CAD gives schematics creation a lift

CRITICAL FOR passenger safety and comfort, lift and elevator controllers also increasingly rely on digital and connected technology for energy efficiency and remote condition monitoring, driving the need for advanced control solutions. 

Peter Roberts, project manager at manufacturer of traction and hydraulic lift and escalator controllers and accessories, Lester Controls, says: “Our technology provides accurate positioning and speed of lifts and elevators, and meets all the strict safety regulations in the event of a power failure."

"We’re also responding to the industry’s trend towards digital and energy-efficiency, which doesn’t have to be tied only to high-cost investment of new infrastructure. For lift and escalator applications, both new and existing, controllers must be digitally connected, sending data to the cloud via the internet or mobile phone network. Maintenance engineers use this information to diagnose faults remotely and arrive on site with the right spares and tooling. That cuts operational costs by reducing the number of site visits."

"Another popular feature is energy-saving. We can automate escalators to go-slow or stop at quiet times, and we often add energy recuperation or variable speed control for lifts."

A particular challenge for Lester Controls is that every building is different, with lift control logic varying depending on the number and type of lifts and escalators. Each project needs a dedicated controller to be designed, built, and tested. This is a complex process that requires accuracy over every detail. That is why Lester Controls has adopted ETAP SEE Electrical as the CAD package it uses to create electrical schematics.

The challenge

When designing new lift and elevator controllers, there are many variables at play. These include the number and types of lifts and elevators, the control philosophy, energy-saving features, and requirements for remote monitoring and communications. 

All of these requirements lead to unique functionality for each project. In turn, this requires a unique arrangement of components such as PLCs, motors drives, switches and HMIs for each project. Lester Controls’ engineering team uses specialist CAD software to design and manufacture its controllers.

A cabinet might contain up to 160 individual components. Any error can lead to delays in the workshop, as production engineers need to raise queries and resolve issues when they are building the cabinets. These errors can be avoided with modern software, which includes features such as contact registers. 

As Roberts explains: "A customer got in touch in 2020 to request that we use specific symbols in our drawings. As these were standard symbols that are in the latest technical standards, we realised it was time to upgrade to a modern intelligent CAD package."

The solution 

"We evaluated all of the software packages on the market and came to the conclusion that ETAP SEE Electrical was best for our needs. It’s a software package from Schneider Electric, a collaborative supplier of components for our controllers and a long-standing member of our ecosystem. It comes with technical support and training resources, has flexible licensing and supports all the symbols in the latest standard."

"We wanted an intelligent package that would enable us to reuse the data from drawings. For example, we need to export parts lists in CSV format for upload into our parts management system, and we needed it to integrate with our existing printer for identification labels. We also needed to interface with our cutting machine, as well as our manufacturing resource planning (MRP) software."

"Another important feature was an automated register of electrical contacts. With old CAD package, we had to reconcile these individually, which was painstaking work. Any loss of focus could result in duplicate contacts in a drawing, leading to technical queries from the workshop, taking more time to resolve."

"After installing the software, I picked up the task of reworking all of our existing drawings in the new software. Balancing it alongside project work, it only took eight months to convert around 200 master drawings and 800 symbols. I found the new software easy to pick up with tutorial videos, PDF guides, and support from Schneider Electric."

"Since then, it’s been fairly easy to roll out to the team, which includes seven designers and three technical staff. We also brought on a new designer, who learned it after seeing the basics and getting a couple of drawings. Nobody in the team has had major questions, it has worked flawlessly and has future-proofed operations as new staff are brought onto the workforce."

"The big result is that the software has saved nearly half of our design time. Previously, a major contract would require about five days of design and a lot of manual data entry but now it’s three days. Typically, a major project has around 160 components and we’d need to manually paste part numbers and descriptions to create a parts list that corresponds to each drawing. But now we can simply extract the data from the software as a CSV file."

"The software has also reduced the number of design errors. Because it includes a register of contacts, we no longer get duplicate contacts. That means we have fewer technical queries to resolve with the workshop, saving more time and offering more value to customers."

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