Böllhoff relies on drive technology from KEB Automation

Based in Bielefeld, Germany, Böllhoff offers its customers system solutions – and realises these with the support of KEB Automation. Drive technology from KEB has proven to be the right choice, particularly in the area of servo technology, not least because the drive controllers lead to cost savings and require noticeably less space in the control cabinet.

High availability and process reliability, cost-optimised systems and the smallest possible space requirement in production – these are the challenges that the Böllhoff Group faces. The family-owned company was founded in 1877 and offers solutions for fastening and assembly technology, as well as logistics. For example, Böllhoff is in demand in the automotive industry and also with the corresponding suppliers to some extent in the aerospace sector. For customers in these and other industries, Böllhoff supplies, among other things, processing and riveting elements.

With RIVSET, for example, Böllhoff offers a self-pierce riveting system that creates mechanical, high strength connections of identical or combined materials. In the past, this was primarily based on a hydraulic drive. However, this also meant that the hydraulic hoses had to be routed over the robot – not beneficial for maintenance teams and difficult when it came to locating faults within the hydraulics.

Air conditioning no longer required

Servo technology and the matching drive solutions from KEB Automation proved to be much more practical and reliable in this context. As Jörg Münstermann, head of software and automation at Böllhoff Automation comments: “We use KEB inverters in our controls to drive servo motors that we need in our processing systems. Especially with the integration of servo technology at our company, which was new territory for us at the time, we were very well supported by KEB.”

COMBIVERT F6 drive controllers from KEB, for example, are used at Böllhoff. These drive controllers can also be installed in the control cabinet as a push-through variant. The advantage here is that heat can be emitted directly to the outside of the cabinet, resulting in reduced heat gain inside. This eliminates the need for an air conditioning unit, which leads to cost and space savings.

For Münstermann, there are also other arguments in favour of working with KEB. For example, KEB drive technology was very easy to integrate into Böllhoff’s control architecture via the EtherCAT bus and the worldwide service locations were also an important factor.