PROFISafe NEW PRODUCTS DEVELOPMENT KIT ... - Siemens

PROFIBUS SUCCESS PROFIBUS SUCCESS PROFIBUS SU10By Bob Russell, Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc.John Staub, Project Engineer, Heidelberg, Inc.The newest of Quad/Graphics, Inc.'s print manufacturingplants in Martinsburg, West Virginia was barely operational inMay 1997 when the company began an expansion project toincrease volume at the already huge facility.Serving major publishing houses and catalog merchants,Quad, one of the largest privately-owned printing companiesin the Western Hemisphere, was responding to customerdemands for assuming more of the untraditional responsibilities.These responsibilities can include anything from downloadingmailing list databases for labeling to special demographicoverprint capabilities. (An overprint is a special jobfor ink jetting customized information for individual readersduring the finishing operation.) Or it can involve "blowing in"postcards, coupons or other forms of loose bound advertisementsinside a publication.And all this work has to be done at high speed in order tomeet critical deadlines. Equally important, these high speedoperations must be accurate and efficient. Pages cannot beleft out of any catalog. Spoilage has to be kept to a minimumto prevent reprinting costs and loss of time.Quad refers to this kind of responsiveness as "respondepity",a term they coined to describe the ability to anticipate a customer'sneeds. This “proactive” attitude is why the companyhas been aggressively expanding and investing in the latestequipment.Saddle stitching operation bears the bruntFor high-volume publishing houses and catalog businesses,the requirements of a saddle stitching operation go farbeyond just placing staples in the crease of the folded andscored pages.Saddle stitching is one of the most frequently used forms ofbinding used in the printing industry. And, depending on thesize of a printing operation, the method used for inserting thesignatures and placing the staples in the spine of the foldedpage differs considerably. The equipment used ranges frommanually fed small machines to high-speed pocket-fed automaticmachines that can be configured into stitching linesthat cover the length of a football field.It takes some inventive technology to make all of this a reality.The new Heidelberg machines at Quad/Graphics representthe leading edge in using off-the-shelf control equipmentthat eliminate the headaches of working with custom, proprietarydesigns. These new configurations are fast to installand commission, and they represent substantial money andtime savings because of their reduced wiring requirements.PROFIBUS provides the speed and the savingsIn August of 1997, Heidelberg was presented with Quad'srequirements and deadlines for the new stitching machines.Speed was the important factor in both installation and operation.After researching the available new control technologies,Heidelberg made the move to PROFIBUS DP, an openarchitecture, industrial fieldbus with a throughput of 12Mbaud that also allows multiple masters. Using PROFIBUS,almost any manufacturer's proximity switches, photoeyes,electronic calipers and the like can be wired into I/O blocksthat hang off the bus without any special gateway requirements.PROFIBUS allowed Quad/Graphics to combine its selfdesignedequipment and controller with the new Heidelbergsaddle stitcher in a multi-master system, sharing the samedata off the bus with the Siemens SIMATIC S7-400 PLC inthe new equipment. Quad Graphics utilized one of the keyadvantages of a PROFIBUS hybrid system: the ability toshare PLC to PLC communication and fast I/O on the samewire. Quad/Graphics' secondary controller is VME-based.The new system's open design, using common hardware andsoftware platforms, allowed for integration of third-party con-