CONTACT FEEDBACK We use cookies to make the use of this site easy. If you visit our website, you agree to these cookies . You can find more information about this in our data protection statement Do not show this message again. Belgium Dutch Contact Direct order Sign Up My favorites Shopping basket About SICK Press releases Working at SICK News PRODUCTS INDUSTRIES SERVICE AND SUPPORT EVENTS DOWNLOADS KNOW-HOW MY SICK Homepage Marlux Flexi Loop traverses Marlux's production line More than 3000 days without an accident at work. At Marlux in Zolder, they are rightly proud of their good score in terms of safety. The Flexi Loop system from SICK was chosen for a recent upgrade of the security of the enormous production lines. This safety bus made it possible to link all I / Os of safety locks, emergency buttons and light curtains to one safety controller, which offers a flexible solution for maximum security. At its location in Zolder, Marlux has two enormous production lines where clinkers, concrete tiles and bored stones are made. In addition, there are two finishing lines - a drum line and a cleaving line - which allow to give the products an outdated look. The basis for all these products is earth-moist concrete that is pressed into molds under high pressure and with a certain vibration frequency. “Each cycle takes 10 to 15 seconds and produces approximately one square meter of product per cycle,” explains plant manager Marc Paredis. “After pressing, the products are immediately demoulded (pushed out of the mold) and are transported to the drying chambers via a conveyor belt where they have to harden for 20 hours. At the same time, hardened bricks are also supplied to the sorting and packaging line. Possible bad products are replaced here by good ones and the bricks are then stacked layer by layer into packages. ” Heavy machines in difficult conditions The installation in Zolder runs continuously, although that does not mean that production is actually carried out 24 hours a day. “The machines run 21 hours of production a day,” says Marc Paredis. “The rest of the time is needed for cleaning, possible product changes and preventive maintenance. Quite a bit of dust is released during the pressing and handling of the products. Despite heavy dust extraction, this still remains a very stressful factor for the installations. ” Both press lines succeed in achieving an OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) of more than 70%! Another impressive achievement is the number of days without an accident at work. That number - at Marlux counting the consecutive days on which no one had to stay at home due to an injury at work - has now risen to more than 3000. “It is the result of a continuous focus on machine safety and, last but not least, the behavior of our employees, something that our parent company CRH is also strongly focused on. ” The heavy machines, products and the difficult circumstances that sometimes require a relatively large number of interventions, do not make that high number of days without an accident at work a matter of course. In addition, the installations are extremely large in size, which also makes it quite a challenge to physically secure them. Large number of I / Os De basis van de machinebeveiliging is zoals gebruikelijk het afschermen van de installaties met hekwerk en toegangsdeuren. Daarbovenop komen een aantal lichtschermen om de zones af te schermen waar producten doorheen moeten. Omdat de beveiliging bij de recente lijn voor het verouderen en klieven van basisproducten uitgevoerd was met een Flexi Soft controller van SICK, wilde men deze technologie ook gebruiken bij de vernieuwing van de beveiliging van de perslijnen. Alleen was het aantal deuren met vergrendelingen (locks), en dus I/O’s, op deze productielijnen veel groter. Johan Vandenryt, verantwoordelijke voor automatisering: “In de klieflijn gebruiken we de CPU0 als basismodule, maar daar kunnen maximaal 12 kaarten op aangesloten worden en dat was niet genoeg voor de beveiliging van een perslijn. Ons eerste idee was dan om 2 controllers naast elkaar te plaatsen, maar dan moesten we overstappen op de CPU1 om de controllers op een veilige manier via Flexi Link met elkaar te kunnen laten communiceren. Technisch gezien was dat geen probleem, maar het ging wat in tegen onze ambitie om zoveel mogelijk te standaardiseren. De oplossing kwam dankzij Flexi Loop, een bussysteem waarmee we al onze I/O’s decentraal op één enkele CPU0 konden aansluiten.” Besparen op bekabeling Op elke Flexi Soft controller kunnen 8 verschillende Flexi Loops aangesloten worden. Elke loop kan op zijn beurt 32 verschillende deelnemers bevatten. “De deelnemers, “nodes”, zijn kleine modules in een IP67 behuizing die in de productie geplaatst kunnen worden en in serie met elkaar verbonden worden tot een loop”, zegt Johan Vandenryt. “Elke node bevat 2 safety inputs voor het evalueren van een noodknopsignaal en daarbij een extra standard in- en uitgang die kan gebruikt worden om een signalisatielamp aan te sturen en een resetknop te lezen. Dankzij deze technologie hebben we meerdere noodstoppen in één kring kunnen plaatsen met het voordeel dat ze toch apart adresseerbaar zijn. Het betekent dat we bij een storing op de visualisatie kunnen nakijken welke noodknop geactiveerd is.” Die visualisatietoepassing communiceert via Profibus met de safety controller. Onderhoudstechnici kunnen met een PC inloggen op de CPU. Thanks to the Flexi Loop, Marlux has thus succeeded in connecting a large number of safety I / Os to a single safety controller. “Thanks to the bus system, we were able to save on cabling, which also made it an attractive solution financially. What also played a role for us in the selection of the Flexisoft CPU is that it is very resistant to heat and produces hardly any heat itself, so that the control box does not need extra cooling. Compared to our old system with relays, we also have the advantage that we can put much more logic into the system, such as muting and logic. All this makes the system user-friendly, not only for the maintenance people but also for the operators, so that they can work efficiently but also with maximum security. ” Contact Marlux - K Beton Dellestraat 41 3550 Heusden - Zolder http://www.marlux.be 013/530500 marc.paredis@marlux.com UPWARDS PRODUCT PORTFOLIO Products and industries New products Product portfolio Applications and Solutions Industries Service & Support Our services Download Software Download Documentation Events Registration Know-How Whitepapers Success Stories Technologies safetyIQ News & Events E-newsletters Press releases Customer magazine Events Trade Fairs Contact contact us Distribution partners Vacancies Social Media Channels About SICK SICK in Belgium SICK Worldwide Working at SICK Imprint Conditions of sale Terms of use Data protection © 2017 SICK AG Our social media channels: