SEW-Eurodrive offers energy-efficient drive technology for a huge variety of process manufacturing applications, ranging from potentially explosive atmospheres to hygiene-critical production. However, the company’s strength lies in the support it offers its customers throughout the system’s entire life cycle. Gregor Dietz, market manager for motors at SEW-Eurodrive, introduces the service portfolio.
Mr. Dietz, SEW-Eurodrive offers a wide range of drive technology, but the choice of motor is not all that matters. What support do customers receive from you when they choose a drive from your company?
Gregor Dietz: When it comes to the purchase of a suitable drive, comprehensive advice that involves exploring the customer’s needs, expertise in the implementation of explosion protection, and detailed application know-how are all essential. Customers have online access to the ordering process, the logistics process, and the necessary documentation at all times. If something occasionally does go wrong and spare and wearing parts are needed, the QR code on the drive provides a quick, straightforward, and efficient way of identifying and ordering the part needed in the online tool.
What are the benefits of using SEW-Eurodrive technology?
Dietz: Modular design arithmetic is more than just a buzzword. The modular systems of motors and gear units are not only closely aligned and coordinated, but are also systematically identical in all our locations and workshops worldwide and are assembled using standardized methods and tools. The intelligent linking and connection of the motors to the SEW-Eerodrive electronics is also performed in a coordinated and optimized way. Last but not least, the inverter software is geared toward the user, regardless of the technology and number of components that make up the drive train.
What about during ongoing operations? What service is available for products that have already been installed?
Dietz: We offer an extensive service portfolio for drives that are already in use. With everything from a quick check and thermography to our Complete Drive Management (CDM), and from straightforward spare part procurement and delivery through to a complete retrofit of a drive train, the options are virtually unlimited.
Is it possible to replace only single motors in a system? How compatible is SEW-Eurodrive technology with other manufacturers’ products?
Dietz: Manufacturers agreed on a standard for motors decades ago. This means that motors supplied by company A can be replaced with motors supplied by company B, so the mechanics are straightforward. When it comes to replacing an energy-intensive motor with an energy-saving one, legislation also has a say. Old motors can only be replaced by the same type in a 1:1 exchange. If the manufacturer no longer exists or if the manufacturer has streamlined their portfolio, the latest energy-efficiency level needs to be installed. In unfavorable circumstances, this can even result in higher energy use if the application then runs just slightly faster. There is no industrial norm for gearmotors, but a certain mechanical standard has developed over the decades – a standard that SEW-Eurodrive drives have essentially been offering and exemplifying since the 1990s.
Are there differences in services for motors across the various sectors of the chemical, pharmaceutical, and food industries?
Dietz: Although there are certainly no significant differences in general terms, a high level of application know-how and understanding of the customer’s needs are essential. That’s because customers think in terms of their own dimensions and concepts, and these may not be the same as the terminology a manufacturer uses for their system. Explosion protection and hygiene are just two of the topics that are of great importance in the various sectors. Scaling within the product portfolio helps cover the service needs. However, it is the SEW- Eurodrive staff’s training and know-how that are paramount – and the short and fast channels for obtaining the necessary information.
What are we going to see at Achema?
Dietz: At the SEW-Eurodrive stand at ACHEMA 2024, the key focus will be on the short and fast connections between us and our customers. We’ll certainly also be showcasing gear units with explosion-protected IE3 motors, but it’s our chemistry with our customers that will be at the center of things. And that chemistry doesn’t change, no matter whether we’re implementing a 120 W or a 120 kW solution.
Which drives will you be showcasing?
Dietz: For the chemical industry, SEW-Eurodrive offers drives for both potentially explosive and non-explosive atmospheres. The explosion protection for drives differs, depending on whether the drive is being used in a gas and/or dust environment. We offer optimized drives for all four zones – 1 and 21 or 2 and 22. The corresponding protection concepts are certified by a third party.
In 2023, many sizes were added to the SEW-Eurodrive stainless steel portfolio for use in hygienic areas in the pharmaceutical and food industries, and we’ll have a few of these models with us in Frankfurt, too.
The production of lithium-ion battery cells is also one of the topics of interest at Achema in Frankfurt. Can SEW-Eurodrive drives be used for this purpose, too?
Dietz: A state-of-the-art battery factory takes account of all on-trend techniques, ranging from the available energy efficiency classes of motors to decentralized and mobile assemblies in logistics. The customer determines the necessary scaling with their requirements profile. In this area, too, we can offer an appropriate response and a suitable proposal. Although there is some hardware that we won’t be able to take with us and exhibit in Frankfurt, this will be available to view online.
The interview was conducted by:
Daniela Held
Editor
SEW-Eurodrive
Hall 8.0, Stand B62
