Enhancing the Efficiency of Electromechanical Design with Online Portals


The Siemens Industry Automation Division is providing support for the work of electromechanical designers and plant engineers with a series of improved internet services. Data and materials made available free of charge over the Internet can help achieve significant cost and time savings for electromechanical engineering departments. In the "Planning Efficiency" center in the Siemens booth at the Hanover Fair 2012, interested visitors will have the opportunity to ask the experts in detail about the online portals available and the concept behind them.

"Planning Efficiency" is all about rapid product selection, easy access to high-quality product data and certificates as well as improved process efficiency. Under this banner, the Siemens Industry Automation Division will be presenting a range of online portals and tools engineered to significantly improve the efficiency of electromechanical design through simplified access to high-quality data. In a dedicated "Planning Efficiency " area of the Siemens booth in Hall 9 at this year's Hanover Fair, experts from the company will be on hand to explain the new online portals. Interested visitors will have the chance to gain an insight into the comprehensive range of data on offer using the CAx Onlinegenerator, the services of the Siemens Industry Online Support Portal and the revamped Industry Mall, which unites the Siemens Industry online shops under a single umbrella.

The new "Planning Efficiency" concept kicks in right from the product selection stage in the Industry Mall, and provides active support to users in the collation of suitable components and systems from the comprehensive Siemens portfolio. The specifications entered during product selection - such as information about the system environment - are used by the Sirius system configurator to configure suitable elements such as motor feeders. The tool also collates the relevant 3D models, 2D dimensional drawings, device circuit diagrams and data sheets for the selected configuration on the basis of the product numbers, and places them ready for downloading. In the next stage, the user can import the product numbers into the CAx Onlinegenerator, where additional planning-relevant data and documentation is made available.

The CAx online generator is the central tool for mechanical and electrotechnical design processes. This database can be accessed free of charge through the Siemens Industry Online Support Portal and is updated on a daily basis. Using the CAx Onlinegenerator, designers are able to access data and documentation appertaining to more than 60,000 products from the Siemens automation portfolio. Data relating to all the products is offered in up to twelve different categories, including for instance EDZ (Eplan Data Zip) data for Eplan Electric P8, e³.series product databases such as device circuit diagrams, connection diagrams and 3D models. The Siemens online database also contains CAD/CAE project engineering data for further processing in a range of different engineering applications. The ability to transfer data directly into CAE/CAD applications at the press of a button can mean time savings of up to 80 percent for designers. The project engineering work involved in planning a complete control cabinet, for instance, can be cut by over eight hours or a complete man day. The range of services offered by the CAx Onlinegenerator is completed by characteristic curves, data sheets, dimensional drawings, 2D drawings and certificates - including UL for the USA, CCC for China and Ghost for the CIS States - as well as manuals and operating instructions. In addition, all the documents are stored in the database in up to ten different language versions.

The My Documentation Manager, also part of the Siemens Industry Online Support service alongside the CAx Onlinegenerator, supports users in the collation of required technical documentation. Using the online tool, reviewed Siemens Industry Automation manuals can be individually adjusted to individual requirements, allowing users to access individual chapters from resources relating to different products and product groups. These can then be individually collated to suit the specific project. This could produce a manual for parameterization of the ET200SP, for instance, containing characteristic curves for products from the Sirius spectrum and specific variants of a Sitop power supply. The finished manual is then made available for downloading in a range of formats. An updating service additionally informs users of any changes to content, ensuring that manuals remain fully up to date.

For further information, please visit: http://www.siemens.com/planning-efficiency

The Siemens Industry Sector (Erlangen, Germany) is the worldwide leading supplier of environmentally friendly production, transportation, building and lighting technologies. With end-to-end automation technology and industrial software, solid vertical-market expertise, and technology-based services, the Sector enhances its customers' productivity, efficiency, and flexibility. With a global workforce of more than 100,000 employees, the Industry Sector comprises the Divisions Industry Automation, Drive Technologies and Customer Services as well as the Business Unit Metals Technologies. For more information, visit http://www.siemens.com/industry

The Siemens Industry Automation Division (Nuremberg, Germany) supports the entire value chain of its industrial customers - from product design to production and services - with an unmatched combination of automation technology, industrial control technology, and industrial software. With its software solutions, the Division can shorten the time-to-market of new products by up to 50 percent. Industry Automation comprises five Business Units: Industrial Automation Systems, Control Components and Systems Engineering, Sensors and Communications, Siemens PLM Software, and Water Technologies. For more information, visit http://www.siemens.com/industryautomation

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