The magazine of Friedhelm Loh Group

The magazine of Friedhelm Loh Group

 

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Teamwork – Society Frontrunners of digital transformation

What do entrepreneurs and surfers have in common?

Onwards and upwards. Silicon Valley forecaster Paul Saffo on why no industry can avoid the immense challenge of digital transformation, what all this has in common with surfing — and how to emerge victorious.

Innovation – Rittal New Rittal plant

Making Industry 4.0 a reality

Manufacturing 4.0. The new plant in Haiger represents Rittal’s biggest investment in its history. It manufactures enclosures that are attuned to all the requirements that come with digital transformation – the new AX/KX series. The highly automated plant itself is also firmly embedded in the entire digital value chain. Here’s a first glimpse into the inner workings of the new production facility.

Experience – Information technology Chindata hyperscale data centre

IT systems completed in record time

Faster cloud access. China’s Internet economy is driving growth, with new, innovative business models emerging at record speed. Rittal is helping IT companies such as Chindata build new hyperscale data centers in the shortest possible time to satisfy the digital world’s hunger for data. Discover in this article how Rittal experts completed one of the largest data center in China in just seven months.

Innovation – System technology

Strong together

Focused teamwork for a perfect play: the system technology from Rittal and Eplan has a lot in common with American football. A coordinated system that links together plant engineering and digital solutions can tap into undreamt-of potential.

Most read

1

Put to the test: The Schaper Group tests the VX25

2

Smart City Songdo: Behind the Scenes of a networked city

3

Saving energy properly: Voith and Rittal show how it works

4

Precise production every second: Visiting the Rittershausen plant

5

Identical forever: How the digital twin creates added value

Experience – Datacenter-container in steel industry

Digital Fort Knox

Big data is the future in the steel industry, too. To stay competitive for the long term, thyssenkrupp Steel is modernizing its production-relevant IT.

Experience – Rittal supplies infrastructure for e-mobility

Fully charged

Electromobility requires a well enlarged infrastructure. Rittal supports the entire value chain, from power generation through to the charging station.

Snapshots

Wood that sounds good: Italy is famed for its passion for good food, emotional football and musical finesse. Indeed, the region around Milan is steeped in culture and has played a big part in shaping the history of the violin, being home to prestigious makers such as Stradivari, Amati and Guarneri del Gesù. Some 125 years ago, Angelo Cremona S.p.A in the nearby city of Monza started to specialise in woodworking machines. Back then it was a pioneer and, to this day, the long-standing company is still leading progress. A satisfied customer of the TS 8 enclosure from Rittal, Angelo Cremona has become the first company in Italy to roll out its successor, the VX25. www.angelo-cremona.com © Getty Images/Westend61A clean delight: A juicy hot dog, crisp on the outside and soft and smooth on the inside, wrapped in a slightly sweet roll and smothered in an array of toppings – it’s the trademark snack of North America. Canadians love them and are particularly partial to them at sporting events such as ice hockey matches and baseball games. To achieve product quality of hot dogs, the hygiene has to be top notch, too. That is why a Canadian food producer uses Hygienic Design enclosures from Rittal, which ensure clinical cleanliness and reliability – two critical considerations in food production. © Gallery Stock/Marcus NilssonTradition meets technology: Row upon row of solar panels have taken up residence where fishermen once went to work. In many parts of China, it is not unusual to stumble on a sea of photovoltaic plants. One of China’s leading thin-film solar cell suppliers is Hanergy. These thin-film solar cells are much lighter than normal solar panels and more flexible. Hanergy uses Eplan engineering software and a Perforex system from Rittal Automation Systems in the manufacture of its products. www.hanergy.eu © Alamy Stock Photo/Top Phot CorporationReliable steel production – At first glance, steel production seems to be all about flying sparks and glaring light. But take a look behind the scenes and you will discover a sophisticated IT infra­structure. thyssenkrupp Steel, one of the world’s leading suppliers of high-quality flat steel, uses modular, preconfigured edge data centres from Rittal in its operations. The two companies teamed up to develop custom solutions based on Rittal data centre containers (RDCC) directly at the production sites, enabling fast, secure and cost-effective IT capacity to be established at each and every location. The partners are continuing their work on the container-­based edge data centres so that further custom requirements can be integrated into the solution in the future. © Getty Images/Sean Gallup/StaffAs the wind blows – If you’ve ever stood at the foot of a wind turbine and looked up high above you, you’ll no doubt have been blown away by the technical construction of these 150-metre-­high towers with 60-metre-long rotor blades. Shanghai Electric Wind Power Group from China is a leading manufacturer and supplier of these gigantic structures. The company produces onshore and offshore wind turbines, deploying software from Eplan during the electrical planning – Eplan Electric P8 and Eplan Pro Panel, for example. © Gallery Stock/Greg GirardA bright idea – Deutsche Telekom is using multifunctional enclosures from Rittal in its drive to expand the broadband network. The aim is to provide 80 per cent of households in Germany with high-speed internet based on fibre-­optic technology by the end of 2019. The upgraded network will be capable of sending even massive volumes of data at the speed of light. In support of this project, Rittal has supplied the telecommunications giant with 34,000 modular outdoor enclosures over the past four years. © Michael KochTop performance on the high seas – Approximately two thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered with water. Nowhere is that clearer than on the three huge oceans that encapsulate land mass around the world. And yet humankind has only researched and explored a tiny proportion of the Earth’s seas. To help change that, Canadian company Aspin Kemp and Associates develops energy and drive technologies that are also suitable for maritime applications. The company, established on Prince Edward Island in 1996, pursues its aims with the aid of TS 8 enclosures from Rittal, primarily due to the comprehensive certification they offer. Thanks to the high level of standardisation and flexibility of the Rittal solution, customers – particularly those in the very price-sensitive oil and gas market – benefit from low maintenance costs, excellent reliability, energy savings and low emissions. © Getty Images/Cultura/Monty RakusenOrdered, packed and delivered – Global e-commerce has experienced a long-term growth trend for years. Last year alone, retail e-commerce sales worldwide amounted to more than a trillion euros. Whether books, movies, clothing or electrical appliances: Everything must go smoothly in the logistics centres so that the desired items are delivered to the customers as quickly as possible. That is why online retailers are favouring prevention rather than reaction. For instance in China, Europe and the United States, thousands of cooling units in the logistics centres ensure a fail-safe cooling and a trouble-free process. The maintenance and servicing of the equipment is provided by Rittal. © Getty Images/Getty Images News/Peter MacdiarmidA passion for detail – Juicy ossobuco, creamy risotto alla Milanese or tender vitello tonnato – there is hardly a country in the world that celebrates the joy of eating good food as much as Italy. To make sure that their visitors are able to taste “la dolce vita” as part of their experience, many professional Italian chefs rely on electrical appliances from Electrolux Professional. The company’s dishwashers, stoves and steam ovens are also used in hotels, bars and restaurants all over the world. When designing the electrical components of its products, Electrolux Professional in Italy uses software from Eplan. The end result is a high level of standardisation and automation thanks to the use of macros and improved precision from using digital prototypes. © Getty Images/DigitalVision/Klaus VedfeltBringing light into the darkness: Dark passageways, bizarre rock formations, damp rock faces and an almost eerie silence – exploring a cave is an unforgettable experience. To make such adventures even better for visitors, German company Cave Lighting has been installing state-of-the-art lighting, music, monitoring and power supply systems in publicly accessible show caves since 2005. In doing so, the company uses robust AE compact enclosures from Rittal, as the stainless steel systems are ideally equipped to withstand the tough climatic conditions underground. Besides the Kluterthöhle caves in Germany, Cave Lighting has also brought underground lakes, petrified creatures and stunning corals into view at the Caves of Han in Belgium, the Balcarka Cave in the Czech Republic and the Caves of Is Zuddas in Italy. © Michael KochTake a look: Those who dare look down upon the clouds certainly shouldn’t suffer from vertigo. Starting from this, and assuming you can get over any fear of heights you might have, pay a visit to the 148th storey of the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, where you’ll have to use the world’s highest revolving door. The door was made by Boon Edam, the market leader for entrance solutions, headquartered in Edam, Netherlands. On the IT side of things, the company relies on an integrated PLM solution based on SAP 4/HANA – with support from Cideon. The core of the solution at Boon Edam is to automatically integrate design drawings into SAP and to create a central source for locally created data – a “single source of truth” – that can be accessed throughout the company. Moving forward, drawings and relevant documents for procurement and offers management will also be automatically generated in accordance with defined rules. © National Geographic Creative/Alamy Stock PhotoHygienic production of goodies: When Daniel Peter constructed a chocolate factory on the outskirts of the Swiss town of Orbe in 1901, he could hardly have ever imagined it would play a key role in a global corporation in 2017. A merger in 1929 saw the factory become part of Nestlé. Nowadays, around 1,500 employees work at the Orbe site, manufacturing Nespresso capsules among other things. It is also home to the Nestlé Product Technology Centre (PTC), where coffee, breakfast drinks and infant food are developed. ­Hygiene-focused designs are particularly important in this environment. Which explains why the factory opted for the Rittal Hygienic Design enclosures, command panels and terminal boxes. They enable perfectly hygienic manufacturing processes. In addition, as an in-house innovation driver, the PTC is currently taking part in a one-year practical test run that pits a Blue e cooling unit against one of the latest generation Blue e+ units to compare energy consumption under real-life conditions. © Fabrice Coffrini/Staff/getty images

 

 

Peak power

Totally top!

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Rittal Blue e+ chillers used in aircraft manufacturing

A safe take-off

– Solutions across the globe

Problems solved with products from Friedhelm Loh Group

– Chindata hyperscale data centre

IT systems completed in record time

– Plastics in automotive industry

Tailoring the process to the customer

Innovation – How does Cideon recognizes a pattern in a noise?

Artificial Intelligence in Action

Whether machine learning, chatbots or automated guided vehicles, artificial intelligence (AI) is breaking all the records in a whole range of fields. The Budarhals hydropower plant in Iceland is a perfect example of how AI can also generate added value for companies in the mechanical engineering sector.

Innovation – Rittal Edge computing

"The times of experimental thinking are in the past."

A solution by Rittal and Innovo Cloud shows how companies can adapt their IT landscape flexibly.

Video

Rapidity, Innovation, the strive for more and the courage to change lead to perfection.

Whether safely sheltered or in rough environments: Individually configured solutions for IT Containers made to fit into any place.

Man vs. machine – who wins? The LCA Group shows the advantages of using the Perforex

All clean: During replacements of Canada’s largest sewage plant, Metro Vancouver opted for enclosure and power distribution solutions from Eplan.

Precise production of the VX25

Planning and realisation with Eplan Pro Panel and and Perforex BC

Customers catch up on digital business prozecesses.

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The Ri4Power System in Detail

Smart Powersystem

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Stahlo enlarges in Gera

Smart move towards the east

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Direct current for a smart production

Enger through direct current

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Software with system

The door-opener

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