Drive and Control Technology for Cheese Curing Machine
SwissDrives AG, the Yaskawa technology partner based in Steinach, Switzerland, has developed a large-scale drive solution for a complex cheese curing system in Austria. One key element in this ambitious automation concept is the total of 40 frequency inverters with integrated GA500-series ProfiNet option cards from Yaskawa.
Not your everyday task for SwissDrives, with connectivity par excellence
A large number of curing steps are required to ensure that the cheese is perfectly matured. As this example from the large-scale Austrian cheesemaker shows, the task of automating such a process is technically demanding, but possible: a newly developed system at the facility will take over the processing of semi-hard and hard cheeses in various forms including wheels, blocks and tubes.
Frequency inverters play a crucial role in controlling the various processes. In the search for a suitable model that was reliable, rapid and efficient, the cheesemaker was focused on control quality but also on two other requirements: first, it had to be possible to seamlessly integrate the inverters into the existing control environment. Second, they needed to be robust enough to withstand the harsh environmental conditions of the food industry. For instance, the system is cleaned with disinfectant on a regular basis.
Faced with this challenge, SwissDrives, the automation specialist commissioned with the task, opted for the GA500 frequency inverter model from Yaskawa. Forty of them in total were used in the system.