The scope of the order also includes new drives for all draw rollers in the turner bar decks of the Wifag OF370 press as well as upgrades to the existing ABB Press Master system.

The new reelstand controls use ABB’s PLC system AC500, which is used in countless demanding industries worldwide. Two major advantages of this for the end users are, apart from the technical qualities, the long-term availability of spare parts and the fact that these spare parts can be bought not only from ABB but also numerous independent suppliers around the world.

The existing drives will be replaced with new ABB ACSM1 drives. Thesehigh performance machinery drives provide speed, torque and motion control for demanding applications. They can control induction, synchronous and asynchronous servo and high torque motors with various feedback devices. The new drives will be built into the existing cabinets.

Uwe Braasch, technical director of Druckzentrum Südwest, explains the background to the new order: “as technical director it is one of my jobs to ensure the long-term availability of our press. With the new ABB drives and reelstand controls we are not only modernizing our systems but also ensuring the long-term availability of spare parts”.

The commissioning of the new controls and drives will be completed before the year is out.

ABB is a leading automation supplier to the newspaper industry. ABB Printing (http://www.abb.com/printing) delivers solutions that provide unique and totally integrated end-to-end control, protect existing investments and provide management information essential to improving profitability.

ABB (http://www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 140,000 people.