Page 7 - EngineerIT October 2022
P. 7
AUTOMATION AND CONTROL
PC-based control in among the focal points in the process
of planning the buildings. Completed in
the summer of 2020 and spanning an
liquids production area of around 10 000 m², the energy
footprint of the production building falls
below the maximum stipulated by the
KfW 55 standard for new buildings in
Germany – and what’s more, the new
liquids production facilities are powered
entirely by green electricity. The
company also has its own photovoltaic
system that contributes around 20% of
the electricity required.
As head of engineering at Engelhard
Arzneimittel, Rüdiger John is responsible
for the automation project as a whole,
from planning liquids production to
implementing and commissioning
it – and he works with the support of
Beckhoff Systems Engineering. “Even
when we first started using Beckhoff
technology in our old plant back in 2014,
I loved the flexibility that PC-based
control brought,” states John, who also
praises the cooperative nature of the
work he has done with Stefan Maßmann,
Andreas Wieners and Jürgen Bolte from
Beckhoff Systems Engineering.
The production plant in
Niederdorfelden is designed for
Engelhard Arzneimittel is one of
the leading brand manufacturers producing all liquid pharmaceuticals.
in the field of over-the-counter “It handles Prospan cough syrup and
medicines. Its well-known products,
which include the cough medicine other liquids, which we add to packaging
Prospan, are sold in more than formats like small pouches, and we
a hundred countries worldwide. also use it to produce cough drops,”
The pharmaceutical company has
constructed a new production building says John, explaining the range that the
and production facilities for liquids,
laying the foundation for sustainable
production – with the support of
PC-based control and the application All the control and automation
engineers of Beckhoff. technology was designed and
programmed by Beckhoff
Systems Engineering on the
basis of TwinCat3.
ne hundred and fifty years
after its founding in Frankfurt
Oam Main in 1872, Engelhard
Arzneimittel is still a family run company,
now in its fifth generation of ownership.
Around 450 people work at its site in
Niederdorfelden near Frankfurt, around
100 of them in production. In 2019,
Engelhard responded to the immense
increase in demand it faced, with the
construction of a new administration
building and a production building.
Efficiency and sustainability were
EngineerIT | October 2022 | 5
