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Online database stores details of all your drives

27 May, 2011

SEW-Eurodrive has developed an online service that keeps track of all of an organisation’s drives at one or more sites, providing information on the condition of each drive, its service history, maintenance schedules and documentation.

The service, called Complete Drive Management (CDM), can include details of drives from other suppliers, as well as those held in storage. It is designed to cut downtime and unnecessary stock, spot potential problems before they occur, and identify older drives that could be replaced to improve energy efficiency.

The data is organised in an easy-to-use hierarchical system. After logging on via SEW’s secure DriveGate portal, users can navigate around all of their drives. Each drive has its own CDM tag with a unique code, avoiding the need to crawl around with a torch to read its nameplate.

Selecting a component presents documentation including a photo of the drive, 3D CAD drawings showing its orientation on the line, as well as operating and installation instructions. Technical details are listed for each drive, including those not made by SEW-Eurodrive. There are more than 40 different data fields. Condition monitoring results, such as vibration analyses and oil age monitoring, can be linked to the data.

Users can send messages to SEW-Eurodrive with queries about any drive, without needing to quote product codes or reference numbers. They can also book inspection visits.

SEW-Eurodrive’s UK service manager, Karl Rigg, hails the new service as “unique, innovative and really special”. It “gives users complete knowledge of all the drive technology in their factories in a way that has never before been possible,” he says. “It’s a bit like having SEW-Eurodrive in the factory all the time as part of the user’s maintenance team.”