ABEL Power & Control Solutions Invests In The Future Of Control Panel Wiring
ABEL Power & Control Solutions is a successful, forward-looking, ambitious panel builder and systems integrator that is constantly seeking ways to improve the products and service it provides to its customers.
This ongoing quest for improvement has resulted in ABEL becoming the first company in the world to install Weidmüller’s versatile Wire Processing Centre (WPC).
After just a few weeks of working with this ground-breaking system, ABEL is already finding that it delivers important benefits that include reducing the wiring time for a typical control panel by as much as 50%.
The management team at ABEL know all too well that panel building is an intensely competitive business, which means that continuing success depends on finding new ways to hone the company’s competitive edge.
Making significant savings on components and materials is virtually impossible these days, so the only remaining option is to reduce the labour content of the control panels.
A significant proportion of the labour content is wiring time. With these thoughts in mind, Nigel Russell, Managing Director of ABEL, started to research way in which he could make his production processes more efficient and less time consuming.
“It only took a few web searches to come up with the idea of automatic wire processing,” said Nigel, “and it was an idea that was instantly attractive. With a wire processing system, all of the wires for a panel are cut to the right length and the cable markers are printed automatically. Stripping and crimping the cable ends is also fully automated. We could see that a Wire Processing Centre (WPC) had the potential to save us a lot of time and money, so we set about investigating what the market had to offer.”
The team at ABEL look at several alternatives but discovered that, with one exception, they were all supplied essentially as a system-in-a-box, shipped from distant manufacturers that offered no local support within the UK either to help with setting up the machine or with any problems that might subsequently arise.
The exception was the Wire Processing Centre (WPC) from Weidmüller, which is fully supported by the company’s team of expert engineers based right here in the UK.
“There was no possibility of seeing the other systems in action before buying but, in contrast, Weidmüller was exceptionally responsive when we expressed an interest in the WPC,” said Nigel. “A demonstration was arranged at our premises in just a few days, and it was very impressive. It was very apparent from the outset that the people at Weidmüller understood our business, our requirements and our challenges, and that they wanted to work with us as partners, rather than simply sell us a box and walk away. Unsurprisingly, we placed an order for a WPC, which was delivered, installed and commissioned very promptly.”
The WPC system purchased by ABEL comprises a wire cutter, which takes wire from a reel and automatically cuts it to length; a label printer, which prints the appropriate labels for each wire as it is being cut; and a stripper/crimper.
When a wire has been cut and the labels applied at each end, the machine operator simply inserts the wire end into an aperture. It’s stripped and the termination is crimped in place in a single operation that takes only seconds.
The system can be operated manually, via an intuitive colour touchscreen interface, or it can import data directly from designs prepared using EPLAN computer-aided engineering (CAE) software.
Even when direct data import is used, the machine operator still retains full control over the wire preparation process and can override any of the settings and parameters to meet special requirements.
The WPC is compact, occupying just a small bench top, and requires only a single-phase electrical supply together with a supply of compressed air.
Weidmüller’s versatile Wire Processing Centre (WPC)
For Richard Mehta, Engineering Manager at ABEL, the WPC has fully lived up to expectations;
“It was very easy to get to grips with,” he said, “as working with it genuinely is intuitive. In addition, we received excellent support from Weidmüller and when, as is to be expected, we had a few minor teething problems, these were all sorted out quickly and efficiently. Our production people love the machine – the ergonomics are excellent, and it’s taken over most of the repetitive and boring aspects of their jobs, freeing them up to spend time on things that are rather more interesting and rewarding.”
At the time of writing, ABEL has been using the Weidmüller Wire Processing Centre (WPC) for just over a month and is already seeing big benefits, both with one-off panels and with jobs that call for multiple panels of the same design. The biggest benefit is that the WPC dramatically cuts wiring time.
ABEL is currently achieving time savings of up to 50%, but Richard confidently expects that even greater savings will be possible as the operators become more familiar with the WPC.
Additionally, using the WPC ensures that every termination is correctly crimped and every cable is correctly labelled, thereby further enhancing the already excellent quality which has always been a hallmark of panels produced by ABEL.
“Working with Weidmüller has been a pleasure and the WPC is delivering everything we wanted and hoped for,” said ABEL managing director, Nigel. “We strive constantly to be the leading panel builder in our sector, with the best products, the most competitive prices and the best customer service. The WPC helps us to achieve all of these goals and it has one other very useful benefit: it’s an impressive piece of kit to show prospective customers when they visit us, and it confirms to them our commitment to investing in the latest technology to provide genuine customer benefits.”
Weidmüller UK
- +44 1162 823470
- http://www.weidmueller.com
- Klippon House, Centurion Court Office Park, Meridian East, Meridian Business Park Leicester, Leicestershire LE19 1TP GB
About us
Be it automobile manufacturing, electricity production or water management - hardly any of today’s industries can do without electronics and electrical connectivity. In this internationalised, technologically changing world, the complexity of requirements is rapidly increasing due to the emergence of new markets. New, more varied challenges have to be overcome, and the solutions to them will not be found in high-tech products alone. Connectivity is the key, whether it involves power, signals and data, demands and solutions or theory and practice. Industrial Connectivity needs connections. And that’s precisely what we stand for.
Our Industries
Our industrial environment is full of connections that need to be connected, controlled and optimised. We are absolutely committed to always providing the best connection possible. This is not only demonstrated in our products but also in the human connections we maintain: We develop solutions in close cooperation with our customers which meet the full measure of all requirements of their particular industrial environment.
Industry 4.0 and Digitalisation
In the light of Industry 4.0, customised, highly flexible and self-controlling production units often still seem to be a vision of the future. As a progressive thinker and trailblazer, Weidmüller already offers concrete solutions that allow producing companies to prepare themselves for the “Industrial Internet of Things” and for safe production control from the Cloud - without the need to modernise their entire range of machinery.
Where we supply to
UK Ireland
Industries we supply to
Chemicals, Energy and Power, Pharmaceutical Cosmetics Toiletries, Water and Wastewater
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