Dodano: 2023-06-22
Build a service warehouse for packaging machines
What is the role of a service warehouse?
Where are PacDrive M / ELAU systems used?
3 scenarios for creating a service warehouse
Do you have spare parts available in case of a failure? Is your production line secured so that you can replace a servo drive within minutes and resume operation? Check whether you have an adequate stock of components for the machines operating in your facility.
In this article, we will discuss the role of a service spare-parts warehouse, using controllers and servo drives for packaging machines as an example.
PacDrive – a technology used in thousands of plants, yet still underestimated
PacDrive (ELAU) systems are far less known in Poland than on the German or Italian markets, yet they are part of the equipment of many packaging machines in the FMCG industry. This is a result of how popular these solutions were among leading machine manufacturers — and it was mainly through them that PacDrive found its way into Polish factories.
Unfortunately, the PacDrive M series was officially discontinued at the end of 2018. Although it has been replaced by the PacDrive 3 series, we still encounter machines at customer sites — even from 2018 — built with PacDrive M components. This means that relatively new production lines are running on outdated components with increasingly limited availability.
In such cases, production safety depends largely on the vigilance and awareness of the system user.
If you already have diagnostic software for PacDrive M systems but are not sure how to use its full capabilities, contact us — a DYNAMOTION support engineer will help you expand your knowledge.
Where should you start when building a service spare-parts warehouse?
The first step is to obtain complete and reliable information about which PacDrive devices are actually operating in your facility. This process is based on two key data sources. The first consists of hardware identification results obtained using diagnostic software — these allow you to accurately determine which controllers, servo drives, and other components are installed in the machines, as well as the exact versions in which they were deployed.
The second, highly valuable source is an audit performed by a certified ELAU – PacDrive support engineer. Such a specialist can assess not only the actual hardware configuration, but also the level of risk, component availability, and possible migration paths. Currently, this type of support in Poland is provided by DYNAMOTION.
Once the data has been collected and analyzed, you should have a complete overview of every device.
For controllers, this means knowing the model as well as the firmware and hardware versions, while for servo drives it additionally includes parameters such as amperage. This information is essential for consciously planning spare-parts inventory and making informed decisions regarding replacements or system migration.
Missing data? Use a PacDrive audit
If you do not have complete knowledge of the PacDrive devices operating in your machines, the best solution is a comprehensive audit of your servo-drive systems.
Such a service allows you to:
assess component availability,
determine the feasibility of replacement or migration,
select suitable substitutes,
identify components critical to machine availability.
It is the fastest way to learn where immediate action is needed and where the risk of failure remains low.
Planning spare-parts inventory
Inventory levels and their size for individual components may vary. The first step, if you are considering whether you should replenish your spare-parts inventory with PacDrive – ELAU products, is to identify how many machines, production lines and facilities within your company use the mentioned drives or other automation devices for which you want to ensure availability.
The next step is to determine how critical the individual machines using these devices are. Based on this, you can decide whether you want to build a service spare-parts warehouse globally — for all company branches — or locally, or even at a specific point — for example, when each department of your facility has its own spare-parts storage.
Then, all components operating in the machines covered by the spare-parts strategy should be collected, totaled and grouped. PacDrive M system devices can be divided into four categories: controllers, servo amplifiers, motors, accessories and cabling. Each of these groups requires a different approach when determining whether your warehouse needs to be replenished with selected references.
Always remember to verify the selected quantities of equipment against your current inventory levels, so you don’t unnecessarily stock up on too many items that — even while sitting on the shelf — continue to age.
MAx-4 and Cx00 — PacDrive controllers
The MAx-4 series was discontinued in 2018 — purchasing new units is no longer possible, leaving only the secondary market. The Cx00 series (C200, C400, C600) still allows for easy identification and selection of replacements.
The key element is access to the control program. It determines:
whether migration is possible,
which replacements can be used,
whether the system can be rebuilt after a failure.
Apart from ensuring hardware compatibility, the number of supported axes, the capacity of the memory card, and other hardware-related aspects, special attention must be paid to the availability of the control program inside the controller. Knowing whether you have access to an editable copy of the source code that the machine in your facility is running on is crucial when making further decisions and influences many actions that can be taken when working with a given machine.
Three scenarios and how to proceed
1. Your plant uses only MAx-4 controllers
For machines based solely on MAx-4 controllers, the availability of the source code of the control program is of critical importance.
If you do not have the source code, your options are very limited. In such a situation, the only solution is to purchase a controller with identical parameters or a model with a “higher” hardware configuration capable of running the existing program. This is, however, a major challenge, as the MAx-4 family has not been produced for many years and the availability of units on the secondary market is steadily decreasing.
If you do have the source code, your situation is significantly better. You can adapt the control program so that it can be transferred to another controller from the same series, or consider migrating to the newer Cx00 family. Such a migration typically involves only replacing the controller, does not require mechanical modifications to the machine, and greatly increases production security.
2. Your plant uses both MAx-4 and Cx00 controllers
In a mixed environment where both MAx-4 and Cx00 controllers operate on the production lines, access to the control programs again plays a crucial role.
Lack of source code means you must ensure separate spare inventory for each controller type. In practice, this may require maintaining a warehouse consisting of many different units, increasing costs and complicating logistics.
Access to source code provides much greater flexibility. You can prepare the programs in such a way that MAx-4 controllers are gradually migrated to the Cx00 series, ultimately reducing the number of models for which you need to maintain stock. In many cases, it is possible to reduce the spare-parts inventory from several controller types down to just one or two.
3. Your plant uses only Cx00 controllers
In more modern systems based solely on C200, C400 or C600 controllers, inventory planning becomes simpler, but still depends on access to the source code.
If the code is not available, the spare inventory must include a stock of every model in use — in practice, separate devices for C200, C400, and C600.
If you do have the source code, you can prepare modified versions of the control programs that allow the machines to operate using a single, unified controller type. This significantly simplifies the service inventory, often reducing it to one model that serves as a replacement for the entire range of machines in the plant.
When building a machine, selecting the right servo drive is crucial to avoid oversizing the system — and ultimately overpaying for it.
MC-4 servo drives – the components with the highest failure risk
Servo drives are the most heavily loaded components in the system:
they operate under high currents,
they are exposed to overloads,
environmental conditions (temperature, dust) significantly affect failure rates,
fiber-optic communication is also prone to damage.
When building a spare-parts inventory, it is worth considering an economical unification of amperage — for example, choosing the 10A version as a replacement for multiple configurations. Every decision should be consulted with a support engineer.
Motors – the next link in a reliable machine
The final — executive — stage of the servo-drive system consists of the motors. Building an optimal spare-parts inventory for these components can prove to be the greatest challenge.
This is due to the wide variety of motors used in machines, differing in rated torque, rotational speed, brake or non-brake versions, encoder type, and connector type. As the actuating elements, motors are also exposed to mechanical damage caused, for example, by jamming of the machine’s mechanics, wear of mechanical components such as bearings, failures within the feedback loop — including the encoder — or even flooding during machine cleaning.
Ensure seamless cooperation
Accurately estimating the required spare-parts inventory for motors requires both technical knowledge and practical experience. This is why we encourage you to contact a DYNAMOTION support engineer, who will help you select suitable replacements and reduce excessive diversity of models. Combining the technical expertise of our specialist with your knowledge of the machines will allow you to precisely determine the optimal size of your service inventory.
A similar approach is recommended when planning stock levels for the iSH and SCL series — motors integrated with the servo drive. In their case, the relatively high degree of hardware unification enables easier and more economical optimization of spare-parts inventory.
Other system components should not be overlooked either, such as I/O islands, line filters or cabling. In machines exposed to intensive operation — for example, Cartesian robots — power and encoder cables are subjected to continuous bending and tensile loads, which increases the risk of failure. Also important are the fiber-optic cables responsible for communication in PacDrive M systems, as well as controller memory cards, which can be prepared in a way that speeds up and simplifies potential controller replacement.
Why is this essential for your operation?
As you can see, the number of factors that must be considered when planning a service spare-parts inventory is truly extensive. It involves a vast amount of information, hardware dependencies, and decisions that cannot be made intuitively. We fully understand that maintenance departments, already overloaded with day-to-day responsibilities, do not always have the time or resources to develop such a comprehensive production-security strategy on their own.
Every plant operates in a different environment, has a different machine history, and faces different risks — but one thing is universal: every maintenance engineer wants to be certain that their production lines are protected, and that they can sleep peacefully at night.
Servo drive firmware versions — should you worry?
At first glance, it may seem so — in many plants we encounter MC-4 servo drives with different firmware versions and different amperage ratings. This might suggest the need to keep multiple models in stock. However, in practice, the situation is much simpler.
In MC-4 servo drives, the firmware version can be changed freely using the free SERCOS Firmware Assistant tool. DYNAMOTION provides the appropriate firmware files on request (wsparcie@dynamotion.pl). This means that when planning your spare-parts inventory, the hardware version is what truly matters — not the firmware.
The key parameter remains the amperage, which determines the maximum motor size the drive can support. Importantly, it does not impose a minimum load requirement, allowing one model to replace several others.
Therefore, even if you initially see a dozen MC-4 variants, in practice:
✔ 2–3 types are usually enough,
✔ and in well-standardized plants — even a single model.
This offers real savings and a significant simplification of the spare-parts inventory.
Final thoughts
Building a service spare-parts inventory for packaging machines based on PacDrive M / ELAU systems is a process that requires technical knowledge, risk analysis and complete identification of all operating devices. With the PacDrive M series discontinued, understanding which components you have — and ensuring the availability of their replacements — becomes essential for maintaining production continuity.
The most important steps include:
accurate identification of controllers, servo drives and motors,
a system audit performed by a certified specialist,
assessment of machine criticality and the degree of hardware standardization,
designing an inventory that includes controllers, MC-4 drives, motors and accessories,
considering migration possibilities and firmware updates,
minimizing hardware variants, which significantly reduces costs and shortens response times during failures.
In practice, even in complex plants, the spare-parts inventory can be greatly simplified. In many cases, 2–3 types of MC-4 servo drives are sufficient, and a well-planned controller migration strategy allows you to reduce diversity to a single model.
A well-designed service inventory means:
fewer unplanned outages,
faster machine recovery,
lower infrastructure maintenance costs,
higher production reliability,
peace of mind for the maintenance department — even in emergency situations.
DYNAMOTION supports manufacturing plants at every stage: from equipment identification and audits, through selection of replacements and migration planning, to building an optimized service spare-parts warehouse.
Autor
Adrianna Arent
A graduate of the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, majoring in Mechanical Engineering. Process Packaging Automation Engineer at DYNAMOTION. She works in service consulting, sales and marketing.
E-mail: adrianna.arent@dynamotion.pl