Material handling
solutions
A strategic advantage for your business
Make the most of your energy
SM
Creating the team
You need a partner who only wins
when you do!
With the ever increasing need for improved
efficiencies, reduced operating costs and more
precise system controls, Schneider Electric creates
total material handling solutions for our material
handling clients by listening. Based on what we
hear, we create a community of Schneider Electric
technical and business experts to create an
automation, control and power solution that meets
our customers’ needs.
We can provide:
•Electrical, automation and
control design or co-design
of machine or process
•Safety system design
•Seamless integration of
automation and control systems
•Electrical codes and machine
standards expertise
•Turnkey project management,
from scope to implementation
•World-class panel build capability
and a network of panel partners
•Dedicated, state-of-the-art
laboratory for testing
and validating solutions
•Global technical support
and product availability
From idea
through execution
Companies today need to respond quickly to customers, reduce
operating costs and provide both the goods and the information
necessary to achieve an efficient supply chain. As a result, material
handling is increasingly viewed by business as a strategic rather than
a tactical activity. For makers of material handling equipment and
systems, this creates new opportunities for growth, as well as greater
demand for innovation.
Schneider Electric, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of automation,
control and power solutions, is positioned to be your partner in meeting
the changing priorities of your customers. Our OEM Technology and
Solutions Center fields a dedicated team of skilled material handling
experts and application engineers who can provide innovative solutions
and technical support, not only from idea through execution but for the
life of your machines.
With a level of specialization not found at any other supplier, we
can deliver a broad range of services, including proven solutions,
electrical and automation system design, custom motor control
solutions, co-design and joint marketing efforts, testing and project
management resources.
Our customers have complete access to the expertise of design
engineers, product managers, application engineers and business
development managers with years of experience in material handling
applications. They’ll work together with you to upgrade an existing
equipment design or develop an entirely new machine or process.
As an expert in both automation and energy management,
Schneider Electric also is a pioneer in developing solutions for
sustainable development, helping OEMs and their customers save
time, save money and save energy.
Our goal is to help you and your customers:
• Lower total cost of ownership
• Improve efficiency, output and productivity
• Shorten time to market
• Reduce project cycle time
Customer Challenge
One of the world’s largest material
handling logistics providers was
building one of the world’s largest
fully-automated package handling
systems. They needed a turnkey
power, automation and controls
vendor who could supply a system
that could manage the one million
packages a day that would
flow through the facility. With four
million square feet under roof, the
distribution center would be bigger
than the Pentagon, with a power
draw in the neighborhood of
75 megawatts or enough to power
75,000 homes.
Our Solution
As the sole supplier able to provide all
the products and services needed for
this mammoth project, the customer
relied on Schneider Electric’s
expertise in managing large power
and automation projects.
The system required approximately
1,000 PLCs, 20,000 variable
frequency drives, all controlled
through an extensive Modbus
TCP/IP Ethernet backbone.
Application engineering and project
management personnel were
stationed on site to provide help
with startup and troubleshooting.
We also designed special sensors
to transmit process information from
the drives to the PLCs controlling
the automated system. The result:
a flawless performance that came in
on time and on budget.
Support for the life
of your machine
Schneider Electric sells and services its products and solutions in over
100 countries around the world. For our OEM customers, that means
replacement parts from the industry’s largest distribution network and
technical support available on call around the globe. The simple fact
that your machine is equipped with Schneider Electric components
entitles you to:
• Request local technician intervention on site wherever your machine
is operating
Customer Challenge
A carousel OEM was looking to
upgrade their control system but did
not have the electrical or automation
expertise in house. Their goal was a
new, more efficient and transparent
automation and power architecture
that would make their product
offering more competitive.
• Quick access to local spare parts stocks
• A direct line to any of the Schneider Electric Customer Care
Centers worldwide in 68 countries, where a local team can provide
you with fast, accurate and reliable answers to questions about
Schneider Electric products
We’re dedicated to providing complete solutions that benefit both you
and your customers. That means we’re committed to supporting you
long after the sale. And because we deploy standardization practices
during the design process, we enable your customers to reduce parts
inventory and simplify maintenance for the life of a machine or process.
Our Solution
Schneider Electric designed the
entire control system, which included
third-party components specified by
the OEM. Our in-house engineering
experts also trained the staff in how
to use electrical schematics using
Schneider Electric’s state-of-the-art
CAD and design system.
Best-in-class solutions
deliver maximum ROI
Schneider Electric is uniquely able to provide the material handling community with three levels of
best-in-class solutions. Our experts will consult with you to decide which combination offers the
best return on investment (ROI) for your company.
• We offer globally accepted, high-performance automation, control and power products from
trusted brands.
• Custom-engineered product solutions for specific material handling applications. With years of
experience in the conveying and crane and hoist markets, we can provide just the right solutions
for your application requirements.
• We’re revolutionizing the concept of “plug and play” with tested, validated and documented
conveyance and crane and hoist architectures. We’ve developed entire control systems that match
the different mechanical sections of pre-defined material handling platforms. With these mechatronic
architectures, you can significantly reduce design time, getting your equipment to market faster and
more profitably.
Automation Foundation
Custom Engineered Control
Our globally accepted, industry-standard
components provide an automation foundation
that’s both robust and flexible, enabling
OEMs to simplify design engineering and
machine assembly.
Often the most important decisions an OEM
design engineer or system integrator must make
at the start of any material handling project is
whether to use standard, off-the-shelf products
like IO, sensors, starters and drives or create a
custom-engineered solution. The debate often
centers on the question of the cost of acquisition
vs. total cost of ownership and whether to use a
centralized or distributed control architecture.
Products
Networks
Variable speed and
Servo drives
EtherNet/IP
Motor Starters
Modbus TCP
PLCs
Profibus
SCADA/HMI
DeviceNet
IO
CANopen
Safety
ASI
Sensing
Power distribution
Signaling
—
Operator Interface
—
Electrical distribution
—
Circuit protection
—
Engineered systems
—
Schneider Electric is a world leader in control,
drive and starter technology. We can work with
you to design a simple or complex bundled
solution that’s tailored to your application
requirements and customer specifications.
These solutions often integrate standard
Schneider Electric products with third-party
components, ensuring specialized capabilities
along with an extremely cost-effective
control foundation.
Tested, validated
and documented
architectures (TVDA)
Machine builders are recognizing the benefits of moving from traditional
centralized motor control and sensor architectures to decentralized
architectures for their clients conveying and crane applications.
Those benefits include faster commissioning time due to modularity and
than decentralized networks provide through their plug-and-play capability.
Decentralization can also provide higher performance by implementing
mechatronic design principals, which promote designing systems holistically.
Both the mechanical and the electrical controls are developed in unison
to provide “just enough engineering,” delivering performance, modularity,
design simplicity and cost controls.
In response to this trend, Schneider Electric has developed
modular controls architectures that mirror the mechanical design
of automated conveying system (ACS) and crane applications.
This TVDA automation collection includes:
• Application function blocks
• Hardware architecture
• CAD drawings
• Design guide
• Engineering design support
Our solutions allow to our customers to:
• Increase machine performance
• Reduce total machine cost
• Improve time to market
• Simplify installation and maintenance
• Implement traceability
The functions of an ACS are accumulation, transportation, sortation,
merge, divert, transfer and storage of products. ACS are generally made
by putting together a large variety of repetitive sub-machinery like rollers,
chain or belt/shaft or vertical conveyors, turntables and sorters (cross belt,
tip, split-tray, arm and pop-ups).
Customer Challenge
In order to reduce the energy
footprint of his equipment, a crane
OEM wanted to switch from hydraulic
technology to electric power. But he
had little experience with electrical
engineering and needed a trusted
partner to achieve his goals. His
equipment also had to work flawlessly
in a -40° C environment, presenting
an extreme design challenge.
Our Solution
Schneider Electric, was
commissioned to design the
new equipment’s electrical and
automation systems. Our OEM
material handling design team served
as project managers, designing
the electrical and automation
components, developing the base
logic and building the machine
prototype. The solution combined
off-the-shelf automation components
with a custom-engineered
enclosure to handle the extreme
operating environment.
To find out how we can solve your material handling engineering
challenge, visit our material handling solutions center at
http://www.schneider-electric.us/solutions/
oem-solutions/material-handling/
Schneider Electric USA, Inc.
1415 S. Roselle Road
Palatine, IL 60067
Tel: 847-397-2600
Fax: 847-925-7500
www.schneider-electric.us
Document Number 8000BR1041
Schneider Electric Canada, Inc.
19 Waterman Avenue
Toronto, ON M4B 1Y2
Tel: 1-800-565-6699
This document has been
printed on recycled paper
January 2011 dm
© 2011 Schneider Electric. All Rights Reserved.
www.schneider-electric.us/your-business/oems/