Robust industrial machine networks thanks to Health Check
LAPP is presenting a new service at the Hannover Fair
Stuttgart, 23 May 2022 - LAPP is increasingly positioning itself as a holistic solution provider. These also include services. At the Hannover Fair (Hall 11/Stand C03) the company will be presenting its new Health Check Service.
Good service is becoming increasingly important in international competition. LAPP already offers its customers over 110 different services – from configurators to customised cables or assemblies and digital self-services on the website to just-in-time deliveries. Now the global market leader for integrated solutions in the field of cable and connection technology is strategically expanding its services portfolio. "As a solution provider, we want to work more closely with our customers. It’s not just about our components, but about added value that we offer, to help our customers work in their processes and taking risk," says Dr Patrick Olivan, Senior Manager Business Development Services at LAPP, as he justifies this step.
Preventatively minimising the risk of failure
To this end, he and his team are presenting the new Health Check in the LAPP FutureLab at the Hannover Fair. The new service is intended to help customers to prevent the risk of their industrial machinery failing. The reason: over 50 per cent of failures are due to physical connectivity - the causes are often mechanical and environmental stress, ageing, inferior products, incorrect earthing or a poor network. This is where expertise of LAPP lies, as a component manufacturer for the involved and integrated products. With the Health Check, the nerve pathways of the PROFINET networks and their components are checked and any need for optimisation is determined. This makes the systems more resistant to faults and downtimes.
The LAPP team is made up of certified PROFINET engineers. They use various special devices for the Health Check, with which the entire machine network is scanned for weaknesses and errors, for example "Atlas 2" from PROCENTEC or the "PN-Quicktester" from LEADEC. LAPP has a close partnership with both of these companies. Their many years of experience can be called upon if required. There are also visual checks and checklists to check the application-specific selection of products or the design and condition. "We check the electromagnetic compatibility, the mechanical loads, whether sluggish faults occur in the network or whether they meet the specific requirements correctly. In this way, we can inspect an industrial machine or production line within one day, find critical areas and make suggestions for solutions", explains Olivan.
At the end, the customer receives a detailed report on network communication and configuration and on the diagnostic messages from network and devices. The scope of the service also includes a cable certification report for the individually tested cables, an electromagnetic compatibility checklist and a report identifying where possible vulnerabilities are and how they can be optimised. The target group is smaller and medium-sized machine builders or production operators, who usually do not have their own personnel. LAPP can support these customers during commissioning or even carry out health checks on older machines in production.
In discussions with customers at the Hannover Fair 2022, LAPP wants to find out what needs customers have in terms of the Health Check. In the pilot phase, the new service is still free of charge to gain as much experience as possible and to be able to put together the most attractive quotation for a customer segment. In the long term, the Health Check could be available to purchase as an additional service in the portfolio for LAPP customers. In addition to the network check, this also has other advantages, according to Patrick Olivan: "We could, for example, extend the warranty for customers who have us carry out such a check, for example. Instead of the usual two years, we could then offer five or more years of warranty".