{"id":53993,"date":"2021-07-03T10:01:28","date_gmt":"2021-07-03T10:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abfstaging21314.live-website.com\/conversion-and-modernization-of-pickling-plant\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T12:08:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T12:08:28","slug":"conversion-and-modernization-of-pickling-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abf.at\/en\/conversion-and-modernization-of-pickling-plant\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversion and modernization of pickling plant"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDWK Drahtwerk K\u00f6ln GmbH produces high-quality steel wires for various applications. Regardless of the product, each coil passes through the pickling plant, making it the heart of Manufacturing and playing a central role in quality, process stability, and delivery reliability. Because requirements vary greatly depending on the application, the plant must be both powerful and highly flexible to be able to refine each wire coil individually according to customer specifications. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Initial Situation<\/h6>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe pickling line had been in operation for about thirty years, and the existing control system was inflexible and prone to errors in practice. As a result, usability, responsiveness, and process reliability increasingly reached their limits \u2013 especially where a stable surface process forms the basis for all subsequent Manufacturing steps. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Goals and Challenges<\/h6>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDWK therefore decided on a retrofit of the pickling line to Simatic S7 to significantly increase flexibility in Manufacturing and align the plant with modern Manufacturing requirements. However, the biggest challenge was not only the technical conversion itself, but above all the time constraint: the physical conversion had to be carried out during a one-week Christmas shutdown, where delays were unacceptable, and the timely resumption of Manufacturing had absolute priority. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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ABF's Solution<\/h6>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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As part of an overall project duration of six months, the pickling plant was comprehensively renewed on behalf of partner Steuler, and the control logic was re-implemented. ABF electrically rebuilt the plant and replaced the old Simatic S5 with a Simatic S7-1500F, thereby creating a stable, future-proof foundation for plant operation. <\/p>

With a comprehensive WinCC visualization, it is now possible to track materials in the pickling line in real time. At the same time, individual treatment programs can be created directly from the ABF application, replacing fixed pickling programs and allowing the plant to react much more flexibly to different product requirements. In addition, the P&ID diagram for plant monitoring was visualized, the chemical area can be operated from the control room, and can also be controlled via a WinCC WebNavigator. <\/p>

Beyond the original goals of plant renewal and efficiency improvement, a connection to the SAP ERP system was also implemented to transfer material data and achieve better consistency of information between Manufacturing and IT.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Result and Benefits<\/h6>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Through modernization, DWK can now realize Manufacturing with lot size 1, which represents a decisive competitive advantage in an environment with very diverse customer requirements. At the same time, throughput has been increased and the error rate reduced, which is directly reflected in higher availability and more stable processes. <\/p>

Even in the event of unscheduled occurrences, operations benefit from higher efficiency, as automatic programs help to react faster and more safely. The project manager on the ABF side, Raphael Brunnthaler, emphasizes the particular success factor of time: despite enormous time pressure, the conversion was completed on schedule, so that Manufacturing could resume as planned. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"dwk_03\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Retrofit of the pickling line to Simatic S7 and renewal of the control logic (PLC) for batch size 1 Manufacturing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-metals","category-success-story"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRefurbishment & Modernization of Pickling Plant: Retrofit at DWK - ABF GmbH<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ABF modernizes pickling plant at DWK: Retrofit from Simatic S5 to S7-1500F, WinCC visualization, lot size 1, higher throughput, fewer errors.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/abf.at\/en\/conversion-and-modernization-of-pickling-plant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conversion and modernization of pickling plant\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ABF modernizes pickling plant at DWK: Retrofit from Simatic S5 to S7-1500F, WinCC visualization, lot size 1, higher throughput, fewer errors.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/abf.at\/en\/conversion-and-modernization-of-pickling-plant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ABF GmbH\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-03T10:01:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-09T12:08:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/abf.at\/wp-content\/uploads\/dwk_baustahl-scaled.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1701\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abf.at\/en\/conversion-and-modernization-of-pickling-plant\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abf.at\/en\/conversion-and-modernization-of-pickling-plant\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abf.at\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/4bdc3eae859c139683c4434ba6e8282d\"},\"headline\":\"Conversion and modernization of pickling plant\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-07-03T10:01:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-09T12:08:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abf.at\/en\/conversion-and-modernization-of-pickling-plant\/\"},\"wordCount\":480,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abf.at\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abf.at\/en\/conversion-and-modernization-of-pickling-plant\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/abf.at\/wp-content\/uploads\/dwk_baustahl-scaled.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Metals\",\"Success Story\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/abf.at\/en\/conversion-and-modernization-of-pickling-plant\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/abf.at\/en\/conversion-and-modernization-of-pickling-plant\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/abf.at\/en\/conversion-and-modernization-of-pickling-plant\/\",\"name\":\"Refurbishment & Modernization of Pickling Plant: Retrofit at DWK - 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