Par Lauren Robeson

Quatre stations de traitement des eaux sont implantées dans la zone milanaise, au nord de l’Italie. Novus s.r.l., une entreprise spécialisée dans la technologie du traitement des eaux et un centre de services pour un fabricant canadien de système à rayons UV, cherchait à superviser le contrôle des capteurs des stations depuis ses propres bureaux, où les spécialistes du système sont constamment présents et prêts à apporter leur assistance à n’importe quel client à travers le monde. 

Ce fabricant est un leader sur le marché des systèmes de traitement des eaux à rayons UV souhaitant fournir à ses clients une assistance technique de premier ordre. L’entreprise savait qu'une supervision continue de ses stations permettrait de réaliser des économies en termes de consommation énergétique, car les spécialistes de Novus pourraient vérifier les paramètres de fonctionnement et ajuster la configuration du système dans les stations en temps réel.

Novus désirait explorer plusieurs options afin de mettre en place un système de contrôle centralisé et ainsi fournir une assistance à ses clients dans le cadre de leurs opérations quotidiennes et de la résolution des incidents. Cela contribuerait également à réduire les frais de déplacement.

E.S.A Engineering, un système intégrateur basé en Italie, a proposé d'utiliser la passerelle cellulaire industrielle ICX35 de ProSoft Technology, qui communique avec un système FactoryTalk® View SE SCADA. En plus de permettre à l’entreprise de contrôler les stations à tout moment, la passerelle, compatible avec la technologie 4G LTE et dotée d’une « solution de repli » vers la 3G, assure des débits de données à haute vitesse, des communications claires et donc la pérennité de l’application.

Grâce à la passerelle, les spécialistes de Novus peuvent analyser en temps réel les paramètres de fonctionnement de chaque système en tenant compte de l’état actuel de l’eau et proposer ainsi les réglages adéquats aux opérateurs et aux techniciens de maintenance. Cela réduirait ainsi la consommation électrique tout en répondant aux exigences en matière de désinfection.

Salvatore Perrucci, E.S.A Engineering Technical and Sales Engineer, connaissait déjà la qualité et l’assistance technique des solutions ProSoft Technology. « Cela fait plus de 15 ans que les produits ProSoft répondent à nos attentes. Ils sont très faciles d’utilisation grâce aux excellents modes d’emploi fournis », affirme M. Perrucci.

Au-delà des bénéfices que les communications 4G apportent, Novus a apprécié les communications optimisées entre le système SCADA et les appareils de contrôle des stations grâce aux connexions Ethernet pour la couche 2 du modèle OSI. L’entreprise a également affectionné le contrôle en temps réel pour les diagnostics, ainsi que l'optimisation de la maintenance.

Bien que Novus ait choisi d’utiliser une liaison VPN pour son application, la passerelle cellulaire industrielle s'utilise également à distance en toute sécurité via ProSoft Connect, une plate-forme basée sur le cloud.

Avec cette nouvelle configuration, Novus peut proposer à ses clients un contrôle du système à distance et répondre de façon exacte à une IHM sur le terrain afin de partager des données avec les techniciens de maintenance en temps réel.

Enfin, au terme de l’installation, un avantage supplémentaire a été noté: le serveur, via le modem connecté à l’API, a permis à un spécialiste basé au Canada de travailler sur l’API, comme s'il se trouvait sur son bureau.

Pour savoir plus sur la passerelle cellulaire industrielle de ProSoft Technology cliquez ici.

Par Lauren Robeson

Chez BMTI GmbH, les machines et les véhicules de construction sont constamment en mouvement. L’entreprise suisse est un fournisseur de services techniques appartenant au groupe STRABAG, une société dans le domaine du bâtiment.

Dans la construction comme dans beaucoup d’autres secteurs, le temps c’est de l’argent. Dans les installations de BMTI, une personne devait constamment rester à l’entrée pour permettre aux conducteurs des camions d’accéder à la propriété après contrôle. Cette tâche était essentielle mais mobilisait inutilement et continuellement une des ressources de l’entreprise.

C’est pourquoi les responsables de BMTI décidèrent d’entrer en contact avec Patrick Müller, responsable des ventes chez le distributeur de solutions industrielles Staveb AG. Ce dernier leur proposa d’installer un système d’E/S sans fil de ProSoft Technology.

« Le système d’E/S sans fil a permis à notre client d’éviter d’avoir à creuser des tranchées pour installer des câbles, ce qui représente un avantage considérable étant donné les 150 mètres de distance qui séparent le portail des bureaux, » déclare Mr Müller.

La solution sans fil de ProSoft Technology a donc été installée très rapidement. Les équipes de BMTI ont fortement apprécié le fait qu’aucune connaissance en réseaux sans fil préalable n’était nécessaire et que le système ne requière aucune maintenance. Pour les conducteurs de camions, c’est également un gain de temps : ils n’ont plus qu’à presser un bouton pour faire effectuer les contrôles au niveau du portail et accéder aux installations.

Pour de plus amples informations sur les systèmes d’E/S sans fil de ProSoft Technology, clickez ici.

By Lauren Robeson

When your food or beverage products are made in – or go through – a variety of machines in a processing or bottling facility, a top priority for their manufacturers is cleanliness. In this day and age, automated cleaning systems just make sense.

Cleaning in Place (or CIP) systems provide a perfectly regulated way to keep every piece of equipment clean. These systems essentially allow users to clean machinery and pipes without having to dismantle a whole system. By coordinating with the production PLCs in a facility, a CIP system is able to schedule, perform, and complete the cleaning operation. The coordination of these separate systems is critical to assure that production cannot resume until the entire cleaning cycle is complete. The communication is used as a handshake between the production PLC and the CIP PLC so that both systems know when cleaning starts; when it ends; and when product can safely be put back into the devices.

MAGMA SAP of Poland manufactures CIP stations for a variety of beverage manufacturers.

“Fifty years ago, you would have had a guy with a garden hose washing down the equipment,” said Maciej Alksnin, MAGMA CEO. “With our system, it is both hygienic and completely automated.” 

MAGMA builds four to six stations per year. Their stations are constructed and controlled in accordance with Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) standards, which analyze and control hazards involved with material production and distribution. MAGMA’s CIP stations are set up to supervise the temperature and concentration of the closed-loop washing solution; the timing of the cleaning process’ steps; the configuration of the circuit connections throughout the system; and the flow inside the equipment being cleaned. The cleaning solution’s setup is protected with a password, and the solution’s parameters can be set up individually, making it easier to customize your setup or make adjustments as needed. The cleaning stations are equipped with a controller that communicates with an HMI, which is used by the operator on each cleaning cycle, which is used to archive data that is set by the controller.

For a recent CIP station done for a bottled mineral water manufacturer, a Rockwell Automation® CompactLogix™ was used. Siemens® systems are widely used in the food and beverage industry in Poland, so you can see where there would be a communication issue. That’s where ProSoft Technology helped.

“MAGMA wanted a partner that was reliable and would work with them through the process,” said Krzysztof Hajzyk, Regional Sales Manager for ProSoft Technology. “They have a good relationship with their Rockwell Automation distributor and ProSoft Technology had provided on-site support with their first few applications. They have worked with Allen-Bradley® controllers containing ProSoft in-chassis PROFIBUS cards in several other applications and had success.” 

MAGMA has also used ProSoft products for other applications, including pigging systems in food processing projects. 

ProSoft’s in-rack PROFIBUS solutions allowed the CompactLogix to communicate with the Siemens equipment used throughout the facility. The module enabled the controller to exchange data with the facility’s existing PLCs and measuring equipment, which tracks flow, temperature, pressure, and level, ensuring that any issues are communicated quickly. Without ProSoft’s PROFIBUS modules, it would have been far more costly and complicated to communicate with the existing production line and coordinate data transfers involving the statuses of equipment such as tanks, pipes, and valves. 

Without ProSoft’s PROFIBUS modules, an alternative would have been the addition of extra I/O, which would have been more expensive and taken more time to implement. The new setup also allowed for direct access to data in other processors’ memory, allowing for ease of use when it came to monitoring the system. In addition, having one network for all equipment and data exchanges helped simplify the operation: With the process machines connected to each other, connecting to one allowed access to the rest. 

These improvements allowed MAGMA and the end user to focus on the most important part of the process: keeping the mineral water clean. 

For more information about ProSoft Technology’s PROFIBUS modules and gateways, visit http://psft.com/BJ0. 

By Lauren Robeson

Many people use something that’s aluminum-based fairly often. Whether you’re drinking a canned beverage or covering a dish, chances are you’re not thinking of how the material came to be produced. 

The process of aluminum production is a long and potentially hazardous one if precautions are not in place. Clauser Dunkerque, a company based in France, knows the challenges involved and the precision required, and set about to strengthen communications in the aluminum production process for a supplier in the Middle East. 

Clauser Dunkerque primarily manufactures high-current conductors and special machinery for use in aluminum production. In this case, it was manufacturing an earthing trolley for the company, and it needed to ensure strong, clear communications. The device is used in a facility filled with potlines. These reduction pots hold extracted aluminum, and are electrically connected in a series. Once in the pots, the aluminum melts down and is divided. A potline can feature 1,000 or more pots in some cases, with high current to match. 

With such a high-current application, it’s important to ensure that any potential leaky current is taken care of as soon as possible. A leakage can be caused by a variety of factors, including an insulation fault or humidity. In the best-case scenario, a leak left unfixed causes energy loss – and potentially losses in productivity and profit. Worst-case scenario, this can be hazardous to workers and cost a lot of money – if one flash occurs due to an unexpectedly high current, it could kill the substation, costing the company 100 million to 200 million euros. 

So clear communications are a must in this type of facility. But they can be tricky: Running wires or cables from inside the potline to an outside environment wasn’t possible in this operation. And even some wireless radios could face an issue if used in the facility thanks to interference caused by electrical noise. Previously, the communications were hard wired to FLEX™ I/O and had to be connected and unconnected every time the trolley was moved. That led to maintenance issues, with connectors being damaged, and did not allow for monitoring of the current. 

That’s where ProSoft Technology came in.

“We already had a business relationship with ProSoft Technology,” said Clauser Dunkerque Project Manager Fréderic Vervelle, who had worked with Feby Mohammed and Aurélien Fabre of ProSoft’s EMEA office in the past. “We also liked that local support was available.” 

ProSoft Technology’s Weatherproof and Industrial Hotspot radios were used with MIMO antennas in conjunction with a Rockwell Automation® ControlLogix® system. The Weatherproof radios are perfect for this rugged application, and the 802.11n MIMO and channel bonding allows for high-resolution video monitoring while the I/O is being controlled – ideal for this application, where real-time information is crucial. The Industrial Hotspots offer Ultra-Fast access point switchover times of less than 10 ms, which came in handy as the earthing trolley connected to the closest repeater. Two master radios connected on different channels to avoid interference and ensure redundancy between the repeaters.

“Our on-site tests went well. We especially liked that the system was flexible with reduced configuration – it took just half a day to configure the radio system, and less than a week for the full deployment of the application,” Mr. Vervelle said. “We also like that ProSoft’s solution was approved by the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority – if it hadn’t been, we would have had declaration fees and a bandwidth-based payment.”

Now this reliable communications network helps ensure safe division and processing of aluminum.

Find out more about ProSoft Technology’s Industrial Wireless Solutions at http://psft.com/BU5.

Par Lauren Robeson

Antonio Zamperla SPA, l’un des plus gros fabricants au monde d’attractions et de manèges, offre la possibilité aux personnes de tous âges, des plus téméraires aux moins courageux, de s’amuser!

Même pour les plus courageux, le manège Disk’O est un défi à relever: il fait tourner ses occupants qui se tiennent debout et se balance sur une piste de 100 mètres atteignant jusqu’à 70km/h. Le sentiment d’apesanteur que ressentent alors les passagers amplifie les sensations du manège. C’est aujourd’hui une attraction phare pour bon nombre de visiteurs, ce qui montre à quel point la société Zamperla a su innover artistiquement et mécaniquement. Par conséquent, c’est un manège sur lequel il est indispensable d’avoir le plus de sécurité embarquée possible!

Il y a 3 ans à Altavilla Vicentina, Italy, Zamperla a mené des essais pour rendre Disk’O encore plus sûr. Jusque-là, un API couplé à des E/S sans Safety accompagné d’un système sans-fil Bluetooth standard basé sur des antennes omnidirectionnelles était utilisé. Pour modifier cette architecture, Zamperla a étudié plusieurs solutions, et c’est finalement  un CompactLogix™ L43S de Rockwell Automation® qui a été installé. Cette solution comprend l’implémentation de point d’accès industriel ProSoft Technology  pour de la communication E/S Safety, ainsi qu’une alimentation et un drive PowerFlex™ 7S sur la partie distante de l’installation.

Afin de garantir une communication efficace, Michele Piccoli et Davide Gasparini de Rockwell Automation ont recommandé l’ajout de modules radio ProSoft Technology. 

“Grâce à la solution sans-fil de ProSoft Technology, nous avons pu proposer une solution globale à Zamperla” a déclaré M. Piccoli. “Nous avons travaillé conjointement de façon très simple pour évaluer, tester, réaliser et mettre en place la solution.”

Andrea Mazzucchelli, responsable commercial régional chez ProSoft Technology a œuvré afin de mettre en place une solution qui permettrait d’assurer la sécurité des attractions Disk’O.

Le principal objectif de ce nouveau système de communication était de remplacer les communications Bluetooth, et d’y ajouter des E/S distribuées sécurisées via un POINT I/O™ Safety.  Le POINT I/O™ Safety a été embarqué au manège pour gérer les ceintures de sécurité et les portes de ce dernier. Les radios ProSoft Technology ont permis d’augmenter la fiabilité et le débit des données échangées pour une conduite souple et sans danger du manège. Quand la sécurité est une priorité absolue et qu’un équipement se déplace aussi vite que le Disk'O, il est indispensable d’avoir des connexions extrêmement fiables.

“Les points d’accès industriels ProSoft Technology ont permis d’améliorer les performances du système en terme de communication » explique Fabio Berti, chef de projet pour Zamperla. Les radios permettent d’obtenir un débit théorique de 300 Mbps, offrant ainsi d'excellentes performances de transmission de paquets par seconde. Le fabricant a également apprécié le fait de pouvoir contrôler les performances et le statut des radios via un IHM grâce aux tags de diagnostic. De plus, la simplicité d’utilisation a très rapidement convaincu Zamperla de choisir les radios ProSoft Technology pour compléter l’architecture Rockwell Automation.

“L’objectif final était d’améliorer les performances et la sécurité de ce manège,” a déclaré M. Berti. “Grâce à la solution sans-fil proposée par ProSoft Technology, il a été possible d’utiliser des E/S Safety et d’améliorer la vitesse de transmission des échanges, ce qui répond parfaitement aux exigences de Zamperla.”

L’autre valeur ajoutée est l’implication et la réactivité du support technique de ProSoft Technology. Leur expertise ainsi que les nombreux bureaux permettent une assistance à tout moment de la journée.

“Nous sommes fiers d’avoir permis à Zamperla d’installer nos solutions sans-fil qui s’adaptent parfaitement à l’environnement requis pour Disk’O,” explique M. Mazzucchelli.

Pour plus d’informations sur les solutions sans-fil industrielles proposées par ProSoft Technology, visitez http://psft.com/BJK.

Pour plus d’informations sur la société Zamperla S.p.A, visitez www.zamperla.com.

Par Lauren Robeson

mySCADA Technologies est un fabricant d'équipement d'origine basé à Prague et spécialisé dans l’automatisme industriel depuis plus de 15 ans. Le domaine d’expertise de l’entreprise se trouve plus particulièrement au niveau du développement et de la réalisation de systèmes SCADA et d’IHMs. Leurs produits et solutions de visualisation de process permettent d’optimiser et de réguler de façon optimale des process d’automatisme. mySCADA propose des solutions aussi bien pour des petit projets (comme de la GTB/GTC ou encore des usines de traitement des eaux) que pour des projets plus importants (tels que la gestion de tunnels ou la régulation d’une centrale électrique). 

Un jour, ils eurent une idée: pourquoi ne pas essayer d’intégrer complètement une IHM et un SCADA directement dans un API ? Les avantages d’une telle innovation sont nombreux : facilité d’installation; diminution de la quantité d’équipements nécessaires et donc réduction des coûts; sécurité accrue et enfin performances optimisées. 

mySCADA Technologies decided to opt for a solution utilizing a Rockwell Automation® CompactLogix™ controller and ProSoft Technology’s Linux Development Module, which fits right into the CompactLogix. The Linux Development Module allows the user to create a fully customizable program in C or C++, and is also available for use in a ControlLogix® system. This solution allowed for an especially robust HMI/SCADA system, company representatives said.

Sans cette innovation, le client final aurait dû installer un système SCADA sur un serveur distant et le connecter à l’API via une interface Ethernet. Par ailleurs, une architecture de ce type nécessite une maintenance régulière, ce qui augmente le coût global de la solution.

La solution novatrice proposée par mySCADA Technologies est basée sur une interface web professionnelle pour la visualisation, le traitement et l’analyse en temps réel des process industriels.

L’entreprise a opté pour une solution utilisant un API CompactLogix™ de  Rockwell Automation® et le module de développement en C sous environnement Linux de ProSoft Technology, qui s’intègre dans le rack du CompactLogix (disponible également pour système ControlLogix®). Le module de développement en C permet à l’utilisateur de créer un programme en C ou C++ entièrement personnalisable. « Cette solution a été privilégiée car elle permet d’obtenir une architecture HMI/SCADA très robuste », ont déclaré des représentants de mySCADA.

“Nous travaillons avec les produits ProSoft Technology depuis plus de 10 ans,” Petr Svoboda, Directeur de mySCADA Technologies. “ProSoft a toujours été digne de confiance et a répondu à nos attentes, c’est pourquoi leur module a été notre premier choix pour ce nouveau software.”

Cette combinaison de hardware et software a créé “la combinaison parfaite pour l’utilisateur final” selon Matej Cerny, Directeur Technique chez mySCADA Technologies.

“La possibilité d’avoir un SCADA complètement intégré dans l’automate apporte beaucoup de fonctionnalités supplémentaires au client final,” a ajouté M. Cerny. En effet, cette solution présente les avantages suivants:

• L’installation peut se faire via les différents navigateurs Web existants, et permet l’affichage des visualisations sur n’importe quel appareil Windows, Linux, iOS, ou Android. Le système est également optimisé pour zoomer/dézoomer de manière très intuitive lorsqu’il est utilisé sur tablette. Enfin, il peut être accessible n’importe quand et depuis presque n’importe quel lieu.

• Un système d’alarmes complexe permet de générer des milliers d'alarmes en une seconde. L’utilisateur peut configurer les valeurs et seuils de déclenchement des alarmes.

• Les fonctions graphiques (comme des affichages, des animations ou des effets) sont facilement accessibles sans codage.

• Le système peut être contrôlé très facilement par le client final. Il y a neuf niveaux d’accès différents ce qui permet de gérer et de personnaliser l’accès aux données. De plus, plusieurs utilisateurs peuvent accéder simultanément aux données.

• Les données et les tendances sont enregistrées directement dans le CompactLogix, tandis qu'un outil intuitif gratuit pour le reporting peut être utilisé sur plusieurs plateformes. Les rapports peuvent être envoyés suivant un calendrier défini par l'utilisateur en fonction de ses besoins.

• L’installation du logiciel se fait via un script (ce qui représente un gain de temps certain pour l’utilisateur).

Le temps de maintenance corrective est considérablement réduit dans le cas d’une panne puisque les données peuvent être collectées et transférées à un second module. La maintenance au niveau IT n’est pas nécessaire car ce système est libre de patches, de mises à jour ou d’antivirus (à la différence d’une solution basée sur PC).

“Le module ProSoft Technology a un temps moyen entre pannes («MTBF») bien plus important qu’une solution PC classique ce qui rend l’installation encore plus fiable,” Krzysztof Hajzyk, Responsable Commercial Régional chez ProSoft Technology.

Grâce à ce module de développement en C, mySCADA Technologies a pu concrétiser son innovation technologique. La solution crée par cette société a permis aux utilisateurs d’en finir avec les maintenances à répétition et de se concentrer sur ce qui est réellement important : visualiser les données en temps réel.

Pour plus d’informations sur les modules de développement en C dans un environnement Linux, rendez-vous sur http://psft.com/BKV.

Pour plus d’informations sur la façon dont le module a été utilisé par mySCADA Technologies, visitez http://myscadatechnologies.com/prosoft/

Blades on a large heavy metal circular ball spin at a high rate of motion against hard, metamorphic rocks, causing crushed rock, dirt and, possibly, dangerous levels of invisible methane gas to form. Pressure and speed are adjusted by the person controlling the machine with joysticks and buttons, but this isn’t your next-generation gaming console.

This is reality 200 feet below ground in a coal mine. The machine: a roadheader.

The roadheader is equipped with tools that grab the rocks and place them on a conveyor before they are sent out of the mine for processing, before ultimately being burned to produce electricity, cement, or even steel.   

Although the cliché “safety first” is said in just about every work environment, it has to be the standard in coal mining, where people are hundreds of feet below ground in a hazardous environment.

KFG Electric Systems in Poland knows this. KFG engineered and installed a modern underground coal mining control system in Poland that could be used anywhere in Europe with the latest safety features for many of the major mining companies, including protection against methane.

Methane is a big concern for coal miners as it releases naturally during coal extraction. For years, canaries were used in mines to detect high methane levels.  They could not survive in slightly lower than dangerous methane levels for humans. When the bird stopped chirping, miners knew to flee.  For at least four decades, thanks to modern detectors worn by every miner, methane is detected without killing birds.

The controls enclosure that is on the backside of the  roadheader measures 1,700 x 700 x 600 mm with a weight of 1,200 kg (2,400 lbs), making it rock-solid in an underground mine. It is equipped with a safety Rockwell Automation® Compact GuardLogix 43S, a POINT I/O™ safety adapter, and a regular POINT I/O adapter. A safety PAC is used for safety-specific instructions, security, and safety I/O. 

KFG needed to communicate from the Rockwell Automation system that natively speaks EtherNet/IP™ to protection relays, EX IOs, and other devices that speak the Modbus® language.

The operation uses several specialized Modbus® devices from different vendors. Because of this, they needed a gateway with multiple ports. ProSoft Technology’s gateway has four Modbus ports and is fast with up to 4000 words in 5ms. 

KFG chose ProSoft Technology’s EtherNet/IP to Modbus Gateway to communicate from the controller to the protection relays and other remote Modbus devices. 

“We didn’t want to be beta testers and use a device made by a one-person company,” said Marcin Ptaszny, CEO of KFG Electric Systems. “It was key to have long-term support and availability of the device.”

They wanted a proven solution, so they chose ProSoft Technology. Protection relays sense when there could be trouble via an electrical overload and relay the information to the PAC quickly to shut off the system.  

Port 1 of the gateway is connected to an RTU Master and communicates with overcurrent protectors. Port 2 is connected to a RTU Slave that is used for the remote radio control system that allows the miner to control the roadheader from a safe distance. Port 3 is connected to an RTU Master and explosion-safe distributed IO system. Port 4 is connected to an RTU slave and communicates to a surface SCADA system.

ProSoft’s gateway was easy to configure, diagnose, and implement.

“This is why the customer loves the Add-On Profile and Add-On Instruction we delivered,” Mr. Ptaszny said. “They are pleased with the implementation of the EtherNet/IP to Modbus gateway, specifically the IO connection allowing really fast data exchange with the IOs and the remote joystick in the roadheader.”

Mining is the kind of market that does not implement technological changes quickly. KFG is one of the first companies in the world designing new mining systems this way, using safety IO and a GuardLogix safety controller communicating with numerous protection relays and EX IOs. 

À Altavilla Vicentina en Italie, une manchonneuse de la marque Clever pose des manchons thermorétractables pour parer les bouteilles à une vitesse de 18 000 pièces par heure, soit 5 pièces par seconde. Avec un tel débit, un arrêt de production à cause d’un collecteur tournant défectueux implique des pertes financières significatives. La société Clever Machines devait donc trouver une solution à ce problème. Clever Machines fabrique diverses manchonneuses et mâchines de pose d’emballages thermoformés. Ces machines peuvent effectuer n’importe quel type d'application de manchon, à différentes vitesses. La gamme comprend notamment des machines linéaires et rotatives, capables d'appliquer des manchons entiers ou partiels et des indicateurs d'effraction. Ces machines sont utilisées dans de nombreuses applications d'emballage des secteurs agroalimentaire, cosmétique et pharmaceutique.

« Nous nous engageons à toujours proposer la solution la plus adéquate, en collaborant avec le client et par le biais de recherches technologiques constantes », déclare Tagliaferro Silverio, propriétaire de Clever Machines.

Ainsi, lorsqu'un client lui a demandé de l'aider à réduire les temps d'arrêt liés à la maintenance des connecteurs tournants, Clever Machines a contacté Rockwell Automation. Rockwell a recommandé d'utiliser une solution de communication sans fil ProSoft Technology: des radios points d'accès supportant les standards 802.11n qui permettent un roaming rapide, combinées à un câble rayonnant 5 GHz en guise d'antenne. Ces radios industrielles prennent en charge les modes Point d'accès, Répéteur et Client et fournissent des débits de données élevés, pouvant atteindre 300 Mbit/s.

« La fonction Fast Roaming de cette radio garantit des connexions haut débit stables particulièrement adaptées aux équipements mobiles et tournants, comme la manchonneuse de Clever », déclare Andrea Mazzucchelli, responsable commercial pour l’Italie chez ProSoft Technology.

« Les excellentes performances en termes de nombre de paquets par seconde et la stabilité des communications correspondent exactement à ce que nous recherchions », ajoute Andrea Parlato, directeur technique de la division électrique chez Clever.

Désormais, un automate programmable CompactLogix^TM L36 communique avec les E/S embarquées via les radios ProSoft Technology, fournissant avec rapidité et fiabilité des données issues des tables d'arrondissage, qui appliquent l'étiquette et la thermoscellent sur la bouteille.

Les câbles rayonnants remplacent les connecteurs tournants, et suppriment ainsi les périodes d'arrêt coûteuses liées à leur maintenance. Un câble rayonnant est semblable à une longue antenne flexible qui émet des signaux RF. Il peut être installé dans des angles, sur des systèmes de monorail et dans les tunnels pour émettre des signaux de données sans fil dans les situations où l'installation d'antennes classique s'avère difficile, voire impossible. L'antenne du câble rayonnant peut être fixée à seulement quelques centimètres de la zone cible de réception du signal, ce qui permet au signal sans fil d'être isolé et de ne pas interférer avec les autres machines installées à proximité. Il existe diverses longueurs de câble rayonnant pour répondre aux spécificités de la plupart des applications.

« Les câbles rayonnants ont été spécialement testés pour être compatibles avec les radios 802.11n », déclare M. Mazzucchelli. « Nous avons ainsi pu fournir une solution éprouvée, pour remplacer de manière efficace les connecteurs tournants, qui imposaient une maintenance récurrente et coûteuse.»

Pour découvrir toutes nos solutions sans-fil, cliquez ici.

Imagine pulling up to the golf course parking lot, taking your clubs out of the car and noticing the course itself looked like a barren desert.  Doesn't sound too appealing, does it? 

Lush green grass, bermuda or otherwise, and surrounding vegetation such as trees and bushes, go hand in hand with golf. The only desert-looking formations one would normally see at a golf course, and try to keep out of, are those pesky sand bunkers. 

The foliage of the world's prestigious golf courses doesn’t grow by itself. Golf courses where world-renowned golfers have won championships, and those where you try to improve your handicap, need an efficient, economical irrigation system. Too little water and the course will start looking like that barren desert. Too much water and the fairway's bermuda grass could start becoming like the rough. 

Tending to a golf course cannot be done in autopilot, but the water irrigation system, with a proper PLC, can ease the burden. 

PKM Solutions Ltd installed a Rockwell Automation® Micro850 for Woburn Golf Club's water irrigation system in Thetford, U.K., but that alone wouldn't do the job. Woburn consists of three courses, each of which has 18 holes. 

They needed a texting module to start and stop the system remotely. They also needed remote notifications sent to their cell phone.   

PKM Solutions chose ProSoft Technology's ILX800-SMS Texting Module. The module gave the PLC bi-directional text messaging capabilities. In fact, it was the “only PLC system that would text to each other to start and stop the other PLC.”

The golf course has three sites that work in conjunction with each other. There is a water reservoir and two filling tanks. “When one of the filling tanks is low, it sends a text message to the reservoir to fill, then a text notification to stop,” said Paul Mold, PKM Solutions Director.   

The alternative would have been to run cable from the reservoir to each filling tank, which would have resulted in downtime - and golfers don't like downtime at their favorite course. 

Mold said Woburn Golf Club is very pleased. "This option has saved them the expense of running long lengths of cable across their course, which would mean downtime and a lot of expense." 

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

Voitures électriques de luxe, thermostats programmables sur smartphone... Le développement durable s'installe peu à peu dans notre quotidien. Compte tenu de l'inquiétude grandissante suscitée par le réchauffement climatique, l'électricité verte sera au centre des débats au cours des années à venir.

Dans plusieurs régions du monde, certains dirigeants ont même déjà amorcé la transition vers les énergies renouvelables, notamment l'éolien et le solaire. Ainsi, l'Union européenne a imposé à ses États-membres de produire 20 % de leur consommation électrique en énergies renouvelables d'ici 2020.

Compte tenu de leur situation géographique, la plupart des fournisseurs d'électricité slovaques ont choisi de faire appel à des centrales solaires photovoltaïques pour atteindre cet objectif. InForm Technologies fait partie des sociétés chargées de mettre en oeuvre le projet européen en Slovaquie.

Créée en 2005, l'entreprise a dû suivre un processus de certification pour être habilitée à travailler avecl'opérateur électrique national. Dans le cadre du projet, IFT et les autres intégrateurs de systèmes électriques slovaques ont installé environ 500 centrales dans le pays.

« L'objectif était de proposer une solution plus économique et rentable que la concurrence. En associant un système Rockwell Automation et des cartes ProSoft Technology, nous avons élaboré une offre environ 30 % plus économique que la solution concurrente la plus proche. Nous avons retenu la solution de connectivité de ProSoft Technology non seulement pour son prix, mais aussi pour son exclusivité. Il s'agit en effet de la seule solution de connectivité pour utiliser le protocole IEC 60870-5-101 avec les automates Rockwell Automation » explique Jozef Lezo, directeur général d'IFT.

Jozef Lezo a découvert ProSoft Technology via son distributeur Rockwell Automation local, Control Tech Slovakia. Celui-ci lui a recommandé un automate Allen-Bradley® CompactLogix^™ et un module ProSoft Technology MVI69-101S. IFT a finalement retenu le modèle CompactLogix 1500 et la carte ProSoft Technology pour son RTU, chargée de contrôler le processus photovoltaïque. L'automate recueille les données des contrôleurs de puissance tout en contrôlant les relais de puissance.

Les types de données supervisées sont le courant, la tension, l'état du réseau, l'état de commutation et la quantité d'énergie produite par les panneaux photovoltaïques. Toutes ces données sont envoyées via le protocole IEC 60870-5-101 au système de l'opérateur électrique national à l'aide de la carte MVI69-101S de ProSoft Technology et d'un modem GSM cellulaire externe. Le champ solaire est totalement automatique et autonome. Il ne nécessite aucune maintenance humaine.

IFT a pu ainsi proposer un système économique, permettant de recueillir des données en toute fiabilité. Le même système pourra désormais être installé dans d'autres projets. Outre sa rentabilité, ce nouveau système est flexible. Des fonctionnalités supplémentaires comme le suivi de l'ensoleillement pourront être ajoutées à l'avenir. Le réseau électrique slovaque est désormais un peu plus écologique grâce aux centrales produisant de l'énergie renouvelable installées par IFT.

« Aujourd'hui, 20 % de la consommation électrique en Slovaquie provient de sources d'énergie renouvelable», déclare Jozef Lezo. Le pays est donc d'ores et déjà en conformité avec la réglementation européenne.

IFT travaille principalement sur des projets dans le domaine de l'électroénergétique, notamment les transformateurs, la protection électrique et les systèmes de contrôle. L'entreprise est très impliquée dans l'énergie renouvelable et ne se limite pas aux centrales. Ainsi, dans le domaine de l'électromobilité, elle propose des services de distribution et d'intégration de bornes de recharge pour voitures électriques. La société possède aussi un parc de véhicules électriques.

La brasserie Brains opte pour une solution de migration progressive ProSoft Technology. Grâce à la solution ProSoft Technology, le brasseur Brains a pu réduire ses coûts en installant un automate CompactLogix®.

Dans le monde entier, l’une des boissons les plus populaires et les plus consommées est la bière. Cette boisson fait même partie intégrante de la culture de certains pays, en Europe, en Asie, et en Amérique.

L’une des bières les plus célèbres en Grande-Bretagne est la SA, fabriquée par la brasserie galloise Brains basée à Cardiff. Cette bière, aux notes de levure anglaise et de houblons finlandais, a été produite pour la première fois en 1958, il y a plus de 50 ans. Son slogan : « Ce ne serait pas le Pays de Galles sans la SA. »

La brasserie Brains, fondée en 1882 au Pays de Galles, produit de nombreuses variétés de bières. Les amateurs y trouvent un choix unique, des variétés artisanales, telles que la Calypso et la Bragging Rights, et des bières plus traditionnelles comme la SA, la Brains Bitter, la Brains Dark, et la Brains Black, entre autres. Cette brasserie possède également de nombreux pubs à travers le Pays de Galles. 

Brains a décidé qu’il était temps de changer son système de contrôle de traitement des levures pour un système Rockwell Automation CompactLogix. Nous savons tous à quel point la levure est importante pour produire de la bière et Brains a repoussé son projet de migration après les fêtes de Noël afin d’éviter toute interruption dans la production. Comme souvent avec n’importe quelle installation automatisée toute interruption ou immobilisation du système n’était pas envisageable. 

Mike Cooper de chez IAC Engineering a proposé d’utiliser la passerelle AN-X2-AB-DHRIO de ProSoft Technology pour permettre à l’automate CompactLogix de communiquer avec six racks d’E/S Rockwell Automation (1771) via Ethernet. Il avait rencontré le directeur général des ventes de ProSoft Technology, Myles Heinekey, lors d’un évènement Rockwell Automation à Birmingham. “L’objectif principal du projet était de moderniser deux automates PLC2 qui avaient 27 ans.  Une immobilisation de l’installation a été possible pendant seulement 3 jours, donc les anciens racks d’E/S ont été conservés, mais les deux automates PLC2 obsolètes ont été remplacés par un CompactLogix.”

“Le temps de mise en service a été nettement réduit car les cartes Remote I/O et le câblage existant ont pu être conservés,” a indiqué Mike Cooper. “Seuls le processeur et le logiciel ont dû être ajoutés et commandés, mais pas le câblage.”

Grâce à la solution ProSoft Technology, la brasserie Brains a pu réduire les coûts de son projet de migration en installant un automate CompactLogix. Sans la passerelle ProSoft Technology, un système plus coûteux avec une carte d’E/S aurait était nécessaire. La solution ProSoft Technology n’a pas seulement réduit le coût du projet. Elle l’a réduit de 40% par rapport à l’autre option. L’autre avantage de cette solution, et non des moindres, c’est que le nouveau système conserve ses PLC5 existants et les fait communiquer avec le processeur CompactLogix, permettant ainsi de conserver les cartes d’E/S existantes. Résultat, aucune carte supplémentaire n’a été installée.

Enfin, la solution ProSoft Technology a assuré une flexibilité au système automatisé de Brains. "La passerelle reliant le Contrôleur d’E/S et Ethernet a permis un haut niveau de flexibilité, donc les différents racks d’E/S ont pu être transférés vers un réseau et contrôlés à partir de PLC différents, si besoin", ajoute Mike Cooper. "La passerelle ProSoft transmet aussi les données d’E/S vers Ethernet accessibles partout sur le réseau usine à une vitesse supérieure."

Pour en savoir plus sur les solutions de migration progressive ProSoft Technology allez sur http://fr.prosoft-technology.com/Landing-Pages/Migration-Solutions.

Pour en savoir plus sur la brasserie Brains visitez leur site internet www.sabrain.com.

Les modules PROFIBUS et les radios industrielles ProSoft Technology garantissent la transmission de données critiques via les automates Rockwell Automation ControlLogix utilisés dans le cadre d'un système de protection contre les inondations.

Le remplacement du système de contrôle d’un barrage anti-inondation est problématique. En effet, un dysfonctionnement pourrait provoquer une catastrophe pour des milliers de logements, d'entreprises et de personnes.

La rénovation d'un barrage anti-inondation nécessite des mois de travaux car ce dernier doit rester fonctionnel pendant celle-ci. La conception du projet doit donc être minutieuse pour garantir un niveau desécurité maximal. Des mesures de prévention des pannes et des solutions de secours doivent être mises enplace. Il suffit d’ailleurs de se rendre une fois sur un barrage anti-inondation pour être convaincu que de tels systèmes de sécurité sont essentiels.

Deux tours de béton de 20 mètres de haut s'élèvent de chaque côté de l'embouchure de Dartford Creek auRoyaume-Uni. C'est là, dans la région du Kent, que se trouve le système de protection contre lesinondations de l’Agence Britannique pour l’Environnement. Celui-ci est régulièrement fermé en parallèle avec le plus grand barrage de la Tamise qui se trouve en amont, afin d'empêcher toute inondation dans la région de Dartford et de ses environs en cas de crue dans l'estuaire de la Tamise.

Deux portes en acier de 30 m de long et pesant plus de 160 tonnes, sont suspendues entre deux tours enbéton. Une porte peut être abaissée sur le lit de la rivière afin d'empêcher le passage de l'eau, telle uneguillotine géante installée sur l'embouchure de la crique. La seconde porte peut ensuite être abaissée pourreposer par-dessus la première. Quand les deux sont fermées, elles peuvent résister à une crue de 10,4 m.

Les portes sont actionnées via des moteurs hydrauliques. Le système de contrôle est composé de deuxunités pompe/moteur de 18,5 kW, chacun avec capacité de service et de secours, qui permettent d'abaisseret de relever chaque porte en 15 minutes. Lorsqu'elles ne sont pas en service, la structure de chaque porteest maintenue en position totalement relevée et est verrouillée grâce à des mécanismes hydrauliques. Lesbateaux peuvent ainsi circuler sous les portes le long de la crique.

En raison des changements climatiques, il a été calculé que le barrage devrait être actionné en moyenne 50 fois par an au cours des 25 prochaines années.

« Le système doit être très performant et disposer de plusieurs systèmes de secours en cas de panne », explique Andrew Garwood, Senior Contracts Manager de la division « Contrôles » de Qualter Hall & Co Limited, une société basée à Barnsley.

Il y a quelques années, le système de contrôle d'origine, qui avait plus de 30 ans, a commencé à montrerdes signes de fatigue. Une mise à niveau du barrage devait être effectuée. La difficulté de se procurer les pièces de rechange a été à l’origine de la décision de remplacer ce système composé exclusivement de relais câblés.

Qualter Hall a réalisé les travaux de surveillance et d'évaluation pour le compte de l'entrepreneur principal Birse Civils, en qualité d'intégrateur système du projet et de sous-traitant en génie mécanique et électriqueen charge du remplacement du système de contrôle. Plusieurs objectifs ont été établis, en premier lieu lafiabilité et la sécurité du projet. Une inondation aurait en effet provoqué des dégâts considérables dans lesenvirons.

Qualter Hall, qui propose une multitude de solutions d'ingénierie, a décidé de faire appel à ProSoftTechnology en raison de la fiabilité et de la rentabilité de sa solution, approuvée par Rockwell Automation.ProSoft Technology est en effet partenaire Encompass de Rockwell Automation.

Deux automates ControlLogix Rockwell Automation redondants sont situés à l'intérieur de chaquetour pour contrôler l'ouverture et la fermeture du barrage, mais la plupart des équipements aveclesquels le système de contrôle communiquait utilisaient le protocole PROFIBUS ou desautomates programmables industriels Siemens. Deux modules maîtres de communication PROFIBUS (MVI56-PDPMV1) ProSoft Technology furent installés dans les automates ControlLogix pour faciliter les communications entre les processeurs Rockwell Automation et le système Siemens.

« Les modules de ProSoft Technology ont été utilisés pour permettre au rack ControlLogix d'utiliser leprotocole PROFIBUS-DP. Ils permettent d'utiliser quatre segments PROFIBUS-DP distincts afin d'obtenir un fonctionnement redondant », précise Andrew Garwood.

De la fibre optique a été installée entre les deux tours dans le cadre du remplacement du systèmede contrôle. Pendant la construction des liaisons câblées, des radios points d'accès sans fil industriels 802.11 ProSoft Technology ont été utilisées pour la liaison de communication.

« Nous avons ensuite employé cette liaison sans fil comme connexion de secours automatique en cas deperte de la connexion fibre optique. Nous avons choisi les équipements ProSoft Technology en raison deleur fiabilité et leur prise en charge du protocole RSTP », ajoute Andrew Garwood. 

Les solutions ProSoft Technology ont contribué à faciliter le travail de conception, en permettant au système ControlLogix de communiquer via un seul protocole.

Désormais, le système permet de consulter les données rapidement, de manière centralisée et à distance, et facilite l'accès aux informations de diagnostic. 

Des milliers de foyers, de personnes et d'entreprises sont ainsi protégés de manière sûre.

Lorsque l'on évoque la nouvelle version 2013 du KIA Sportage, élégance et luxe sont deux mots qui viennent à l'esprit. La KIA cee'd quant à elle est à la fois sportive et économique, avec des modèles consommant moins de 4 litres aux cents kilomètres.

Avant d'arriver chez le concessionnaire, ces nouveaux modèles, comme n'importe quelle autre voiture en circulation, ont fait l'objet de toute une série de traitements sur leur site de production d'origine.

L'usine de KIA Motors en Slovaquie, qui produit la cee'd, le KIA Venga et le Sportage, a décidé d'installer des solutions sans fil industrielles pour ses opérations d’emboutissage, afin de renforcer la sécurité du personnel travaillant sur le site. Les automates des ponts roulants transmettent les matriçages à effectuer pour chacune des lignes de presse. C'est là que les éléments tels que les portes, les ailes et les capots sont produits.

« Nous devions connecter les ponts roulants à un réseau pour pouvoir accéder à l’automate à partir de n'importe quel ordinateur de maintenance de l'atelier de presse », explique Tomas Potocar, ingénieur chez KIA Motors.

L'objectif du projet était de pouvoir communiquer avec les contrôleurs Allen-Bradley ControlLogix depuis la salle de maintenance.

Avant d'utiliser des radios industrielles 802.11n de ProSoft Technology sur le site, la maintenance des ponts roulants était extrêmement fastidieuse.

« Les ponts roulants étaient difficiles d’accès, sans aucune connexion avec les ordinateurs utilisés par le service de maintenance », raconte Tomas Potocar.

À cause de cela, les ingénieurs devaient grimper à 14 m de hauteur sur des escaliers ou une échelle pour accéder au dispositif de contrôle du pont roulant afin de le connecter directement à une unité de traitement et effectuer un diagnostic.

« Lorsque le pont était en position initiale, les techniciens de maintenance pouvaient atteindre son armoire en 10 minutes. Désormais, il est possible d'y accéder directement depuis la salle de maintenance », declare Josef Nekvinda, ingénieur chez Rockwell Automation. Grâce à la solution sans fil de ProSoft Technology, les ponts sont désormais accessibles à tout moment depuis le PC de maintenance, ce qui réduit considérablement les éventuels temps d'arrêt.

Avec la solution sans fil de ProSoft Technology, chacun des 5 ponts roulants possède sa radio 802.11n, et une dernière radio a été ajoutée dans la salle de maintenance.

« Au cours d’un salon, nous avons commencé à discuter des besoins spécifiques de KIA Motors », explique Tomas Potocar. En choisissant les solutions sans fil de ProSoft Technology, KIA Motors voulait être certain de disposer d'une connexion permanente et fiable entre l’automate programmable et le réseau de maintenance.

« J'avais déjà reçu toutes les informations nécessaires, et j'ai pu constater que ProSoft Technology savait très bien de quelles solutions nous avions besoin », développe Tomas Potocar. « L'installation s'est avérée très simple.»

La mise en oeuvre d'une solution sans fil a été bien plus rapide que si une solution câblée avait été adoptée.

KIA Motors est totalement satisfait de la solution. « Elle nous aide à effectuer le diagnostic de nos ponts roulants et à surveiller les signaux émis en cours de production depuis un emplacement sécurisé. »

Le point d'accès sans fil industriel 802.11n de ProSoft Technology a apporté à KIA Motors une connectivité réseau sans fil totalement fiable. Ces radios sont optimisées pour les performances industrielles exigeantes et pour être facilement déployées sur site. Par ailleurs, elles suivent la norme IEEE 802.11n et la technologie MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output, entrées et sorties multiples), essentielles dans les installations industrielles. Les autres caractéristiques de ces radios sont un débit de données élevé (jusqu’à 300Mbps), des certifications pour les environnements dangereux (UL classe 1 division 2, ATEX zone 2), une large plage de températures de fonctionnement, la résistance aux vibrations et aux chocs, le montage sur rails DIN, le PoE (Power over Ethernet), etc.

Pour de plus amples informations sur nos solutions ProSoft Technology sans fil, clickez ici.

Man or woman, no one likes wrinkles - well, unless you’re a fan of Shar Peis or Klingons. Wrinkles are a sign of old age and people usually avoid them for as long as possible, mainly through the use of cosmetic products. In a production process, though, old, aging equipment can slow down productivity and affect the bottom line. Merrid Controls took the wrinkles out of a major cosmetic and beauty manufacturer’s production process in Poland by installing ProSoft Technology radios. Data transmission wrinkles, to be exact.

The cosmetics manufacturer had an existing system using an antiquated PC computer as an HMI and a PLC. Spare parts and customer service support were scarce. The PLC’s job was to control the rotating filling process, whether it was perfume, wrinkle cream, or any other cosmetic product.

“The machine is an important part of the production line, so they decided to modernize it,” said Piotr Pasierowski, a control systems development engineer with systems integrator Merrid Controls. And to emphasis its importance, the machine has no backup. If it goes down, so does the entire plant.

“If it stops, all production has to be stopped,” Mr. Pasierowski explained. “It’s the only rotating filler they have.”

Yes, you read that correctly - the only one. Communication between the PLCs was done through an HMI and a slip ring communication system. PLCs communicate to each other exchanging values such as pumping speed, rotation speed, and how much product to put in each container.

ProSoft Technology and Merrid Controls proposed using a radiating cable and wireless radios.

“Because it would be the first radiating cable application in Poland that ProSoft Technology sold, they had doubts as to whether it would work,” said Krzysztof Hajzyk, ProSoft Regional Sales Manager. These doubts were quickly dispelled after a prototype of the system was built to ensure the radiating cable would work. The prototype was flawless, but would it work on the plant floor?

They installed the system, which included a new PanelView™ Plus, so that it would work parallel to the old HMI, to further ensure its success. The radiating cable was installed inside the rotating table.

ProSoft Technology radios were used for communication via Ethernet between the fixed SLC™ 500 5/05 and PanelView Plus on one side and a CompactLogix™ on the machine controlling measurements and fillers. 5GHz frequency radios were used to ensure the IT network didn’t influence PLC communication. The radios have more channels - allowing more networks, including the IT network, to coexist in the same area. Migrating to the wireless system was done in a few steps: They had to migrate to the Ethernet-enabled PLC, remove the old 18-connection slip ring, and install the radiating cable.

The benefits of this solution include a solid platform and communications architecture.

“They have the option to reprogram without stopping the machine,” Mr. Pasierowski explained. “Communication is done using only Ethernet so even wirelessly they could reprogram PLCs and the HMI.”

The new wireless system requires fewer maintenance expenses, no stops, full application documentation and backup. It’s also possible to connect to a central SCADA system for machine performance measurements.

“Our proposed solution meets all the functionality requirements,” Mr. Pasierowski said. “ProSoft Technology is well known by the end user from its in-chassis modules and gateways. They trust ProSoft Technology solutions.”

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Wireless Solutions  here. 

In the massive warehouse, a forklift zips down the box-laden aisle. The driver stops and pulls a box from a pallet to the forklift.

The instant the driver is back behind the wheel, the lift is off again. This is a scene that is re-enacted millions of times a day in warehouses around the world.
  
Order fulfillment is probably the most labor-intensive function in any warehouse or distribution center. So, in order to increase efficiency and reduce these labor-intensive costs, it is only natural that companies look for ways to automate this process. A manufacturer of installation equipment, wiring devices, and telecommunication products in Norway wanted to do just that … improve their processes through automation.

The Need

The end user contacted Goodtech Products, the Norwegian distributor for ProSoft Technology. Some of the main objectives the end user needed were to have the ordering system "smart enough" to be able to define, and adjust in real time, the best route for picking the goods from the warehouse, as well as to "know" when restocking was needed. Avoiding the need for printing-out the pick-lists (one per order) of goods to be taken from the warehouse was also essential. The final objective was to have workers receive information digitally, at the right time and in the right sequence, on their way between the shelves.
  
Key to this improvement was the mobility of handheld devices for each operator, and key to this mobility was the reliability and security of the wireless network. For that, Goodtech recommended ProSoft Technology’s Industrial High-Speed Ethernet Hotspot radios. 

The end user’s warehouse contains a lot of steel and concrete, and long distances.
  
"The signals from a traditional wireless network, like the ones commonly found in Norwegian homes, do not work here," says an Account Manager at Goodtech Products. "And if the signals do not do their job, the customers do not receive their goods – and the end user loses money. We need wireless signals that reach the site from a reliable wireless network – regardless of the working conditions."

The Solution

Twenty industrial routers were installed from the ceiling beams in the production hall and warehouse. They transmit the wireless signals, regardless of any obstacles, and can tolerate intensive use for long periods of time.
  
The work of moving goods from the shelf to the forklift is now much easier. Workers no longer need to manually track which goods they have to retrieve, and where and when they have to do it, because they receive real-time instructions wirelessly via their hand-held PDA.
  
A computer system calculates the most efficient sequence in which workers need to take goods off the shelves. Stacks of paper containing pick-lists have been replaced by simple messages. These messages are updated and refreshed in real-time. The warehouse workers are now able to pick three times more goods during the day than they did before the new wireless system was introduced.
  
"It's faster. It's easier. And I find it more motivational to work than before," one of the workers said. 
  
"We are very pleased with this system," said the end user’s Systems Consultant. "The routers are reliable and the system works. We save time and money."

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Wireless Solutions here.

Danetta Bramhall
 
A hundred years ago, grain was ground into flour using two large stones, called millstones. Since then, the science of milling grain into flour has changed dramatically. Improved equipment, better transportation and particularly computerization have increased milling capacity, allowing mills to expand their production.
 
Four recently constructed mills in Egypt are a prime example. In an effort to cut costs and produce a higher grade flour, developers have built new, modern mills in the same buildings where giant millstones used to stand.

 
Old Stones to PLC Control

Danish company, United Milling Systems (UMS), designed and built four new mills in Egypt with Automatic Syd A/S as sub-supplier of the electrical system. Two of the mills, located in Cairo and Ibrahim Awad, Alexandria, were actually converted from old stone mills into modern milling plants. The other two, located in Sowahey and Moharam Bey, Alexandria, were turnkey projects, rehabilitating old roller mills.
 
UMS installed a total of 34 of the new Satake SRMA roller mills in 3 of the locations. The SRMA not only incorporates the very latest technology, such as fully electronic feeder units and a toothed belt differential drive, but is also simple and user friendly. In the fourth mill, UMS installed a short milling system based on their own developed disc mill. This new solution allows the El Tppin mill, (South Cairo & Giza Flour Mills & Bakery Co.), to produce nearly twice as much flour per day, in a substantially reduced area, compared to a conventional roller mill.
 
Automatic Syd specializes in the design and manufacture of electrical switchboards, control panels and the development of customized PLC and PC software. It was their job to supply a centralized control station that would allow one miller to monitor the entire plant. UMS and Automatic Syd faced a choice: they could install their own version of a proprietary system, running closed applications or, they could opt for an open communication platform.
 
Ten years ago, proprietary systems were the norm. But companies soon found that these closed systems were, in the long run, user unfriendly, making the process of integrating new processes and equipment difficult, expensive, and time-consuming, requiring diversified skills and tools. Today, these closed systems are slowly being replaced by open communication platforms.
 
The Modbus protocol is one of these open applications. It has become so popular, that in many instances it is accepted as the defacto industry standard. This was the application chosen for the mills.
 
Allen-Bradley PLC5 processors were connected to the mill equipment. However, the A-B processors are not inherently Modbus compatible. Therefore, a Modbus interface was needed.
 
Modbus Interface Needed
Automatic Syd contacted Rockwell Automation-Denmark for a possible solution. They recommended ProSoft Technology's 3100-MCM module. This module acts as a Modbus interface, providing highly configurable Modbus Master and Slave capabilities to Allen-Bradley PLC and SLC applications.
 
"Quite simply, the ProSoft Modbus communication interface makes it possible for Allen-Bradley platforms to communicate with a multitude of industrial devices," said Doug Sharratt, lead developer for ProSoft Technology. "Because of our partnership with Rockwell Automation, our Modbus module is designed to fit in the A-B rack, allowing all data exchange to occur over the backplane."
 
The A-B PLC with the ProSoft module installed in the rack, collects the data and displays it on the miller's PC using Allen-Bradley's RSView.
 
Centralized Control Cuts Costs

"With the ProSoft module," said Arne Sigfredsen of Automatic Syd, "One miller can easily monitor the entire plant and, in case of emergencies, temporarily take over control until another miller has reached the specific machine to solve the problem. This is a cost effective savings, since it takes fewer personnel and you get a lot of information such as alarms, stock levels, motor loads, etc. from the plant."
 
"The 3100-MCM Modbus module was one of the first products manufactured by ProSoft Technology," said Alain Chevalin, ProSoft's Regional Sales Manager for Europe and the Middle East. "But eleven years after its invention we are still finding new uses for it. Many industrial devices available today have implemented communications using the Modbus protocol. With our communication interfaces, users in a variety of industries are able to gather a great deal of data which can enhance the understanding of the process or, as in the case of these flour mills, allow the system to be controlled more efficiently."
 
The Alexandria Flour Mills and Bakery Co., located in Ibrahim Awad and Moharam Bey were the first two mills to go on-line in 1998, producing 150 tons and 225 tons of flour per day. A third, located in Sowahey began operating in December of 1999, also producing 225 tons of flour per day.
 
The fourth mill is located in El Tppin in Cairo. This new disc mill solution allows the El Tppin mill to produce 450 tons of flour per day. The El Tppin mill has been operating successfully since May of 2000.
 
United Milling Systems

Accomplishing the task of building modern flour mills where millstones used to stand is a complex undertaking. It takes the combined efforts of a number of companies, all working together in their area of expertise.
 
It was nothing new for United Milling Systems to receive the contract to convert old stone and roller mills into modern milling plants. The Danish firm is considered an expert engineering company, pioneering the development of many modern milling techniques. Working with internationally renowned scientists, UMS is continually updating their product development and process optimization, developing many of their own patents.
 
Since they supply complete turnkey milling plants and processing lines, they sub-contracted Automatic Syd A/S, also a Danish company, to supply the electrical needs for the four mills.
 
One of Automatic Syd's tasks required that all of the roller mills (in some cases for as many as 30 roller mills) in each plant be connected to a centralized control panel.
 
"Every mill has a keypad, where the miller can take over the control of the mill in emergencies," said Arne Sigfredsen of Automatic Syd. "But some of the mills have 30 roller mills, and without centralized control, it is impossible to monitor all roller mills."
 
In order to incorporate the most modern equipment and processes available, UMS and Automatic Syd chose Allen-Bradley hardware because of its nationally recognized name brand and the availability of future product support. The Modbus protocol was chosen because of its 'open' communication, making future expansion and change easy and cost effective.
 
Making It Happen
 
ProSoft Technology, Inc.

Integrating multiple applications was exactly what was needed for the Egytian flour mills, since the specifications called for the Modbus protocol. That was where ProSoft Technology stepped in.
 
"One of the things we pride ourselves in is our ability to fit our products to a particular application and, when needed, to quickly develop solutions based on the market needs and specific customer requests," said Doug Sharratt, President and Lead Developer for ProSoft Technology. "We are a major supplier of protocol emulation modules for the Allen-Bradley family of products."
 
"What we do may seem like a small part of the big picture," said Alain Chevalin, ProSoft's Regional Sales Manger for Europe and the Middle East. "But the fact is, our interface modules allow companies like United Milling Systems, Allen-Bradley and Automatic Syd to use the equipment they feel is best suited for the situation without having to worry about specific protocols. If we don't have an application interface that will work for a particular client, we're willing to seriously look at developing one. We view ourselves as a 'market driven company.'"
 
Rockwell Automation is known worldwide as a recognized leader in industrial automation technology.

"Complete Automation expresses Rockwell Automation's commitment to promise and deliver integrated open solutions, superior value-added services, global supply and local delivery, and world-class components," said Randy Freeman, vice-president of global marketing for Rockwell Automation in a recent interview with Iron & Steel Review.
 
"The core of this company is great products that differentiate us from many, many other suppliers," said Keith Nosbusch, President of Rockwell Automation Control Systems in an interview for AB Journal in March of last year. "The seamless integration of multiple applications that Rockwell Automation offers lets our manufacturing customers become more flexible, agile, and responsive to the needs of their customers."

A major company known for engineering, building, and managing water treatment plants was faced with a new challenge.

At a French treatment facility designed by the company, an innovative method was implemented for a common wastewater treatment application involving sludge drying.

The sludge drying process is a residual element of the application that takes place once water has been cleaned and decanted.

 Radios and robots

In the solar sludge drying process developed by a subsidiary of the manufacturer, sludge is treated by a centrifuge and laid out in windrows in a greenhouse heated by solar radiation. An automated robotic turner is used to aerate the sludge and accelerate water evaporation. The robots are radio-controlled, which provides a more robust solution than the traditional wired approach. With wireless control of the robots, the entire operation is automated, and there is no further need for operators to enter the greenhouse.
  
The company decided to attach radios to the robots to enable information to be sent to and from the control station. This means the operator can control the robot remotely, program its movements, and know its current position. The robot has an onboard controller that interfaces with the radio.

“Implementation proved to be very simple, thanks in particular to ProSoft Technology’s technical support,” explained a representative of the system integrator. “As far as the choice of supplier was concerned, we stuck to the specifications given by RG2I, their local distributor. Our major concern was reliability. We had to have a reliable solution, with none of our users encountering any problems. This is indeed the case with ProSoft Technology´s wireless solution.”
  
So far, ProSoft Technology radios have been installed at half a dozen of the company´s sites.

A reliable transmission system

The wireless solution brought all of the advantages of wireless connection to industrial automation applications, while still offering high levels of reliability. In addition to its ability to withstand harsh operating conditions, it also improves the transmission of Ethernet data packets.

The standards set out in IEEE 802.11 (commonly known as “Wi-Fi”) bring an extremely high level of security, flexibility, and interoperability to industrial automation applications. Originally designed for office and home applications, these less-robust technologies have limitations when it comes to industrial protocol transfer, resulting in transmission problems for industrial automation systems associated with the radio transmission method used for Ethernet packets. But ProSoft’s wireless solutions ensure optimal transfer of data packets. To improve data packet transfer, the radios use a specific signal processing algorithm implemented by ProSoft Technology, which allows better use of the full bandwidth and supports the fast data transmission speeds demanded by industrial automation engineers. This is particularly vital for industrial applications (involving protocols such as EtherNet/IP™) with a need to transport non-critical messaging data but also critical industrial I/O data.
  
With its “Power over Ethernet” (PoE) specification, the power supply and connection of the radio system to the wired Ethernet is done via a single cable (instead of two), which greatly simplifies installation and reduces set-up times. Another valuable function of the wireless solution is that it supports serial encapsulation, which means that serial peripherals can be used and integrated into the main Ethernet architecture of the control system. The radio used in this application ensures high performance for both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band configurations.
  
These wireless solutions are ideal for industrial applications: industrial grade enclosures, extended operating temperature ranges, compliance with shock and vibration resistance standards, certification for use on sites where there is a risk of explosion, fitting to DIN rails, and more. These factors were important to the system integrator in their decision to select a ProSoft wireless solution for their application.

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

We tend to think about it only when disturbances occur, but wastewater treatment is a basic public service that affects all of us:

it is vital to keep our living environment hygienic and healthy and our watercourses clean. Behind the scene, the wastewater treatment process combines microbiology and chemistry with mechanical engineering, instrumentation, and automation techniques that offer high performance in a progressive way.
  
 Industrial wastewater treatment
 The central wastewater treatment plant of a Finnish company receives household and industrial wastewater from different communities and utilities. "Around 60 percent of the water treated here is industrial wastewater," said the plant’s operating chief. Treatment of sewage including animal waste is especially laborious. "Compared to industrial sewage, we consider household wastewater to be clean enough to be used as a drink," he jokes. The automation of the whole system has to be considered with care.
  
 

Part of the company’s work involves maintaining central wastewater treatment plant in a nearby city. This is where the automation system had to be renewed.

An accurately controlled process
 The process starts with the primary treatment, where the influent sewage water is strained to remove all large objects and the oxygen level of the water is increased to facilitate microbe activities (microbes clean the water by feeding on its impurities). During this biological treatment phase, the microbes in the wastewater are given suitable growing conditions in terms of temperature, oxygen level, and nutrition.

The next phase includes chemical secondary sedimentation, where aluminum-based chemicals are added to the water from the biological treatment to prompt flocculation of slowly-degrading organic and other materials. In the last phase, the remaining sludge is treated by removing water from it. The water separated from the sludge is taken back to the beginning of the treatment process, and the solid sludge is taken to the biogas plant.
High-tech automation system
The central wastewater treatment plant is fully automated. The automation system from 1992 reached the end of the road. Requirements for the technology selected to renew the wastewater treatment plant were:

• Ease of installation and maintenance
• Flexibility to adapt to fast-changing regulation
• Improvement of the overall solution
• Compliance with existing applications and methodologies

 
 The whole system was renewed in 2008 in collaboration with Schneider Electric®. “The old automation system had served its time. We have been using it every day for the past 16 years," the operating chief explained. The original automation system involved six controllers from the TSX7 series, with Monitor 77/2 software environment, and used MAPWAY communication protocol. In the new solution, six Modicon® Premium™ controllers are implemented with Monitor Pro v7.6 and are using Modbus® TCP/IP over wireless, using nine of ProSoft Technology's industrial radios. About 2000 process variables are transiting over the wireless network, which is also used for programming and maintenance purposes.
 

Why wireless? 
 A total of seven locations had to be integrated into one single tight network. The 6 Modicon Premium controllers are located in different buildings at the wastewater treatment plant, and the plant has two control rooms. "We put the second computer here in this higher building so that our feet never get wet," the operating chief said. The plant is situated in an area prone to flooding. Of course, the plant can continue to operate even if the computers are down.

From the user point of view, the first advantage of the wireless networking option was the cost and time savings for the installation: no need to dig tranches, and no need to clean up existing cable paths.

From the integrator’s point of view, the wireless network was "the easiest part of the implementation. We didn't have any problems. These radios are very easy to configure, and mounting recommendations given by ProSoft Technology were very clear. Schneider Electric made some tests in their office and then explained to us how to implement the wireless network on the field."

From Schneider Electric’s point of view, the engineering of the network was reduced to a minimum. "When we started the project, we did not locally have any specific RF expertise," explains the then-Application Sales and Key Account Manager, Wood and BioEnergy, at Schneider Electric Finland. "We talked to ProSoft Technology Technical Support Engineers and provided them with the basic engineering and layout of the network. They made some calculations that where necessary for this type of application and they provided us with the recommended lists of accessories for each radio location: cables, antenna, lightning protector, etc. They also provided all the necessary recommendations for mounting and implementation in the field. The wireless network implementation was an easy job for us and our integrator.”

Long term investments 
"The controls have been defined largely in the same way as in the old system," the plant’s operating chief explained. "Some of the old controls have remained the same, some have been added, and we have changed the commands a little bit." Since 1992, the plant has acquired a new sludge drying centrifuge and the treatment process has been modified by a new chemical treatment with aluminum. The automation system had to evolve accordingly.

"No controller can remain the same forever. There are always some additions and changes along the way. In this industry in particular, the regulations change quite a lot over the years as well," said the Schneider Electric sales manager, who took part in the plant’s original automation project in 1992.

The new setup is working well.

"We have not had any problems with the implementation of the new automation system. The graphics of the user interface have remained practically the same so we are familiar with the screens and don't need additional training," the plant’s operating chief said.

The reporting program in use is separate from the SCADA, but it reads data directly from the Modicon Premium controllers as well, via the same network.

In the future, the controllers can be easily modified or complemented when necessary with additional input or output modules. On the network side, the wireless option provides an additional degree of flexibility.

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

Un système de monorail aérien fait passer les carrosseries de voitures dans une boucle traversant l’atelier de peinture qui s’étend sur 100 mètres de long.

Au niveau de la station de chargement de l’atelier de peinture, d'un côté de la chaîne de traitement, les carrosseries de voitures sont chargées sur ces supports mobiles, soulevées huit mètres au-dessus du sol et attachées à un système de monorail aérien. Les supports parcourent une chaîne de traitement avec 14 étapes successives. À chaque étape, les supports s’arrêtent pour permettre à deux palans intégrés de plonger les carrosseries de voitures dans un bain de trempage chimique. Une fois le processus terminé, les palans soulèvent la carrosserie de voiture et le support avance le long du monorail jusqu’à la prochaine étape de la chaîne de traitement, dès lors qu’elle est disponible. Après la dernière étape de traitement, les carrosseries de voitures sont déchargées des supports à l’autre bout du bâtiment, à 120 mètres de distance du début de la chaîne.

Le problème : l'obsolescence de la connectivité mobile

Chacun des supports mobiles aériens est doté d'un appareil de contrôle intégré permettant de faire fonctionner ses palans. Un appareil de contrôle unique et fixe, situé à côté de la station de chargement, gère les appareils de contrôle des supports. L’appareil de contrôle central envoie des ordres via un ancien protocole série par le biais d'un système de rails conducteurs le reliant aux appareils de contrôle des supports.

Le protocole est plus lent que les derniers protocoles industriels sur le marché et la transmission sans fil d’informations est difficile. Le service de gestion des installations a reconnu que pour améliorer la vitesse de communication et la bande passante, il était nécessaire d'utiliser un nouveau protocole. Par ailleurs, la conception originale du réseau ne requérait ou n’incluait pas de fonction de communication entre les différents appareils de contrôle des supports.

Le système de rails conducteurs à contact glissant qui transmettait les messages présentait un certain nombre de problèmes. Le système à contact glissant nécessitait d'importants travaux de maintenance pour fonctionner au meilleur de sa capacité. Cependant, même à un niveau d’efficacité optimal, lorsque l’utilisation de la bande passante du réseau approchait de la capacité maximale, les taux élevés d’erreurs de transmission affectaient ce système matériel de connecteurs par frottement. La faible capacité, ainsi que les taux d’erreur élevés ont engendré un autre problème. Bien que la chaîne de traitement de l’atelier de peinture comptait 14 étapes, le système de rails conducteurs avait suffisamment de bande passante pour traiter les données issues de 13 supports simultanément, ce qui bridait la cadence de production de l’atelier.

La solution : allier anciennes et nouvelles technologies

En étroite collaboration avec un service d'ingénierie et un distributeur local, l’entreprise a choisi de migrer vers un réseau de communication Ethernet plus rapide et plus robuste afin d’améliorer les performances de la bande passante. Cependant, les processeurs intégrés dans les panneaux de commande des supports mobiles ne disposaient d’aucun port Ethernet. Le fabricant ne désirait pas remplacer l’intégralité des API mobiles par des processeurs Ethernet, c’est pourquoi une passerelle de série Ethernet a été installée dans chacun des panneaux de commande. Cela a permis au processeur fixe central de recevoir des données de traitement de la part des processeurs mobiles via Ethernet. L’ancien API central existant a été remplacé par une version plus récente, offrant à l’appareil de contrôle central suffisamment de bande passante Ethernet pour prendre en charge l'important volume de données issues des appareils de contrôle mobiles.

Le système de réseau à contact glissant n’était pas bien adapté à la communication Ethernet, pas assez fiable et coûteux en maintenance. Il a donc été jugé nécessaire et évident de supprimer le système à contact glissant obsolète et de le remplacer par un système sans fil plus moderne. Les supports mobiles et l’appareil de contrôle fixe central pouvaient alors communiquer via Ethernet grâce à une solution réseau sans fil ultra rapide et capable de traiter d'importants volumes d'informations.

Les ingénieurs ont fait part de leurs doutes sur la fiabilité de la technologie sans fil dans l'industrie lourde, un environnement rempli de métaux en mouvement. L’atelier de peinture est doté de murs et d'un toit en métal. Les supports sont de gigantesques appareils en acier, à l'instar des carrosseries de voitures qu’ils transportent. Ces appareils métalliques en mouvement constant ont pour conséquence de modifier en permanence la fréquence radio de cet environnement, multipliant les risques que les interférences radio n'interrompent ou ne corrompent le flux de données. Toutefois, les radios industrielles de ProSoft utilisent des algorithmes de filtrage ultra performants permettant d’ajuster la puissance émise. Ces deux fonctionnalités règlent les problèmes de propagation multiple.

« Nous avons gagné entre 2 et 3 jours de travail d'ingénierie dans la conception de ce réseau » se souvient Mike Dean, intégrateur système chez DAC. « Et bien sûr, nous avons économisé du temps d'installation, avec moins de matériel à gérer, manipuler et installer sur le terrain. En fait, l’installation et la validation du réseau ont été réalisées très rapidement. Lorsqu'on adopte une nouvelle technologie, on assimile généralement un ou deux projets. Cependant, avec [les radios] et l’assistance de ProSoft Technology, notre processus d’apprentissage a été relativement court ».

Les résultats : EXCEPTIONNELS

La capacité de production a augmenté de 53 %.

Les radios sans fil ont fourni toute la vitesse et la bande passante dont les ingénieurs avaient besoin pour atteindre leurs objectifs de conception. Le réseau sans fil a apporté la vitesse de transmission et la fiabilité qui faisaient défaut à l’ancien système de rails conducteurs à contact glissant. La solution sans fil a été installée en toute simplicité et était beaucoup facile de maintenance, requérant moins de temps d’arrêt. Enfin, le nombre de supports pouvant être utilisés simultanément dans le cycle de l’atelier de peinture est passé de 13 avec l’ancien réseau à 20 avec le nouveau système.

Obtenez plus d'informations sur les solutions sans fil de ProSoft Technology en cliquant sur ce lien.

A legacy slip ring automation system was replaced with a new high-tech solution using ProSoft Technology's radios to communicate via EtherNet/IP™ to CompactLogix™ and FLEX™ I/O, saving the end user thousands in investments and downtime.

The need
 A manufacturing company that makes powders from agricultural products began experiencing automation problems in one of its silos. The legacy control system used slip rings and a relay-based system. Because slip rings are subject to constant movement, they need continual maintenance to avoid degradation of the rotating electrical connection caused by normal wear and debris. When a slip ring fails, production stops and critical data packets can sometimes be dropped.

The solution
 Original estimates to replace the slip ring contacts were 60,000 to 80,000 euros. So, Rockwell Automation®, together with Stevens Engineering, offered the end user a more viable solution. The new automation architecture incorporates CompactLogix and FLEX I/O PLCs transferring data wirelessly via EtherNet/IP using ProSoft Technology's industrial radios.

The benefits
 From the end user's point of view, there are multiple benefits to this new system. First, the cost for the wireless system was much less than the cost to replace the slip rings. Second, the short implementation time necessary for configuring and installing the three radios dramatically reduced factory downtime. And lastly, the silo now operates without any communication issues and no maintenance is necessary to keep this new system operating at peak performance.

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

We tend to think about it only when disturbances occur, but wastewater treatment is a basic public service that affects all of us: it is vital to keep our living environment hygienic and healthy and our watercourses clean. Behind the scene, the wastewater treatment process combines microbiology and chemistry with mechanical engineering, instrumentation and automation techniques that offer high performance in a progressive way.

Industrial wastewater treatment

The central wastewater treatment plant of Lapuan Jätevesi Oy, a Finish company located in Lapua, west of Finland, receives household wastewater but also industrial wastewater from different locations: Atria, Lapuan Nahka, Kation and Metso Power, among others. “Around 60% of the water treated here is industrial wastewater,” Operating Chief of the plant, Vesa Hahtokari, says. Treatment of sewage including animal waste is especially laborious. “Compared to industrial sewage, we consider household wastewater to be clean enough to be used as a drink,” Hahtokari jokes. That is to say how important the automation of the whole system has to be considered with care.

The Lapuan Jätevesi Oy treats the wastewater from three locations: Lapua, Nurmo and Kuortane. It also maintains municipal wastewater transfer pipelines from Nurmo and Kuortane to Lapua and the central wastewater treatment plant in Lapua. This is where the automation system had to be renewed.

An accurately controlled process

The process starts with the primary treatment where the influent sewage water is strained to remove all large objects and the oxygen level of the water is increased to facilitate microbe activities (microbes clean the water by feeding on its impurities). During this biological treatment phase, the microbes in the wastewater are given suitable growing conditions in terms of temperature, oxygen level and nutrition.

The next phase includes chemical secondary sedimentation, where aluminum-based chemicals are added to the water from the biological treatment to prompt flocculation of slowly-degrading organic and other materials. In the last phase, the remaining sludge is treated by removing water from it. The water separated from the sludge is taken back to the beginning of the treatment process, and the solid sludge is taken to the Lakeuden Etappi biogas plant.

High-tech automation system

The central wastewater treatment plant is fully automated. The automation system from 1992 reached the end of the road. Requirements for the technology selected to renew the wastewater treatment plant were:

• Ease of installation and maintenance
• Flexibility to adapt to fast changing regulation
• Improvement of the over all solution
• Compliance with existing applications and methodologies

The whole system was renewed in 2008 in collaboration with Schneider Electric and Seinäjoen Teollisuussähkö Ky. “The old automation system had served its time. We have been using it every day for the past 16 years,” Hahtokari explains. The original automation system involved six controllers from the TSX7 series, with Monitor 77/2 software environment, and used MAPWAY communication protocol. In the new solution, six Modicon Premium controllers are implemented with Monitor Pro v7.6 and are using Modbus TCP/IP over wireless, using nine of ProSoft Technology’s RadioLinx industrial Ethernet radios. About 2000 process variables are transiting over the wireless network which is also used for programming and maintenance purposes.

Why wireless?

A total of seven locations had to be integrated into one single tight network. The 6 Modicon Premium controllers are located in different buildings on the wastewater treatment plant, and the plant has two control rooms. “We put the second computer here in this higher building so that our feet never get wet,” Hahtokari muses. The plant is situated in an area prone to flooding (its electrical centre had to be refurbished last year after flood damage). Of course, the plant can continue to operate even if the computers are down.

From the user point of view, the first advantage of the wireless networking option was the cost and time savings for the installation: no need to dig trenches, no need to clean up existing cable paths.

The right choice

From the integrator point of view, RadioLinx network was “the easiest part of the implementation. We didn’t have any problem. These radios are very easy to configure and mounting recommendations given by ProSoft Technology were very clear. Schneider Electric made some tests in their office and then explained us how to implement the wireless network on the field.”

From Schneider Electric point of view, the engineering of the network was reduced to a minimum. “When we started the project, we did not locally have any specific RF expertise,” explains Jouni Aarnu, Application Sales and Key Account Manager, Wood and BioEnergy, at Schneider Electric Finland. “We talked to ProSoft Technology Technical Support Engineers and provided them with the basic engineering and layout of the network. They made some calculations that where necessary for this type of application and they provided us with the recommended lists of accessories for each radio location: cables, antenna, lightning protector, etc. They also provided all the necessary recommendations for mounting and implementation in the field. Only one radio had small problem during installation due to an antenna alignment issue, and that was very quickly fixed with the remote support of ProSoft Technology’s engineers.” Aarnu concludes, “The wireless network implementation was an easy job for us and our integrator. We learned from this first project with ProSoft Technology.”

Long term investments

 “The controls have been defined largely in the same way as in the old system,” Hahtokari explains. “Some of the old controls have remained the same, some have been added and we have changed the commands a little bit.” Since 1992, the plant has acquired a new sludge drying centrifuge and the treatment process has been modified by a new chemical treatment with aluminum. The automation system had to evolve accordingly.

“No controller can remain the same forever. There are always some additions and changes along the way. In this industry in particular, the regulations change quite a lot over the years as well,” Sales Manager Jukka Kiiltomäki from Schneider Electric says. Kiiltomäki took part in the original automation project of Lapuan Jätevesi Oy in 1992 as well with Seinäjoen Teollisuussähkö. “We have not had any problems with the implementation of the new automation system. The graphics of the user interface have remained practically the same so we are familiar with the screens and don’t need additional training,” Hahtokari summarises.

The reporting program in use is separate from the SCADA, but it reads data directly from the Modicon Premium controllers as well, via the same network. “It would be possible to integrate reporting together with SCADA software, but we wanted to keep reporting on a separate program and a separate computer at the time because the database is so large. In connection with the automation renewal project, we updated the reporting software as well,” Kiiltomäki says.

In the future, the controllers can be easily modified or complemented when necessary with additional input or output modules. On the network side, the wireless option provides an additional degree of flexibility.

Renewable energy is the way of the future. We see hydropower towers on river beds, wind farms on hillsides, and solar panels on rooftops. Now a company in Pennsylvania has perfected a way to produce biogas, or a gas fuel derived from the decay of organic matter, by extracting methane from decomposing landfill waste and supplying it to customers as an alternative “greenhouse” fuel.

Unharnessed, methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases. The end user’s project uses wells to both oxygenate the waste mass — expediting the decomposition process — and to trap the raw biogas before it can escape into the atmosphere. Separators are then used to clean the gas by extracting methane from the remaining gas substance (composed of carbon dioxide and trace elements) for use as a natural gas alternative.

The whole process creates a symbiotic eco-relationship between waste and energy by aiding in the waste degradation process; repurposing methane that would have otherwise been emitted into the atmosphere; providing a less expensive form of energy to the world; and providing an alternative to less eco-friendly options.

Biogas Distribution

One of the company’s biggest customers, a major international food supplier, uses the green energy as a natural gas substitute to power the boilers that keep its entire plant operating. Because the biogas supplied by the company is approximately half the cost of natural gas, the customer is able to significantly decrease their power costs without much of an upfront investment. To utilize the company’s biogas product, the customer had to customize their boiler system, but that required little more than increasing pipe sizes and installing an alternate piping system to be used in lieu of their natural gas or fuel supply.

“It’s just another supply link that has to be put in and retrofitted into the existing scheme of things. This cost is recouped quickly by the savings they receive from our program,” said an electrical engineer with the biogas-production company.

Monitoring Consumption

The plant is relatively large and spread out, with metering panels located throughout the various buildings on site to track the amount of gas used. Inside each of the three panels is a Rockwell Automation® CompactLogix™ PAC, which monitors gas flow variables to measure consumption at the facility.

To connect the biogas company’s main facility to its customers, a T1 hardwired phone line is used. The next decision was how to link up the end of the phone line at the customer site to the three PACs.

“Because the plants are so spread out, we opted to use wireless at those points to save on installation. We just needed to find a product that is robust and easy to implement,” the electrical engineer said. ProSoft Technology’s water- and dust-tight Industrial Hotspot radios were selected.

“We use CAT-5 cable and Power over Ethernet (PoE) for both power supply to the radio and communication between the radio and the PAC. PoE allows us to plug the radios right into our PACs, plus the casing allows them to be mounted outside without weather concerns,” the engineer said.

The Result: A Fully Automated System

The T1 connection links the plant back to a master PAC in the biogas company’s main plant, which is constantly pulling meter data from the remote customer sites and feeding the information up the chain to corporate for billing.

The bandwidth allows them to see things in real-time, and is entirely automated so there is no need to go onsite at the customer’s facility to collect meter information.

“The radios are great. They saved us on installation and simplified implementation. I would recommend them to anyone,” the engineer said. “My ProSoft sales representative was incredibly helpful, involved in the process, and knowledgeable on the technology and application. He deserves kudos.”

Benefits

The biogas company is a carbon-negative facility. They convert their own product onsite into electricity using an electrical generator to run their facility, so they are entirely self-sustained. The balance of remaining unused electricity is sold to the local utilities company, reducing dependency on fossil fuels.

The food manufacturer can feel good too. By using repurposed methane, the highly potent greenhouse gas was not emitted into the atmosphere.

“Landfill-gas-to-energy is not just an environmentally responsible choice, it makes sense financially,” the biogas company’s engineer said. “Another one of our customers was able to save enough money using our natural gas substitute to add a third shift during the week and schedule weekends into production. The extra shifts mean extra jobs. It’s a nice feeling.”

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

The problem

Two transfer presses at a plant had been causing a ruckus. At least once a quarter, the hardwired network suffered cable degradation, and each occurrence caused the entire operation to shut down for up to two hours. Something had to be done.

The two presses produced up to 1,800 parts per hour. The presses were hardwired and faced frequent downtime from cable breakage or damage, frustrating the team on the plant floor.

It cost Gestamp approximately $14,500 each time they had to replace the RG-6 coaxial cable, plus the value of the 1,500-2,400 parts that could not be produced during the outage. They’d see this process play out about every 2 to 3 months per press.

The Application

Each press consists of one ram, two dies, and two bolsters. The bolsters are mobile metal plates on which the dies are mounted. A die is used as a mold that defines the shape that the part will take. In this application each die is roughly the size of a one-ton pick-up truck.

During the process, a metal sheet is fed across one bolster and comes to a rest above the dies. The ram rises and drops with a force of 800 to 1,400 metric tons, sandwiching the metal sheet between itself and the die to stamp out the parts. While one of the bolsters stamps parts, the second is loaded.

The Challenge

The cable wasn’t as much the problem as the demands placed on it. The cable’s path ran along a corner that required it to achieve such a sharp angle that the cable inevitably wore in this area.

Nevertheless, the end user needed a more reliable network, but there was a question about whether a wireless system would be effective given that wireless points would need to be affixed in a partially obstructed location beneath the bolsters.

The Solution

The company spoke with the local Rockwell Automation® distributor, who recommended using six Frequency Hopping Ethernet radios from ProSoft Technology, along with the end user’s existing ControlLogix® PACs.

ProSoft Technology’s Strategic Product Manager for Wireless Technologies said, “When the direct path (line-of-sight) is obstructed, a signal will reflect off of other objects, taking an alternate path to the receiving radio. Because there are multiple reflections, the signals arrive at the receiving radio at different times, so the radio needs to be able to distinguish between the different signals. ProSoft Technology’s Frequency Hopping radios are able to work with reflected signals because of the narrow band ‘hops’ and changing frequencies, making them less impacted by multipath interference compared to higher-speed, wider-band technologies such as 802.11.”

The Wireless Network

Each press is automated by a dedicated ControlLogix. To replace the hardwired system, four FLEX™ I/O ControlNet™ communication adapters — one for each bolster — were replaced with EtherNet/IP™ adapters and an Ethernet radio. Each PAC was fitted with a second 1756-ENBT Ethernet card and an Ethernet radio.

Performance

“We’ve got a unique application here, involving large moving hunks of steel. Our initial concerns that the steel would impede the radio performance turned out to be unfounded. When the bolsters interfere with line-of-sight, the radios continuously try to read through the bolsters,” a representative for the end user said. 

This specific application shows that though the laws of physics cannot be changed, the obstacles they present can be circumvented when armed with the right technology: in this case, a high-quality industrial wireless solution. By using ProSoft Technology’s Industrial Frequency Hopping radios, the end user has been able to eliminate the downtime plaguing its facility, translating into a savings of up to $174,000 per year, plus the value of parts produced during that time. The wireless system has been live for a while now and the end user is still pleased with the performance of the radios. “In fact, the radios work better than expected. We’ve been very happy with them.”

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Wireless Solutions here. 

Meter Maintenance & Controls Inc. (MMCI) is a system integrator and technology supplier in Redlands, California, that specializes in true turnkey liquid measurement solutions. They have set up or retrofitted plants for a major international paint and coatings company in a number of cities. New plants receive a top-to-bottom paint blending and batching system, with everything from the piping, to the electrical, to the process equipment and programming being supplied, installed, and programmed by MMCI.

To handle the paint blending process in each of these plants, MMCI recommends Emerson Process Micro Motion flow meters. These flow meters measure mass flow, volume flow, and density and temperature variables, and provide precise control measurement of the various ingredients that are blended together to create a given batch of paint.

From a management and operation standpoint, the end user wanted a system that would allow the entire enterprise to be integrated, from the plant floor controls to the information systems. Plant operators need diagnostic information for monitoring of the process and for identifying maintenance needs or problems on the line without requiring that the operator be trained on the control system. The laboratory also needed access to this information for quality control and trending.

As a loyal Rockwell Automation® customer, MMCI chose to use a Rockwell Automation Process Automation System (PAS) to extract data from the flow meters. As each flow meter batches a raw material into a mixing tank, the process variables are recorded by RSSql™ and ultimately presented to the end user’s operators in a Rockwell Automation RSView® HMI. In RSView an alarm system is implemented with predetermined setpoints that, when triggered, alert the operator and provide cues indicating the proper action can be taken. These process variables are also pulled into RSSql to give the end user’s laboratory access to historical data for all past batches.

Challenge

With the ideal equipment selected for the plant, what remained was a networking problem.

Emerson Process developed the HART (Highway Addressable Remote Transducer) Multi-drop protocol in the 1980s, so naturally the Micro Motion systems are programmable and communicate via the protocol. HART is a highly accurate and robust protocol, making it ideal in process industries, but to push this diagnostic information through to the HMI, MMCI needed to convert this data somewhere along the line to Rockwell Automation’s EtherNet/IP™ protocol.

“Rockwell Automation Ethernet communication is like the golden child. With other providers of HART interfaces we have used, we have needed to use an OPC server to collect and distribute the information, which required that we write our own code,” said a programmer and systems engineer for MMCI. “We just needed a way to communicate between our ControlLogix® PAC and the flow meters.”

Solution

Terry Davis, CEO of MMCI, approached Tom Thuerbach, Branch Manager for Royal Wholesale Electric in Riverside, California, to help him find a solution. Thuerbach recommended ProSoft Technology’s EtherNet/IP-to-HART multi-drop communication gateway.

"I know Terry Davis demands high-quality, reliable products for his customers. It was an easy decision to recommend Rockwell Automation and ProSoft products," Thuerbach said.

A Process Automation Business Manager for Rockwell Automation added: "EtherNet/IP is core to Rockwell Automation's Integrated Architecture that helps end-users like this one converge industrial and business technologies plant-wide. ProSoft's gateway offering leverages the EtherNet/IP backbone to create a powerful process control application that can easily communicate with other plant-floor and information systems."

“MMCI has been using Rockwell and ProSoft products for years…possibly since we first started as a company in 1989,” Davis said. “We use ProSoft’s Modbus® ControlLogix cards all the time, so it was a no-brainer. Now we try to use their HART gateway in all the paint plants we work in, and have plans to apply it in many other industries we serve. Just recently MMCI replaced a Pepperl + Fuchs HART Multiplexer system with ProSoft’s in a facility. We were glad to find a modern solution for an old communication platform.”

Implementation

In all, MMCI has set up five plants for the end user, with each project involving anywhere from 30 to 50 flow meters.

In a general application, MMCI has all HART flow meters linked up to a single ProSoft gateway. The gateway routes the data over Ethernet to the ControlLogix. The ProSoft module acts as a bridge, allowing the PAS to communicate seamlessly with the flow meters. Once data is extracted from the meters it can be distributed to RSSql and RSView.

Conclusion

The greatest benefits of the new system are streamlined efficiency, simplified monitoring and operation, and the creation of a quality-control process for preventative and predictive maintenance.

“Our plants are happy with the feedback that we are now receiving from our meters,” says the end user’s director of engineering. “Using this information, we have been able to modify our preventative maintenance plans to stay ahead of any issues before they occur. For example, we began changing out filter bags before the pumps and meters. In the past if the bag wasn't changed out we would reduce the flow to the point that we would have meter inaccuracies. Now that the system tracks this data, we have been able to see how often we should be changing these bags to avoid any errors when batching, and are able to act before an error occurs.

“Also, in the past if someone had a theory that a metering problem caused a quality issue with a batch, we could not prove or disprove them. We had to look at the meter the next time it was used. Now, with stored data several times per minute for each meter charge, we can go to the real data from the questioned charge and either prove or disprove this theory. The ability to avoid meter inaccuracies will definitely help us from a quality standpoint.”

The end user’s Lead Engineer added: “With the HART system we can track and standardize flow rates of materials between sites. We also use the density outputs to monitor solids levels in our slurry tanks. Logging the history enables us to track line cloggages and take preventive action. In several situations we have used the historical HART data in conjunction with RSSql to troubleshoot issues that have occurred within the batching system itself... meters faulting out, misdirected flows, incorrect RSSql transactions, and more.”

From a monitoring and operations standpoint, the process allows any person in the plant at any given time to view activity on the floor, the Watch Dog Timers set up by MMCI, and any other critical information. This saves money and time for the end user in regard to hiring and training employees, plus the rework and maintenance that would otherwise have to be done by a technician. The system has a user-friendly manner and because the measurement system is so accurate, the system nearly runs itself and downtime is mostly eliminated.

“I know the end user appreciates not having to call us out there every time they run into a maintenance hiccup, though the systems still operate without issue today,” Davis said.

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s communication solutions for Rockwell Automation platforms here.

With a pumping station that is 25 stories tall, the Changi Water Reclamation Plant, located on the island of Singapore, is the cornerstone of the Singapore Deep Water Sewage System. This system is responsible for purifying wastewater for consumption throughout Singapore. The NEWater plant 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 the Changi Water Reclamation Plant. 

 
This monumental project needed low maintenance costs, real-time communication, remote diagnostics, and integration 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 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 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, Vice President of Global Marketing at 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 and VSD), Yokogawa (Flow transmitter & Differential Pressure sensor), Vega (Ultra Sonic sensors, Level sensors, etc), ABB (VSD), and Schneider Electric (VSD & DOL starters).

With Intelligent Field Device Management (FDT/DTM), ProSoft Technology as a third party has helped Schneider Electric to integrate the PROFIBUS device level to its PLC.
 
The ProSoft module 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 the Siemens ASIC ASPC2 Step E with Infineon C165 Microprocessor, the module’s firmware is flash-upgradeable, and allows for slave messaging, extended diagnostics, alarm handling, notification, and more.
 
Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s solutions for Schneider Electric platforms here.

In an Illinois city, the water department’s 28 employees were scrambling to meet the needs of their consumers. The treatment division’s responsibilities included the operation and maintenance of fourteen wells, a lime softening treatment plant, three booster pumping stations, four elevated tanks, and one ground storage reservoir. The distribution division was charged with operating and maintaining 170 miles of water mains, reading and maintaining more than 13,000 services, and the installation and repair of water mains, valves and hydrants.

All of this activity was being accomplished with an outdated system containing RTUs that performed only minimal SCADA and licensed-frequency radios that sent data at a mere 300 bits per second. Overall, the system was complicated to understand, expensive to service and difficult to repair.

The water department turned to SCADAware, a local system integration firm, and expressed their desire for a new system, built from the ground up. In an effort to control costs, and allow the city to create, install, maintain, and repair its new system with minimal outside help, SCADAware’s president recommended a PC-driven, license-free, frequency hopping spread spectrum solution.

The water department’s new system now uses a primary and secondary server within its water treatment plant for HMI and PC-based control. The computers collect and monitor data from all of the city’s wells, tanks, and lift stations via a ProSoft Technology wireless serial network. Programmable Field Couplers allow water treatment personnel to make adjustments and activate controls. A SIXNET Ethernet-to-Serial is used to convert the incoming serial data to Ethernet, allowing the data to be accessed on the plant’s LAN.

“The monitoring of wells and tanks using the wireless network cut down on drive time and time away from the department,” said ProSoft’s Wireless Manager. “The sophisticated software alerts water department employees of problems, reducing response times.”

Although justifying upgrades of this nature can be very challenging for municipal departments, the team at the water department felt that this upgrade would have an immediate, positive economic impact on performance and efficiency. They were right.

“The easily administered SCADA system and the wireless network allowed the city to have the flexibility to upgrade and change their system as the need arises,” said a ProSoft Wireless Engineer. “Future expansion has now become more affordable for the water department. The present solution has also become much more efficient and less burdensome to maintain.”

For more information about ProSoft Technology’s Wireless Solutions, click 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.

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.

Venezuela is home to the Western Hemisphere’s largest oil reserves, and its economy is extremely oil-dependent. A major oil company in the country is constantly striving to remain competitive and profitable in the world energy scene.

Initial Requirements

 A while back, the company conducted an analysis of their technology requirements for their oil production fields in Eastern Venezuela. The requirements identified included:

• Control system with strong third-party vendor developers and integrators
• Direct plug-in communications modules
• Use of intelligent devices (instrumentation, electrical, and mechanical)
• Open system and standard protocols on plant floor

Because of its internationally recognized brand name, the availability of future product support and its strong third party vendor/partners, Rockwell Automation was chosen to replace the end user’s legacy control system with their 1771 PLC processors. This allowed the end user to incorporate technology from some of Rockwell Automation’s Encompass™ partners, including ProSoft Technology.

In Eastern Venezuela, the end user needed to add new tank farms, pipelines, pump and valve stations, and a SCADA system for control. Simply stated, petroleum produced at a well contains a mixture of oil, gas and water. This mixture is pumped from the pumping stations to the tank farms via a complex network of pipelines. It then undergoes field processing to separate the salable oil from the gas and water. Once the field processing is complete, 1.2 million barrels per day of crude oil are pumped through the end user’s pipeline from the actuator network to the coast for shipment to refining facilities in the United States.

Tank Gauging, Electric Actuator, and Motor Protection Relays

The SCADA system used by the end user communicates to many of its end devices via the Modbus® protocol.

The tank gauging systems monitor tank level. This data is transmitted to the Rockwell Automation processor, which automatically opens and closes valves to and from the tank. The electric actuator network controls the influx of oil from the pumping stations to the main trunk line. The end user installed medium-voltage soft starters for their control valves in order to reduce mechanical stress, starting current, and hammering.

ProSoft Technology’s single-slot Modbus interface module was used in Rockwell Automation’s 1771 PLC processors to communicate with the tank gauging systems, the electric actuator, two-wire control systems, and the motor protection relays. 

A few years later, the end user used the Modbus interface in a SCADA system that was installed to control the movement of heavy crude oil from 1,500 wells in Eastern Venezuela to the coast for shipment to the U.S. for refining.

HART Multidrop module to the rescue

A few years after the SCADA system project, ProSoft was contacted by Perez-Compac in Argentina and Rockwell Automation in Venezuela, requesting their help in communicating between Rockwell Automation’s ControlLogix PLC using DF1 and numerous Rosemount end devices using the HART protocol. Representatives from three companies, including the original end user, worked together to test ProSoft’s HART gateway. Approximately 15 HART Multidrop modules underwent extensive factory acceptance testing for control of the original end user’s crude oil production units in eastern Venezuela.

“The HART Multidrop module provides maximum efficiency for HART networks,” said the ProSoft Regional Sales Manager who worked on the application.

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s solutions for Oil and Gas applications here.

A hundred years ago, grain was ground into flour using two large stones, called millstones. Since then, the science of milling grain into flour has changed dramatically.

Improved equipment, better transportation, and computerization have increased milling capacity, allowing mills to expand their production. Four newly constructed mills in Egypt are a prime example. In an effort to cut costs and produce a higher grade flour, developers have built new, modern mills in the same buildings where giant millstones used to stand.

Old Stones to PLC Control

A Danish company designed and built four new mills in Egypt with Automatic Syd A/S as the sub-supplier of the electrical system.

In two locations, the mills were actually converted from old stone mills into modern milling plants. In the other two locations, there were turnkey projects, rehabilitating old roller mills. The company installed a total of 34 of the new mills in 3 of the locations.

The new setup not only incorporates the very latest technology, such as fully electronic feeder units and a toothed belt differential drive, but is also simple and user-friendly. In the fourth mill, the company installed a short milling system based on their own developed disc mill. This new solution allows the mill to produce nearly twice as much flour per day, in a substantially reduced area, compared to a conventional roller mill.

Automatic Syd specializes in the design and manufacturing of electrical switchboards and control panels, and the development of customized PLC and PC software. It was their job to supply a centralized control station that would allow one miller to monitor the entire plant. The company and Automatic Syd faced a choice: They could install their own version of a proprietary system, running closed applications, or they could opt for an open communication platform.

Previously, proprietary systems were the norm. But companies soon found that these closed systems were, in the long run, user-unfriendly, making the process of integrating new processes and equipment difficult, expensive, and time-consuming, and requiring diversified skills and tools. Today, these closed systems are slowly being replaced by open communication platforms.

The Modbus® protocol is one of these open applications. It has become so popular that in many instances it is accepted as the de facto industry standard. This was the application chosen for the mills. Allen-Bradley® PLC-5® processors were connected to the mill equipment. However, the A-B processors are not inherently Modbus-compatible. Therefore, a Modbus interface was needed. 

Automatic Syd contacted Rockwell Automation-Denmark for a possible solution. They recommended ProSoft Technology's Modbus communication module. This module acts as a Modbus interface, providing highly configurable Modbus Master and Slave capabilities to A-B platforms. "Quite simply, the ProSoft Modbus communication interface makes it possible for Allen-Bradley platforms to communicate with a multitude of industrial devices," Doug Sharratt, founder of ProSoft, said at the time of this application. "Because of our partnership with Rockwell Automation®, our Modbus module is designed to fit in the A-B rack, allowing all data exchange to occur over the backplane." 

The A-B PLC, with the ProSoft module installed in the rack, collects the data and displays it on the miller's PC using RSView®.

Centralized Control Cuts Costs

"With the ProSoft module, one miller can easily monitor the entire plant and, in case of emergencies, temporarily take over control until another miller has reached the specific machine to solve the problem,” said an Automatic Syd representative. “This is a cost-effective savings, since it takes fewer personnel and you get a lot of information such as alarms, stock levels, motor loads, etc. from the plant."

ProSoft’s Regional Sales Director noted: “Many industrial devices available today have implemented communications using the Modbus protocol. With our communication interfaces, users in a variety of industries are able to gather a great deal of data that can enhance the understanding of the process or, as in the case of these flour mills, allow the system to be controlled more efficiently." 

Accomplishing the task of building modern flour mills where millstones used to stand is a complex undertaking. It takes the combined efforts of a number of companies, all working together in their area of expertise.

Automatic Syd A/S was part of that equation, and was sub-contracted to supply the electrical needs for the four mills. One of Automatic Syd's tasks required that all of the roller mills (in some cases for as many as 30 roller mills) in each plant be connected to a centralized control panel. 

"Every mill has a keypad, where the miller can take over the control of the mill in emergencies," said a representative of Automatic Syd. "But some of the mills have 30 roller mills, and without centralized control, it is impossible to monitor all roller mills." 

In order to incorporate the most modern equipment and processes available, the companies chose Allen-Bradley hardware because of its nationally recognized name brand and the availability of future product support. The Modbus protocol was chosen because of its “open” communication, making future expansion and change easy and cost-effective.

Integrating multiple applications was exactly what was needed for the Egytian flour mills, since the specifications called for the Modbus protocol. That was where ProSoft Technology stepped in.

"What we do may seem like a small part of the big picture," said ProSoft’s Regional Sales Director. "But the fact is, our interface modules allow companies like Allen-Bradley and Automatic Syd use the equipment they feel is best suited for the situation without having to worry about specific protocols. If we don't have an application interface that will work for a particular client, we're willing to seriously look at developing one. We view ourselves as a ‘market-driven company.’ ”

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Modbus solutions here.

Making its way along Peru’s Lower Urabamba River, a jaguar’s whispery black shape easily tangles with the darkness of nearby vegetation. Below the tree canopy, two parallel curves of the dual pipelines shoot into the surrounding Amazon, making their way through the jungle, far past where the big cat will wander and perhaps find its prey. Along the tree canopy, equipment dangles from tethered lines. All of the equipment needed for this massive project is flown in and lowered from the sky onto hilltop clearings.

From underground reserves more than a mile deep, natural gas and natural gas liquid will flow through the pipelines under the control of an integrated solution, a flow computer that will use the jungle’s underground resources so that much-needed natural gas can properly make its journey to Peru’s coast. For the Peruvians, the pipelines’ path to the sea will eventually see natural gas and natural gas liquid processed and sold to help create an increased standard of living.

 Facing one of the greatest pipeline challenges in Peruvian history, ISI Solutions, the system integrator for the project, knew the application needed to rely on a cost-effective automation solution that combined the power of control and flow computers to integrate, operate, and maintain pipeline control. The pipeline company needed an internationally recognized name-brand solution with local distribution. They needed a product line that would enable complex control over a Peruvian pipeline where failure to provide much needed natural gas and natural gas liquid could mean dire consequences for the Peruvian economy.

The answer came when ISI discovered a simple solution: ProSoft Technology had a Flow Computer that was compatible with Rockwell Automation’s ControlLogix® platform. As an in-rack solution, it could easily plug into the Rockwell Automation® backplane.

An electrical engineer for ISI Solutions tested the ControlLogix platform with ProSoft Technology’s in-rack flow computer communicating with the backplane. He found such integration and compatibility a huge plus versus utilizing a stand-alone flow computer that might have provided a similar service.

Since ISI Solutions is a system integration company that provides consulting, integration, and management solutions for a multitude of pipeline-related projects, finding an automation solution meant choosing a product line that they knew was going to work.

“We recommended the use of a Rockwell platform early on as we wanted to add a highly functional backplane and flow computer,” said ISI Solutions’ electrical engineer. “The challenges were significant. The customer’s pipelines needed flow management control with a solution that could fit the Allen-Bradley® backplane. What really made the Rockwell platform functional for the end user was ProSoft Technology’s involvement in solving their flow computer needs with their in-rack flow computer module.

“Implementation of products such as these are just part of standard development,” the engineer explained. “We design pipelines, then program, then test; then we start up. This is just the way we do things. If you want professional quality on a pipeline such as this one, then you really have to make sure the technology fits the needs of the project.”

Such challenges also included converting the Rockwell Automation protocol to Modbus® TCP/IP.

“For that situation, we found ProSoft’s Modbus TCP/IP Client/Server module very reliable and efficient,” the engineer said.

How the application is set up

The company’s natural gas liquid (NGL) pipeline has one scraper launcher, one pumping station with a mass metering system, three pumping stations without a metering system, two pressure reduction stations, one receiving station, three scraping stations, and 19 block valve sites. The natural gas (NG) pipeline has one pressure control station, five scraping stations, one receiving and measuring station, four fuel gas modules, and 22 block valve sites. Since fuel gas will be supplied to power the NGL pumps, a metering system was installed to provide the final mass balance along the NG line. In addition, a liquid mass metering system was supplied for each pumping station in order to cross-check the leak detection system.

The pipeline SCADA system has two control centers in local cities. One will be used in case of a major problem at the MCC location, or interruption of communications to the MCC.

Local control systems will control both pipelines and bring information to the SCADA Host system at the control centers to supervise those pipelines and their associated facilities: receiving, pumping, scraping, and block valve stations.

Since both pipelines run parallel and close to each other for 550 km, in many instances they will share a common local control system (i.e.: A common RTU or PLC). Local control systems will be implemented with PACs from Rockwell Automation.

The ISI Solutions engineer emphasized the importance of working with one vendor and one technology in an in-rack project of such a complex magnitude.

To begin with, ProSoft’s flow computer module makes for a single point of communication with tight programmable controller and flow computer integration on a compatible backplane. That translated into an easier learning curve for the system integrator and end user. Other benefits include:

• An easy-to-use software utility, which takes a lot of the complexity out of the set-up that stand-alone flow computers require
• Password security prevents potential pipeline disaster by eliminating non-user ability to change calculations and variables

When asked how ProSoft Technology might bring further solutions to such pipeline construction and development in the near future, the engineer said he was looking at ProSoft’s wireless radios as a cost-efficient, wireless solution for bridging data between pipeline block stations across South American rivers and gorges. He felt wireless technology could help deter costs in constructing cables between hazardous points as well as running costly cable between pumping stations that may only be 10 kilometers apart, well within the range of ProSoft’s wireless capabilities.

“A lot of projects are depending on this pipeline,” he said while simulating pipeline measurement stations with the AFC module at ProSoft Technology’s headquarters in Bakersfield, California. “With such professional quality in a job, we had to ensure the technology fit the needs of the overall project.”

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Integrated Oil and Gas solutions here.

Californians have always been faced with the problem of how best to conserve, control and move water. California has a wide diversity of climactic and geographical contrasts. The northern part of the state, with its alpine forests receives as much as 100 inches or more of rain per year, while the central and southern parts of the state range from arid desert to fertile farm land with some areas receiving less than 2 inches per year. Population centers have grown up in locations where there is not a sufficient water supply. The central valley, running from Sacramento to Bakersfield, contains some of the most fertile farm land in the world, most of which is dependent on irrigation. Because of this need to conserve, control and move water to areas of need, California developed the State Water Project, the largest state-built water development project in the United States

One water district is a small part of this statewide water project. Located in the southern portion of California’s fertile San Joaquin Valley, the district supplies irrigation water for over 45,000 acres of crops including grapes, citrus, almonds, and pistachios.

A while back, the district decided that the level of reliability was not acceptable in its current system. Parts were no longer available for their legacy system and buried wire was degrading with age. So, the district decided to upgrade its system to allow remote control of facilities and monitoring of power usage and quality, and to enhance the ability to perform load shifting for remote facilities.

“The water district needed a name-brand solution with local support,” said the operations manager for Prousys, Inc., the system integrator chosen to construct the new system. “We recommended Allen-Bradley® hardware.”
 

Allen-Bradley processors were installed to replace the aging Westinghouse PLCs at each of the five remote well sites. In order to monitor power usage and detect anomalies in the Multilin PQM Power Monitors, a ProSoft Technology Modbus Communication Module was installed in each processor.

“This is a perfect example of how ProSoft modules are used ever day to connect Allen-Bradley hardware with other networks,” said the ProSoft Regional Sales Manager who worked with the district. “We receive numerous requests on a daily basis for modules in the water/wastewater industry. Because our modules are designed to be used as ‘in-rack’ solutions for Allen-Bradley processors, it is a cost-effective way for plant managers to use their existing Allen-Bradley equipment with other network’s protocols.”
 

A SCADA Master Control system was also installed consisting of an Intellution Fix/DMACS HMI and an Allen-Bradley PLC with two ProSoft DF1 Communication Modules in order to poll five well sites, three pump stations, four reservoirs, and five check stations via a Data-Linc radio and modem.
 

Redundancy is a key factor in most water systems. Prousys installed and configured a second Intellution HMI to provide control redundancy. In the event of a failure in the primary controller, the system switches to the backup, ensuring seamless control in the plant.

“The system will keep right on running if the HMI goes down,” explained Prousys’ operations manager.

 The system’s pump stations are controlled according to the levels in the associated wells. The precise operation of the system depends on the accurate measurement of system levels and flows across the entire water system. Flow and level meters relay these measures back to the central control room for monitoring and control. Allen-Bradley PanelView™ terminals were installed at each of the three pump stations.
 

“The new system now gives the water district full control of all remote sites,” said Prousys’ operations manager. “The SCADA system can now track station flow rates, overflow events, well level, in-flow, and out-flow. They also have the capability to detect numerous system failures including power, high/low voltage, phase imbalance, high/low amperes, frequency, load factor, and low water level. Since the ProSoft modules communicate over the backplane with the Allen-Bradley processors, they were critical to the success of this project. ProSoft provided the ‘missing link’ in the communication chain, seamlessly allowing connectivity between these differing networks.”
  
 Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s solutions for Rockwell Automation® platforms here.

A while back, a major oil company took a good look at their legacy system and didn’t like what it saw.

The centralized control system, which had been installed in 1978, used multi-drop, leased telephone lines. Four operators at consoles in Houston, Texas, controlled the pipelines for 12 hours a day. This left large stretches of its pipeline unmanned, with no support. The system was already operating at maximum capacity and had many technical risks. They were concerned about the availability of replacement parts for the old RTUs, loop controllers, and alarm annunciators. They needed to know the exact contents of a pipeline, wherever it was, instead of the meter-in/meter-out leak detection they had. Their data entry system was cumbersome, in some cases requiring that data be entered two or three times.

“We reviewed our control system strategy and concluded that we had a unique and hard-to-maintain system. It consisted of dedicated, custom-built and programmed RTUs, along with a lot of odds and ends,” said the company’s lead project engineer.

In short, the company needed to improve its pipeline reporting system by adopting a platform that would let it automate the manual activities to improve efficiency in its small-diameter, high-pressure pipelines running throughout the United States.

First, the company abandoned its old leased telephone lines and went to a VSAT satellite system. The VSAT Ku Band Network system supports 170 sites where the company has 200 PLCs and RTU addresses handling about 20,000 I/O points.

In addition to the VSAT, the company installed a dial backup using analog lines and communicating via the Modbus® protocol to 140 critical sites.

 “When the company installed the new equipment, the old equipment couldn’t communicate with it,” said Ken Hopwood, Software Engineering Manager at ProSoft Technology. “So, they used a ProSoft Modbus module as an interface.”

“When the company approached us, they needed to eliminate the need for continuous polling that was necessary on their old system,” Mr. Hopwood said. “It created communication delays when using the satellite which were expensive. The module we created for them is basically a Modbus Slave but with a few modifications. One, it has Report by Exception, giving it the ability to send timed, unsolicited data reports to the Master Station in Houston. This eliminated the need for continuous polling. The CMS module also contains some specialized data that is unique to the company.”

“In the past, many communication systems were closed,” said the ProSoft Regional Sales Manager who helped the company. “Since the Modbus protocol is open, it has become a de facto industry standard for many industrial devices today, especially in the oil and gas industry. The popularity of our Modbus module doesn’t really surprise me. I see instances like this company’s on a weekly basis. Using the Modbus module to communicate from old equipment to new equipment is simply the most cost-effective way (and in some cases, the only way) to accomplish their goals.”

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s solutions for the Oil and Gas industry here.