Digital Junction Box Offers Increased Transparency in Monitoring and Diagnostics

Sept 4, 2019

With Siwarex DB, Siemens is launching a digital junction box for weighing applications with robust field housing in IP66 protection on the market. It can be integrated easily into Simatic environments. The Siwarex DB extends the Siemens weighing technology portfolio and through its seamless networking ensures that individual analog load cells can now be acquired and evaluated more comprehensively than ever before. They can be used both for the targeted monitoring of weighing processes and for extended diagnostics. Any error messages are displayed centrally on the Simatic controller and the HMI.

The seamless connection of the control unit and Siwarex WP weighing electronicly enables immediate diagnostics of the load cells. This makes servicing quicker and easier, and minimizes downtimes. In order to prevent inaccurate or incorrect measurements, the weighing modules must operate precisely. An essential requirement for this is complete transparency regarding the status of the devices. Siwarex DB offers the option of connecting the scales with up to four load cells, thus providing the required flexibility in plant planning. A new feature is the single-channel monitoring of each connected load cell. For example, error conditions such as wire break or overload can be detected and removed specifically, making servicing easier. With Siwarex DB, the use of a multimeter is a thing of the past. Siwarex DB can also be used in a wide range of applications in the field of industrial weighing technology, such as level monitoring, silo or container weighing.

By using a Siwarex WP231 as the weighing electronic, direct connection to a Simatic S7 CPU for the Simatic S7-1200 system is supported. For the distributed Simatic ET 200SP system, on the other hand, the use of Siwarex WP321 is recommended. Seamless communication between Siwarex and Simatic reduces effort during commissioning. If, for example, height compensation is required during commissioning, the load of each individual load cell can be viewed immediately using the Siwarex WP weighing electronics.

The Siwarex DB digital junction box can be used to retrofit existing plants with minimal effort. If the similar Siwarex JB solution is already in use, it can be simply replaced with the Siwarex DB (which has the same dimensions) and connected to the existing cables. Another advantage for the user is that there is no change to the normal operating procedures within the Siwarex weighing electronics and Simatic.

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