By Lauren Robeson

Four water treatment plants sit in the Milan area, part of northern Italy. Novus s.r.l., a company that specializes in water treatment technology and a service center for a Canadian UV system manufacturer, needed to oversee the control of the plants’ water treatment sensors…from the manufacturer’s headquarters, where system specialists are constantly present and ready to support customers worldwide. 

The manufacturer is a leader in the UV water treatment systems market that wants to provide its customers with top-notch technical support. The company knew that constant monitoring of its plants would allow it to obtain savings in terms of energy consumption, because it would allow Novus’ specialists to check the running parameters and adjust the system settings in the plants in real time.

Novus wanted to explore options to let it have a centralized monitoring system to support its customers on daily operations and troubleshooting. This would also help them reduce travel expenses.

E.S.A Engineering, a system integrator in Italy, proposed using ProSoft Technology’s ICX35 Industrial Cellular Gateway, which would communicate with a FactoryTalk® View SE SCADA system. In addition to allowing the company to monitor the plants at all times, the gateway supported 4G LTE with fallback to 3G, enabling high-speed data rates, clear communications, and longevity for the application.

With the gateway, Novus specialists would be able to analyze in real time the running parameters from each system under the real water conditions, and suggest the right settings to customer operators and maintenance technicians. This would help them decrease power usage while maintaining disinfection requirements.

E.S.A Engineering Technical and Sales Engineer Salvatore Perrucci had prior knowledge of ProSoft solutions’ quality and technical support.

“In more than 15 years, ProSoft products have always met our expectations, and they are very easy to use because of the good-quality manuals,” Mr. Perrucci said.

Beyond the benefits brought by 4G communications, Novus appreciated streamlined communications between the SCADA system and the plants’ controllers thanks to the gateway’s Ethernet Layer 2 connections. The company also enjoyed real-time control for diagnostics, in addition to optimized maintenance.

(While Novus opted to use a VPN private server for its application, the Industrial Cellular Gateway can also be used for secure remote access via ProSoft Connect, a cloud-native platform.)

With this new setup, Novus is able to propose to its customers remote supervision of the system and reply exactly to the HMI in the field in order to share data with customer maintenance technicians in real time.

And at the end of the installation an extra perk was discovered: The server, through the modem connected to the PLC, allows the specialist in Canada to work on the PLC like it was on his desk.

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Industrial Cellular Gateway by clicking here.

By Lauren Robeson

At BMTI GmbH, construction machines and vehicles are constantly in motion. The Switzerland company is a technical service provider of the STRABAG Group, a construction company. BMTI manages the internal planning, rental, maintenance, and repair of machines and vehicles that are used by the STRABAG Group.

As in any business, time is money in the construction industry. At the BMTI facility, one person had to be out at the front gate continually to allow access to the property to construction truck drivers. That’s an important task but one that BMTI thought could be streamlined to optimize the resources of the company: If that one person didn’t need to be out at the gate all day every day, they could be freed up to do other tasks.

They worked with Patrick Müller, a sales representative at the distributor Staveb AG. Mr. Müller suggested a point-to-point Wireless I/O solution from ProSoft Technology.

“The Wireless I/O system allowed the customer to forgo conduits, trenching, permits, and laying any cable, a definite benefit given the 150-meter distance between the gate and the office,” Mr. Müller said.

The Wireless I/O system was installed quickly. The company appreciated that an advanced knowledge of wireless connections was not required for the system’s installation, as well as the lack of maintenance required for the system. The construction trucks’ drivers, meanwhile, like that there is not a long waiting time to get past the gate: Now they only need to press a button at the gate, which triggers a signal in the office to open the gate for them.

Find out more about ProSoft Technology’s Wireless I/O systems at  http://psft.com/B4V.

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.

By Lauren Robeson

Antonio Zamperla SPA, a major theme-park attraction company whose rides can be experienced worldwide, offers something for everyone: coaster-lovers of all ages and their less thrill-seeking friends. Even for the former group, the Disk’O Coaster is surely an adventure: It essentially rocks and spins riders who sit in pedestal seats that face outward, offering a visual smorgasbord while speeding along a 300-foot (100-meter) track at up to 43 miles per hour (70 km/h). A feeling of weightlessness for the riders only adds to the target audience’s thrills. It’s a major attraction for many park visitors, and a prime example of Zamperla’s dedication to thinking outside the box when it comes to artistry and movement in its rides.

All in all, it’s a ride for which you’d want to have as many safety checks as possible.

Three years ago in Altavilla Vicentina, Italy, Zamperla started conducting testing to make the Disk’O Coaster even safer. They had been using a non-Safety I/O PLC with a more conventional Bluetooth wireless system that was based on standard OMNI antennas. Different solutions were considered, and Zamperla eventually decided to opt for a setup involving a Rockwell Automation CompactLogix™ L43S. That solution also involved the communications implementation of ProSoft Technology’s Industrial Hotspot Ethernet radios for safety I/O, along with a Power DC and PowerFlex™ 7S drive on the remote side of the solution.

The addition of ProSoft’s radios came about from the recommendation of Michele Piccoli and Davide Gasparini of Rockwell Automation.

“Thanks to ProSoft Technology’s wireless solution, it was possible to provide a complete proposal to Zamperla,” Mr. Piccoli said. “It was easy to work together to evaluate, test, realize, and set up the solution.”

ProSoft Technology Regional Sales Manager Andrea Mazzucchelli worked with them to come up with a solution that would help ensure the safety of the Disk’O Coaster’s riders.

The main goal in the new communications system was to replace the previous Bluetooth communication setup, incorporating distributed Safety POINT I/O™.  The Safety POINT I/O™ was used on board the ride to monitor the safety belts and the doors of the coaster. ProSoft’s radios also increased reliability and throughput, working in conjunction with the CompactLogix to provide a smooth, safe ride for thrill-seekers. When safety is a top priority and equipment is moving as fast as the Disk’O Coaster often is, highly reliable connections are a must.

The Industrial Hotspot radios have helped improve the communications system, according to Fabio Berti, chief engineer for Zamperla. The radios support fast RF data rates up to 300 Mbps, delivering great packet-per-second performance and ensuring reliable communication. The company also appreciated being able to monitor the radios’ performance and status using an HMI, thanks to diagnostic tags. Between the system performance and ease of use, Zamperla saw that ProSoft’s radios within a Rockwell Automation infrastructure offered a solution that was too good to pass up.

“The goal was to improve the efficiency and the security of the application,” Mr. Berti said. “Thanks to ProSoft’s wireless Ethernet-based solution, it is possible to use Safety I/O and improve the data rate of communication, satisfying Zamperla’s needs.”

An added bonus was ProSoft Technology’s technical support commitment. The company offers technical support for all products, and regional offices around the world ensure that you’ll hear from ProSoft’s experts as soon as possible.

“We’re proud to have been able to provide Zamperla with a wireless solution that’s perfectly fit to keep up with the Disk’O Coaster,” Mr. Mazzucchelli said. 

More Information:

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

For more information about A. Zamperla S.p.A, visit www.zamperla.com.

By Lauren Robeson

mySCADA Technologies, an OEM based in Prague, had worked for more than 15 years in the industrial automation field, focused on the development and production of SCADA systems and HMIs. Their process visualization products and solutions, built on open architecture, allowed for modern and effective monitoring of automation processes. They ranged from smaller projects (such as intelligent personal and commercial buildings, or water treatment plants) to large-scale applications, such as tunnel or power-plant control. They have a reputation as being a friendly company with user-intuitive products.

Then they had an idea: why not try to integrate a full-featured HMI/SCADA system into a PLC/PAC? The advantages that this would bring to their typical customer were huge, including ease of installation; a reduced number of required components, helping to reduce costs; increased security; and superior performance. Previously, the end user would have had to install a SCADA system on a remote server and connect it to the PAC over an Ethernet interface. This system required regular maintenance, increasing the overall cost of the solution. The new solution, mySCADA Technologies proposed, would be a modern, Web-based, professional setup featuring complete options for professional visualization, processing, and analysis of real-time industrial processes.

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.

“We have worked with ProSoft Technology’s products for over 10 years,” said Petr Svoboda, Ph.D. and Director of mySCADA Technologies. “ProSoft was always reliable and met our expectations, so they were our first choice for this new software.”

This particular pairing of hardware and software created “the perfect match for the end users,” said Matej Cerny, Technical Director at mySCADA Technologies.

“Running full-featured SCADA as part of the controller brings a lot of advanced features for the end user,” Mr. Cerny added.

He wasn’t exaggerating the scope of this new setup. This solution included the following features:

• The setup supports all leading Web browsers, and allows visualizations to be displayed and accessed on any Windows, Linux, iOS, or Android devices. On tablets, the system is designed to be zoomed in on easily. Essentially, it can be accessed anytime from nearly anywhere.

• A complex alarm system allows the process of thousands of alarms per second. The user is able to define alarm activation values; value and time threshold; alarm severity; and notification announcements.

• Graphical functions such as displays, animations, and effects are easily accessible without coding.

• The system can be controlled easily by the end user. There are nine user levels with different privileges, making it easier for the end user to customize access. In addition, multiple users can use the software simultaneously.

• Data and trends are saved directly to the CompactLogix, while a free tool for reporting can be used across multiple platforms and is user-intuitive. Reports can be sent on a user-set schedule depending on the end user’s needs. 

• The installation of the software is done through install script, saving the end user time.

In addition, development time was greatly reduced, with simpler and faster installation. A quick mean time to repair (MTTR) is available in the case of equipment failure since data can quickly be retrieved and transferred to a new module. Maintenance by IT personnel is virtually never needed since this system (unlike a typical PC-based solution) does not require patches, updates, or virus fixes. An HMI/SCADA system without a PC component saves end users money, and is also very reliable.

“Because the ProSoft interface has a much higher mean time between failure (MTBF) rate than a regular PC server, the reliability is much higher,” said Krzysztof Hajzyk, Regional Sales Manager for ProSoft Technology.

Thanks to the Linux Development Module, the sky was the limit for mySCADA Technologies creatively and technologically. The solution the company created helps end users step back from frequent maintenance and focus on what’s really important -  visualizing a path of success in their own operations.

For more information about ProSoft Technology’s Linux Development Modules, visit http://psft.com/BKV. To see more information about how the module was used by mySCADA Technologies, go to 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. 

In Altavilla Vicentina, Italy, a Clever Sleever Machine places and shrink-wraps decorative sleeves on bottles at a rate of 18,000 pieces per hour. That’s five pieces per second. So, imagine how much money would be lost every time they have to stop production to replace a damaged or broken slip ring.

That was the problem facing Clever Machines.

Clever provides a wide variety of sleever machines and heat-shrink tunnel applicators. These machines can perform every type of sleeve application required by the client, at different production speeds, including linear and rotary machines suitable to apply full and partial sleeves and safety seals. These machines can be found in many different packaging applications including food and beverage, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals.

“Through constant technological research, in conjunction with our clients, we are committed to finding solutions to our clients’ needs,” said Tagliaferro Silverio, owner of Clever Machines.

So, when a client came to them with the need to reduce downtime on their Sleever Machine because of the time-consuming nature of maintaining slip rings, Clever contacted Rockwell Automation®.  Rockwell Automation suggested they use ProSoft Technology’s Fast Roaming Industrial Hotspot radios and a 5 GHz radiating cable as the antenna.

The Industrial Hotspot supports Access Point, Repeater, and Bridging and Client modes, and delivers fast data rates up to 300 Mbps.

“The Fast Roaming feature of this radio maintains seamless, high-speed connections particularly well-suited for moving equipment like Clever’s Sleever Machine,” said Andrea Mazzucchelli, Regional Sales Manager for ProSoft Technology.

“This was the excellent packet-per-second performance and robust communications we were looking for,” said Andrea Parlato, Electrical Division Technical Manager for Clever.

Now a CompactLogix™ L36 communicates to the POINT I/O™ through ProSoft Technology’s radios, providing fast and reliable data from their rounding tables, which apply the labels and heat-seal them to the bottles. 

The radiating cables essentially replace the slip rings, virtually eliminating the expensive downtime associated with maintaining them. A radiating cable is a long, flexible antenna with slots to radiate RF signals that can be installed around corners, along monorail systems and through tunnels to propagate wireless data signals in situations that are tough or impossible for traditional antennas. Since the radiating cable antenna can be mounted within inches of where the signal needs to be received, it isolates the wireless signal from going to other machines that may be on the plant floor. And the cable comes in multiple lengths to meet the needs of most applications.

“The radiating cables have been specifically tested to work with the 802.11n radios, making this a field-proven solution instead of those expensive-to-maintain slip rings,” Mazzucchelli said.

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Wireless Solutions  here.  

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. 

Whether it’s electric luxury cars or programmable automated thermostats you can control via your smartphone, we’ve been hearing a lot about going green lately.  With many areas of the world becoming more concerned with global warming, we’ll be hearing more and more about green energy for years to come. 

With these concerns, many areas of the world are moving toward renewable energy, including wind and solar. This is especially true in Europe, where the European Union has mandated all associated countries to have 20 percent of energy production through renewables before the year 2020. 

Because of the geographical location, most of the Slovakian power districts decided to use photovoltaic solar plants to achieve their 20 percent goal.

InForm Technologies (IFT), in Slovakia, is one of the companies tasked with meeting the European Union mandate in that country. IFT, established in 2005, has passed a certification process allowing it to work with the national power grid company there. It, and other power system integrators in Slovakia, have installed roughly 500 power plants throughout the country. 

The key objective for IFT when bidding on a particular 1 MW solar plant: Price out the competition while still delivering data securely and reliably.

 “The objective was to have a cost-effective solution to beat the competition. The Rockwell Automation® system combined with the ProSoft Technology cards was about 30 percent more cost-effective than the nearest competitor. ProSoft Technology's connectivity solution was chosen not only for its cost-effectiveness, but for its exclusivity. It's the only connectivity solution for the IEC 60870-5-101 protocol that would work with a Rockwell Automation PLC,” said Jozef Lezo, IFT Managing Director.

Lezo learned of ProSoft Technology through his local Rockwell Automation distributor, Control Tech Slovakia. Control Tech suggested an Allen-Bradley® CompactLogix™ PLC and an IEC 60870-5-101 module designed for the controller.

IFT utilized a CompactLogix 1500 with the ProSoft card as a Remote Terminal Unit to control the photovoltaic process. The PLC is collecting data from power monitors while controlling power relays. The types of data monitored are current, voltage, network status, switch status sand the amount of energy produced by photovoltaic panels. All of this data is sent using the IEC 60870-5-101 protocol to the power grid company system using ProSoft Technology's MVI69-101S card and a separate cellular GSM modem.  

The solar field is fully automatic and autonomous. It requires no maintenance people. 

IFT was able to install a system to obtain data reliably, while being cost-effective. This system can now be reinstalled elsewhere in the country, should it be needed. In addition, the new system is also flexible. Additional features, such as sun tracking, could be added in the future.

The power grid is a bit greener now in Slovakia thanks to this and many of the other renewable energy plants installed by IFT. "Slovakia now has 20 percent of its energy coming from renewable resources," Lezo said. This meets the European Union's mandate.

IFT is mainly focused on projects in the area of electroenergetics, including transformers, electrical protection and control systems. The company is heavily involved in renewables and isn't stopping with just power plants. The company is working on the concept of electromobility, and is a distributor and integrator of electric car power charging stations. The company also uses its own fleet of electric automobiles. 

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

Brains Brews a Smart Migration Solution with ProSoft Technology

Whether it's football in the United States or rugby in Great Britain, the two entirely different sports have one thing in common - many of the spectators like drinking their beer. One of the prominent beers in Great Britain is SA, manufactured by Brains Brewery. SA’s slogan is "It wouldn't be Wales without SA."

Brains Brewery in Wales, founded in 1882, has the beer to satisfy any beer connoisseur, from those who prefer unique craft varieties, such as Calypso and Bragging Rights, to those who like more traditional ales like SA. Brains has a wide variety of brews. Other more traditional brews include Brains Bitter, Brains Dark, and Brains Black, among many others. Brains is also famous for its many pubs as well.

Brains, based in Cardiff, Wales, with its ever increasing variety of brews, decided it was time to upgrade its yeast handling control system to a Rockwell Automation® CompactLogix™ system. We all know how important yeast is to beer, and Brains postponed the upgrade until after the Christmas festive period to avoid downtime.

Mike Cooper of IAC Engineering proposed using ProSoft Technology's AN-X2-DHRIO Gateway to allow the CompactLogix system to communicate with six racks of 1771 Remote I/O over Ethernet. He had met ProSoft Technology Regional Sales Manager Myles Heinekey at a Rockwell Automation event in Birmingham.

“The main aim of the project was to upgrade two PLC-2 controllers, which were 27 years old.  Limited downtime was available, only 3 days, so the old 1771 I/O racks would be retained, but two obsolete PLC-2 controllers were replaced by the CompactLogix.”

“The commissioning time was reduced massively because the existing Remote I/O cards and wiring could be retained,” Mr. Cooper noted. “Only the processor and software needed to be added and commissioned, not the field wiring.”

With ProSoft Technology’s solution, Brains Brewery was able to reduce project costs by installing a CompactLogix PLC system. Without the ProSoft Technology gateway, a more expensive system with a Remote I/O card would have been required.  ProSoft Technology's solution didn't just reduce the project cost. It reduced it by 40 percent in terms of the other option. One additional yet important benefit of the solution is that the system still retains the PLC-5 Remote I/O cards with the CompactLogix processor. This means no additional spare I/O cards need to be carried.

And finally, ProSoft Technology's solution allowed for flexibility.

"The Remote I/O to Ethernet gateway allowed a great level of flexibility, so the different racks of I/O could be moved onto a network and controlled from different PLCs, if required,” Mr. Cooper said.  "The ProSoft gateway also gets the I/O data onto Ethernet which can be accessed anywhere on the plant network at a higher speed."

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Modernization solutions here.

For more information about Brains Brewery, visit www.sabrain.com.

ProSoft Technology’s PROFIBUS Modules and Industrial Radios allow critical data to be transmitted from ControlLogix® PACs at an England Flood Defence System.

Failure is not an option when upgrading a flood barrier’s control system. Should a flood barrier malfunction, thousands of homes and businesses could be severely impacted.

Upgrading a flood barrier isn’t a task that can be done overnight. It takes months and months of work. The barrier has to remain available for use throughout the upgrade, making it a considered and careful task. There has to be several fail-safe measures and redundancies in place. Whoever said redundancies are a bad thing hasn’t taken a look at a flood barrier system.

Two concrete towers stand 20 meters above the ground on either side of the mouth of Dartford Creek. This is the UK Environment Agency’s Dartford Barrier Flood Defence System in Kent, England. The barrier is routinely closed, in conjunction with the bigger Thames Barrier upstream, to prevent high tide water levels in the River Thames Estuary flowing back up the creek and flooding Dartford and the surrounding area.

Two steel gates, each 30 meters across and weighing over 160 tons, are suspended at a high level between the two concrete towers. Like a huge guillotine at the creek mouth, one gate may be slowly lowered on its supporting chains onto the river bed to block the flow of water. Then the second gate may be slowly lowered to rest onto the top of the first gate. When closed together, the steel gates can withstand up to 10.4 meters of water.

The gates are raised and lowered by direct drive oil hydraulic motors. The drive system comprises two 18.5kW pump and motor units, providing both duty and standby facilities, enabling a gate to be raised or lowered in 15 minutes. When not in use, both gate structures are safely held in the fully raised position and latched using hydraulic latch mechanisms. This permits vessels to pass underneath the gates along the creek.

It is envisaged that due to climate change that the barrier may need to operate an average of 50 times per annum over the next 25 years.

“The system has to be highly available with many fallback systems in case of failures,” said Andrew Garwood, a Senior Contracts Manager in the Controls Division of Qualter Hall & Co Limited, Barnsley.

A while back, the control system was starting to show its age. As part of a large upgrade to the barrier, its associated control system was overhauled. The original control system was a completely hardwired based relay system that was over 30 years old. Spare parts for the legacy system were becoming scarce.

Qualter Hall provided the M&E contracted works on behalf of the principal contractor Birse Civils, which had engaged Qualter Hall as the system integrator for the project and as the mechanical and electrical engineering contractor in charge of upgrading the control system. They had several goals in mind. Number one was safety and reliability. Flooding, should it occur, could cause extensive damage to the surrounding area.

Qualter Hall, which provides an attractive “one-stop shop” for a multitude of engineering solutions, decided to call ProSoft Technology. Qualter Hall selected ProSoft’s solutions because they are reliable, cost-effective, and endorsed by Rockwell Automation®. (ProSoft Technology is a Rockwell Automation Encompass™ Partner.)

Two Rockwell Automation ControlLogix® redundant PACs are inside each of the 20-meter towers to control the opening and closing of the barrier, but much of the equipment the control system spoke to was PROFIBUS or Siemens®-based. Two PROFIBUS Master communication modules from ProSoft Technology were installed inside the ControlLogix PACs to facilitate communication from the processors.

“The ProSoft Technology modules were utilized to provide PROFIBUS DP into the ControlLogix rack and permitted four separate PROFIBUS DP segments for redundant operation,” Mr. Garwood said.

Fiber optic cables were installed between the two towers as part of the control system overhaul. While the cable links were being constructed, ProSoft Technology’s Industrial Hotspot radios served as the communication link.

“The wireless link was then used as an automatic fallback connection should fiber optic connection be lost. The ProSoft Technology equipment was selected for its flexibility and support of the spanning tree protocol,” Mr. Garwood said.

ProSoft Technology’s solutions helped ease the engineering work by making it possible for the ControlLogix system to communicate as one single protocol.

The system now allows data to be reviewed quickly, centrally and remotely, providing convenience when accessing diagnostic information. 

Thousands of homes and businesses are now safely protected.

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

Crane maintenance – Simplified

Sleek and luxurious are two words that could be used to describe the 2013 SUV KIA Sportage. The KIA cee’d, on the other hand, could be best described as sporty yet economical, with diesel models achieving more than 60 MPG (less than 4 liters/100km) in fuel economy.

But before these new shiny, sparkling automobiles show up on your auto dealer’s showroom floor, the cars, like any car out there on the road, have gone through a series of processes at their factories of origin.

The KIA Motors plant in Slovakia, which produces the cee’d, KIA Venga, and Sportage, decided to install industrial wireless solutions at its automobile stamping and press operations to further improve safety at the plant for employees. Cranes transfer stamping dies to the main press lines. Here is where parts such as doors, fenders, and hoods are produced.

“It was necessary to connect the overhead cranes to one network to be able to access the PLC from any maintenance computer in the Auto Press shop,” said Tomas Potocar, Engineer with KIA Motors.  

The purpose of the project was to communicate from the maintenance room to the facility’s Allen-Bradley® ControlLogix® systems.

Before the plant chose ProSoft Technology’s 802.11n industrial radios, maintenance on the overhead cranes was a tedious process. 

“The overhead cranes were separate devices without any connection to computers used by the maintenance department,” Potocar said.

Because of this, engineers had to climb up 14 meters of stairs or a ladder to access the crane controller to connect it directly to a processor for diagnostics.

“Only if the crane is in ‘home’ position near the step, then the maintenance guy could get to its cabinet in 10 minutes. Now it’s possible to get access from the maintenance room immediately,” said Josef Nekvinda, an engineer with Rockwell Automation.

Cranes now can be accessed from the maintenance computer at any stage with the ProSoft Technology wireless solution. This results in much less downtime. 

With ProSoft Technology’s wireless solution, one 802.11n radio is on each of the 5 cranes, with an additional radio in the maintenance room.

Potocar and his team were at Automation University in Podbanske, Slovakia, where they heard a ProSoft Technology presentation.

“Shortly after hearing this presentation, a discussion about KIA Motors’ needs had started,” Potocar said. In choosing ProSoft Technology wireless solutions, KIA Motors wanted to ensure there was a constant, reliable connection between the PLC and the maintenance computer antenna.

“I had already received all necessary information, and I found that ProSoft Technology knew the tools we needed,” Potocar said. “Installation was rather simple.”

Implementing a wireless solution took much less time to commission than a possible wired solution.

KIA Motors is satisfied with the solution. “It helps us diagnose overhead cranes and monitor signals during the production from a safe position.”

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Wireless Solutions  here.

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.

An overhead monorail system transports car body carriers around a loop that travels through the 100-meter-long paint-shop building.

At the paint-shop loading station at one end of the process line, car bodies are loaded onto these mobile carriers, lifted eight meters off the floor, and attached to an overhead monorail system. The carriers run above a process line with 14 sequential stations. At each station, the carriers stop to allow two on-board hoists to lower the car bodies into a chemical immersion bath. When the process is completed at one station, the hoists lift the car body and the carrier moves along the monorail to the next station in the chain, as soon as it's empty. After the last process station, the car bodies are unloaded from the carriers at the other side of the building, 120 meters from where they began.

The Problem – Obsolete Mobile Connectivity

Each mobile overhead carrier contains an on-board controller to operate the on-board hoists. A single, stationary master controller located near the loading station manages the carrier controllers. The master issues commands via a legacy serial protocol through a conductor rail system that connects it to the carrier controllers.
  
The protocol is slower than newer industrial protocols and is difficult to transmit wirelessly. The facility management recognized that to increase communication speed and bandwidth they would need to use a new protocol. And, the original network design did not require or include peer-to-peer communication between carrier controllers. They determined that adding peer-to-peer communication capability could also help increase production.

The sliding-contact conductor rail system that carried messages came with its own set of problems. The sliding-contact system required significant maintenance to operate at peak efficiency. But even at peak efficiency, when network bandwidth utilization approached maximum capacity, high transmission error rates plagued this hardware-based rubbing connector system. Low capacity and high error rates created another problem. Even though the paint-shop process line had 14 stations, the conductor rail system had enough bandwidth for data from only 13 carriers at a time, which was restricting paint-shop throughput.

The Goal – Increase Production Capacity with Minimal Modifications

Plant engineers wanted to retain the advantages of having mobile, on-board controllers for each carrier. They wanted to eliminate the communication bottleneck imposed by the older serial protocol. They wanted to eliminate the maintenance headaches and bandwidth limitations of the conductor rail network. They wanted to be able to use all 14 stations simultaneously, and add four to six new carriers to cope with increased production demands. So, they began rethinking their network strategy.

The Solution – Marrying Old and New Technologies

Working closely with an engineering service and local distributor, the company elected to migrate to the faster, more robust Ethernet communication network in order to increase their bandwidth capabilities. But, the processors mounted in the mobile carrier cabinets had no Ethernet ports. The manufacturer did not want to replace all the mobile PLCs with Ethernet-capable processors, so they installed a serial-to-Ethernet gateway in each controller cabinet. This enabled the stationary master processor to receive process data from the mobile processors via Ethernet. The existing legacy master PLC was replaced with a newer version, giving the master controller sufficient Ethernet connectivity bandwidth to handle the large volume of data from the mobile controllers.
  
The sliding contact network system was not well-suited for Ethernet communication and too unreliable and costly to maintain. Eliminating the outdated sliding contact system and replacing it with a modern wireless system seemed like an obvious and necessary choice. The mobile carriers and the stationary master controller could then communicate via Ethernet through a high-speed, high-volume wireless network solution. But wireless networks can have their own set of limitations. Radio waves reflect off metal objects and bounce in all directions, creating a potential problem known as radio multipath interference.
  
Engineers were doubtful wireless would be reliable for heavy industry, in an environment surrounded by moving metal. The paint shop has metal walls and a metal roof. The carriers are massive steel objects, as are the car bodies they carry. These constantly moving metal masses result in an ever-changing radio frequency environment, increasing opportunities for radio interference to interrupt or corrupt data flow. But ProSoft’s industrial radios use highly effective filtering algorithms and allow emitted power adjustment. Both of these features help overcome multipath interference problems. Plus, ProSoft Technology's expert advice regarding proper antenna selection and placement was a major factor contributing to the application's overall success.
  
“We saved at least 2-3 days of engineering work while designing the network,” remembers Mike Dean, the system integrator from DACs. “And of course, we saved on installation time, having less hardware to handle, manipulate, and install in the field. In fact, installation and validation of the network were very quick. When adopting a new technology, the learning curve typically runs through one or two projects. But, with [the radios] and with support from ProSoft Technology, our learning process was very short.”

The Results - DRAMATIC

Production capacity increased more than 53 percent.
  
The wireless radios provided all the speed and bandwidth engineers needed to achieve their design goals. Wireless networking brought the transmission speed and reliability that were missing with the old conductor-rail, sliding-contact system. The wireless solution was easy to implement and much easier to maintain, requiring less downtime. And the number of carriers that could simultaneously be in use in the paint-shop loop increased from 13 with the old network to 20 with the new network.

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s wireless solutions here. 

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.