Hi.

If you wanna just use Siemens servo motors, you won't need Scout. You can use them with any motion system you have already used.

Unless you are looking for motion control system, Then I'd say that the proper training is a must.

You can of course learn it by yourself. But if you don't know the basics of the motion control and have no experience with it then it will take a long long time. And you will find a lot of issues with which you will stack completely.

So, I have no idea what is the time worth for you (or rather for your company) but in the end you can find out, that the price of the training was neglible.

Hello Bruno,

you can find the SIMOTION trainings here https://sitrain.automation.siemens.com/DE/sitrain/CatalogDetail.aspx?AppLang=en&dataKey=BAAAGHR.

For a training by yourself  please have a look to the First Steps in the SCOUT online help and the examples on the SIMOTION Utilities&Applications DVD (part of the SCOUT delivery and https://support.industry.siemens.com/cs/ww/en/view/26340545).

Best Regards

Manfred

I can pass on some personal experience.

I have been using Simotion for about 3 years and am now at the point where I consider myself competent, albeit far from being an expert.  I had no formal training.

If a class is available, I would strongly suggest you take it to eliminate many of the frustrations I encountered.

Thanks for all the inputs.

I Think I will start by looking at the catalog of the available gear boxes and motors to see if it is mechanical possible to adapt such type of units.

One think I wondering if this types of motors are to much to use on a old printing press. The machine consists in 6 units and I have a main shaft that is driven by a large DC motor. Perhaps I should also consider using small DC motors, with encoders, one each unit!

Do we have a saving in energy switching from old DC motor to new servomotors?  

Yes, absolutely "Electronic Line Shaft" or in other words electronic gearing is the way to go forward. You will see significant power savings just by switching to permanent magnet servo motors, and on top of that the Sinamics S120 motor module series have regenerative capability when paired with at least the Smart Line (servo infeed) modules (no wasteful braking resistors). You can save a lot in wiring labor with fieldbus based remote I/O stations (Profibus or Profinet), and that is generally the best way to handle Simotion anyway.

Switching over to a new platform, though, it's really worth it to take a week to go to a training class. If that isn't an option, there most likely is a local distributor that can come in to your workplace and run through some presentations. The key here is to get contacts local to you... the control software has gotten pretty sophisticated, very powerful, but there is much more to learn and understand.

Hi

You could also download the Siemens SIZER tool wich will help dimmensioning the motors and motion controllers. It is very usefull.

Large, fast printing presses usually have very small unit to unit tolerances. It may not be feasible to remove the drive shaft and maintain the required unit to unit positioning on an older machine with worn parts.