Wilo counts on Ersa
Highly automated production line for smart pumps
Wilo SE is one of the leading premium suppliers of pumps and pump systems for building technology, water management and industry with around 7,700 employees worldwide. Wilo offers its customers tailor-made innovative products with high system efficiency and maximum energy savings. The aim: as individual as necessary, as efficient as possible. To achieve the ambitious goals, a highly automated Ersa VERSAFLOW 3/45 selective soldering system is used in electronics production.
Founded in 1872 as a copper and brass goods factory in Dortmund, the Wilo Group is today a leading global manufacturer with 13 main production sites in Europe, Asia and America. The technology company thus has an efficient and customer-oriented network of more than 70 production and sales companies in over 50 countries. In the company´s 146-year history, there have been impressive milestones: the world´s first heating pump in 1928, the first high-efficiency pump in 2001, and the first decentralised pump system in 2009. The current focus is on new digital solutions such as the smart Wilo pump Stratos MAXO, with which Wilo is transforming itself from a product supplier to a system provider. This is what the claim “Pioneering for You.” stands for, which aims to achieve an optimum quality of life by efficiently using the valuable resource of water.
Wilo and Ersa: trustful cooperation since the 1980s
Thanks to decades of expertise, Wilo is frequently called upon to implement complex projects – for example at the Google data centre in Hamina, Finland, where the Wilo pumps “CronoLine-IL” make a decisive contribution to the ecology and economy of a major hub on the global data highway. Whether pump systems or electronics manufacturing – digitization fundamentally changes manufacturing techniques, workflows and production processes and offers completely new functional and application possibilities. As trendsetters, Wilo and Ersa are each setting new standards in their respective industries to advance digital transformation at all levels.
In order to be able to follow this path, the pump manufacturer uses Ersa production systems that can be relied on at all times for all electronics manufacturing applications – after all, the assemblies produced must perform reliably in smart pump systems worldwide under the toughest conditions. Dortmund-based electronics manufacturing produces for all plants worldwide and relies uncompromisingly on know-how and quality “made in Germany”.
Wilo and Ersa have been working together constructively since the 1980s, and both companies live in a trusting partnership. In the past, Wilo has relied on selective and wave soldering systems from Ersa for demanding soldering tasks. “Through many joint, technologically demanding projects, we have been able to jointly develop standards that will help us enormously in future projects and give us a competitive edge. It is important to understand our customer´s needs and the tricks in the complex soldering process,” says Ersa sales engineer Stefan Wurster. The fact that the team in Dortmund had very good knowledge in the selective soldering field also enabled a problem-solving process that was productive in every respect.
Zero defect strategy: Multi-wave selective soldering machine VERSAFLOW 3/45
Last year, a four-member Wilo team from the Industrialization and Manufacturing Technologies division put Ersa´s first highly automated plant into operation. This was preceded by a tender on the market. After an intensive process, Ersa was once again able to underline its technological leadership in selective soldering, with precise process control and monitoring ultimately being the decisive factor. A VERSAFLOW 3/45 multi-wave selective soldering system is now in use, which is optimally integrated into the overall concept developed by the pump manufacturer due to its high degree of automation for the production of large quantities. “A particular challenge of the project was the large component mix produced with the new production plant. In particular, the thermal requirements for heating and cooling the ceramic components played a major role. We had already determined all the necessary process parameters in advance at the Ersa application center in Wertheim, without blocking important production capacities,” says Wilo production technologist Rüdiger Riedl.
At the same time, a zero-defect strategy was pursued. Important solutions were found early on thanks to the standards jointly created in the past and many extensive pre-tests in the application and demo center at Ersa in Wertheim. This enabled a fast, problem-free ramp-up with very few adjustments to the soldering process after commissioning of the system. Wilo Process Engineer Ulrich Krämer regards the project as an excellent example of the long-standing cooperation between the two companies: “From initiation to completion, the project with Ersa ran as smoothly as one could wish for!”
