Push-in connection technology makes automated wiring possible Push-in connection technology is revolutionizing the control cabinet.

Focus on the process

Control cabinet manufacturing is characterized by a high proportion of process costs. Based on a simple terminal point, over 80% of the costs are generated by the process and not by the material.

This is an ideal starting point for improving profitability in the production of machines and systems. Phoenix Contact is in the process of developing a solution portfolio and can already share some of the results.

Process optimization in control cabinet manufacturing with the clipx concept

Control cabinet manufacturing is typical of manufacturing companies in high-wage countries, with smaller batch sizes, increasing cost pressure, and shorter delivery times. This area of manufacturing has undergone little industrialization, however.

Bottling plant manufacturer Krones is optimizing its control cabinet manufacturing with a system for the automatic assembly and mounting of DIN rails with Push-in terminal blocks. The clipx solution developed by Phoenix Contact is an important component of the company’s strategy to reduce process costs in control cabinet manufacturing.

With the clipx concept, Phoenix Contact has developed a solution portfolio that takes all relevant company processes in control cabinet manufacturing into consideration and examines them systematically.

Process optimization in control cabinet manufacturing with CLX laser marking

Automated marking using a laser can be particularly worthwhile when dealing with a large variety of terminal block types. Here, the manual effort involved in allocating the marking strips to the different contours of the terminal blocks is significant.

With the CLX system, the terminal blocks are provided with a special marking imprint. The components can then be marked either just before they are attached to the DIN rail or as a ready-mounted terminal strip in the block.

The data model of the products to be processed serves as the basis for all optimizations in control cabinet production. Here, the user benefits from the deep integration of the CLIP PROJECT planning software for terminal strips with conventional CAE systems such as EPLAN Electric 8, ELCAD, and the Zuken E3 series.

Research project at the Department for Production Systems

Phoenix Contact has started an extraordinary project with the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany. A mounting system for DIN rails with five workstations was installed at the university‘s Department for Production Systems (LPS) headed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bernd Kuhlenkötter. The field of activity of DIN rail mounting is to be studied in detail scientifically on this system under real conditions. Real in this case means that actual, specially selected customer orders for DIN rail assembly will be processed.

A project team comprised of three members of the research staff of the LPS, together with students from the faculty of mechanical engineering, will focus on a series of topics that have been barely explored in the area of production engineering and assisted manual assembly in the industry. They will focus in particular on the use of virtual and augmented reality technologies. Experiments with Microsoft’s HoloLens are currently being planned.

Another focus for the research will be on the integration of the human-robot collaboration (HRC) in a clocked assembly process, for which the HRC-ready KUKA iiwa lightweight robot is already available at the LPS. To design such systems, the scientists from Bochum will first have to determine process parameters, such as the force when attaching a terminal block. The objective is to provide meaningful semi-automation of the mounting system, which supports humans rather than eliminating their cognitive skills and flexibility from the process.