Design-build
One team designs it. Our own shop builds the panels.
Design-build means the same company is responsible for the control system's design and for building its panels, with the components supplied through Gross Automation.
What our engineering team does
- Scope. What the process or machine has to do, what has to be recorded or connected, and which control architecture fits: a PLC, a compact distributed control system such as ABB Freelance, or a combination.
- Design. The control system and its operator screens, with electrical drawings: schematics, panel layouts, bills of materials, I/O lists and terminal maps, drawn in AutoCAD.
- Programming. PLC, HMI and SCADA programming. Platforms we program →
- Panels. Built in our UL 508A panel shop in Brookfield, Wisconsin. The panel shop →
- Start-up and commissioning. On site, panel by panel on multi-panel projects, with as-built drawings at the end. Start-up and field service →
Electrical design can also be a standalone service: drawings and documentation for a panel or system that someone else will build.
For plants
Plants grow one machine at a time, and each machine tends to arrive with its own controller and its own screen. Our engineers design systems that let those machines work together, or replace their controls where that is the better answer. For food, beverage and life-science plants, the detail is on FoodAndBevAutomation.com.
Retrofits and migrations
Obsolete drives replaced with their programming carried over, PLC and SCADA replacements, and control retrofits on existing machines, including machine tools.
Platforms we program
ABB AC500 PLCs and the ABB Freelance distributed control system, Danfoss, WEG, Beijer and Siemens PLCs and HMIs. The team selects the platform that fits the job, or works to the one your plant has standardized on.
For equipment builders
Much of what our engineers design ends up inside products that our customers sell to their own customers. If you build machines or skids, we can design their controls, and our shop can build the panels for them.
For power problems
Finding and fixing power-factor problems is part of the work: from the electric bill to correction or harmonic-filter panels built in our shop. From the bill to the fix, on FIXKVAR.com →