Systems Automation & Management

August 2011 System Integration & Control Systems Design

Software standardisation adds flexibility and easy upgrade to plants such as concentrators.

In March 2009, Systems Automation & Management (SAM) embarked on an 18 month contract to provide all the software for an automation project at an international company’s new concentrator plant.

“The client required standardisation of the control systems to ANSI/SIA S88 standards, together with modifications and adaptations that would allow them to remain up to date with changing products and process applications,” says SAM MD Claudio Agostinetto. “In addition, the system needed to be robust in order to reduce downtime.”

Agostinetto explains that by using existing blocks it is possible to create libraries that can be used in future projects, while at the same time, ensuring superior quality control and efficiency of the system. “The S88 model allows for a plant area to be divided into smaller, more manageable units and sub-units, with equipment modules in residing in each. Every process unit and equipment module contains a sequence which controls it.”

The scope of work for SAM incorporated the supply, engineering and commissioning of the PCS7, migration from version 6.1 to 7.0, engineering software tools that included the Import Export Assistant (IEA) software, nine S7-417 AS controllers, redundant servers for maintaining plant availability and Scalance X400 switches for supplying diagnostic information to the control system via an Ethernet connection to allow a complete view of the control system network for operators.

“The nine S7-417 automation stations control different sections of the plant and are linked to the client by means of the two redundant server pairs. The X400 product range is a modular managed switch which allows one to achieve redundancy and 1000 Mbit/s transmission rates,” says Agostinetto.

Accelerated implementation of the project was requested by the client, so SAM pulled out all the stops and migration took place over a weekend in order to minimise the impact of the engineering upgrade. Agostinetto says that the project was the first in South Africa to make use of version 7.0 and the successful running of the plant stands as a testament to both SAM’s capabilities and the superiority of version 7.0.

He adds that a control system needs to be expandable if additions are likely to be required at a later date. “Such extensions should be seamless and effortless. We believe we have achieved this in this particular implementation. Our client has reported great satisfaction with the system and start-up of the various areas within the plant is performed with an ease and speed that was not available previously. They are impressed at the reduced time to fault find and the system has been lauded as user friendly in the extreme.”

For more information contact Claudio Agostinetto, Systems Automation & Management, +27 (0)11 803 0570, claude@sam.co.za, www.sam.co.za

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