Asaleo Care’s Tissue Machine

Asaleo Care, a mid-market manufacturer of tissue and personal care products, faced a critical obsolescence risk in the control and drive systems governing one of its tissue machines. Aging legacy hardware created mounting exposure: sourcing replacement parts for end-of-life components was becoming difficult and costly, while the existing architecture lacked integrated safety functions required by modern industrial standards. In the tissue manufacturing sector, unplanned downtime directly impacts output continuity and product quality, making control system failures particularly costly. Without a structured upgrade path, the facility risked extended outages, rising maintenance burdens, and regulatory exposure from non-compliant safety systems.

Rockwell Automation designed and delivered a full control and drive system upgrade for the tissue machine, replacing the legacy architecture with a modern, integrated platform. At the core was an Allen-Bradley GuardLogix programmable controller, which consolidated machine control and functional safety into a single system — eliminating the need for separate safety relays and simplifying the overall control architecture. Eight Allen-Bradley PowerFlex variable frequency drives were installed with Safe Speed Monitoring capability, enabling speed-dependent safety functions without additional external hardware. The upgrade also incorporated an Active Front End Bus configuration, which allowed the drive system to return braking energy back to the supply rather than dissipating it as heat. A detailed Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) was completed before site installation, validating system behavior against production requirements in a controlled environment prior to commissioning.

The pre-commissioning FAT proved instrumental in minimizing installation downtime — by resolving integration issues before the machine went offline, the team significantly compressed the on-site cutover window. Post-installation, maintenance requirements decreased and technician diagnostics improved due to the enhanced visibility and self-reporting capabilities of the GuardLogix and PowerFlex platform. Machine reliability improved as a direct consequence of replacing obsolete components with current-generation hardware. On the energy side, the Active Front End Bus delivered measurable savings through regenerative braking — energy generated during deceleration is fed back to the bus rather than wasted — while simultaneously reducing harmonic distortion on the facility's electrical supply, which benefits overall power quality.

• Obsolescence planning should drive upgrade timing: waiting until components fail forces reactive, high-risk replacements; a proactive upgrade preserves scheduling flexibility and allows thorough testing.
• Integrated safety and control on a single controller reduces wiring complexity, simplifies validation, and streamlines ongoing maintenance compared to separate safety relay architectures.
• Factory Acceptance Testing is not optional on critical machinery: resolving issues in a test environment is orders of magnitude cheaper than troubleshooting during a live production outage.
• Active Front End technology pays dual dividends: regenerative braking lowers energy consumption while harmonic mitigation protects downstream electrical equipment — both benefits compound over the machine's operating life.