Reviewer details
Name: Ivan Stouffs
Designation: Engineering Manager
Company: Plascon Paints
Telephone: (011)951 4801
Product Details
Product name and Version: Wonderware
Vendor: Futuristix
Contact Person: Mike le Plastrier
Telephone: (011)622 8181
E-mail: [email protected]
URL www.futuristix.co.za
General
Q: What industry is the scada being applied in?
A: Chemical Industry - paints.
Q: Describe the application briefly.
A: An upgrade of the scada system at Plascon's water-based paint manufacturing plant. The original system installed in 1991 was not year 2000 compliant and fast becoming obsolete in terms of the hardware and software. Plans to revise the manufacturing system could not be accommodated by the old system. The new scada system, based on Wonderware's Intouch, tightly integrated with Wonderware's InBatch batch control system, is used to control the manufacturing process. The main process elements controlled by the system are:
* Batching of emulsions, water and liquid additives from storage tanks into mixing vessels using mass-flowmeters and loadcells.
* Recording and monitoring of manual dry powder loads.
* Transfer of pastes to pre-selected letdown tanks.
* Controlling of all flushing routines.
* Controlling and monitoring of the finished product conveyors used to transport all filled tins from the filling area to the warehouse.
* Recording and manipulation of process data for statistical process control.
The plant is responsible for the production of more than 200 different products and has an output volume of up to 140 000 litres per day, with up to 35 consecutive batches at any one time. The salient requirements of the application being a reliable and cost effective system that is flexible enough to accommodate minor process changes in the future without having to rely on specialists to reconfigure the control system.
Q: Who did the system integration?
A: CS System Solutions.
Q: Approximately how many man-hours did the integration take?
A: Engineering - 940 hours, commissioning - 530 hours.
Q: How is the after-sales support handled (eg remote-dial-up, e-mail etc)?
A: e-mail, phone-in, and face-to-face.
Q: What sort of licensing agreement is used on the system?
A: Standard Wonderware licence agreement.
Q: Does one licence cover all modules, or can the user only buy those modules that he wishes to use?
A: Individual module licenses.
System architecture
Q: How many tag points/I/O does the installation have?
A: 1800 tag points, 16 analog imputs, 160 digital outputs 190 digital imputs, plus two serial comms.
Q: What operating system is the scada running on?
A: Windows NT.
Q: What impressed you most about the architecture?
A: The ease of use, worldwide support, continuous development, seamless integration with other supporting applications.
Q: Is the system integrated onto an intranet or the Internet?
A: Yes - intranet. The system is presently configured for simple remote monitoring but does allow for full remote control in the future.
Q: What sort of redundancy is built into the system?
A: None.
Graphics
Q: Describe the graphics development process.
A: We used images developed for previous Plascon applications. These were all our own drawings.
Q: How would you describe the library of graphic images?
A: The System Integrator developed the screens according to our requirements.
Q: Did you use any 'special' images (eg embedded video clips, photographs, 3D images etc)?
A: No.
Compatibility
Q: Did you run the scada in conjunction with any third-party application software?
A: No.
Q: Does the scada allow for the user to create scripts to perform specific tasks? Describe.
A: The scada allows for full Visual Basic scripting.
Management reporting
Q: Is a trending and historical data reporting system included?
A: Yes, a trending and historical data reporting system is included. The system uses Industrial SQL Server to log the process parameters. InTouch and Crystal Reports is used as a visual interface to the data and reporting.
Q: Is a management reporting system included in the package?
A: Yes.
Q: Is the system integrated into a manufacturing execution system?
A: Not yet.
Q: Is the scada system integrated into a management reporting or control system (eg SAP, Baan)?
A: Not yet.
Q: Describe the system integration process.
A: The production model was defined in detail. InBatch was configured according to the production model. The export and link tags were defined. The PLC code was written in parallel to the development of the scada graphics. The hardware installation was performed in parallel to the PLC and graphics development. The software installation and phase testing was then completed, followed by the integration in InBatch. Finally we drew up a full set of reports and trends.
Q: Was any additional software development needed?
A: No.
Conclusion
Q: What impressed you the most about the system?
A: The flexibilty of the system, worldwide support, and continuous development towards future upgrades. The fact that the system also integrates easily with other applications. InTouch was also selected because it comes with a suite of supporting products, such as a batching and tracking system and a realtime database. Wonderware products have been selected as a Plascon Automation standard on a group level.
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