Refflinghaus PSS 150 Controller Replacement

A customer was running several Max Refflinghaus spring bending machines. The machines were old, and the PSS 150 controllers had become unreliable enough that repairing the originals was no longer a sensible way to keep the fleet going.

We were asked to build a replacement. The enclosure and the connectors stayed. Everything inside was new.

Replacement controller. Mitsubishi FX5U-32MR/ES in the centre, Mean Well NDR-240 supplies on the left (two at 48 V, one at 24 V), Beijer X2 base along the bottom.

What was in the box

The original unit is a Max Refflinghaus PSS 150. Opened up, it is toroidal transformers, large electrolytics, ribbon cable, and a board of relay drivers. That hardware is what had become unreliable, and it is not something you can still buy as a spare.

An original PSS 150 on the bench, before the enclosure was stripped and rebuilt.

Same enclosure, current hardware

The rebuilt controller uses the same metal box and the same connectors, so it goes back on the machine without a new cable set.

A Mitsubishi FX5U-32MR/ES runs the machine. The operator screen is a Beijer X2 base 7, programmed in iX. Mean Well NDR-240 supplies, interface relays and new field wiring replace the original boards.

The screen follows the original block program: six blocks, with X1, X2, X3 and V on each row. Home, program, jog and alarms are on the same panel. Start, stop, reset and a status line take the place of the PSS 150 keypad.

X2 base on the machine, 31 July 2024. Status is Automatic Block 1.

The new controller is a big upgrade from the original interface.

The rest of the fleet

The first controller was proved on one machine. We have since built several more to the same design, and the customer’s Refflinghaus machines have all been moved across.

A failed controller no longer means hunting parts for a PSS 150. The enclosure, the connectors and the program layout stayed familiar. The electronics inside are current Mitsubishi and Beijer hardware, and the same build can be repeated for the next machine.