Thirty-two drives and four CLC motion controllers are to be replaced in a step-by-step process to upgrade the 20-year-old shaftless drives on two Goss Universal 45 presses in Ikast, Denmark.

DCOS Sweden has announced a contract to retrofit the Bosch Rexroth drives at OTM Avistryk Herning-Ikast, where the two six-tower Goss presses and two folders installed in early 2000 comprise over 70 drives and motors. They have EAE controls and Amal splicers.

The Bosch Rexroth Indramat drives helped transform presses from mechanical line shafts to shaftless transmission. Many of these presses were equipped with DIAX series drives and CLC motion controller, all based on SERCOS II fibre optics, components which have become a challenge to maintain. As an alternative to short-term solutions, DCOS developed an unique retrofit concept for the DIAX platform, a step-by-step migration of the old DIAX system to a modern drive system platform. Gradually the old SERCOS II fibre optic system is removed and replaced with a standardised, non-proprietary ethernet based bus system.

OTM Avistryk managing director Frank Haberstroh says the company became interested in the long-term approach having seen it on a Universal press.

In April the contact was signed for the retrofit of 32 drives and four CLC motion controllers. The proprietary motor encoders will also be replaced by standard encoders. The retrofit will start in the end of August and will be competed in four weeks.

DCOS chief executive Mattias Andersson says he is particularly proud of this solution: "It's the only truly future-proof solution offered today, completely based on standard hardware, cost-effective, and adaptable step-by-step."

OTM Avistryk is the seventh press undergoing such a retrofit.