Drive maintenance service integrates with innovative online databank

SEW Eurodrive has launched what it calls its Complete Drive Management (CDM®) service that integrates the maintenance and servicing of industrial drives with an innovative 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.

CDM® streamlines, simplifies and increases the efficiency of a plant’s drive technology maintenance regime. 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 SEW Eurodrive’s secure DriveGate portal, a user is presented with an interface that makes it simplicity itself to navigate around all the drive systems installed on plant and equipment as well as those in storage.

As a multisite tool for example, let’s say 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 SEW Eurodrive.

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 the documentation, such as operating and installation instructions. There’s no chance of mislaying important information any more. CDM® takes the hassle out of everything.

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. A really useful feature allows users to send a message to SEW Eurodrive with queries or requests about the drive, without the need to supply any product codes or reference numbers. CDM® does all this automatically.

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 also be linked with the databank.

CDM® has proved its worth on many fronts. With a complete inventory of all drive technology at a given site users were able to target older units that could be replaced with high efficiency motors, helical bevel gearboxes, or the very 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 palletizer that wasn’t in use. The drive from the palletizer was used to replace the failed drive, enabling production to be restarted very quickly.

SEW Eurodrive’s UK service manager, Karl Rigg, says that the new service ‘gives users complete knowledge of all the drive technology in their factories in a way that has never before been possible.’

According to Rigg, ‘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. We think we’ve done that. CDM® is something unique, innovative and really special.’

www.sew-eurodrive.co.uk