“So I knew something was wrong, ugh. Yeah those brackets that Pendant provided are not for receptacles. They are meant for the field devices that Pendant provided if I’m not mistaken.”

Every project has decision points that determine the course of the project.  The quote above is from an actual email on a past project where the right question wasn’t asked before the installers plowed ahead with something they weren’t sure about. In this case, hundreds of (much more expensive) brackets meant for one purpose were installed for another purpose, leading to another email in which hundreds of replacement brackets were requested, leading to additional costs and delays that could have been prevented.

Before and during the installation phase of a conveyor project, we commonly hold planned discussions with the installation team leaders about how we prefer to see things wired and installed. We also field many questions between the planned discussions. Depending on the experience level of the install crews, the questions range from elementary to complex and thoughtful. We welcome these discussions because they ultimately lead to a better installation, and a smoother startup. Far worse is the situation in which an install crew uses an approach, like above, that they’re not sure about which turns out to be dead wrong.

Most of these problems are avoidable.  Many of them can be prevented by simply starting with the details in the control drawings. You may be surprised to see how much detail is contained in the drawings Pendant prepares for each project. We’ll share just a few sample snippets here from the control panel drawings for a recent project. These examples focus on the details beyond what you see in the ladder diagrams. We’ll share details of the electrical coordination or device layout drawings in a future post.

Table of Contents, Symbols, Abbreviations

The drawing set begins with a clear table of contents to make it easy to find the appropriate pages. Symbols and Device Abbreviations are shown immediately after the ToC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

General Notes/Conductor Info

Next follows a page of general instructions and tables with ampacities and temperature adjustments for the wires.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Field Device Wiring

Diagrams for installing specific field devices are near the back of the drawing set.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The drawing set ends with an IO table  for any ethernet cards included in the job, and then a complete bill of materials.

The drawings don’t solve every problem or answer every question. We welcome questions and discussion before and during installation. But minding the details shown in the drawings pays off in improved efficiency and accuracy of the installation, which in turn saves time during startup and commissioning. And that we don’t mind.

Get me some details