One of the speakers at the conference was the Managing Director of "SEW-Eurodrive" Vladimir Zolotarev. He presented a vision for the future development of conveyor technologies by SEW-Eurodrive, one of the leading suppliers of drives for this industry.
First of all, in his speech, Vladimir Zolotarev spoke about the trends over the past few decades, namely, that the electric drive has become more compact, but more complex. For example, a gearbox produced 30-40 years ago weighed 28 tons, and a modern gearbox, providing the same performance of the equipment, weighs 8 tons. At the same time, a modern gearbox can be equipped with various additional equipment: such as an oil station, a cooling system, heating devices and various sensors.
An important trend in modern production is personal technical solutions for each customer. Our company has been applying the principle of a modular drive system for many decades. This means that each customer can configure their individual drive. At the same time, it will be assembled from mass-produced components, which ensures high quality and long service life of the product.
High-tech drive equipment needs modern diagnostic and monitoring tools. SEW-Eurodrive offers an advanced Drive Radar monitoring system. With the help of this system, the drive equipment is integrated into modern production according to Industry 4.0 standards. A technical specialist can go to the portal and view the condition of his gearbox in real time from a phone, computer or tablet.
For all its simplicity and clarity, the Drive Radar system cannot exclude service personnel. This is just a tool that makes it easier for mechanics to work.
This directly follows the following trend, which was touched upon by the CEO of SEW-Eurodrive – the qualification and training of the client's staff. Qualified personnel are always important in any industry, but when it comes to proper and proper maintenance of drives, training becomes a priority in the long-term use of equipment. And one of the successfully implemented examples of such training is the Drive Academy division in SEW-Eurodrive. Despite the restrictions imposed in 2020, over the past year, more than a hundred people in Russia have completed courses on the maintenance of gearboxes, motors and frequency converters.
During the conference of Akonit, many listeners were interested in the issue of the total cost of ownership, which was covered by Vladimir Zolotarev. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is a relatively new term. The peculiarity of this approach is that it is considered not only the purchase price of the equipment, but also all the costs of its operation and disposal. And these parts are distributed on average as 20/80. Therefore, if we overpay 10% on purchase, it will be only 2% of the total cost of ownership, but if we save 10% on operation (for example, by saving electricity), it will already be 8% of the benefit. Therefore, it is important to take into account the operating costs of the equipment even when purchasing it.
The conference participants noted the relevance of the topics raised for their activities, as well as the informative nature of the speakers ' reports. This event allowed us to get a lot of useful information, and there was an incentive for further development of partnership relations with the Akonit.