MP Italy began its activities in 1981 in Urgnano, in the province of Bergamo, specializing right from the start in the construction of machinery for dye works and tanneries, a sector that was then highly developed in the area south of the Lombardy province.
"It was only in the 1990s that we took our first step into the textile industry, starting with a simple consultancy to an Italian company that produced yarn," explains Flavio Malanchini, owner of MP Italy. "Over the years, we went deeper and deeper into this sector, managing to supply the local textile industry with accessories and parts to complete the plants, until we perfected ourselves in the construction of yarn finishing machines."
This is a very important technique and one that is currently performed only in Europe, the United States and Asia, markets to which most of MP Italy's production is destined. "For about 18 years we have been operating in the field of finishing machines making reliable, quality and versatile production lines, which we export all over the world; lately also to Brazil, India and China," Malanchini continues.
It is a job that requires a great deal of commitment, and at MP it is carried out by 12 people who, divided between the technical, electrical and administration departments, take care of the electrical and electronic part, from PLC and switchboard programming to assembly and testing of the machines before they go into production. "All the lines that leave our workshops are complete with the electrical part and tested in production before being shipped to the end customer, ready for use."
Finishing on demand
MP's certainly cannot be called 'standard' production but, rather, customized to meet the needs of each individual customer. "At MP, we work mainly on order. After understanding what the customer needs, we proceed to 'build' the machine," Malanchini explains.
Today, the Bergamo-based company supplies the largest yarn manufacturing companies, managing to meet the production demands of small and medium-sized companies, which complete their production range thanks to customized finishing plants. Finishing consists of a series of treatments practiced on yarns in order to improve their characteristics such as strength, texture and softness. All companies active in this field must have state-of-the-art machines and equipment so that the end result is a quality product.
"And this is precisely why at MP we specialize in all types of finishing, from lubrication to ironing to continuous dyeing, so that we can guarantee customers machines capable of processing any type of yarn without any problem," Malanchini continues.
Collaboration under the banner of quality
To make machines with performance suitable for quality machining, MP decided to turn to Ever Elettronica.
"The collaboration with Ever began when an American company commissioned us a machine that would be able to process a quality of yarn usually used in the field of fiber optics; a very particular type of processing, which requires a very precise finishing," Malanchini explains. "The yarns, once passed through the finishing machine, are rewound in a precise way by a winding machine; this is why the closed-loop stepper motor control system proposed by Ever was fitted, which allowed us to rewind the yarn with the same tension and winding pattern from the beginning to the end of the process."
This type of motor responds perfectly to the requirements demanded by the winding process, a delicate process that does not allow for errors because, when the bobbin of yarn is transferred to the machine in which the electic cables are prepared, a certain amount of precision is necessary in order to guarantee a quality product.
"Based on this very special machine, we then made four others," Malanchini adds. "The excellent understanding established with Ever Elettronica's technical staff, their helpfulness and their ability to interpret our requests in the best possible way have allowed us to be more proactive toward our own customers; moreover, due to their reliability, efficiency and high technological content, Ever products easily lend themselves to any kind of customization."
Gwc, a device with a triple function
The automation devices offered by Ever Elettronica can be configured in any application by connecting them together via CanBus fieldbus and setting them via software using simple Windows PC interfaces. To expand performance and facilitate the implementation of this technology, the Gwc unit was created that can provide three functions in a single device:
- That of communication converter between devices with different types of fieldbus (gateway)
- That of motion controller, controlling and synchronizing up to 64 drives
- That of a programmable logic controller using the TR.I.P.O.S.GW software development environment.
Thanks to the Gwc unit and its programming environment, it is possible to customize the machine cycle, create an open system, manage all drives and local resources, and decrease and simplify the workload of the possible PLC master. In fact, with the Gwc unit, together with the SD Enhanced series servo drives, it is easy to create complete, versatile, compact and high-performance multi-axis motion control systems, taking advantage of all the benefits that various fieldbuses can offer.
SD Enhanced drives of type Sdmwa 170 are microstep devices with Full Digital circuitry and firmware integrating the f4d2 algorithm for stepper motor control in both 'open loop' and 'closed loop' with torque, speed and position control. Powered by alternating voltages, they have hardware resources for connecting other devices for local control of the application and are equipped with advanced safety features. A range of stepper motors with flanges from 28 to 110 mm and static torques up to 30 Nm complete the system.