CAMU Srl of Bressanvido (Vicenza, Italy), a leading manufacturer of sheet metal working machines, has standardised on AC drives from Control Techniques.

Unidrive SP is the drive of choice for a variety of applications, from open-loop control for material handling, closed loop control for slitting lines and servo control for high-precision feeding and cutting.

"The customer is using Unidrive SP in a very wide range of modes and power ratings,” explains Control Techniques’ Maurizio Zarantonello. “Our history with the company goes back some eight years, with DC drives for a slitting line and, today, there are over 200 of their machines running around the world.”

In 2005, as part of an upgrading process to meet market demands and produce a more competitive product CAMU switched to AC drives for all of its re-designed cut-to-length machines, straighteners and slitting lines. Unidrive SP met their requirements in every way with drives ranging from 0.75kW right up to up to 1.5MW!

Drives being applied in different modes and using the plug-in SM applications modules to provide on the spot precision control and maximum dynamic performance to achieve the best possible control of speed, tension or positioning precision, depending on the task at hand. On-board programming has minimised and in some cases eliminated the use of additional PLCs. This has meant control cubicles can be reduced in size, enabling the whole machine size and footprint to be minimised. SyPTPro programming software allows the company to carry out its own programming reducing project time and start-up time.

For example CAMU has Unidrive SP drives providing servo positioning control on press feeding units and on cut-tolength lines, Unidrive SP drives in closed loop AC mode for slitting lines and many Unidrive SPs in open-loop AC control on applications from conveyors to other materials handling tasks.

In addition, CAMU likes the fact that each drive can, if required, be fitted with communication modules allowing communications with standard PLC and HMI systems, meeting the most demanding end-user specifications.

"Why did CAMU standardise on Unidrive SP? There were many reasons,” adds Maurizio Zarantonello.“Firstly, the switch to AC brought with it benefits of reduced maintenance and greater reliability. Our eight years of working alongside CAMU over a wide range of projects has built up considerable trust and confidence in Control Techniques drives.The customer is very pleased with the versatility and additional savings that Unidrive SP has brought – reduced programming, reduced build-time and wiring, greater reliability and customer energy savings too.”

"We have considerable confidence in Control Techniques” says Loris Basso, owner of CAMU, “We receive excellent support from the Vicenza Drive Centre and their applications knowledge has helped us to produce better solutions for our customers.”

For further information please visit www.controltechniques.com