2019 - Delta Line completes its offer with Electronics

Following the successful move from distributor to Motor Solution manufacturer in 2010, Delta Line has been able to realize the success of this new business model and the enormous added value generated for our customers. Controlling manufacturing not only means controlling quality of what we sell and piloting new product developments, but the highest value stands in the flexibility we can offer to our customers both in terms of speed and customization. The wide motor, gearbox and accessories portfolio of Delta Line available back in 2010 was already enabling us to offer a “One-stop” supply for many types of motion solutions from basic modular assembly to custom-made ones. It was working daily with customers, getting to know their industry and applications, understanding their challenges that made us realize that we were still missing a piece to become a truly complete and efficient motion solution provider, and that piece was Drive Electronics.

Carefully selected Electronics manufacturer
Drive Electronics plays an increasingly important role in the motion solution provider market. With the advent of IOT the need for our solutions to not only communicate within the application but also to other elements of the total machine package are key to some of the successes seen in the field today.

Delta Line’s organizational structure is unique because it is a result of our philosophy. Moving from distributor to a company with control over manufacturing has been done with the clear goal in mind to not compromise over agility, quality and flexibility. This has been possible thanks to a mix of company acquisitions and strong partnerships but even more so through a very careful company selection process, in order to identify the best match. This has been exactly the same approach we used to identify a strong Motion Control manufacturer to partner up with. For this crucial and complementary partnership our main objective was to find a medium sized manufacturer with very high-quality standard, that had an agile setup in order to offer us the flexibility we needed in terms of volumes, speed, and ability to customize solutions. Having found exactly what we were looking for, in 2019 we started our partnership with an Italian Control Electronics manufacturer and since then we have been able to step up even further the level of our offer.

Our partner is a company that has over 40 years’ experience in the field of Motion Control, its main production plant and R&D center is in Italy, and they employ there around 60 employees. They control the full supply and production chain for both Hardware and Software development and currently they produce slightly over 150’000 drives per year. All these drives are CE, UKCA, RoHS and REACH certified and available with different fieldbuses options such as CANopen, ModbusRTU, EtherCAT, Modbus TCP and Profinet. UL and Safe Torque Off (STO) certification are also provided on a large variety of models.

Full control over the production chain means guaranteed high standards of quality
Having full control over all production phases and having a production plant in Europe means a lot in term of safety and quality standards. Given the long experience of our partner in this field, the production process has been constantly optimized over the years and updated with new and modern production equipment. There are 10 production phases that ensure our quality standards, starting with Incoming Material Station, where a unique ID code is applied to all incoming materials which are then stored in a fully automated storage warehouse maintained at ideal temperature and humidity level. This first step which might seem basic is in fact crucial to maintain full traceability along the chain and to increase efficiency. PCB assembly can be done applying SMT (Surface Mount Technology) and/or THT (Through Hole Technology) using a completely automated process. This involves a variety of high-tech equipment starting from Laser marking machines to engrave miniaturized data matrix on the PCB. For SMT the use of Pick and Place machines is fundamental to mount and exactly place a large quantity of small components on the electronic boards at a very high speed, which are then fixed on the board using optical-controlled 2.5D Screen printers, for an excellent deposition of the soldering paste, in combination with SPI (solder paste inspection) machines, to ensure the quality of the soldering paste deposition through 3D reconstruction and automatic optimization of the deposition parameters of the screen printer. SMT assembly is then completed by a Reflow oven to finalize the soldering process through electronic temperature control able to regulate 16 heating zones and 2 cooling zones. On the other hand, THT is used in certain cases to mount critical electronic components through a latest generation Wave soldering machine with electronic control of flux application and 5 infrared preheats plus 1 final quartz preheat. To complete PCB assembly an Automatic Optical Inspection (AOI) is performed to check the screen printing and the quality of solder joints and to ensure that all the components are correctly mounted. The electronic boards are then cleaned with a water based process, tested by performing a ICT test with flying probes, and mechanically assembled to the needed support (e.g. heatsinks, chassis, etc.). To ensure the highest quality of our electronic products the drives are then going through a Functional Circuit Test (FCT) where all the hardware resources, inputs, outputs, motor's control, fieldbuses, and any braking resistance are tested. Last but not least the drives are automatically configured by loading the parameters or program from a dedicated database where each drive is matched only with the firmware version tested and approved by the customer itself.

Delta Line, a One-Stop Supplier that offers flexibility and accessible customization
Having a trusted manufacturing partner doesn’t mean outsourcing all projects involving motion control. Delta Line philosophy is to maintain full control and responsibility of all development projects. In order to enable that, in the last five years, our company has significantly invested in building a team specialized in Mechatronics that leads this new partnership and manages all development projects. Our engineers remain the face towards the customer and the head that works on our customer’s tasks and motion challenges. Given that our motion solution projects are usually complex and go beyond the use of control electronics, our design teams are the best suited individuals in terms of experience to find the most efficient combination of technologies to solve our customers application challenges. Our manufacturing partner’s role is therefore to ensure the highest quality and fastest production of the needed electronic components and to offer an engineering support in case of specific electronic challenges.

Having access to a large amount of high-quality standard drives is definitely an advantage, however, the Delta Line design team also uses these electronic components to create its own range of high performing motors with integrated electronics which are available in our catalogue as basic speed controller (velocity & direction or step & direction), or as intelligent BLDC or Stepper motors, additionally available with IP65 protection.

We also selected our partner because of its lean setup which allows us to locally produce fully customized electronic components with accessible MOQ volumes and attractive costs. One example of this is our Phoenix EtherCAT 3-Axis BLDC drive for currents up to 12A rms, which has been specifically developed by our engineering team for one of our customers in the intralogistics business to be included in a new generation of AMR shuttles. In this case this custom development has been needed to answer specific current, fieldbus and digital output challenges. Given the success of this project outcome this product is now part of a permanent range in our portfolio available in two versions, a smaller embedded model (without a housing) able to control BLDC motors up to 3A rms and a standard housed version controlling BLDC motors up to 12A rms.

Giving access to a very complete portfolio of technologies in both motors and electronics, and to an experienced team of engineers that can collaborate from the early stages of the project with customer development team, makes Delta Line an ideal “one-stop” supplier for motion solutions. This, including even the ability to customize at attractive prices and volumes, means for our customers less risk, less costs, and a simplified supply chain. From our humble beginnings as a motion products distributor 40 years ago, we have grown to be an established, global manufacturer of Motion Control solutions.