Packaging Machinery
An obsolete drive found before the rebuild bill landed
A packaging operation faced a full control system rebuild when an obsolete inverter failed. Rowlec sourced a genuine unit worldwide and kept the line in production.
What changed
Retrofit avoided
Line restored on its original control platform, upgrade planned into a shutdown
Genuine unit
Correct drive revision located through worldwide sourcing
Held in stock
A second drive now carried on the customer's behalf
We keep our customers anonymous, so sites are described by sector and region rather than by name. Every figure and outcome on this page is as reported to us by the customer, not measured independently by Rowlec.
The full story
What happened
and what we did.
- The site
- Shrink wrapper at the end of a high volume packing line
- Where it started
- A fifteen year old inverter, out of production and unsupported
- What was at stake
- A full control retrofit, or hand wrapping every pallet
The challenge
A shrink wrapper at the end of a high volume line stopped when its AC inverter dropped out. The drive was more than fifteen years old, long out of production, and the original machine builder no longer supported the platform. The obvious route was a full control retrofit: new drive, new motor, new wiring, a fresh programme and commissioning time the site did not have. Two of the customer's usual suppliers came back with nothing. Every day the wrapper sat idle, finished pallets were being hand wrapped and the despatch bay was falling behind.
Our approach
Rowlec took the rating plate details and the machine wiring schedule, confirmed the exact frame size, control card and firmware revision, then worked its worldwide sourcing network rather than a single catalogue. That meant obsolete stock specialists, surplus holders and manufacturer refurbishment channels across Europe and beyond. A genuine unit of the correct revision was located, tested and shipped, with the parameter set checked against the original configuration before it left. Rowlec also priced a planned retrofit for the same asset, so the customer had a considered upgrade path rather than an emergency one.
The outcome
The wrapper was back in production on the original control platform, with no rewiring, no reprogramming and no commissioning window to negotiate around the production plan. The customer avoided the cost and disruption of an unplanned retrofit and kept the decision on their own terms, scheduling the upgrade into a shutdown later in the year. A second unit of the same drive was added to the critical spares held on their behalf, so the next failure on that asset is a planned swap rather than a search. Sourcing enquiries for hard-to-find parts now come to Rowlec first.
Everyone else told us to rip the panel out and start again. Rowlec found the actual drive, and we were wrapping pallets again that week.
What we used
The solutions behind this.
Worldwide Sourcing
When a part is discontinued, unbranded or simply not held in the UK, we go and find it or find what replaces it.
Read moreCritical Spare Management
We work out which parts would stop your line, then hold them on your behalf so a long lead time never becomes lost production.
Read moreEngineering Support
Technical help with specifying, standardising and sourcing, from people who have spent their careers around plant.
Read moreKeep reading
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