Selmers in Mexico: bringing three machine lines to life

Four weeks in Mexico and a challenging commissioning project ahead. Software Engineer Lisa Meeuwenoord travelled to Monterrey to commission the Selmers equipment she had worked on back in the Netherlands. “It was my first real project,” Lisa says. “I had worked on smaller parts before and learned from others, but this was the first project where I had written most of the software myself.”

Lisa has been working at Selmers for just over two years. She studied Electrical Engineering at HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht and joined Selmers through its collaboration with Yellax. Her work involves writing and testing the software that controls Selmers’ machines. In Mexico, she got to follow that work through to commissioning on site. It was also Lisa’s first time working abroad. She was excited about the opportunity but admits she was nervous beforehand.

Starting up, step by step

The project in Monterrey consisted of three machine lines: an external blaster, a coating line for applying epoxy coating and an internal blaster. Before Lisa arrived, the equipment had been mechanically assembled and electrically connected. Her job was to start up the controls and bring the machines into operation.

Lisa began by setting up Ethernet devices and IP addresses and downloading the software to the PLC. From there, she checked the I/O signals and configured components such as pressure and temperature transmitters. “You check all the signals one by one to make sure they respond as they should,” Lisa explains. “Then you slowly start up the different parts of the machine and build from there.”

The engineering work starts well before commissioning. In Beverwijk, the team works out how the machines should operate, which sensors are needed and how the controls and HMI (Human Interface) screens should work. Depending on the project, parts of the equipment are also tested before shipment.

Different disciplines, one team

Lisa spent four weeks in Mexico, but she was far from the only Selmers colleague involved. Different specialists joined the project at different stages and in different teams, covering mechanical, electrical and software engineering.

That cooperation proved important during the commissioning. When Lisa encountered a software problem she could not immediately solve, she contacted colleagues back home and worked through it with them remotely. When mechanical or electrical issues came up, she worked with specialists on site to find a solution.

From theory to practice

Mexico also gave Lisa more hands-on experience with the hardware. Her Electrical Engineering degree had focused heavily on theory, while on site she could see how things worked in practice. “Things can work differently in practice from how you imagined them beforehand,” Lisa says. “When you actually see what is happening, it also becomes easier to find the cause of a problem.”

After four weeks, Lisa handed over the software work to colleague Roy, who continued the commissioning. “Looking back, she enjoyed being part of the project from start to finish. “It was

a really cool project,” she says. She had support from colleagues when she needed it, but she also had to work through problems herself. “I did get stuck sometimes, but I always managed to work it out,” Lisa says. “That gave me a lot of confidence.”

The project was a team effort. Alongside Lisa, Frank Timmer, Jerry van Willigen, Maurice Tijm, Thijs Straver, Jay van der Veen, Roy van Rijn, Govert Voltman, Thomas Morgan and Denis Dubinin also travelled to Mexico at different stages of the project.