Bridon International Ltd is the world leading specialist in the manufacture of wire and rope solutions for the most demanding applications. Bridon operates eleven manufacturing units worldwide with market focused technical and sales offices, supported by a global network of agents and distributors.
The Herzog 1088/32 Closer is one of the world's largest rope closing machines. This machine takes up to 32 huge bobbins of strands and twists them together to form massive ropes. The machine consists of a large rotary base onto which 32 bobbins are loaded. Each bobbin contains a strand of twisted fibre. The strands are typically 1 inch in diameter. The strands are all combined and fed through the eye of the machine. The rope is made by pulling the combined strands through the eye at the same time, interleaving the strands as they rotate on the bed. It is like a giant maypole. The new rope is tensioned over large overhead capstans and wound on to a large take off reel.
BRIDON #1 THE NIEHAUS STRANDER
The Niehaus Strander is a magnificent machine. It is used to twist fibres into strands which in turn are further twisted to make ropes. The ropes produced are used in the gas, oil, and shipping industries. Originally the machine was used in the manufacture of steel rope. It had reached its usable life in this area and was then converted to be used in the production of fibre wire.
However, the machine, which was built in Germany in 1974, was not in its best condition when installed in the rope factory of Bridon International factory in Coatbridge. Its wiring was in an extremely dangerous condition. Together with similar other large pieces of rope-making equipment, it contributed to an overall poor productivity/high downtime performance in the Coatbridge facility.
Over an extended period of time the machine had been modified so many times that the condition of the electrical and mechanical components was very poor. The Bridon factory maintenance department set about upgrading the mechanical components of the machine. Coldcurve were requested to update the electrics on the machine.
An outline machine specification was agreed between the rope manufacturer and Coldcurve. The specification was developed between Bridon and Coldcurve based on extensive discussions with operators, process engineers, and the safety officer.
For more information on Examples of BRIDON factory automation control systems upgraded talk to Coldcurve Ltd