A mine in Australia is a deposit of very rich copper and zinc and has yielded significant amounts of gold since its opening in 1998. In order to overcome several environmental issues, the ore concentrate needed to be transported 70 km via several large slurry pipelines to the nearest rail link.

There, the ore would be extracted from the water, which is then pumped back to the mine’s site to be recycled. Because of the volumes of critical data generated at the de-watering plant and to ensure that environmental regulations were not breached, it was essential that the field data be continuously transferred to a central DCS system.
 
The mine is centrally operated using a Yokogawa DCS, while a distributed Allen-Bradley® control system handles control in the field. To integrate the Allen-Bradley controller into the Yokogawa DCS system, Modbus® was selected as the common communication protocol.
 
Because the Yokogawa DCS system lacked the ability to send the strings necessary to dial a telephone modem, an intermediate "sub-master" A-B system with a ProSoft Technology Modbus communication solution was added at the mine’s site. The communication solution had the added capability of initiating telephone modem dialing built into the product. The sub-master acts as a transparent link between the Yokogawa DCS and the remote A-B controller at the dewatering plant.
 
In the mine’s sub-master controller, Port 1 on the communication solution is configured as a Modbus Master port with dialing and is connected to a telephone modem. Port 2, configured as a Slave, is connected directly to the Yokogawa DCS. The mine’s processor initiates all Read and Write commands to the remote system at the site 70 km away through the dial-up modem. The Yokogawa DCS, acting as the Modbus Master, simply accesses the data out of the local communication module's memory. To provide additional robustness in the system, a watchdog function was added between the A-B controllers to ensure that the Yokogawa DCS would positively identify a communications failure.
 
Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Modbus solutions here.

The Application

In Chakan, Pune, India, a market-leading manufacturer of utility vehicles built a modern greenfield facility from the ground up with state-of-the-art equipment.

At the heart of the plant is the Electrified Monorail System (EMS) conveyor, designed to deliver reliable, safe, quiet, and efficient transportation of the vehicles from one work station to another along the assembly line. The EMS runs throughout the entire length of the Trim, Chassis and Final assembly (TCF) line of the vehicle in the general assembly shop. The light truck manufactured in this facility is transported by a wireless EMS conveyor. The TCF line is considered the final stage in production, where components are added to the vehicle, including “trim” components such as windshield glass and seats, and operational components such as the engine and wheels, before final vehicle testing.

Control and Communication Automation

For consulting, specifying and planning of this project, the manufacturer worked with Yantra Automation, one of the largest Rockwell Automation® distributors in India, in conjunction with their local Rockwell Automation account manager, and with the system integration company Precision Automation and Robotics India Limited (PARI). The team worked closely to develop the best overall solution for this sophisticated project.
  
This being a new system and a greenfield plant, they were not bound by constraints associated with some of the older monorail systems found in manufacturing plants. Thus, they were able to design a system that easily conformed to the goals of the project and the manufacturer’s commitment toward flexible and lean manufacturing. This entailed the following goals:

• To eliminate communication issues and concerns associated with rigid copper bus bars and brush collectors commonly used for communication with EMS carriers
• To optimize reliability and uptime of the EMS conveyor system
• To deliver real-time communication with Programmable Automation Controllers (PACs) and Input/Output (I/O) modules for enhanced conveyor control
• And ultimately, to achieve optimum response times for managing the EMS vehicle carriers

 
From Yantra Automation, Ajay Kulkarni and Manish Sahni began the challenge of designing a complex wireless communication system for the assembly manufacturing line - an ambitious goal in a large-scale project involving multiple carriers in continuous motion along the overhead Electric Monorail System. Together, the team selected a Rockwell Automation control solution supported by ProSoft Technology wireless Ethernet radios. The challenge: creating a seamless and reliable communication system between each carrier and the controller as they move throughout the plant.

Implementation

PARI was commissioned for the design and implementation of the specific assembly line. PARI is a turnkey integration company specializing in top-to-bottom conveyor system design, robotics, and controls and communication automation in the automotive industry in India.
  
PARI designed the full vehicle assembly line to operate in real time on the EtherNet/IP™ control network, using several Rockwell Automation ControlLogix® PACs and supporting peripherals on the shop floor, including I/O and Variable Frequency Drives. The decision to go with ProSoft Technology Industrial Hotspot radios was made primarily because of their industrial hardware and solid reputation for supporting Rockwell Automation controls and communication interfaces seamlessly, in addition to the ease of operation.
  
Movement of the EMS carriers for transporting vehicles through the different stages of assembly is handled over a wireless EtherNet/IP network. The control system consists of one ControlLogix PAC on the conveyor and one ControlLogix PAC on the engine decking system for body marriage. The conveyor PAC is hardwired to two ProSoft Technology master radios, while the engine decking PAC is hardwired to a third master radio. The conveyor PAC is wirelessly connected with 33 individual carriers along the EMS, while the engine decking PAC is connected wirelessly with 3 engine carriers. Each independent EMS carrier has a local control panel with Rockwell Automation I/O and a Variable Frequency Drive (VFD), and a ProSoft Technology access point acting as a repeater to establish wireless communication between the main control panel equipment and their respective PAC. The carrier radios communicate with each other, as well as with the master radios.
  
This EMS application is time-critical, so each repeater radio is connected with its parent master radio at all times to avoid switching delays as communications change from one master radio to another while the carriers are in motion. The master radio in each conveyor PAC has two Omni antennas with a splitter to deal with multipath fading effect. The architecture fully supports seamless roaming by the carriers.

Results

After some initial challenges with line-of-sight issues, which were resolved by adding another master radio and elevating their locations, the system is now able to provide real-time communication between the EMS carriers and the PACs on the assembly-plant floor, including real-time I/O status for conveyor movement control. The system also enables wireless synchronization between the floor-mounted engine trolleys and the overhead EMS carrier, for the smooth decking of the engine.
  
The flexible architecture permits independent operation of each vehicle carrier, enabling carriers to be programmed for different speeds based upon their location on the conveyor path. The conveyor speeds are seamlessly switched in the process zones, transit zones, straight and curve zones, manual speed zones, and slow-and-stop speed zones. Limit switches in the vertical elevators enable ramp-up and ramp-down velocities for elevation changes, ensuring the safety of the carriers on the line. Buffers in the conveyors can be adjusted based upon prevailing production pull systems.
  
By opting for this wireless network, the manufacturer was able to gain several benefits, including:

• The ability to control the EMS conveyor and the engine decking carrier in real time and synchronizing the VFDs with the engine decking carriers
• Elimination of complex wiring/cabling and cat tracks for communication cable
• Elimination of additional bus bars for communications with associated complex communications interfaces
• Seamless and robust communication between the PACs and the I/O
• Determinism with all the I/Os on each EMS carrier for better scan time management

What Happened Next

Since the project went live, the manufacturer has seen an increase in uptime, reliability and consistency in production output, enhancing their commitment toward lean manufacturing. 

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Wireless Solutions  here.

 
With a pumping station that is 25 stories tall, the Changi Water Reclamation Plant, located on the diamond-shaped island of Singapore

, is the cornerstone of the Singapore Deep Water Sewage System. This system is responsible for purifying wastewater for consumption throughout the City/State of Singapore. The NEWater plant, which went online last summer, produces 50 million gallons of treated water daily. That’s the equivalent of 90 Olympic –sized swimming pools.
 
"The designers have incorporated a space saving design concept - things like stack treatment tanks and also stack treatment facilities like our sludge treatment facilities. All the treatment facilities are stacked on top of the other so as to save space," said Yong Wei Hin, assistant director of Changi Water Reclamation Plant.
Such a concept is the first in the world.
 
This monumental project needed low maintenance costs, real-time communication, with remote diagnostics and needed to be integrated with an already existing asset management system. Due to mandatory connectivity requirements, it was decided to use PROFIBUS DP V1 as the protocol for communication. This complicated matters since both Schneider Electric and Rockwell Automation PLCs were both used in the plant.
 
Schneider Electric contacted ProSoft Technology to allow the PLCs to communicate with PROFIBUS DP. With the PROFIBUS integration via 160 ProSoft Technology PROFIBUS DP V1 Quantum modules, the plant’s overall system architecture now provides high-speed communication as well as power to devices over the bus, making it possible to have very large networks.
 
The addition of the PROFIBUS DP V1 module to ProSoft’s ProTalk line of Quantum modules has helped Schneider Electric open a new avenue of communication possibilities.
 
"Schneider Electric is very strong in the process industry and wanted to bring valuable solutions with PROFIBUS and FDT/DTM technology," said Ken Roslan, Strategic Marketing Manager for ProSoft Technology. "We were able to help them expedite time-to-market and get the customer acceptance and final buy-in."
 
The Changi Water Reclamation Plant is equipped with 160 ProSoft PROFIBUS DP V1 Master modules allowing constant communication with end devices. The mega-water treatment project has a long list of field devices in a wide-ranging PROFIBUS network including Magnetic Flow Meters, Thermal Mass Flow Meters, Pressure and Differential Pressure Level Transmitters, Radar/Ultrasonic Transmitters, Dissolved Oxygen Analyzers, Temperature Transmitters and Electric Actuators.
 
The PROFIBUS DP slave devices mainly came from vendors like SIEMENS (ET200M I/O’s), Yokogawa (Flow transmitter & Differential Pressure sensor), Vega (Ultra Sonic sensors, Level sensors, etc), ABB (VSD), Schneider Electric (VSD & DOL starters) and Siemens (VSD).
With Intelligent Field Device Management (FDT/DTM), ProSoft Technology as a third party has helped Schneider Electric to integrate PROFIBUS device level to its PLC.
 
The PTQ-PDPMV1 functions as a PROFIBUS DPV1 Master. Developed upon Quantum backplane transfer technology the protocol module sends information back and forth through the Quantum processor. It collects all the necessary information on the configured PROFIBUS DP network. Built on Siemens ASIC ASPC2 Step E with Infineon C165 Microprocessor, the module’s Firmware is flash-upgradeable, and allows for slave messaging, extended diagnostics and alarm handling, and notification, and more.
 
The Changi Water Reclamation Plant has been operating successfully since June 2009.

What would you say is one of the most important pieces of equipment in an automobile assembly line plant--something that is tied to nearly every function in the production of a new car? 

Give up? It’s easy: the air compressors. When a worker puts on a tire or attaches the new seats, they use a pneumatic tool. These tools are run by...you guessed it...air pressure. So, it goes without saying that the air compressors in an auto assembly line plant would be of primary importance. 
 

Central Control for the Compressors 

There are a total of 8 Atlas Copco compressors in the Shanghai plant of a major automotive manufacturer. Six of these compressors are the ZH model, which is a centrifugal type, having an Allen-Bradley® SLC™ 5/03 embedded in their control systems. The remaining two compressors are the Z-pack model, equipped with built-in Modbus® communications. This created a problem in networking the compressors together, since the Allen-Bradley SLCs are not Modbus-compatible. The system integrator, Shanghai Yuandong Science & Technology, contacted Rockwell Automation and ProSoft Technology. They installed ProSoft’s Modbus communication solution into the SLCs onboard the ZH compressors, which then allowed all of the compressors to link to the HMI Host Station via the DH485 network.
 

“Normally every Atlas Copco compressor would be controlled individually,” said Chen Zong Liang, General Manager of Shanghai Yuandong. “With individual control, we found that some compressors would load, unload, and even stop running simultaneously. This made compressor output very inconsistent and therefore unstable. By using ProSoft’s module, we were able to directly connect Allen-Bradley’s SLC with Atlas Copco’s compressors using the Modbus protocol. With central control, it was possible to stagger the actions (start, load, unload or stop) of every compressor according to the charge situation.”
 

“Enabling the compressors with central control was easy to implement and created a smooth-running operation,” said the ProSoft Regional Sales Manager who worked on the application. “Not only did it help increase production, it created a cost savings in terms of electricity and maintenance costs. All of this translates into higher profits.”
 

When asked how the ProSoft module improved the plant processes, i.e. functionality, speed, convenience, or financial benefits, Liang simply replied, “It just can’t work without it!”
 

Modbus Interface
 
 

“With these Modbus communication interfaces, manufacturers are making a great deal of data available to the processor that can enhance the system control,” said ProSoft founder Doug Sharratt at the time of the application. “The Modbus module, when configured as a Master, is able to read and write to these devices, allowing the SLC ladder program direct access to the device’s data.”
 

In the past, many communication systems were closed. Since the Modbus protocol is open it has become an industry standard for many industrial devices available today. 
 

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Modbus solutions here.

In a China city, 7 huge pumping stations went on line pumping wastewater to Pudong for final treatment before being discharged into the East China Sea. These pump stations are part of the 6th phase of the city’s wastewater treatment plan.

A SCADA system was installed as part of the new plan to control, collect, and monitor data from the 7 pump stations. The DNP protocol is used by the Master to communicate to all the stations, which include both Allen-Bradley® and General Electric equipment.

 Water management is a major issue in China. Sixty percent of China’s land mass and half of its population only receive 20 percent of the nation’s water resources. In addition to this uneven distribution, soil erosion, deforestation, land conversion, excessive water usage, drought and inefficient or non-existent wastewater management have caused China’s government to recognize the vital need to address these problems in order to maintain the nation’s development.

The Master station, using MITS’ MOSAIC data acquisition and control technology, communicates to both Allen-Bradley and General Electric hardware. Many water control systems are PC-based and require a high level of manual intervention, but the MITS system is highly automated. While monitoring the passage of water, automatic adjustments can be made to make the most efficient use of energy and pumping equipment and pinpoint problems in emergencies.

DNP Protocol Specified 
 Immediately following the installation of the central control system, Rockwell Automation® was contacted to bid on the installation of the SCADA system. In order to communicate with the end devices, the DNP protocol was specified.

Since both General Electric and Allen-Bradley equipment were used in the plant, a DNP interface was needed to allow them to communicate with all of the DNP compatible end devices. The local Rockwell Automation office touched base with the company’s Water Industry Solution Center in the United States and was advised to contact ProSoft Technology.

 “Since ProSoft’s DNP module has two communication ports. The end user was able to install a PLC-5® backup system as well as a redundant communication system,” said the ProSoft Regional Sales Manager who worked on the application.
 

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Water and Wastewater solutions here.

Picturesque gardens dot the city of Suzhou, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province.  Some of these gardens, known as the Classical Gardens of Suzhou, date back as far as the 11th century, and were designed by some of China’s renowned scholars.  Nearby, numerous canals crisscross the city that is known as the Venice of the East. 42 percent of the city is covered in water through its canals and waterways.

“Suzhou City is one of the most famous tourism cities in China,” said Gary Zhang Zhen Hua, ProSoft Technology China Sales & Technical Manager.

But while the area is likely one of the more picturesque in the world, thanks to its gardens and canals, it is also highly populated with more than 10 million people and is largely industrial. Like many cities in China, automobile congestion is a problem. The city needed to install its first subway system to help alleviate its traffic congestion.

After more than four years of construction, the Suzhou Metro Line I opened a while back. It encompasses 24 stations that connect the east side of the city to the west side over about 16 miles. The line extends from the Mudu station in the eastern portion of the city to Zhongnan Jie station in the west, near Suzhou Industrial Park. Metro Line I is the start of a larger subway system in Suzhou. (The city has now also constructed Metro Line II, which travels north and south.)

“The Metro Line I is the first Metro Line in Suzhou, which goes from west to east, connecting two economic development zones and the downtown,” Gary Zhang Zhen Hua said.

More than 150 ProSoft Technology Modbus® ‘C’ Programmable communication modules were installed in the Metro Line’s Building Automation System, which plays a vital role in the underground tunnels and stations that make up the subway. The modules allow Rockwell Automation® ControlLogix® and FLEX™ I/O systems to communicate with and gather data from ventilation systems and air conditioners, as well as monitor the overall environment inside the subway system.

Most people think of a train speeding down an underground tunnel when they think of a subway. A Building Automation System is likely the last thing that comes to mind, but without this critical piece, a subway would not be able to operate.

“The ProSoft Technology solution is a good one,” said Jianshui Gan, the Building Automation System engineer working on the Suzhou Metro Line I. “We chose ProSoft Technology’s product because they are the communication adapter between field devices and the ControlLogix controller.”

Hundreds of thousands of people per day, tourists and Suzhou residents alike, now use the Metro Line to get from one end of the city to the other and avoid automobile congestion.  The train rolls on – in part thanks to ProSoft Technology’s Modbus modules.

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s in-rack ‘C’ programmable modules for Rockwell Automation controllers here.

An average person turns on his TV set with the simple push of a remote, after turning on the light in the kitchen, and grabbing a cold sandwich from the refrigerator.  Most people don’t think of where the electricity powering their light bulb, refrigerator, or TV is coming from, or the processes involved in producing the electricity.

Ships dock continually each day at the Gwangyang Harbor adjacent to South Korea’s Hadong Power Plant, transferring tons and tons of coal. Bucket after bucket carrying tons of coal from each carrier ship’s cargo area is then transferred via a conveyor that leads to the coal testing and analysis process, which is a very important part of the power plant’s operation.

Rocks of bituminous coal are measured for quality, a determinant of whether it is good fuel or not. Coal quality determines whether it will burn effectively, therefore generating maximum electricity and reducing plant maintenance.  The fewer impurities in the coal, the better it burns in the boiler. Impurities include ash, phosphorous, sodium, sulfur, and more, which can also cause problems with the coal plant’s boiler system.

“This processing is very important. It works to capture coal samples before they are input into the boiler,” said Kyungkoo Cho, Deputy General Manager for distributor Ajin Systech. 

The Hadong Power Plant, operated by Korea Electric Power Company, produces 6 percent of South Korea’s electrical supply, making it a vital source of energy in the country that produces many of the world’s consumer electronics from companies such as LG and Samsung.

Construction of the plant began in 1993, with the first two coal units producing power. In subsequent years, six units have been added to the plant.

In 2009, power plant engineers faced a challenging decision. Should they lay more than 600 meters of costly fiber optic cable at the plant’s coal handling and testing area, or ditch the wire and use industrial hotspot radios? The solution was simple: Industrial wireless radios were surely the way to go in this aspect. Meters and meters of fiber optic cable would have been costly, and likely would have been time-consuming.

With wireless, there were concerns about signal strength around the plant. There had to be a good connection between each area of the wireless system. ProSoft Technology provided a cost-effective, strong signal solution for the Hadong Power Plant.

With ProSoft Technology’s Industrial Hotspots, the solution turned out to be an easy one for Ajin Systech, a South Korea distributor contacted by the power company.

“ProSoft Technology’s wireless technical solution is stronger than other radio makers in terms of long distance,” Cho said.

In the coal handling testing and analysis process, a ControlLogix® PLC is connected to a FLEX™ I/O system at remote coal handling stations, which are used for testing and analysis purposes. ProSoft radios are installed on the conveyor tower, which controls the buckets moving and discharging the coal and the Master ControlLogix.

Data is consistently and securely transferred between the radios. Plant engineers know at any minute whether the bucket and conveyor system transferring the coal that keeps the plant operational is moving smoothly, as ship after ship unloads valuable cargo. The coal is then input into the boilers, where the energy is converted into steam, passing through a turbine that generates the electricity that is added to the country’s power grid.

The person continues to watch the TV and eat his cold sandwich, as the compact fluorescent lamp above keeps the room bright. And it all started at a power plant somewhere, possibly with the unloading of coal from a bucket to a conveyor.

To learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Wireless Solutions, click  here.  

The largest offshore oil field in Malaysia, Angsi in the South China Sea, requires the fastest level of data communication so it can continue to produce 40,000 barrels of oil a day quickly, smoothly, and efficiently.

The Angsi Field consists of one central processing platform and 5 drilling platforms. It will provide fully integrated support for drilling up to 52 wells, with facilities including two gas compression trains, gas lift and dehydration, power generation, water injection, and a 16MW power generation plant.

So when the Angsi Field’s legacy GE Fanuc PLC system started showing its age, upgrading to a new Rockwell Automation® ControlLogix® EtherNet/IP™ system was a no-brainer. Forty thousand barrels of oil a day cannot be taken lightly.

INEAX (Integrated Network Electrical Automation Expertise) is an expert at oil control systems, and was approached about the application.

"The response from the GE Fanuc PLC was getting slower with intermittent faults, so it was decided that replacing the entire system would be the best solution," said Wee Keat Ng, INEAX’s Managing Director.

Everything but the protection relays would be upgraded, and it had to be done with minimal downtime.

The Problem
The protection relays ran on Modbus®, a non-native Rockwell Automation® protocol. Protection relays are used for protection of electrical load of motors, pumps and other devices, from overcorrect and overvoltage.

The Solution
ProSoft Technology's modules made it possible for the ControlLogix system to communicate to the protection relays as seamlessly as if they were both on the same identical network.

"Our system leverages the ProSoft Modbus module’s unique features to speed up overall communication between the protection relays and the ControlLogix system," Ng said, and specifically pointed out the module’s data prioritization features.

"This is done by splitting the polled data into critical data with continuous updates and non-critical data with on-demand updates," said Mr. KL Yew, INEAX Technical Director. “We would not have been able to do this without the features included in ProSoft Technology’s Modbus module.”

Ng added that INEAX is impressed with the level of features available in the ProSoft modules. “These features aren’t normally seen in other third-party solutions.”

With the ProSoft Technology Modbus module, INEAX was able to provide a better and faster solution for the Angsi platform.

"The decision to use ProSoft Technology modules was an easy one as we have worked with ProSoft modules for close to 15 years,” Ng said.

Because INEAX has upgraded similar solutions before, it was able to upgrade the Angsi system in record time within a tight downtime window.

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Modbus solutions here.

No matter where you live in the world, if you are near a city of any size you will see concrete. You see it in the sidewalks, foundations of everything from homes to massive skyscrapers and sometimes entire buildings.

Portland cement is the basic ingredient of concrete and making cement is the specialty of a major India company.

Cement is manufactured using a closely controlled chemical combination of calcium, silicon, aluminum, iron, and other ingredients such as fly ash. Fly ash is a by-product of a coal-fired power plant that is used to supplement cement production. That is why some cement plants, like the end user’s, have a coal power plant nearby to have their own source of fly ash while helping supplement the power grid.

The end user’s plant in western India needed a cost-effective way to link its SCADA system with a coal power plant approximately 30 kilometers away.

“The application demanded high bandwidth due to the distance,” said Aarti Shinde, an engineer with Sheetal Wireless, the system integrator. “We’ve been using ProSoft Technology’s 802.11 a, b and g radios for many applications, so we knew they were reliable.”

They just needed to get the antennas high enough to establish a good line-of-sight connection to traverse the 30 kilometers. They elected to mount the antennas on the existing silos, or cement storage containers. It was perfect.

A total of four ProSoft radios were installed.

ProSoft’s technical support service was also a reason why Sheetal Wireless was pleased with the radios.

“They have always been informative with a quick response whenever it’s required,” Shinde said.

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Wireless Solutions here. 

By Lauren Robeson

ProSoft Technology’s AN-X2-AB-DHRIO Migration Gateway is something of a superstar. We’re not just saying that: The gateway serves many functions in helping users opt for a Phased Migration approach when updating the extensive installed base of legacy Allen-Bradley® control systems, from PLCs, PanelViews and Drives to FLEX™ I/O adapters.

But even we hear about new uses for it from time to time. An India-based manufacturer needed a new way to monitor the manufacturing process of its communication cables, and sought help on finding a solution from Concord Technologies of India.

The company wanted to create a data visualization, analysis, and reporting portal, but it needed to gather process data from 16 PLC-5® controllers spread across 3 areas to a ControlLogix® PLC to do so. The ControlLogix controller used the EtherNet/IP™ protocol, creating a communications issue with the legacy PLC-5 systems, which utilized DH+™.

That’s where ProSoft Technology’s Migration Gateway came into the picture. The Migration Gateway has been enhanced a few times with new capabilities since its initial arrival on the market, and a few months before this project, support for the DH+ protocol was added to the gateway. This meant that the gateway could be used to connect the PLC-5 and ControlLogix controllers.

Due to the distributed nature of the PLC-5 controllers, three gateways were used to connect each DH+ network to the EtherNet/IP network. This setup helped the company meet its needs: scrap reduction, quality improvement, proactive decision-making, and a reduction in manual activities. The information passed through the gateways into the ControlLogix helped the customer realize benefits from the Industrial Internet of Things: By connecting the components involved in the production of the fiber optic cables, they were able to identify and troubleshoot inefficiencies and redundancies in the process, optimizing their resources and improving the overall production process.

Beyond extending the company’s Connected Enterprise, the gateways met more technical requirements as well.

“This solution has helped gather data at the required speed, without much change in the existing PLC hardware and software,” said Concord Technologies Manager Sameer Ambegaonkar, who also praised the gateways’ quick installation.

For more information about ProSoft Technology’s Migration Gateway, go to http://psft.com/BQU.

Par Lauren Robeson

L’aciérie Durgapur à Durgapur en Inde, est depuis longtemps la principale industrie de la ville. L’usine – qui est dirigée depuis les années 50 par la SAIL (Steel Authority of India Limited), la plus grande entreprise sidérurgique du pays – est une source importante d’emploi pour les habitants Durgapur depuis des dizaines d’années et s’est modernisée à de nombreuses reprises. Il y a quelques années, une refonte majeure des systèmes de communication de l’usine traitant les matières premières a été lancée.

A l’époque, des liaisons filaires étaient utilisées dans les 4 empileurs récupérateurs pour les communications entre les cabines de l'opérateur et les salles de contrôle contenant les API. Dans cette configuration, il était difficile de diagnostiquer le lieu des dégradations ou de pannes. En effet, il n'y avait pas de moyens de communication disponibles entre les empileurs récupérateurs, la salle de contrôle centrale, et les répartiteurs dispersés sur le site. Cela signifie que les pannes étaient signalées par des talkies-walkies, après quoi l’équipe de maintenance devait se rendre physiquement à l'endroit où la défaillance avait eu lieu…

Il était clair qu’un changement devenait nécessaire. Mais en raison de la topographie de l’usine – les machines sont mobiles et largement distribuées – une solution classique filaire ne pouvait pas être utilisée. Cela impliquait qu’aucun diagnostic en ligne n’était possible depuis la salle de contrôle, la résolution des défauts prenait donc un temps important. Tout ce travail supplémentaire à chaque nouvelle panne était à la fois fastidieux et coûteux pour l’entreprise. D’autres difficultés comme la rupture régulière des câbles de commande ainsi qu’une IHM obsolète ne permettaient pas une maintenance efficace.

Les 4 empileurs récupérateurs sont équipés d’automates Siemens® S7-300, avec un S7-400 placé dans la salle de contrôle. Sheetal Wireless, un distributeur spécialisé dans le sans-fil industriel, a décidé d’utiliser les points d’accès industriels 802.11g de ProSoft Technology: un module placé dans chaque empileur récupérateur, un dans la salle de contrôle ainsi que 2 répéteurs pour garantir une ligne de vue dégagée. Les signaux numériques et analogiques des E/S sont échangés entre les empileurs récupérateurs et la salle de contrôle. Le switch positionné dans la salle de contrôle permet de récupérer les données des API opérationnels et d’accéder directement aux statuts de ces derniers. Les radios sont connectées grâce à un réseau Wi-Fi via lequel les programmes automates peuvent êtres uploadés/téléchargés directement via un ordinateur portable, permettant ainsi de faire du diagnostic en ligne. Cela a permis d’optimiser considérablement la maintenance et le dépannage des automates depuis n’importe quel endroit du site. Le transfert des données est réalisé en moins de quelques millisecondes.

“Ce réseau de communication nous a permis de minimiser les temps d’arrêt,” déclare M. Partha Das responsable des opérations à l’aciérie de Durgapur. “Désormais nous sommes capable de diagnostiquer à distance des problèmes, et nous avons également remarqué une amélioration du taux de disponibilité des machines.”

“La technologie déployée a un potentiel immense pour tous les équipements mobiles à l’image de nos empileurs récupérateurs,” explique Anup Prasad, Responsable adjoint du centre de Recherche et Développement pour l’Acier et les Métaux pour la SAIL à Ranchi. “Ce nouveau système a significativement réduit les temps de panne sur nos empileurs récupérateurs, améliorant ainsi nettement la disponibilité des machines liées au processus de transformation des différentes matières premières."

Le système installé a même inspiré les exploitants de la centrale sur d’autres applications : L’architecture mis en place peut être utilisée sur les systèmes de contrôle distribués (DCS) qui rencontre les mêmes problématiques de communication; l’architecture est donc à l’étude sur d’autre site contrôlé par la SAIL. En effet, les possibilités offertes par l'utilisation d’un tel système de contrôle centralisé et de surveillance dans les hauts fourneaux des usines d'acier, pourrait diminuer le risque de fuites de gaz non détectées.

Avec les progrès amenés par cette technologie, l’aciérie de Durgapur peut espérer prolonger sa réussite de production d’acier connectée pour les soixante prochaines années.  

Pour plus d’informations au sujet des solutions de sans-fil industriel de ProSoft Technology, rendez-vous sur : http://psft.com/B0M

now has a whole new meaning…

This car is so good, it’s not allowed to enter Australian car shows anymore.

Lowered with bright purple paint on the outside and a bright red interior, you can tell this isn’t the semi-ordinary 1986 Ford XF Falcon it once was. It’s a muscle car in every sense of the term, and then some. In just one car show “The Psycho” won Top Paint, Top Undercarriage, Top Engine Bay, Top Interior, Top Coupe, Top Five, Top Street Machine, and Australia’s Coolest Ride. It is considered the Top Show Car in Australia today.

But how many muscle cars do you know of that have industrial automation power?

Not many.

Underneath the hood of this baby isn’t just a powerful engine, but a PLC talking to different components of the car via a ProSoft Technology industrial radio.  

PLCs come to mind when talking about automobiles moving down large-scale automotive assembly lines that piece each part of the car together from start to finish. Controlling functions on the car itself is a different story. Since when does a PLC do that?

Since Greg Maskell in Australia integrated them in one of his custom cars. That’s when.  

The phrase “remote controlled car” now has a whole new meaning. Yes, we all have seen cars with the standard remote-start function these days. But remote controlling virtually every other function of the car, from the hood to the trunk and suspension? That’s where a PLC and a Prosoft Technology industrial wireless hotspot come in.

Maskell produces about two to three custom cars a year. “This is the first [PLC] that we have used in a car,” Maskell said.

What would have taken 18 toggle switches to remotely control functions of the car can be done with a few pieces of industrial automation equipment. How’s that for taking home all the car show trophies?

Maskell, of Maskell’s Customs & Classics in Australia, asked Gary Lomer to build a system for a custom car based on his industrial automation knowledge. 

“I used my industrial background to select components that were proven with solid and reliable software and hardware,” Lomer said. 

In this particular car, high-tension coil packs of the ignition are under the dash, as is a Rockwell Automation® MicroLogix™ PLC and a ProSoft Technology Industrial Hotspot.

Each is connected to a PanelView™ Plus through a Hirschmann switch. The HMI functions as the car’s touchscreen. 

Maskell links the car to a PanelView 1000 with two ProSoft Technology radios and can operate the whole car from the remote touch screen. Hood, or bonnet, up, sure. Boot, or trunk, up, no problem. Radio on, sure. Suspension up or down, you got it.

Maskell said they are very happy with the performance of the equipment in the car.

“[The PLC] controls all the electrical systems including start up, shut down, fuel pump, thermo fans, water pump, windscreen wipers, windows, and the radio,” he said.

In addition, the car features a suspension system that can be adjusted through air pressure controlled via the ProSoft hotspot. Also, the car’s doors, bonnet, and boot are controlled via electric actuators through the ProSoft system.

Maskell plans on using the PLC/ProSoft industrial wireless car control system more often when a customer decides they want to control their car remotely, he said.

The Psycho took 10,000 man-hours to build. Its owners are from Hobart, Tasmania, on the southern tip of Australia.

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Industrial Wireless Solutions here.

No matter which direction you look in Gainesville, Texas, you see the same thing: rolling hills, grassy prairie dotted with cattle, and oil wells. The city is located in Cooke County, just 70 miles north of Dallas, where 82 percent of the county’s income comes from cattle. This makes it an environmentally sensitive area for oil companies.

A while back, an oil field there began experiencing interference in its 150 MHz licensed-frequency radio network. The end user contacted Jeff Walters of Automation Alternatives in Weatherford, Texas, to see if he could diagnose the problem. Using a spectrum analyzer, Walters quickly found that the radios were experiencing elevated noise zones from power-grid interference, which caused the system to overload and shut down spontaneously.

“The radios were simply unable to differentiate between their own network traffic and the interfering radio signals around it,” Walters said.

There were other concerns facing Walters in his search for an upgraded system. Since the field was located in an environmentally sensitive area, it needed to be monitored 24 hours a day. Should there be an alarm condition, the SCADA system needed the capability to automatically shut down all or parts of the field.

Walters’ solution incorporated an interesting and effective blend of technology. Both Schneider Electric® and Rockwell Automation® PLCs receive analog and discrete data from the field. The data is then transmitted wirelessly using 22 ProSoft Technology serial radios. Since the radio network is inherently able to accommodate multiple protocols simultaneously, transmitting both Modbus and DF1 protocols presents no problem.

National Instruments Lookout was chosen as the SCADA system, allowing facilities to be polled every five minutes. Tank levels, line pressures, LACT readings, and a variety of discrete alarms trigger call-outs 24 hours a day. Because much of the oil field has trees and deep creek beds, chloride sensors are also monitored for possible spills.

“The new wireless system has eliminated a number of expenses for the end user,” said the ProSoft Regional Sales Manager who worked on the application. “Our radios are 2.4 GHz license-free, which saves the expense associated with licensed radios. The wireless system also allows an operator to monitor the field 24 hours a day from a central location, saving on employee overtime.”

ProSoft Technology’s 2.4 GHz radios experience no interference or downtime, making this wireless solution very reliable. As the oil field’s radio network grows, more radios can easily be added to the network and can continue to accommodate multiple protocols. 

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Wireless Solutions here.