Smart designing tool from WAGO

By OEM Update Editorial June 18, 2019 12:37 pm

In the age of Industry 4.0, product complexity and customisation, along with the need for specialists are increasing alongside cost pressures – so control cabinet manufacturers find that quality and price are priorities in conflict. Besides the expertise of its employees and the features of its products or services, a company’s ability to compete ultimately is determined by the effectiveness and efficiency of its production processes. To support its customers on the path to greater efficiency, WAGO offers a multitude of data and services focused on custom products and solutions. This enables consistent data storage and prevents failures in different systems, which could lead to multiple iterations and significant added expense.

A seamless solution
It’s important to start with this approach right from the electrical engineering planning and design stage: If the electrical designer needs to import data using different design tools in order to incorporate customer project data, such as circuit diagrams or component lists, WAGO can support this with the WAGO engineering software smart designer too. Smart designer makes it easy to correctly structure rail-mount terminal blocks and all other electronic components. The online tool has interfaces to various CAE tools such as EPLAN and WSCAD, allowing easy incorporation of existing electrical engineering design statuses.

Furthermore, as a web application, the software can be accessed conveniently via Internet without integration into the company’s own IT system. This approach saves both time and money and is especially advantageous when IT is out sourced to an external service provider that charges for new installations or software updates; any version con¬trol problems also disappear. Design statuses can be administered or reused by setting up an inde¬pendent account. If electromechanical components or automation systems from WAGO are used, smart designer supports project designers by providing a direct link to WAGO’s online catalog. Up-to-date product information is always available in the form of data sheets, product pictures and downloads of CAE and CAD data. Once the rail assembly has been configured, smart designer automatically checks it for errors. For instance, the software might indicate that an end and intermediate plate must be placed to prevent contact between live parts when rail- mount terminal blocks are used. If controllers are planned, the start-up current is calculated, among other things, in order to determine a need-based power supply. Once the design is completed, both the desired products and the rail assembly can be ordered via the online shop. They are custom-man¬ufactured for the client and shipped.

After logic check in smart designer, the data, once compiled, can be displayed completely in 3D and documented for further use or additional review. Parts lists, prod¬uct pictures or marking data for components that will be incorporated into the control cabinet later can be generated and printed – for example, for the rail-mount terminal blocks.

Horizontal integration
If intelligent components are planned for the DIN-rail, it is possible to easily transfer data from smart designer to the e!COCKPIT engineering software. For programming complete components, WAGO offers e!COCKPIT, an engineering tool that was developed to provide user-friendly and intuitive op¬eration. The tool supports all manufacturing steps, from hardware configuration and programming, to simulation and visualisation, to commissioning of the control cabinet. In order to reduce e!COCK¬PIT’s learning curve, the user interface looks and feels like standard office programs.

To give users an overview of their projects as complexity increases, the user interface prominently features context-sensitive menus. This means that the only menu items and functions that appear are those that can be used in the current design or operation stage. Components can be placed in the main area of the user interface and connected to each other virtually using drag-and-drop. Because this preempts connection errors from the outset, it also prevents costly troubleshooting after installation. Since several controllers can be configured and programmed in e!COCKPIT simultaneously, it is also possible to simulate and run through different test scenarios for the planned system. As a powerful online design tool, Smart Designer provides the interface to electrical design, accelerates the entire design and ordering processes and additionally offers many ways to simplify documentation. The interface to the e!COCKPIT engineering tool guarantees consistent transmission of design data for further configuration and programming of the automation components.

For more details, visit:
www.wago.com/in/control-cabinet-manufacturing