Every single day, both small and medium-sized companies are faced with the challenge of reasserting their position in value chains. They mostly accomplish this through customised solutions, produced by using special machinery. Against this background, it is vital to increase the flexibility and speed of maintenance performance, as demonstrated by a joint project between AL-KO DÄMPFUNGSTECHNIK GMBH and itsme Schultz+Erbse.

Along the E313, in the Belgian town of Paal Beringen, the Moderna Printing building stands out day and night. And rightly so, because inside, a three-shift team takes care of a gigantic amount of printed matter 24 hours a day, five days a week. The possibilities are very diverse, from advertising brochures and glossy magazines to sleekly designed travel brochures. Moderna Printing recently invested in an expansion. By building a new hall and with new state-of-the-art machinery the company focuses on an improved fulfilment of their customers’ wishes. The lighting, of course, could not be neglected. itsme Breemes was engaged to offer some customised lighting advice.

On the outskirts of Hengelo-Zuid tons of waste are given a new purpose each year. Through incineration, separation and composting, energy and raw materials are extracted and find their way back to society. With the heat that is released during incineration, Twence generates enough power to provide half of all households in the Twente \(region in the Eastern Netherlands\) with electricity. In order to guarantee the continuity of all the plants, operators carry out regular inspection rounds in the installations, so good visibility is important. In switching from fluorescent lighting to LED, Twence enlisted the help of itsme.

eReM provided complete electrical installation for new shipyard in Kenya Sometimes a project seems to have been arranged from front to back. But what if you are asked at the very last minute to show what your company is capable of? At eReM in Zwijndrecht, the Netherlands, they know all about it. In part thanks to a rock-solid offer they convinced their end customer – an internationally operating Dutch shipbuilder – to come on board with them. And in this case literally because, as it concerned the installation of the entire electrical system of a new shipyard in Kenya, the components were shipped by sea freight. Their main challenge? In the preliminary phase everything had to be 100% correct. This required thorough preparation in which eReM could count on support from itsme.

Every machine leaving the factory in Dokkum, Friesland \(the Netherlands\) is the result of a specific customer request. The team at De Jager RVS translates such ideas into final designs that fit in perfectly with practice. Their specialisation? Building customised machines in which stainless steel plays the leading role. This was the case when a large dairy producer asked them for a vertical transport solution. The choice of a pneumatic actuator was an easy one. In order to get everything that was connected with this critical application right in one go, they invited itsme and Festo to the design table. “You want to integrate a bit of security for yourself.”

Improved visibility enhances safety and work comfort Precast concrete flooring systems for residential and non-residential construction. At Dycore they know all about it. Adequate lighting in both production and transferring of these floors is essential. Safety comes first, closely followed by the avoidance of damage. Jos de Laat, head of the Technical Department at Dycore Breda, explains that as a specialist they like to focus exclusively on concrete floors, with other affairs being regularly outsourced. “For our lighting, I rely on itsme’s specialism.”

TES Industrial Systems about innovating and collaborating At TES Industrial systems, all expertise in electrotechnical drive technology is gathered under one roof: from assembly, engineering and panel building to commissioning, service and after sales. But what drives the organisation itself? “We are forward-looking. But with respect for the past.” TES Industrial Systems and itsme about the strength of collaboration.

Thanks to EDI connection, CSi Romania manages to greatly reduce the lead and delivery terms. When itsme ES Elektro became a logistics integrator for CSi Romania, ensuring a large share of its purchases, it brought about an innovative project in the collaboration between the two entities: EDI connection. Two years down the road, thanks to an EDI connection, CSi already manages to greatly reduce the lead and delivery times, which naturally leads to an increase in the number of orders.

In a time when the world, and therefore also the shipping industry, virtually came to a standstill, Dutch company TULLP introduces an important innovation. Over a period of more than four years they have embraced a new PLC that controls the fuel filters of seagoing vessels. By introducing it now, they want to send a signal. Sjoerd Kivits, service manager at TULLP: “Despite all the setbacks of the corona situation we simply went on developing. In the past year, people only received recons – patched up units. It is really cool that we have now made something entirely new.”

OVISO Robotics has received technical and commercial support from itsme ES Elektro Romania specialists

Companies in the process industry depend on their processes running uninterrupted, around the clock, seven days a week. This is particularly true when life forms such as bacteria or micro-organisms are part of those processes. The example of biogas production shows how expensive a disruption can be and how smart technical advice can bring the systems back online.

The relocation to a new building in Genk two years ago, more or less coincided with the growth spurt the company was going through with respect to camera inspections. And that is just a fraction of the many markets served by this atypical installer. It is precisely this diversity of projects that makes Elenco prefer steady partner itsme Breemes as a supplier of electrotechnical components.

The innovative storage solutions Bruynzeel produces in Panningen in Limburg \(the Netherlands\) are distributed all over the world. Almost all their products are custom-made, but this doesn’t stop Bruynzeel from achieving tight delivery times. And with that in mind, smoothly running machinery becomes all the more important. So when a number of safety light curtains were in need of replacement, it was essential to act quickly. A collaboration with Leuze and itsme provided support.

If you are not afraid of heights, then Alimak is the right place for you. The company designs, produces and maintains lifts that bring crane drivers to their cabin. But also systems that allow window cleaners to operate safely at great heights. As a specialist in vertical transport solutions for construction and industry the group has gained a strong market position. In order to maintain an undivided focus on their core activities, they regularly turn to itsme Industrial Automation for technical support.

Coca-Cola boosts safety, traceability and efficiency with ID card

In its almost one hundred years of existence, the inventor of ‘fritessaus’, a typically Dutch low calorie-mayonnaise, has greatly expanded its product range of sauces, dressings, frying fat and margarines. It is a challenge for the Technical Services department to keep the machinery running, so that millions of products continue to roll off the belt every year. Remia also believes in development across the board in the field of knowledge. A group of both mechanical and electrical technicians recently did a three-day training course in TIA Portal System. To transfer that knowledge, itsme was a guest in the sauce capital of the Netherlands, Den Dolder.

Chances are that you held an Owens-Illinois \(O-I\) product in your hands at some time. The originally American company is in fact the producer of the bottles of, among others, Heineken and Grolsch. On a yearly basis, a billion bottles of brown and green glass are produced at the production location in Leerdam, with the European beer market as their destination. These enormous numbers are accompanied by strict quality requirements on the part of the end customer and this, in turn, requires a tight production process. However, could there still be room for improvement in terms of efficiency? Together with Saint Gobain Abrasives and itsme, O-I rose to that challenge.

Often, talking about custom solutions means talking about innovation. In these cases, there is a specific need that requires a new development or the adaptation of solutions already out there. It is necessary to study the requirements in depth in order to provide the most efficient solution.

An annual yield of about 700,000 tons of deep-frozen potato products, divided over four sites, demands an intensive maintenance of machinery. In this case, a standardised work environment is no superfluous luxury. The biggest challenge for the transition from reactive to methodical? Getting the whole organisation to go along. “You know that there will be a moment of chaos.” Agristo got help from itsme with this.

Faster, higher, further – there are compelling arguments for many investments and a return on investment can usually be calculated with just a few clicks of the mouse. It is, however, more difficult to prove the need for a purchase if an event might not even happen in the first place. Food producer Greenland Seafood has now decided to invest in the reliability of its equipment and has installed a system to monitor critical motors.

The ability to adapt to change is key for a business’s competitiveness and, for those based on technology, it is essential to have good technical advice in order to move forward. itsme ELEKTRES is the ideal partner in such cases. As well as its first-hand experience with top brands and manufacturers, it also offers a full technical support service, from the analysis of the client’s needs to implementation of equipment, as well as any changes that may be needed in the future.

From fresh pineapple to bite-size portions of fruit in a resealable bucket. The Piñabar makes it possible in less than 20 seconds. For a customer in a supermarket it is just a matter of pressing a button. For Pierre van de Braak, director at Dutch International Manufacturing \(DIM\) and the inventor of the Piñabar, a complex process preceded it. Being a machine manufacturer, he got support from Schneider Electric, S2 and itsme for the electrotechnical section of the machine.

How does an organisation ensure the transition from start-up to scale-up to go smoothly? For fast-growing Kind Technologies the answer partly lay in scalability: not only growing fast, but above all efficiently and smartly. Together with Rittal and itsme they took a closer look at the production process of their enclosures. By partially outsourcing the assembly work, the lead time has been reduced from four weeks to just one week.

Good feedback enhances every result. The same applies to the itsme Group’s new web platform for which customers shared their experiences during the testing phase. One of them is Jurgen Janssens of ECJ Automation from Gierle, Belgium. At the request of itsme Breemes he went through, and tested the platform before it went live. “Functionality comes first. And that has been well thought out with this platform.”

The smelting of aluminium requires breaking through a thick crust of cryolite, countless times in a row, at high temperatures. For Damco Aluminium Delfzijl Coöperatie, Aldel, therefore, using an ordinary cylinder was not an option. This in contrast with the new crust-breaker. Designed by IMI Norgren and supplied by itsme, this cylinder will last for years and is good for many breakings through.