Case study · 2012–present
Long-running controls supply for a dairy and farm equipment OEM
Agricultural equipment manufacturing (dairy barn and feed automation). Scope: OEM junction-box and control-panel builds, HMI and drive programming, depot repair, obsolete-drive cross-reference.
The challenge
A Wisconsin maker of automated feed and barn equipment needs a steady supply of electrical sub-assemblies for the machines it ships to farms. That means junction boxes built to its drawings, operator panels and drives that arrive programmed and ready to install, and a repair path for control panels already in the field. When a drive model the equipment was designed around went out of production, it also needed a way forward that didn't mean redesigning its panels.
What we did
- OEM builds since 2012. More than 80 orders appear in our earlier records. Since 2025 we have built about 45 junction boxes for two families of automated feed and barn equipment, released in batches of 3 to 10 against the customer's part numbers.
- Pre-programmed operator panels and drives. We load the customer's application onto ABB 5.7" touch-screen operator panels (CP600 family) so they ship ready to mount; about 10 have gone out since 2025. Small three-phase drives are programmed with the customer's parameter set before shipping. When a farm's equipment was down, we programmed replacement drives from stock for immediate shipment.
- Depot repair of field panels. Control panels built as far back as 2014 come back to our shop for diagnosis. We test each one, replace PLC real-time-clock batteries and fuses, update firmware, correct field wiring, and run a full checkout. Every repair is documented: problem, what we found, what we did.
- Engineering around an obsolete drive. The compact ABB drive in the customer's panels was discontinued, and its successor isn't a drop-in fit. We sent the customer's parameter set to Danfoss application engineering, and together we produced a parameter-by-parameter cross-reference to a Danfoss VLT drive, covering about 20 settings:
- speed reference and preset speeds selected by digital input;
- acceleration and deceleration ramps;
- switching between parameter sets;
- Modbus station address and baud rate;
- motor nameplate data and control mode;
- display readouts.
The aim is to move the existing panel design to a current-production drive without a full redesign.
The result
The program has run for more than a decade, from panel builds to field repairs. The cross-reference was finished in 2026 and is ready for the customer's next panels.
What it shows: a long-term OEM relationship covering repeat sub-assembly builds, programming done before shipment, depot repair with documented findings, and practical engineering when a key component goes obsolete.