Industry: Food Processing
Services and Materials Provided:
- System analysis
- Project management
- Control system design
- CAD drawing
- Shop fabrication of panels
- Operator interface programming
- CLX programming
- System training
Situation Analysis
The existing production line was controlled by an out-of-date processor for which spare parts could not be purchased. Furthermore, the existing controls did not allow for automatic batching of the products.
Applied Technologies sent an engineer to visit with the customer to determine the desired capabilities of the new system. The AT engineer worked with the plant to update PID drawings of the existing system and then design a complete electrical drawings package.
Once the drawing package was complete it was submitted to the customer for approval prior to Applied Technologies fabricating the enclosures. Three Applied Technologies Engineers then started programming the ControlLogix Processor for all the new I/O with the desired capabilities. The program was divided between three engineers in order to meet the startup deadline.
One week prior to startup Applied Technologies did a simulation of the system at Applied Technologies’ Bridgeton Office. The customer had four representatives look over the simulation for the day. This simulation confirmed that the recipe editing and batching would work as desired. It also saved startup time by allowing the customer to give the Applied Technologies engineers input on screen changes that would be needed.
Applied Technologies went onsite for startup which started with I/O check out. Once the I/O was verified all I/O was tested with the PanelViews to verify that the manual controls would work for all equipment. Then dry testing was performed to confirm the automatic batching. This process of startup was completed in ten days.
Technical Details
A ControlLogix 5555 was installed with all new ControlLogix I/O to control the existing equipment. All remote I/O was controlled over ControlNet. Two PanelView 1000es were added to control the new batching process. Three additional PanelView 1000s were added for operators to view and control equipment in multiple areas of the plant. Four 1305 drives that are controlled over DeviceNet were also installed. Ten Hardy Scale cards were included in the ControlLogix I/O to be used for automatic weighing of products.
The new hardware enabled Applied Technologies to write a new program for controlling the process. The new program allows for forty different recipes to be stored for automatic batching. The recipes can be run or edited at either one of the two PanelView 1000es. Once the desired edits are made the operator can save it back to the ControlLogix for future use. The recipe editing feature also allows for production tests to be run by editing the runtime recipe but not saving it to the recipe file in the ControlLogix, thus affecting only the test batch being run.
Each of the five PanelViews can monitor the equipment in its area during the automatic batching of the recipes. Each PanelView can also control the equipment in the area in a manual mode. Interlocks in the ControlLogix control when each piece of equipment can be controlled in a manual mode.