficiency and sustainability, but also precision and intelligence. The power requirement of the servo drive is significantly lower than for the compressed air generation of the pneumatic system. The difference between electronics and pneumatics is also noticeable when it comes to maintenance: If pneumatic solutions have to be readjusted after thousands of movements due to their mechanics, servo drives are less susceptible to maintenance and servicing, as the gearbox acts directly on the linkage. The resolver reliably records the movement impulses, resulting in the actual positions. Servo drives therefore have a longer product cycle - service costs are reduced and overall operating costs are lower.

Predictive maintenance included

The integrated control electronics and sensors of the ECI drives are IoT-capable and, thanks to "Green Intelligence", are also state-of-the-art in terms of predictive maintenance. This allows machine data to be viewed and processed at any time. The electrically commutated internal rotor motor delivers 180 to 370 watts. With the "K5" operating and control electronics with CANopen communication interface, it integrates the end position sensors, which previously had to be installed and maintained separately for pneumatic drives in order to reliably detect end positions. This saves installation and maintenance time and costs. The CAN bus control simplifies the control of the entire field bus network of the system.

The article appeared in materialfluss 8-9/22.