Hout Bay-based Urban Brewing Company, has become synonymous with good quality craft beers. The need for alternative drinking pleasure has been spawned from a glut of mainstream commercial beers, primarily lagers. Craft beers stand for variety, and this is where the art becomes important. When the proprietor, Peter Roeloffze, ventured into brewing, he realised that producing the best would mean firstly making use of a master brewer, and secondly, making the process repeatable to create a consistently good product.
With Pollock or van Gogh, their works of art came to life only when they had vision, passion and the correct tools in hand. The artist at Urban is brew master Jörg Finkeldey, of Brew Africa. Under the guidance of Roeloffze, Finkeldey was encouraged to consider the implementation of automation using a PLC, an HMI and VFDs to ensure a consistent and reliable product. This option looked like being a costly endeavour until the choice was narrowed down to LSIS for the process control.
The LSIS-XEC-SU PLC is the backbone of the system with XBF temperature and analog expansion cards calibrated to suit the process. The XP40-TTE 7” screen HMI, offering high definition process screens, was chosen as the canvas while the iG5A and iC5 VSDs took care of the system mixing and reticulation requirements.
Observing Finkeldey’s passion at work, one gets the sense that this is more than knowledge, know-how and automated controls, but rather a master crafting a fine work of art. His tools are barley and wheat, water, hops and yeast, kettles, mixers, pumps and related control systems. These operate like instruments in an orchestra, to craft multi award winning, ales and lagers.
With the installed components and degree of automation and control, Finkeldey can master his craft relying on precise and accurate parameters confirming indeed the science behind the art of an outstanding and unique brew. The result is happy clients.
Megatech is expanding
PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
Megatech SA has been importing high quality industrial plant equipment and spare parts since 2016. Based in KwaZulu-Natal, the company specialises in electrical and mechanical equipment and instrumentation.
Read more...Powerful and versatile IIoT controller ifm - South Africa
PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
The IIoT controller from ifm is a powerful, communicative and flexible PLC solution in machine and plant digitalisation.
Read more...Powerful and versatile IIoT controller ifm - South Africa
PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
The IIoT controller from ifm is a powerful, communicative and flexible PLC solution in machine and plant digitalisation.
Read more...MCCs for local and international markets Iritron
PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
With a history of delivering large engineering projects globally, Iritron has over 20 years’ experience in designing motor control centres (MCCs) built to the highest international specifications.
Read more...Deep learning based component inspection in the automotive industry Beckhoff Automation
PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
Achieving the shortest possible inspection times – even when working with different components – is paramount when it comes to series production. This is precisely what stoba Sondermaschinen achieved with its optical inspection system, which is based on deep learning, and features the Beckhoff XPlanar planar motor system at the conveyor system core.
Read more...Case history 189: Poor furnace temperature control. Michael Brown Control Engineering
Editor's Choice PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
Many process engineers do not appreciate the importance of flow loops in their unit controls. A senior process engineer once told me that flow loops need not be tuned well, as they generally have little effect on the more important and much slower loops like temperatures and pressures.
Read more...PLCs and PACs simplify data acquisition
PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
Data acquisition, data logging and data analysis are required functions for most modern industrial control systems. The simplest and lowest cost way to provide these functions is often by using the same platform that’s providing real-time control, namely the PLC or the programmable automation controller.
Read more...Ana-Digi boosts energy efficiency at local gold mine Ana-Digi Systems
Motion Control & Drives
When a major player in the gold mining industry wanted to reduce the high cost of electricity required to run the shaft ventilation fans at a particular site, it approached Ana-Digi Systems for a solution.