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News & Events  >  Success Stories  >  Migration Solutions
  Beauty is in the Eye of the Beer Holder
Beauty is in the Eye of the Beer Holder / Migration Solutions

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The legacy generated content

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beer Holder

Brains Brews a Smart Migration Solution with ProSoft Technology

BrainsSuccess_BeerGlass

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.

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beer Holder

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.

  Manufacturing cables – with help from a migration gateway
Manufacturing cables – with help from a migration gateway / Migration Solutions

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The legacy generated content

Manufacturing cables – with help from a migration gateway

By Lauren Robeson

Manufacturing cable - with help from a migration gateway

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

  From walkie-talkies to a robust wireless communication system
From walkie-talkies to a robust wireless communication system / Migration Solutions

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The legacy generated content

From walkie-talkies to a robust wireless communication system

By Lauren Robeson

 

The Durgapur Steel Plant in Durgapur, India, has long been a major institution in the city. The plant – run since the 1950s by the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), the country’s largest steel company – has brought many jobs to the residents of Durgapur over the decades and has undergone multiple modernization updates. The plant features state-of-the-art technology, ensuring quality steel-making. And the plant’s updated units have led to improvements in the plant’s productivity, energy conservation, and product quality.

Stacker Reclaimer - Durgapur Steel Plant

A couple of years ago, the plant’s communications infrastructure in the raw material handling plant was in need of a major overhaul.

Back then, wired control cables were used in all four stacker reclaimers for communications between operator cabins and PLC control rooms. In this setup, it was difficult to diagnose breakdown or trouble areas, and there was no communication facility available between the stacker reclaimers, the central control room, and dispatchers throughout the plant. That meant that breakdowns were reported via walkie-talkies, after which maintenance personnel would have to physically go to the area where the breakdown had occurred.

It was clear that a change was needed. But because of the layout of the plant – machines are mobile and widely distributed – a conventional wire-based network could not be used. This meant that no online diagnostic facility was available in the control room, and led to slower maintenance and elimination of faults, delaying operations. That chain of events for any breakdowns proved to be time-consuming and costly. Other issues included breakage in hard-wired control cables, and an outdated alarm display that did not clearly help personnel diagnose the type and location of problems.

The plant’s four stacker reclaimers each featured a Siemens® S7-300 controller, with an S7-400 in the control room. A plan was put in place by Sheetal Wireless, a radio distributor, to use ProSoft Technology’s 802.11g High Power Industrial Hotspot radios: one in each of the stacker reclaimers, one in the control room, and two as repeaters to achieve line of sight. At each stacker reclaimer, the PLC is connected to the radio over Ethernet and an armored Cat5 cable. In the control room, the radio is connected to the SCADA system through an Ethernet switch with an armored Cat5 cable. Digital and analog I/O signals are exchanged between the stacker reclaimers and the control room. The Ethernet switch in the control room ensures that data can be updated across the operation’s PLCs, making it easier for everyone to see status updates. The radios have basically created a Wi-Fi zone through which the PLCs’ program uploads and downloads can be done with a laptop, as can online diagnostics, making it that much easier to troubleshoot the PLCs from anywhere in the plant. The data transfers are done within milliseconds.

The plant opted for ProSoft’s radios in part because of their high reliability, high Ethernet bandwidth, and the capability to configure one radio as a master, repeater, and client.

“This communications network has allowed us to minimize frequent downtime,” said Mr. Partha Das of the Durgapur Steel Plant. “Now we are able to diagnose remote issues wirelessly, and we have also seen an increase in machine availability.”

Other benefits, Mr. Das notes, include reduced CAD drawing for cable routing/laying; reduced installation time; increased access to HMIs by company personnel throughout the plant; and an increase in productivity throughout the facility.

“The developed technology has immense potential of horizontal transfer in any moving machines including stacker reclaimers,” said Anup Prasad, Assistant General Manager at the Research and Development Centre for Iron and Steel at the Steel Authority of India in Ranchi. “The new system has significantly reduced the stacker reclaimers’ electrical downtime, thus enhancing these machines’ availability for processing various raw material handling plant operations."

The commissioned system has plant operators considering future applications: The architecture can be used for communication among distributed control systems that face similar traditional communication issues; similar setups may be used in the Steel Authority of India’s other plants; and the possibilities opened up by using the system for centralized control and monitoring, such as blast furnaces and ovens in steel plants to cut down the risk of undetected gas leaks. With the advances that this new setup and technology bring, Durgapur Steel Plant is looking forward to another highly successful, well-connected sixty years of steel production.  

For more information about ProSoft Technology’s Industrial Wireless Solutions, go to http://psft.com/BQ5.

 

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