Text Gerald Scheffels ––– Photography
Everyone has the right to clean water!” Benedikt Ney, CTO of Zahnen Technik, personally stands by this principle. In practical terms, this means that water facilities and wastewater plants must be available everywhere in the world. Zahnen Technik, which is based in Arzfeld in the Eifel region of Germany, builds, optimises and modernises these types of facilities and plants. Before the company’s switchgear is delivered to the customer and put into operation on site, Zahnen fully assembles and connects the systems directly on its own premises and carries out extensive tests. This is a complex undertaking, given that one project of this kind can involve anything from 50 to 190 enclosure panels, plus small enclosures.
SMART MOUNTING
One of the biggest challenges is the skills shortage – and this is where the new software tool Eplan Smart Mounting comes in. The solution ensures that enclosures can be completed by less experienced staff, too, by guiding them step by step through the configuration of the enclosure with rails, ducts and other components. A screen at the workstation displays a 3D visualisation of the precise position for each component. All the worker has to do is position it in the enclosure as shown and acknowledge the process. This also reduces the overall throughput time. “Once we’ve rolled out Smart Mounting right across the board, we expect to reduce our assembly time by 30 percent,” says Ney.
In Arzfeld, the company has already been working with Eplan Smart Wiring – the tool for wiring enclosures – since 2023. It also recently invested in a Rittal Wire Terminal for automated cable processing. Before the company was able to harness the benefits of this automation, there was a fair bit of preliminary work that had to be done. “We’re now working with all-pole and defined connections and have updated the wiring schematics and 3D macros accordingly so we can route wires using Eplan Pro Panel,” Ney reports. Only then is the data transferred to Eplan Smart Wiring and the fully automated wire processing machine.
UP TO 75 PERCENT FASTER
What are the benefits of smart enclosure manufacture on a day-to-day basis? According to Udo Lindemans, who is in charge of the e-workshop at Zahnen, one key factor is time. “We’ve already cut the time we need to wire an enclosure by around 50 percent. Once everything has settled down and projects are planned accordingly, we expect that saving to rise to as much as 75 percent.” Of course, as Lindemans reports, wire processing is faster, too. “The Rittal Wire Terminal produces a complete set of cables for an enclosure in one hour. That offers potential for growth.”
He mentions another advantage, too, which relates to the skills shortage. “At the same time as we started using the Rittal Wire Terminal, we also took on a new employee who doesn’t have specialist training. He now wires enclosures perfectly with Smart Wiring.” The same applies to assembly and specifically to the fitting out of top hat rails. According to Lindemans, a semi-skilled colleague is making an excellent job of this, too. “You don’t need any specialist knowledge for mechanical construction – this solution really works!” he enthuses.
ADDITIONAL BENEFIT – IMAGE ENHANCEMENT
Time and training are one thing, but quality and the company image are at least as important. As Ney explains, the solutions from Rittal and Eplan impress on this score, too. “All wires are labelled and fitted with end ferrules. This increases their service life and makes troubleshooting easier if it’s needed. The wiring looks really good and helps us show that we work in an innovative way.” He firmly believes that this enhances the company’s image with customers and is also a plus point when it comes to recruitment. “New employees expect a digital workplace with end-to-end processes that support them in their work – and that’s exactly what we offer.”
A PAPERLESS FUTURE
In the assembly department at Zahnen Technik, printouts of wiring schematics are conspicuous by their absence. Instead of paper, there’s a PC with a touchscreen at every workstation. Ney explains: “Even before we introduced Smart Wiring, our manufacturing operations were paperless, and we used eView for wiring. We now use eView for testing and commissioning and for coordination work when making changes and modifications.”
Another advantage of paperless manufacturing with Smart Wiring and eView is that multiple people can work on the same project. What’s more, the synchronisation between engineering and manufacturing is highly structured, thanks to redlining and greenlining features. “We can import changes quickly or document outstanding issues. We often use this for projects that are routed and wired with Smart Wiring,” Lindemans reports. Zahnen technicians also work with the electronic documentation when commissioning systems on site, since they can access it from anywhere via eView, which is hosted in the Eplan Cloud. What’s more, along the entire process chain, the enclosure’s digital twin – which also covers assembly and wiring – offers greater transparency and improved monitoring.
WITH STANDARDISATION – AND RITTAL
As far as the enclosures themselves are concerned, Zahnen also relies on standardisation – and on Rittal. As Ney explains: “We use the VX25 series, complete with the range of accessories and climate control, which we calculate with RiTherm. We do a lot of our work with standardised, pre-assembled components. This saves us time and speeds up our manufacturing processes – and it offers quality benefits, too. This is the right path – and we’re going to stick to it.”
