CNC Design & Siemens New Zealand
Siemens NZ has been represented by CNC Design in New Zealand since 1989. Over those 35 years, CNC Design has developed deep links with key Siemens knowledge holders around the world and an extensive understanding of the vast Siemens Industrial Automation range.
Unparallelled Power of Siemens Industrial Automation
Siemens is the world's largest industrial automation equipment manufacturer, with the most extensive install base.
As such, Siemens invests more in developing cutting-edge equipment than any other manufacturer. A stark example of this was Siemens' investment in re-developing its industrial automation platform literally from scratch.
Siemens was able to design a single point of truth system without the compromises that come with 'expanding' legacy software to try and do more. Today's Totally Integrated Automation Portal (TIA Portal) software is the basis for nearly the entire Siemens industrial automation range.
This results in substantial time savings (30%) when integrating different products and massively saves on commissioning time due to the single point of truth system. Many classic issues that would require simple testing can't be done incorrectly, for example, synchronising tags and information between different pieces of automation hardware is not required, as they all read from one database.
Siemens & CNC Design Value
CNC Design was formed in 1989 when Siemens New Zealand only had one employee. In 1989, Siemens was selling anything from Siemens phones, trains, power stations, appliances, or PLCs & drives in New Zealand.
CNC Design assisted Siemens NZ by focusing on and distributing the Siemens industrial automation portfolio for machine automation. This included the Siemens servo system, Siemens PLC system, VSDs, visualisation, switchgear, networking, and any of the vast catalogue of additional Siemens parts sold for machine automation.
To maximise long-term sustainable serviceability (particularly for OEM customers who export overseas), CNC Design helps customers specify everything possible within their system as Siemens if they wish. This has multiple benefits, including:
Efficient Engineering: Siemens TIA Portal seamlessly blends all of Siemens' Automation and Drive technologies into one platform, irrespective of performance level. For example, cheap and cheerful PLCs and drive ranges are engineered on the same platform (Siemens TIA Portal) as their high-end variants. The back end of the TIA portal is a single database facilitating a single point of truth, removing the time it traditionally takes to synchronise tags and variables between different equipment. Plus, info can be dragged and dropped from one piece of hardware to another, removing the manual processes required to move such data traditionally.
Transparent Service: With everything engineered in Siemens' TIA portal, one only needs to get online to the machine to allow fuss-free access to all networked components. Whether you are sitting beside the machine connected via wired ethernet or you are on the other side of the world connected by VPN, there is no difference in your access. Siemens offers its Scalance networking equipment to allow traditional VPN connections. Siemens' Sinema Remote Connect is a powerful option for a managed platform to securely connect to a fleet of machines around New Zealand or the world.
Repair Service Contracts: With everything within a machine's cabinet being Siemens, if a machine has a fault overseas, machine users can call up their local Siemens service agent with confidence. Given that everything is Siemens, there can be no 'Teflon Shoulders' from the service agent, saying, for example, 'that 3rd party drive is what is the issue'. If everything is Siemens, there is no ambiguity as to who has to fix the issue, removing multi-vendor service tech expenses. This also dramatically assists in avoiding OEMs having to fly their personnel around the world to fault-find the automation system.
Siemens Controllers
Siemens was a pioneer in industrial automation. Siemens has been operating worldwide since 1847 and in New Zealand for over 150 years. (Siemens New Zealand started with telegraph systems).
PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers)
The Siemens Simatic (Siemens Automatic) PLC range was released in 1973 (Simatic S3 controller) to replace the previous Siemens Simatic hard-wired controllers released in 1958. CNC Design has extensive experience, starting with the Siemens S5 system, moving on to the S7300 and S7400 systems, and now to the TIA Portal-native Siemens S71200 and S71500 PLCs.
CNC Design is highly skilled at the specification and engineering of the Siemens Safety PLC range, as well as the redundant PLC range (Siemens Simatic S71500-H systems and previously S7400-H systems).
Motion Control
Siemens has always been extremely focused on motion control, which is also a key focus for CNC design. Originally, motion control was done using S5 PLCs with specialised motion control cards. This architecture moved into a similar one with the S7300 PLCs.
A major technological leap came with the advent of the dedicated Siemens Simotion motion control system. Simotion has an innovative 'task' based execution system that is not purely cyclic and interrupt-based, as in PLCs. This gives automation engineers unparalleled control of exactly when everything happens in highly synchronised production machinery.
The Simotion controller also facilitates standard logic control, so the PLC functionality and motion control functionality are combined in one unit with Simotion. Simotion allows control of the most demanding motion control-centric machines in the world and is an absolute pleasure to engineer with.
Siemens' core strength worldwide is supplying production machine OEMs, and hence, the Simatic department has also been investing heavily in motion control capability. The Siemens Simatic Technology CPUs for motion control were initially released in Siemens' S7300 variant but significantly upgraded with the move to the fully re-engineered S71500 range. With the S71500 range, motion control was built into its firmware, drastically increasing its performance.
Today, all Siemens S71200 and S71500 PLCs have motion control built into their firmware. However, for any motion control that involves forward interpolation, a Simatic Technology CPU is still needed. Siemens's advances have drastically reduced the price point of motion control and increased its accessibility.
Siemens Controllers
Siemens coined the name 'Sinumerik' (Siemens numeric controller) in 1964 to name the numerical controllers it had been producing for a number of years. Throughout this time and CNC Design's last 35 years, a huge increase in performance and range has ensued.
There are three tiers of Sinumerik CNC controllers, from those appropriate for low-value machines to the latest generation 'Digital Native' Sinumerik One controller. This controller can control the most complex machine tools in the world in a user-friendly, high-availability way with an industry-leading cutting surface finish.
The Siemens controller can have edge processing analytics added to it, port OEE or diagnostic information to cloud systems or in-house monitoring systems, or simply display it on its own screen.
Industrial PCs
Siemens was a pioneer in mass-produced and industrial PCs, with its first mass-produced computer released in 1957. Siemens continues to have a class-leading range of industrial PCs. Whether you want a PC almost as small as a pack of playing cards to mount on a DIN rail, an ultra-high-performance tower or 19-inch rack unit, or anything in between, Siemens has it.
One can load any of the technologies outlined above onto an appropriately specified industrial PC. For example, Siemens Industrial PCs can run 'Soft' PLCs, Soft Safety PLCs, Simotion motion controllers, or Sinumerik machine tool controllers. Then, one can add any number of other systems to said IPC, from a visualisation system, including Siemens' latest generation' WinCC Unified Advanced' visualisation platform, to a myriad of 3rd party software, including vision, database, edge processing, scheduling, reporting, or analysis software.
Keep your industrial control system flexible and future-ready with Siemens New Zealand's optimal upgrade paths for your plant or OEM machinery.
Siemens parts and controllers distributed by CNC Design give you the power of the hardware, unleashed with expert specification and advice from a local company that has been keenly supporting the New Zealand business since 1989.