Previous Work

Motion Tronic has been designing, building and upgrading industrial control and motion systems in South Africa for more than three decades. The projects below are a selection of that work — drive and VSD retrofits, PLC and control-system upgrades, purpose-built machines, and the electronics we design and manufacture in-house. Several were completed for plants where the machine in question runs the whole factory, so the work had to be done inside a shutdown window.

PLC and control system upgrades

Migrating unsupported control systems onto current PLC and HMI platforms, with full electrical documentation.

Coating line heating system, upgrade to thyristor control

An outdated and unsupported heating control system was replaced with a Siemens HMI communicating over Profinet to a PLC, which in turn drives eight Eurotherm digital thyristor control units over Modbus.

AutoMatex crosslapper control upgrade

The obsolete control system on an AutoMatex crosslapper was replaced, reaching optimal running speeds and improving production rate, product quality and overall reliability.

Trutzschler blending line upgrade

A Siemens S7-1200 PLC was installed to control the weighing and batching of fibre, supplied with new CAD electrical drawings and full wire numbering and referencing produced in EPLAN P8, then installed and commissioned. Sequential control replaced the problems of the outdated system.

Manganese separator using specific gravity control

Working with an established supplier to the mining industry, we developed and built the control system for a manganese separator destined for Namibia. It uses a Siemens PLC and HMI with analogue control of the hydraulic pumps and auxiliary equipment, and was delivered inside a tight deadline.

End-of-line process speed synchronisation

Five axes had been added to an end-of-line process over time and were still being started, stopped and speed-set by the operator. All of the existing control hardware had to stay, so we integrated it with a Siemens PLC and HMI and cascaded the whole line electronically to the main line, cutting the losses caused by inconsistent manual control.

Huskey PET GL300 controller upgrade

The existing Fanuc controllers, drives and positioning motors were stripped out of an injection machine and replaced with new hardware, with the electrical integration developed before the teardown began.

Tec Tex needler loom automation

The old relay control system on a needler loom was reverse engineered and replaced with Siemens PLC control and an HMI for setup, running configuration and diagnostics. The desired needling density is now entered on the panel and held constant through any speed variation without operator intervention, with higher-level setup kept behind a username and password. Panels were delivered to site two weeks after the go-ahead.

Complete carding line, crosslapper and two needlers — electrical upgrade

An obsolete Mitsubishi PLC and outdated relay logic card systems were removed and replaced with two Siemens S7 PLCs, three HMIs and distributed I/O, all communicating over Profinet. Scope ran from removing the existing control system through design and fabrication, PLC and HMI software, installation and commissioning, with 24-hour standby technical support afterwards. Serviceable cabling, switchgear and the existing floor-standing cabinets for the carding line were reused.

Ten-axis synchronised drive solution

A customer’s own machine needed all ten axes to stay synchronised as the line speeds up and slows down, while still letting the operator trim each axis for the product being run. The brief also called for it to be simple to fault-find and to fit a limited budget.

Remote monitoring and in-house electronics

Hardware designed and manufactured by Motion Tronic, and the remote links that connect plant to control room.

Point-to-point wireless link, East London harbour

A long cable run that kept disappearing was replaced with a wireless bridge between control systems, allowing a remote foghorn to be controlled from the port office. Siemens PLCs and hardware rated for the harsh coastal environment were used, and the solution was fully tested and pre-commissioned before installation. It also leaves room to control further devices remotely.

ESP32-GSM-Node for remote monitoring

Designed and manufactured in-house for remote monitoring of water tanks, pump control and general factory IIoT. It carries two digital inputs, two digital outputs and two 12-bit analogue inputs, is expandable over I²C, and ships fully enclosed with M12 DIN plugs as standard. The firmware is written internally, so it can be modified to suit the application.

In-house dosing controller

Our own dosing controller, with two digital inputs, two digital outputs and two analogue inputs, covering a wide range of dosing applications. A later revision added a modular LCD display and stepper driver, with all running adjustments made on the controller behind password protection.