When AIB Bakery saw a growth of its countrywide franchises last year, it was decided to erect a fully automated flour milling, premix manufacturing and packaging facility in Mount Edgecombe to supply these bakeries with premix.
The entire automation and electrical contract for this green fields project was awarded to NC Automation Engineering, which has been providing quality engineering solutions to a wide range of industries since 1988.
The project involved the full automation of the plant and was split into two systems: the intake and mill section and the finished products section. The intake and mill section includes the wheat intake from multiple road or rail trucks; cleaning and tempering; wheat milling; and bulk flour intake.
The finished products section encompasses recipe batch handling; a bulk out-loading system; the finished product packaging; purchases and sales system; stock control system; maintenance log and reporting; production reporting; and lab test reporting.
"We designed the system around a Windows NT Ethernet network," says Jason Wright, Project Engineer at NC Automation, "with each section being controlled by its own OMRON PLC and Adroit 1500 Tag Agent Server." The active cluster arrangement has two Adroit 4.2 scada PCs communicating to two OMRON PLCs, which gives increased reliability if one of the scadas goes down for any reason. The other scada will take over seamlessly and allow control of both sections without interrupting production or losing any data.
The high-speed communication between the PLCs and Adroit is facilitated via a Klinkmann OMRON Ethernet OPC server. All other computers on the site network have access to both the intranet and the ability to view live scada information via Adroit's remote user interface.
"The new Adroit marshalling agent," continues Wright, "was a huge benefit in a project this big, as we were able to group all signals related to a piece of equipment (running, tripped, start request etc) into one marshalling agent saving on tags and making fault-finding, changing and documentation much easier." The easy-to-use software tools meant that the finished products section was fully commissioned within a week, and the mill and wheat intake section was commissioned in two weeks.
All eyes on the modern DCS platform Schneider Electric South Africa
PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
Modernised DCS platforms are no longer confined to hardware-dependent architectures. These systems have evolved to combine the strengths of both PLCs and DCS while adding capabilities that make them more open, resilient and collaborative.
Read more...Automation solution for waste management at incineration facility
PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
Valmet is to deliver an automation system to Seongnam City’s incineration facility currently under construction in South Korea. By leveraging intelligent automation, the plant will optimise energy production, minimise emissions and deliver efficient, consistent performance throughout its entire lifecycle.
Read more...Valmet’s supplies DCS to Europe’s largest electric boiler plant Valmet South Africa
PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
Valmet will supply an automation system to Helen’s Hanasaari electric boiler plant and a thermal accumulator being built in Helsinki, Finland. Once completed, it will be Europe’s largest electric boiler plant.
Read more...Technology blueprint paves way for e-methanol fuel expansion Schneider Electric South Africa
PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
Schneider Electric has delivered the technology stack behind European Energy’s Kassø Power-to-Xfacility, the world’s first commercially viable e-methanol plant.
Read more...New energy-efficient evaporation line for dissolving pulp production Valmet South Africa
PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
Valmet will deliver a new evaporation line to Altri Biotek mill in Portugal. This delivery is part of Altri’s €75 million project to convert the Biotek mill to produce dissolving pulp for the textile industry.
Read more...Valmet modernises turbine automation Valmet South Africa
PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
Valmet has received an order to deliver a comprehensive replacement of plant DCS and turbine control systems at Ennatuurlijk’s combined cycle power plant in the Netherlands.
Read more...Hybrid DCS for an evolving industrial landscape Schneider Electric South Africa
PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
Today’s industrial automation continues to evolve at a blistering speed, which means traditional DCSs have to keep up to ensure continuous integration into modern, digital infrastructure.
Read more...Bringing the benefits of Ethernet to hazardous industrial environments ABB South Africa
PLCs, DCSs & Controllers
Christian Johansson, global product manager for ABB Process Automation explains how Ethernet-APL lets plant owners unlock more value from their process data, optimise performance and promote safer operations.
While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein, the publisher and its agents cannot be held responsible for any errors contained, or any loss incurred as a result. Articles published do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers. The editor reserves the right to alter or cut copy. Articles submitted are deemed to have been cleared for publication. Advertisements and company contact details are published as provided by the advertiser. Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd cannot be held responsible for the accuracy or veracity of supplied material.
printer friendly version