Author: mark_w_fletcher

Rockwell Automation Global Solutions team project manages, designs and delivers complete door module assembly line for PHA Czech s.r.o.

Leading automotive tier one leverages project management, technical capabilities and class-leading Integrated Architecture products from Rockwell Automation

Background: Pyeong Hwa Automotive (PHA) is a world leader in the automotive subassembly business. Headquartered in Korea, the company operates seven plants in Korea, seven plants in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, China, India and the USA and three worldwide sales branches.

The company’s Czech Republic plant, PHA Czech s.r.o., in Český Těšín, 300 km east north of Prague, started production in 2008 and employs 300 people. Its primary focus is to produce door modules for a leading Korean automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM). However, it also produces non-module door hinges, bonnet/hood hinges, tailgate hinges and tailgate latches for a number of other leading automotive OEMs.

In a recent development programme, the Rockwell Automation® Global Solutions team in the Czech Republic was tasked by PHA Czech s.r.o. to develop a complete control solution for a front/rear, left/right turnkey door module assembly line and end-of-line (EOL) test stations. The project scope for the team, which has been working with PHA since 2006, involved project management, administration, hardware and software design, cabinet manufacture, site installation, commissioning and production start-up.

Challenge: The assembly line – the fifth to be developed by Rockwell Automation for PHA – had to be designed to meet demanding production capacities and targets; capable of building 850 car sets per day, yet flexible enough to support building up to 1,000 car sets per day. It also would be the first door module line built on a conveyor concept, where the panels move on pallets and the operators stay in one place.

In addition, PHA wanted enhanced quality levels and various process optimisation steps based on both knowledge from previous installs and newer standards and targets defined by more recent end-user customer requirements. A comprehensive machine and personnel safety solution was also part of the brief.

Solution: For the complete door module car set assembly, there are two lines (front and rear) with conveyors carrying the front door module down one side and the rear down the other. These modules are then assembled in parallel using an identical sequence. Assembly operations include: pulley pre-assembly and riveting; drum winding; window regulator assembly; motor and speaker assembly; latch placement and the incorporation of a side-impact sensor and wire harness. The end-of-line (EOL) inspection stations then undertake full door module functionality tests and motor noise sound inspection (in a sound room), deploying a Poka Yoke quality system.

According to Rockwell Automation Account Manager Miroslav Novotny: “This was a complex project, which was made easier thanks to our Integrated Architecture® portfolio. The main line controllers on the front and rear lines are Allen-Bradley ControlLogix® 1756 L73 programmable automation controllers (PACs). The chain conveyors and motors, which handle all aspects of pallet movement are controlled using Allen-Bradley PowerFlex® 525 variable-speed AC drives. This comprises lateral and up and down movement of the pallets between workstations, and control of the recirculating conveyor, which takes empty pallets back to the beginning of the production line.”

The ControlLogix PAC collects, collates and controls all the signals from the various assembly stations using Allen-Bradley Stratix™ managed switches and Allen-Bradley POINT I/O™ modules on an EtherNet/IP™ network. This is to accommodate the long distances involved, including the primary conveyor which is 15 m long. At the end of the line, in the testing stations, four Allen-Bradley CompactLogix™ PACs are used, two in the sound rooms and two in final inspection. The ControlLogix PAC also oversees a robot used on part of the line.

The automation solution is completed by a wide variety of Allen-Bradley low-voltage products, including buttons, sensors and other accessories, inside the cabinets deployed at each station. Finally, the line’s safety infrastructure, which complies with all local safety legislation, comprises a number of Allen-Bradley safety gates, linked together with emergency stops at each station, all connected in series to safety relays within the main control cabinet.

Rockwell Automation Global Solutions Team Leader in The Czech Republic, Petr Veselý, explains: “I have worked with PHA for 10 years now.  For this project we met with their engineers, who gave us a very detailed specification, including 3D models of the final product. They also gave us their expectations regarding timings and volume targets. We delivered a complete solution – from the control architecture and software to supervision of the whole line, including all mechanical and electrical elements. We also dealt with three local mechanical assembly suppliers and once the concept had been created, we then handled all of the approvals within PHA.

“Once the mechanical design had been approved,” Veselý continues, “the manufacturing go-ahead was given and the electrical concept was developed. Upon approval, we employed four programmers from the Rockwell Automation office in Prague to create the software application. Two programmers worked on the main line and two on the inspection stations. Studio 5000® was used for visualisation and, in answer to one of PHA’s primary demands for flexibility, we applied customised application windows. Each station uses a separate all-in-one PC touch panel (18 on the main line and 11 in the standalone and test stations) running C++ applications. Further visualisation and control of the main conveyor is supplied by two Allen-Bradley PanelView Plus™ HMIs.

Results:

According to Novotny: “This successful project delivery demonstrates the professionalism and capabilities of our Global Solutions team, not only in the provision of technical solutions but also in the delivery of complete project management. The experience and skills obtained in this instance will be adopted as a basis for further similar opportunities in the automotive market, including future projects with PHA. Indeed, we are already in discussions with PHA for the provision of another door assembly for a different car model.”

Przemysław Sakowicz, Manufacturing Engineer at PHA Czech s.r.o. cites fast support, good relations and previous good experiences of working with Rockwell Automation as the primary reasons for using the leading automation provider again: “I know exactly what quality I can expect from Rockwell Automation, it has a very good team of programmers that reacts quickly to any issues or challenges we face. We had multiple customer audits before and during project start up and the auditors were very satisfied with what we have developed with Rockwell Automation, which is very important for us. I would particularly like to thank Petr Veselý and his team for the project fulfilment and management; they met all the requirements from my side.

“With regards to specific benefits of the Rockwell Automation solution,” Sakowicz concludes, “as well as hitting the production targets, we expect to see significantly reduced programming for the new line we are developing as well as the easy tuning and manipulation of the software we have seen in this solution. The Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture has also delivered a more flexible and open platform for both remote troubleshooting and local maintenance.”

Written by Technical Lucidity on behalf of Rockwell Automation

Link to PDF (also created by Technical Lucidity Ltd.) EMEA2003 PHA Automotive (Lo)

Enhanced digital Andon production-issue-reporting solution delivers actionable data for better decision making at Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd.

Rockwell Automation Global Solutions in the UK designs and deploys new Digital Andon System at Toyota’s Burnaston plant to deliver real time and historic manufacturing data

Background: Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd. (TMUK) has two manufacturing plants in the UK employing over 3,200 people. Representing a total investment in excess of £2.2 billion, the vehicle manufacturing plant is located at Burnaston in Derbyshire and the engine manufacturing plant at Deeside in North Wales. The first car, a Carina E, drove off the Burnaston production line in 1992.

The Burnaston plant is the sole manufacturer of the Avensis model and the sole European manufacturer of the Auris and Auris Hybrid. The plant comprises a single assembly shop – which produces both models – and within this facility a number of information technology solutions are deployed to collate and deliver a wide variety of production management data.

These IT solutions are used as the communication framework for a number of production programmes and philosophies, which underpin Toyota’s impressive worldwide manufacturing efficiency reputation. One such programme is the company’s Andon solution, which allows line operators to call for management help or temporarily stop the production line if they spot something that they perceive could have a detrimental effect on vehicle quality. Originating from the word for a paper lantern, Andon – which in English translates to ‘sign’ or ‘signal’ – is a term that refers to an illuminated signal notifying others of a problem within the quality-control or production streams. It is a means of highlighting a problem as it occurs in order to immediately countermeasure the issue and prevent re-occurrence.

It was the intention of TMUK to refresh its current Andon systems through a phased programme of hardware and application replacement and modernisation. The approach would reengineer the existing organically developed solutions to provide a suite of integrated applications that could be deployed on a range of display technologies to leverage the data collected from shop floor programmable controllers.

For this upgrade project, Toyota appraised a number of technologies from different vendors and approached Rockwell Automation to develop the new solution based on more up-to-date and open technologies.

Challenge: The existing Line Andon System comprised a number of technologies from multiple vendors and included a reporting system that was also made up of a mixture of systems and software suites. The display technology was fairly basic. It had evolved from red and green bulbs that showed where the line had stopped, up to a more contemporary 640 x 720 LED-based solution that showed basic figures such as production targets. But this was beginning to show its age and was exhibiting failures.

TMUK needed to undergo a modernisation programme to develop a new solution that would not only collect all the necessary production information, but would also collate and decipher it before disbursing it in an easy to understand, actionable format to all parties involved in any remedial actions prompted by the Andon solution. The new solution was to be made up of three core elements: a Line Andon system; a Real Time Andon reporting system; and hourly reporting and shop display boards.

Solution: The new Digital Andon System (DAS) for TMUK is based on technologies already deployed, tested and delivered by the Rockwell Automation Global Solutions Team in North America team across multiple Toyota sites in the US.

The UK Global Solution team enhanced the DAS with the addition of FactoryTalk® Historian Site edition (SE) and clients to provide additional functionality that will deliver a standard Manufacturing Intelligence platform for Toyota to develop beyond the Andon solution, across its global manufacturing sites. Additional work for the UK project was undertaken by the Rockwell Automation Global Engineering Centre in India, which developed the graphical elements of the Line Andon system.

The Line Andon System is delivered by a number of stations (specific to each line) running FactoryTalk® View Station Site Edition (SE) on six physical PCs, but using video extender cables to connect to multiple monitors mounted above the line in full view of the operators and their supervisors. This system provides pull or line-stop indication to production line team leaders, giving them the ability to respond to team members’ concerns and avoid extended line stops. The new system gathers data from the line-control panels (LCP) for immediate reflection on local display screens as well as ensuring that data extracted from the LCPs is also made available for extraction, for use by the Real Time Andon and other systems.

The Real Time Andon System uses virtual servers for FactoryTalk Historian Site edition (SE) running in conjunction with RSLinx®, FactoryTalk® VantagePoint® and Microsoft SQL servers. Relevant information from these servers can then be displayed on various client PCs as web reports and on the large shop display boards that are located at strategic points around the assembly shop.

In operation, the Real Time Andon System gathers data from the shop floor controllers and then populates an SQL database. It can then display different levels of data graphically using a touchscreen interface, which provides supervisors with the ability to perform rapid identification of line stop or Andon pulls that are impacting production. The new system is a scalable, accessible integrated solution that will evolve with the production solution. In addition, the databases can also be used to calculate where potential issues may occur; and if there is any relationship to times, shifts or specific operator stations.

Completing the new installation are the new Shop Display Boards, which comprise a number of large-screen displays that summarise overall shop status and line-specific data, regarding planned volume, achievement and operation rate.

According to Alastair Moore, Section Manager Assembly Engineering at TMUK: “We had an idea of what we wanted to achieve in terms of modernisation, but our main focus was the visualisation. The main shop displays were 15 to 16 years old and really starting to show their age. We had a look at what was available from the market in terms of new solutions – including the most recent development of the incumbent hardware and software – and the solutions from Rockwell Automation were part of this mix. In the end, the final decision was based upon licensing costs and the way the whole solution ‘hung together’. Rockwell Automation was able to offer us something a lot more competitive.

“The majority of our existing production equipment is based on Rockwell Automation control solutions,” Moore continues, “so we already knew that Rockwell Automation could offer us a robust solution based on an Ethernet network; and the fact that its architecture is open and more technologically agnostic made it more attractive in the long term.”

The collection, collation, deciphering and delivery of pertinent actionable real-time manufacturing data is a core feature of the Rockwell Automation Connected Enterprise. The Connected Enterprise – an approach that leverages connected machines, supply chains and customers – allows companies to establish manufacturing processes that are information-rich, supported, more secure and ready for future market demands.

Ultimately, a Connected Enterprise approach creates a more competitive, innovative enterprise that can deliver insights to improve productivity, sustainability and economic performance through faster time to market, lower total cost of ownership, improved asset utilisation and enterprise risk management. Other benefits of access to real-time, contextualised information include minimised downtime, improved technology and process optimisation, greater workforce efficiency and smarter expenditure.

Results: TMUK now has a Digital Andon System that delivers exactly what it needs in terms of accurate, pertinent real-time operational information to both the line-side operators and their supervisors; speeding up the time taken to recover from a stop and to identify the root cause.

In addition, the Historian functionality gives them the ability to predict where problems may occur and take preventative action. Its open, integrated architecture and scalability also means that the hardware and software can be modified to suit future needs in terms of production volume or information requirements.

According to Guy Smithson, Account Manager UK Automotive & Tire at Rockwell Automation: “A similar Andon evolution took place in a Toyota plant in Kentucky USA and as well as sharing information to specific line supervisors, the information was more widely shared in order to discover how issues affected other operations in the production flow. In this instance the paint shop was able to react immediately to alerts generated by subsequent processes instead of waiting for a production report from the previous day. In addition to other Andon reporting streams, it was estimated that annual cost savings could be in the region of over half a million dollars. This whole new wider approach also addresses Toyota’s Muda philosophy, which tackles futility, uselessness and wastefulness.”

“The Rockwell Automation engineers are easy to work with,” Moore concludes, “and the mutual respect means that both sides are willing to listen to each other. Alan Williams (a senior engineer at Rockwell Automation UK) has been involved with Toyota for almost 20 years; we have known each other for a while and trust each other’s opinion.  We are looking to expand the system into other areas and factories and then potentially into other countries such as France, with any improvements and lessons learnt from these projects being rolled back to us.”

Written by Technical Lucidity on behalf of Rockwell Automation

Wilmar International Ltd. Oleochemicals plant ramps up to full production much quicker thanks to Rockwell Automation

Allen-Bradley PowerFlex 7000 medium-voltage drive addresses power, start-up and operational issues at critical chemical process in The Netherlands

Background: Wilmar International Limited, founded in 1991 and headquartered in Singapore, is one of the world’s leading agribusiness groups and is ranked among the largest listed companies by market capitalisation on the Singapore Exchange.

The company’s business activities include oil palm cultivation, oilseed crushing, edible oil refining, sugar milling and refining, specialty fat, oleo chemical, biodiesel and fertiliser manufacturing and grain processing. It has over 500 manufacturing plants and an extensive distribution network and is backed by a multinational workforce of more than 90,000 people.

Wilmar’s oleo chemicals manufacturing operations has production facilities in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, The Netherlands, France and Belgium. With new facilities operating successfully in China and Indonesia, Wilmar recently introduced a new plant in The Netherlands – based on the successful format deployed in Asia – but it hit an issue when it was unable to use the primary compressor at full load on plant start-up due to limited power supply available. After reviewing various options without success, Wilmar turned to Rockwell Automation and its industry leading PowerFlex® 7000 Active Front End Direct-to-Drive™ drive.

Challenge: According to Arief Santosa, Technical Engineer at the Rotterdam plant: “At the plant we use methyl ester from palm oil to create fatty alcohols for subsequent use in the food and chemicals industry. This intermediate chemical is then sold to other parties for additional processing – such as ethoxylation – where the resulting products are eventually used in cleaning gels as a surfactant and for cosmetics.

“The methyl ester raw material goes through a high temperature, high-pressure hydrogenation process,” he continues, “which relies heavily on the performance of the compressor. After hydrogenation the product then passes through a refining/distilling process to produce the fatty alcohol end product.”

The facility in the Netherlands relies on the compressor to dictate the speed of flow and circulation of the product through the hydrogenation processes. The inability to start the compressor at full load and limitation requirements to ramp it up slowly to the required pressure had a huge impact on overall factory down-time and resulted in an inefficient production.

When the plant was being commissioned, Wilmar and the compressor manufacturer found that they were unable to start the compressor at the required 38 bar (g). “We were being forced to reduce the hydrogenation loop pressure to 15 bar (g) due to the available starting current,” Santosa explains. “At this pressure the gas compression and weight is lower, which makes it easier for the compressor to turn, but it did not suit our processing demands. We maintained this configuration for a while, but eventually we had discussions with the installer, the power company and the compressor supplier only to be told that the power from the grid there was not sufficient to start the compressor at full load. Mechanical solutions and injections systems would have consumed too much power, so at this stage, we talked with Rockwell Automation who had supplied other elements of the plant, to see if a more suitable solution was available.”

Solution: Rockwell Automation provided a class-leading Allen-Bradley PowerFlex® 7000 Active Front End Direct-to-Drive™ medium-voltage drive. Made in the company’s Katowice plant in Poland – which is currently celebrating 10 years of drive manufacturing in Europe – the flagship drive is based on the Allen-Bradley PowerFlex 7000, which has seen numerous successful installations around the world. The only current-source inverter on the market in the desired power/voltage range (3,3 kV / 50 Hz / 1,8 MW), the PowerFlex 7000 was ideal for the task at hand as it was also able to offer synchronous bypass with the compressor running at full speed.

As well as providing the necessary soft-starting capabilities to bring the compressor to full pressure much more rapidly, the drive, when fully commissioned, will also offer bypass functionality. This will allow it to be maintained even when the motor is in operation – a critical requirement for plants such as this. In operation, with the output contactor closed and the bypass contactor open, the drive operates the motor as normal. When bypass is required, the output contactor can be opened and the bypass switch closed, switching the load from a variable-frequency bus to a fixed-frequency bus. This will result in the drive input and output being isolated from the line and load voltage.

Results: For Wilmar this was a high-visibility project internally, as there was a real desire to start the whole plant under the designed conditions, mirroring the operations at the Asian plants. Therefore the commissioning and start-up was monitored as a critical performance metric.

Thanks to the PowerFlex 7000 drive, the company is now able to (soft) start the compressor at the required 38 bar (g), satisfying the needs of its process and productivity objectives. And, with the imminent implementation of the bypass functionality, the drive can literally be bypassed after it has started the compressor – with an in-rush current limited to 1 x the nominal current. As a result, practically no energy will be consumed when the drive is bypassed, so there will be minimal need for significant heat dissipation.

“The combination of the drive and the synchronous bypass has the potential to be a very robust solution for us,” explains Santosa. “We are confident that the bypass will eventually offer us additional energy savings and maintenance freedoms, but safety precautions, the high value of the equipment being driven and the demands of the production process, mean that small steps are being taken.

“The Rockwell Automation guys demonstrated impressive engineering skills and the right level of communication to give us peace of mind,” he concludes. “They were very professional and I have no issues with regards to what Rockwell Automation is doing for us. I would certainly consider Rockwell Automation for other projects in the future – due to the total support we have had to resolve any engineering issues.”

Written by Technical Lucidity on behalf of Rockwell Automation

Leading automotive tier one leverages project management, technical capabilities and class-leading Integrated Architecture products

The Rockwell Automation Global Solutions team in the Czech Republic was challenged with project managing, designing, installing and commissioning a complete turnkey door module assembly line

Background: Pyeong Hwa Automotive (PHA) is a world leader in the automotive subassembly business. Headquartered in Korea, the company operates seven plants in Korea, seven plants in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, China, India and the USA and three worldwide sales branches.

The company’s Czech Republic plant, PHA Czech s.r.o., in Český Těšín, 300 km east north of Prague, started production in 2008 and employs 300 people. Its primary focus is to produce door modules for a leading Korean automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM). However, it also produces non-module door hinges, bonnet/hood hinges, tailgate hinges and tailgate latches for a number of other leading automotive OEMs.

In a recent development programme, the Rockwell Automation® Global Solutions team in the Czech Republic was tasked by PHA Czech s.r.o. to develop a complete control solution for a front/rear, left/right turnkey door module assembly line and end-of-line (EOL) test stations. The project scope for the team, which has been working with PHA since 2006, involved project management, administration, hardware and software design, cabinet manufacture, site installation, commissioning and production start-up.

Challenge: The assembly line – the fifth to be developed by Rockwell Automation for PHA – had to be designed to meet demanding production capacities and targets; capable of building 850 car sets per day, yet flexible enough to support building up to 1,000 car sets per day. It also would be the first door module line built on a conveyor concept, where the panels move on pallets and the operators stay in one place.

In addition, PHA wanted enhanced quality levels and various process optimisation steps based on both knowledge from previous installs and newer standards and targets defined by more recent end-user customer requirements. A comprehensive machine and personnel safety solution was also part of the brief.

Solution: For the complete door module car set assembly, there are two lines (front and rear) with conveyors carrying the front door module down one side and the rear down the other. These modules are then assembled in parallel using an identical sequence. Assembly operations include: pulley pre-assembly and riveting; drum winding; window regulator assembly; motor and speaker assembly; latch placement and the incorporation of a side-impact sensor and wire harness. The end-of-line (EOL) inspection stations then undertake full door module functionality tests and motor noise sound inspection (in a sound room), deploying a Poka Yoke quality system.

According to Rockwell Automation Account Manager Miroslav Novotny: “This was a complex project, which was made easier thanks to our Integrated Architecture® portfolio. The main line controllers on the front and rear lines are Allen-Bradley ControlLogix® 1756 L73 programmable automation controllers (PACs). The chain conveyors and motors, which handle all aspects of pallet movement are controlled using Allen-Bradley PowerFlex® 525 variable-speed AC drives. This comprises lateral and up and down movement of the pallets between workstations, and control of the recirculating conveyor, which takes empty pallets back to the beginning of the production line.”

The ControlLogix PAC collects, collates and controls all the signals from the various assembly stations using Allen-Bradley Stratix™ managed switches and Allen-Bradley POINT I/O™ modules on an EtherNet/IP™ network. This is to accommodate the long distances involved, including the primary conveyor which is 15 m long. At the end of the line, in the testing stations, four Allen-Bradley CompactLogix™ PACs are used, two in the sound rooms and two in final inspection. The ControlLogix PAC also oversees a robot used on part of the line.

The automation solution is completed by a wide variety of Allen-Bradley low-voltage products, including buttons, sensors and other accessories, inside the cabinets deployed at each station. Finally, the line’s safety infrastructure, which complies with all local safety legislation, comprises a number of Allen-Bradley safety gates, linked together with emergency stops at each station, all connected in series to safety relays within the main control cabinet.

Rockwell Automation Global Solutions Team Leader in The Czech Republic, Petr Veselý, explains: “I have worked with PHA for 10 years now.  For this project we met with their engineers, who gave us a very detailed specification, including 3D models of the final product. They also gave us their expectations regarding timings and volume targets. We delivered a complete solution – from the control architecture and software to supervision of the whole line, including all mechanical and electrical elements. We also dealt with three local mechanical assembly suppliers and once the concept had been created, we then handled all of the approvals within PHA.

“Once the mechanical design had been approved,” Veselý continues, “the manufacturing go-ahead was given and the electrical concept was developed. Upon approval, we employed four programmers from the Rockwell Automation office in Prague to create the software application. Two programmers worked on the main line and two on the inspection stations. Studio 5000® was used for visualisation and, in answer to one of PHA’s primary demands for flexibility, we applied customised application windows. Each station uses a separate all-in-one PC touch panel (18 on the main line and 11 in the standalone and test stations) running C++ applications. Further visualisation and control of the main conveyor is supplied by two Allen-Bradley PanelView Plus™ HMIs.

Results:

According to Novotny: “This successful project delivery demonstrates the professionalism and capabilities of our Global Solutions team, not only in the provision of technical solutions but also in the delivery of complete project management. The experience and skills obtained in this instance will be adopted as a basis for further similar opportunities in the automotive market, including future projects with PHA. Indeed, we are already in discussions with PHA for the provision of another door assembly for a different car model.”

Przemysław Sakowicz, Manufacturing Engineer at PHA Czech s.r.o. cites fast support, good relations and previous good experiences of working with Rockwell Automation as the primary reasons for using the leading automation provider again: “I know exactly what quality I can expect from Rockwell Automation, it has a very good team of programmers that reacts quickly to any issues or challenges we face. We had multiple customer audits before and during project start up and the auditors were very satisfied with what we have developed with Rockwell Automation, which is very important for us. I would particularly like to thank Petr Veselý and his team for the project fulfilment and management; they met all the requirements from my side.

“With regards to specific benefits of the Rockwell Automation solution,” Sakowicz concludes, “as well as hitting the production targets, we expect to see significantly reduced programming for the new line we are developing as well as the easy tuning and manipulation of the software we have seen in this solution. The Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture has also delivered a more flexible and open platform for both remote troubleshooting and local maintenance.”

New dairy ingredients plant for Fonterra deploys integrated automation, motor control and process control solution

Leading multinational dairy company successfully deploys worldwide in- house standards on single-solution, single-supplier Connected Enterprise compliant control infrastructure

Background
Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited is a multinational dairy co-operative, owned by around 10,500 New Zealand farmers. The company is responsible for approximately 30% of the world’s dairy exports and with revenues in excess of NZ$19.87 billion, it is New Zealand’s largest company and accounts for 25% of the country’s total exports.

With a network of offices, productions sites and technical centres across the globe, it employs some 16,000 people in New Zealand and around the world; collecting 22 billion litres of milk annually in order to make dairy products available to millions of consumers in 140 countries.

The company recently commissioned a new dairy ingredients plant in Heerenveen, in the north of The Netherlands, which would be used to produce three variants of lactose powder and a range of protein products. This includes whey protein concentrate, whey protein isolate and a lipid-rich whey protein concentrate as well as several specialty functional whey protein concentrate powders for use in high-value paediatric, maternal, and sports nutrition products.

Officially opened in July 2015, with His Majesty King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands in attendance, the new plant is built on a 25 hectare site and has been developed in partnership with a leading Dutch cheese manufacturer – where the Fonterra plant processes the whey originating from the other plant’s cheese making process. The plant is Fonterra’s first wholly owned and operated ingredients plant in Europe. Peak production will see the plant process up to 2.7 million litres of whey per day, with annual production figures of around 25,000 tonnes of lactose and 5,000 tonnes of protein products.

For the automation and control of the plant, Fonterra had a wide choice of suppliers and system integrators from which to source primary equipment. In New Zealand it uses Allen-Bradley® programmable automation controllers (PACs) and SCADA solutions from Rockwell Automation, with motors and motor-control technology from other suppliers. At the Heerenveen development, Fonterra did initially investigate using the same combination of suppliers. However, with an incredibly powerful integration and Connected Enterprise solution proposed by Rockwell Automation and Beenen B.V., a Rockwell Automation Recognised System Integrator, Fonterra opted for a complete wall-to-wall solution of automation, process and motor control based around Allen-Bradley products.

Recognized System Integrators make the commitment to deliver the highest technical solution and customer service, leading with Rockwell Automation technologies. These integrators have a mutually supportive relationship with the Rockwell Automation sales and/or distributors they work with.

Using this approach Fonterra was able to deploy a completely integrated control solution from a single supplier that also offered effective communication from the shop floor to the top floor.  Production data can be captured, collated, and analysed in order to improve processes and Fonterra can share vital manufacturing information with a wide variety of disciplines both inside and outside of the factory.

Challenge
The primary challenge for the new site was the relatively short timescales in which the plant had to be up and running – the first orders were received in February 2014 and the plant needed to be up and running by the end of 2014. Beenen, with support from Rockwell Automation, was instrumental in addressing this challenge in its commitment to meet the 12 month timescale, compared to an industry average of 18 to 24 months.

In addition to the timescale challenge, Fonterra has its own standards for motor control and faceplates – with interfaces to devices from other providers and competitors. During the project, they were converted to the Rockwell Automation standards by using our process library.

Solution
The complete integrated solution chosen by Fonterra, comprised multiple elements of the Rockwell Automation product offering, many of which are part of the company’s cutting-edge Connected Enterprise offering.

By using EtherNet/IP as the primary communication protocol, Fonterra has given itself the opportunity to move easily into The Connected Enterprise, an approach manufacturers are adopting to leverage the use of connected machines, supply chains and customers.  Manufacturers are able to establish manufacturing processes that are data / information rich, supported, secure and future ready for market demands.

Ultimately, a Connected Enterprise approach for manufacturers will create a more competitive, innovative enterprise that can deliver insights to improve productivity, sustainability and economic performance through faster time to market, lower total cost of ownership, improved asset utilisation and enterprise risk management.

Other benefits of access to real-time, contextualised information, include minimised downtime, improved technology and process optimisation, greater workforce efficiency and smarter expenditure. Because EtherNet/IP is based on standard, unmodified Ethernet, it means that there is very little that needs to be done for these connections to be established; and full security solutions are also available for user control and to prevent unwarranted access.

From a product perspective, Fonterra has deployed multiple Allen-Bradley ControlLogix programmable automation controllers (PACs), working in conjunction with Allen-Bradley CENTERLINE® 2500 motor control centres (MCC), complete with Allen-Bradley E300™ Electronic Overload Relays and more than 250 Allen-Bradley PowerFlex® variable-speed drives, some with dual-Ethernet capabilities. Arranged in 42 cabinet columns, the MCC installation is 50 m in length. As well as providing intelligent centralised motor control, the CENTERLINE MCCs also offer advanced energy management capabilities and integration into the Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture – delivering true plug-and-play capabilities.

According to Alex van Dalen, the General Manager from Beenen BV: “Beenen worked very hard to win this project and was initially bidding against two other local system integrators. We go for quality and the best solution, therefore Beenen employed Rockwell Automation to design and develop the MCC solution, while Beenen undertook the remainder of the electrical and automation work based around other Allen-Bradley solutions. We built up a real team ethic with Rockwell Automation and the positive effects of this cooperation was evident in the dealings with Fonterra and, of course, the success of the project.”

The software installation is just as impressive:  FactoryTalk® View offers overall visibility into the processes and interface with the ERP and process-control systems; FactoryTalk® Historian is used for collection; and FactoryTalk® VantagePoint is used for information, visualisation and dissemination. By making data freely available in an easy-to-read format, when you need it, in the specific format required for each job role; operators and managers are able to make much more informed decisions, much quicker and with greater positive effects on the line optimisation. FactoryTalk® AssetCentre gives Fonterra the ability to centrally secure, manage, version control, track and report automation-related asset information across its entire facility. AssetCentre also provides automatic scheduled backups of controllers thus supporting “disaster recovery”. Rockwell Software® CPG Suite® delivers value-based applications that can help Fonterra achieve operational excellence, increase supply chain effectiveness, adhere to regulatory compliance guidelines and meet sustainability goals.

Completing the installation is a number of value-added service offerings, which include a parts-management contract providing critical spare parts, a TechConnect® support contract and in-depth training for the Fonterra operatives.

Results
According to Alex van Dalen: “The Fonterra team was particularly enthusiastic about the benefits of Premier Integration in relation to the motor control offering from Rockwell Automation. They found the diagnostic software very useful to ‘see’ into the contactor from the MCC and also in the frequently controllers. The Connected Enterprise approach will also allow them to leverage their manufacturing data far more effectively and then share it with all those that need to see both historic and real-time information.”

Hans Berghorst, Operations Director at Fonterra, explains: “Rockwell Automation is the Fonterra standard in the Netherlands and by deploying a complete Rockwell Automation solution, we only have one supplier instead of two, which also offers benefits in terms of maintenance and spares. We also selected our suppliers based on total cost of ownership (TCO). Rockwell Automation came out well; we not only looked at the CAPEX, but also at the life costs over 10 years and determined that the Rockwell Automation approach developed by Beenen was the best solution. Our engineers are also enjoying the benefits of the integrated approach. The MCC IntelliCENTER® solution allows them to do restarts from the HMI in the control room; they don’t have to go to the MCC.”

Discussing the creation of the new faceplates, Berghorst adds: “It’s a mixture of Fonterra, Beenen and Rockwell Automation engineering. Our plan was always to have a standardised solution and we do have our own in-house libraries that we use as standard within Fonterra, which are all the same worldwide. But of course now that the motor drives are from Rockwell Automation, we jointly developed new faceplates, based on Fonterra’s engineering standards.

“We knew from the start that we wanted to use Allen-Bradley PACs and control solutions. We do a lot of joint development with Rockwell Automation back in New Zealand, so it is easy to copy and paste routines and programmes.  In addition, we have specialists in our process control department in New Zealand who know and understand Rockwell Automation solutions very well. Also, from a support point of view, it’s always better when you have a standardised solution.”

Discussing the five year service contract, Berghorst continues: “I think within Rockwell Automation there are some very knowledgeable advisors, who know the systems inside out. We also saw very good co-operation from Beenen who undertook most of the direct interactions with Rockwell Automation.

“It is the first time we have built a new facility in Europe,” Berghorst concludes, “so it is difficult to compare the performance characteristics compared to other sites and other technology, however, so far we are very satisfied with the performance.”

Biopharmax saves time and engineering effort by deploying a distributed control system at state-of-the-art insulin production facility in China

Advanced insulin production facility, with integrated process control system, creates completely automated facility, which raises the benchmark for process operations

Background
Established 40 years ago, Biopharmax designs and builds manufacturing facilities around the world, specialising in the pharmaceutical industry. Actively present in Europe, China, India and the Middle East, it undertakes turnkey projects, from user requirement specifications and conceptual design through implementation to successful validation, and has designed and constructed over 100 facilities in 14 countries around the globe.

Biopharmax was challenged to design a new Life Science and Technology park in China, spanning a total area of 120,000 square meters. The first facility built in the park was a 7,000 square meter insulin production facility, which had to meet all relevant regulatory requirements established by the U.S., Europe, and China. The company not only had the expertise and experience in the engineering arena, but was also familiar with a variety of technologies in the pharmaceutical field. In this instance, they used an insulin technology, based on recombinant e-coli fermentation that was procured from a third party.

Challenge
Insulin production involves a very complicated automated production process, which includes process systems and equipment, clean utilities, industrial utilities, clean rooms, laboratories, warehousing and control systems to run production, in addition to all the associated commissioning and validation. In this instance, production complexity and recipe variety compounded the challenge, requiring the development of tailor-made process applications capable of supporting more than 300 phases and 70 recipes.

Biopharmax also faced a very short commissioning time, and numerous sub-contractors and suppliers from a wide range of disciplines and countries, which required a special approach to bridge the cultural and language barriers.

DS4 (smaller)

Solution
The application, based on the Rockwell Automation process control system, comprises over 10,000 I/O and a range of process controllers – from large to micro-sized. System flexibility allows the implementation of a PlantPAx® system for the fermentation process and a tailor-made implementation for the other process areas, providing a complete integration of both application techniques using the same engineering and operation tools. Controllers collect and process the field information from distributed I/O and redundant I/O in critical areas.

Field information and process data is accessible from a central control room. Allen-Bradley® PowerFlex® variable frequency drives are also deployed at key points within the facility to provide more efficient and monitored motor control.

From a visualisation perspective, Biopharmax has leveraged high-end operator workstations (OWS), which provide an operator interface with advanced diagnostics and access to all relevant process components such as pumps, valves, etc. Biopharmax used its own special pharmaceutical library based on Rockwell Automation process objects and its associated faceplates for ease in design and engineering. A virtual system was deployed to deliver redundancy and increased system availability. Two physical servers – one for production and a second to provide redundancy – utilising VMware virtualisation technology, enable quick disaster recovery.

The plant process batch and recipe formulation is fully automatic, is implemented according to the S88 standards and incorporates modular software blocks and fixed FDS Syntax, offering quick and efficient troubleshooting. Batch reports were also implemented, which describe the batch process activity, including critical parameters, alarms and events, batch listing, batch summary, batch execution, material usage, forward tracking, and backward tracing.

The process control system also offers validation management, so whenever a new operator station is added, validation is done only for that specific stand. Historical data is also stored to a SQL database, which includes all system alarms and events and field device data (trends).

Finally, the EtherNet/IP communication link between the controllers on the diverse process areas and the different system components like: variable-speed drives, remote I/O and weighing scales, coupled to the serial link communication with the fan filter units (FFU), allows the system to analyse the highly detailed data received and execute the control and corrective measures where required. This significantly increases the system reliability and performance in response to changing conditions, as well as helping to optimise energy consumption.

Results

According to Sarel Chen Tov, CEO of Biopharmax: “Biopharmax is committed to putting the customer’s needs and long-term goals at the centre of its concerns. This project demonstrated how we delivered an end-to-end solution, implementing third-party process technology in a turnkey project. As the customer had a strong business orientation, with limited operational experience with insulin production, Biopharmax took the responsibility of selecting the proper equipment and implementing the most suitable recombinant E.coli cell line.”

The deployment of the Rockwell Automation process control system reduced development and installation time, as all systems have similar protocols and all communication was based on EtherNet/IP. Indeed, as Lior Meir, Lead-Control Systems, at Biopharmax explains: “We saw a start-up time of just six months from end of mechanical completion to execution; this is very short in comparison to other similar processes, which usually take around 18 months to complete.”

According to engineers on the project, the system is very easy to program and configure and the integration between software, controllers and the I/O helped improve reliability and was user-friendly. The engineers also appreciated the speed at which the system could be installed as a result of the EtherNet/IP architecture with its immediate ‘plug and play’ capability. Other benefits of the fully integrated system include: common programming standards, easier trouble shooting and correction, efficient validation without any redundant work.

Biopharmax created a facility which is completely automated; with the control of the entire facility taking place in one control room. For the customer this means that the system controls all aspects of the process, providing complete visualisation and operator interface; there is no need to go between rooms for inspection – all inspections can be done from one spot. The use of automatic recipes in this facility has also resulted in minimum human intervention in the production process, reducing the possibility of human error and contamination risks. This, in turn, has led to increased efficiency and higher yield.

This article was written as part of a precess industry marketing campaign for Rockwell Automation

The resulting PDF, also prepared by me, can be found here: EMEA1967 Biopharmax (Lo)

RFID in an integrated environment provides new levels of data capabilities

Udo Füger, European Product Manager Sensing & Connectivity at Rockwell Automation explains how RFID technology is liberating data from a vast array of manufacturing applications and how industry is starting to enjoy unheard of levels of data capture.

They may have different names, different dates and different numbers, but Industrie 4.0 (Germany), Intelligent Manufacturing 2025 (China), Advanced Manufacturing Partnership 2.0 (United States) and Manufacturing Innovation 3.0 (Korea) are essentially the same thing. Each is a Government initiative focused on bringing manufacturing and technology leadership back to their respective nations.

Backed by heavy Government investment, they all hinge around the concept of the “Smart Factory”. This approach leverages widely available manufacturing data to analyse physical processes and procedures to create models, simulations, dashboards and virtual copies of the physical world in order for decision makers to make decentralised decisions. Core to the “Smart Factory” is the free flow of data and the leverage of the so-called “Internet of Things” (IoT). IoT allows multiple discrete and connected/integrated systems and associated adjacent systems to not only communicate with each other, but also with operators at line side and with software and personnel at the enterprise level.

According to Udo Füger, European Product Manager Sensing & Connectivity at Rockwell Automation: “The IoT is connecting the physical and virtual worlds. It has brought people, processes and equipment together, from smart sensors and other devices to entire systems.”

“This connectivity is deepening our understanding of plant-floor events and sharpening decision-making. But for this smart approach to be fully effective, optimal and complete data capture is vital; as is a network infrastructure that allows the free and unobstructed flow of this data.

RFID apps

“The proliferation of smarter end points, data analytics, scalable computing, mobility and visualisation,” he continues, “is reshaping the future of industrial automation. And it is only with comprehensive product and software portfolios – such as those from Rockwell Automation – that suppliers can genuinely offer solutions that deliver full immersion in the “Smart Factory” right now as opposed to the first few tentative steps on the ladder. An example of this full-portfolio approach is our growing range of RFID technologies.”

Like the various nationally-based initiatives, if we drill down, there are also many approaches being offered by the leading automation and networking companies. The “Connected Enterprise” approach from Rockwell Automation is one such initiative that is gaining significant traction across multiple industries and application in many different countries. And thanks to the significant global position that Rockwell Automation enjoys, it is able to develop “Smart Factory” solutions – for both small and multi-national companies – that reflect the local demands and, just as importantly, local legislation and Government initiatives.

The Connected Enterprise from Rockwell Automation leverages a number of technological approaches in order to deliver multiple tangible benefits, including faster time to market, lower total cost of ownership (TCO), improved asset utilisation and optimisation and enhanced enterprise risk management. Core to this initiative is an integrated suite of software and hardware platforms, all of which communicate across a common network infrastructure – in this case EtherNet/IP – a standard Ethernet network that provides data flow from the smallest line-side device up to enterprise-wide ERP suites.

“This is where our RFID portfolio comes into its own,” Füger explains. “Our RFID technology is already Ethernet capable, meaning that it can be connected directly to the wider network, without any information or translation bottle necks. From our viewpoint – one that is also shared by many of our leading customers – this makes our RFID solution an enabling technology that offers significant advantages over other solutions, especially when it is coupled directly to an Ethernet network.”

It is a proven fact the linking of production data with supply chain information and its subsequent processing in modern MES software or, indeed, industry-specific control solutions, not only optimises inventory control but also improves production efficiency, flexibility and responsiveness. By exploiting this data effectively, companies have a much more effective means of obtaining accurate, detailed and timely information relating to their manufacturing operations, which in turn offers them the chance to get the most value out of their existing automation investments.

One application arena where optimum data capabilities are paramount, is track, trace and compliance management. This is particularly true in the pharmaceutical industry, where counterfeiting is already a global issue. In this scenario, RFID is arguably one of the most effective approaches to addressing both functional and legislative demands.

“Increasingly demanding international quality requirements are forcing companies to better manage product information, lot tracking and related quality standards across their entire supply chain network,” Füger explains. “If a company ever needs to recall a product, it must be done as quickly and as precisely as possible. RFID’s ability to provide reliable, accurate, and up-to-date information is absolutely critical to cost-effectively achieving a company’s recall objectives. For manufacturing operations in a pharmaceutical environment that require a high degree of compliance with Governmental standards and regulations, RFID can also provide additional information streams. In turn, these can support existing MES activities and enable companies to more tightly track, verify, and validate their processes in accordance with 21CFR Part 11 compliance. RFID also can complement existing MES efforts to provide genealogy tracking. Typically, at each stage of processing.”

Pharmaceutical manufacturers can also use RFID technology to tag raw materials with detailed specification information. If a formulation is incorrect, an alert would automatically be triggered. This can help reduce scrap rates and increase yield, helping to assure a higher degree of reliability and quality in processing.

Traditional bar coding works to some extent, in that it can provide an instantaneous burst of information, but it has many shortfalls as it relies on line of sight, correct lighting and optimal code placement or product orientation. RFID, as a track and trace solution, suffers from none of these issues and the ability to add information to the chip as the product progresses through the manufacturing process gives it even greater appeal. Indeed, RFID can provide more accurate and reliable data than what’s available through manual bar coding methods, and this can have a major impact in high volume and high-speed manufacturing operations where speed, accuracy and timeliness are critical for throughput and performance.

For optimal RFID success, efforts to improve inventory visibility across the supply chain should be closely tied to a company’s control systems and execution processes driving production. “This is where our RFID portfolio demonstrates its strengths,” Füger explains. “With a direct Ethernet connection, our RFID technology is already part of the bigger picture. It is also easier to justify the Return on Investment (ROI), as many manufacturers recognise that the plant floor presents a vast, untapped opportunity for value creation and even strategic advantage. By applying integrated RFID technology incrementally across the plant floor, manufacturers can seamlessly exploit the new information captured by RFID without disrupting their existing control, visualisation and information infrastructure. Existing manufacturing execution and information systems can then be updated to deliver robust and reliable real-time information flow to drive manufacturing execution in tune with the RFID-enabled supply chain.”

For specialised industries there may well be greater benefits in data visualisation and subsequent reuse through the deployment of industry-specific MES software and process control solutions. “One example of this,” Füger elaborates, “is PharmaSuite from Rockwell Automation. PharmaSuite brings an innovative approach to MES, with role-based optimisation of each stage of a recipe’s life cycle that drives time to results for every user. Open-content architecture paired with an intelligent upgrade engine provides users with a powerful system designed for growth in both batch and discrete processing. The end results being reduced time to market and the elimination of paperwork leading to the highest quality of standards and process optimisation.”

Rockwell Automation also offers a number of other industry-specific MES solutions that are just as capable of leveraging real time data, such as that delivered by RFID technology, and then putting it to work to achieve performance targets. One such MES solution is Rockwell Software AutoSuite™. With its proven results in track and trace, error proofing, quality management, and operations intelligence, AutoSuite covers industrial automation, control and software solutions across the entire automotive supply chain. Using AutoSuite, users can focus on improving quality, reducing costs, increasing responsiveness and ultimately improving time-to-market. Rockwell Software CPGSuite® is another performance management MES solution that gives its Consumer Packaged Goods industry users the ability to set factory-performance goals and track progress in real time. Like other MES solutions it contributes to increased productivity, reduced waste and increased profitability.

“In order to deliver this rich information from RFID upstream out to the supply chain and Enterprise Resource Planning system and downstream into production and the various MES solutions,” Füger explains, “companies must convert their existing information infrastructure so that it co-exists with emerging EPC standards and IT; including software and application management technology.

RFID technology can also be used for simpler, but arguably just as important, applications such as asset tagging. By tagging physical assets, such as machines, fork trucks and material handling devices, manufacturers can gain better information about the location, usability and maintenance requirements. Using this information, manufacturers can devise production steps as well as maintenance and labour schedules to help decrease asset costs, optimise asset performance and maximise asset utilisation. Thanks to its passive method of operation, RFID does not require proactive scanning; all that is required is readers placed at tactical points across an enterprise. This removes the onus on the operator to “check in” at regular intervals.

“Traceability, tracking and data collection in all of their many guises are slowly becoming vital facets to the successful implementation of the “Smart Factory” and the onward journey to Industrie 4.0 and its many worldwide peers,” Füger explains. “RFID has an immensely important role to play in these data gathering exercises, either in simple asset-tracking applications or all the way up to large-scale pharmaceutical batch monitoring. Thanks to its greater data-gathering capabilities, compared to traditional barcoding, it is seeing massive acceptance in a great many industries in applications that may have previously been ignored due to technical limitations.

“With our impressive RFID portfolio,” he concludes, “Rockwell Automation is in an incredibly strong position worldwide, a position which is further strengthened by the fact that our Ethernet capable technology can integrate seamlessly with existing control, automation, safety, motion and process solutions that are deployed in a huge amount of different applications the world over. With market demands and our own research and development efforts driving product capabilities, we will soon be announcing the introduction of a new range of UHF-capable interfaces and readers that are set to expand the deployment of RFID into many more demanding industrial applications.”

 

This article was written for RFID im Blick magazine on behalf of Rockwell Automation

Process industry challenges addressed by proactive suppliers and distributors

The process industry is facing pressure from all sides of the industrial and legislative spectrum. Industrial customers large and small are demanding adaptable contemporary solutions that deliver new levels of performance, integration, throughput and flexibility. Local and international legislative bodies are then compounding these demands with the need for full traceability, safety and accountability. Far from being a grim and rather onerous scenario, the majority of the leading technology providers and their distributors have, in fact, got it all in hand and are well placed to deliver solutions.

Technological advances more often than not deliver a double-edged sword. As well as giving OEMs the ability to deliver the latest and greatest in terms of performance and capability, they also give end users, external bodies and other entities in the value chain a shopping list of features they want to see. It is these two channels – both the pushing and pulling of technology – that are driving the majority of developments in research and development labs at the major suppliers of process automation and control solutions.

Looking at the industry’s demands, the majority of requests from the machine builders are those filtered down from their customers. They want flexible, open and agile solutions that can be adapted to suit a broad range of manufacturing demands and infrastructures. Probably the biggest breakthrough in recent years is the ability to apply the economies of mass production in batch-production applications.

Economies of scale is a pervading economic metric which still stands true in a great many industries, including the process industry. In its basic guise, large CAPEX investments are offset over a period of time through the sheer volume of (often identical) products manufactured. The problem is that most manufacturing operations these days are demanding smaller, more flexible machines that are capable of producing a larger variety of different products, with minimal time, engineering and changeover costs. Modern advances in hardware and control solutions have certainly addressed many of these issues and with the advent of greater access to data and its subsequent use, these advances will continue to gather pace.

Familiarity is another demand from many of the leading end users. One only has to look at the PackML standard, established by leading blue-chip home and healthcare end users. The standard was developed to define a common approach, or machine language, for automated machines – and not just those from one supplier, we’re talking all leading suppliers here. The primary goal is to encourage a common look and feel across all plant floors, no matter where they are in the world. Adopted as part of the ISA88 industry standard, PackML has since been implemented by users and machine builders on a wide variety of control platforms and is a great example of industry demands being solved by automation providers and then implemented by machine builders.

Data, mentioned earlier, is a primary driver in many of the technological “pushes and pulls”. The advent of more open control architectures has led to standard Ethernet and its standards-based derivatives becoming pervasive on the shop floor; with many of the older, less open protocols being restricted to discrete operations, often the niche applications for which they were first developed. By using open protocols the flow of manufacturing and process data has turned from a trickle of need-to-know bespoke parameters into a flood of ones and zeros that can be viewed by anyone with the right access privileges.

This massive increase in data infrastructures and data handling capabilities means that process recipes and machine-operating parameters can be changed at the flick of a switch, either by lineside operators or by enterprise-level ERP systems. What is more, thanks to much easier access and the subsequent presentation of historical data, the same staff or ERP system can subsequently fine tune production runs to maximise yield, quality and profitability.

Access to far greater volumes of time-sensitive and pertinent data being generate at the machine/component level is also allowing the process industry to cater for two of the biggest international legislative drivers – especially in terms of products manufactured for consumption or healthcare – traceability and tracking. As well as giving companies the ability to track ingredients and raw materials from goods in to the supermarket shelf, for quality and recall reasons, the same technology is giving drug manufacturers very powerful tools in the constant fight against counterfeiting, which is a huge problem internationally. By creating unique batch and company specific coding regimens generated at process machine level, resellers and purchasers alike can have a lot more confidence that the drugs and pharmaceuticals they are purchasing are from legitimate sources and that the batch codes and ingredients can be traced back to precise timeslots and specific machines, operators and raw materials. This approach is still under discussion and is seeing a variety of approaches from different economic, geographic and legislative bodies, but the good news is that the hardware is available from the process automation providers as is the all-important communication stream at all levels of the production process.

The process industry also faces a unique set of safety challenges – even milk powder can be explosive in the right conditions – so process automation providers are now making safety solutions and their subsequent interoperability with the wider process control solution part of a holistic solution as opposed to a bolted on afterthought. Regular headlines have shown the devastating effects that explosions can have, with the recent chemical plant in China being an unpleasant, but graphic example of what can go wrong if safety solutions are not up to scratch. Like many incidents like this, subsequent investigations may show that more robust procedures coupled to up-to-date technology can play a huge part in preventing catastrophes.

Machine builders have access to an enormous range of safety solutions, from small discrete safety-relay based solutions to fully integrated safety suites; and from a product perspective there are a multitude of ATEX-compliant products and hardware that make these safety systems even more robust.

Sustainability is another major ethic that many process companies are publically broadcasting. ISO 14000 has just about as much impact these days as ISO 9001, with sustainability targets getting ever tougher, either through self-set targets, or indeed, through national and international legislation. Process automation may not sound like the most obvious solution – and it certainly doesn’t work in isolation – but it can offer incredible savings in time, energy and raw materials and, by removing what is often the weak link in many process (the operator) the risks of leaks, unwarranted venting and spills can be significantly reduced – the result being increased environmental credentials, even if these aren’t immediately apparent due to nothing happening being a positive result.

As industries go, the process industry certainly faces a much broader set of challenges than many others due to the variety of procedures and raw materials being deployed and the huge breadth of end user and customer types. Legislation abounds from end users, local, national and international bodies and the end users also want familiarity with what they are using. For these reasons the suppliers of process automation solutions have to stay one step ahead and cater for future legislation while also helping their customers to deal with existing market demands. Distributors such as RS Components also play a vital role in educating the market and supplying the hardware that will allow users to address this vast variety of needs.

This article was written for Publitek on behalf of RS Components.

Wireless technology gains momentum

With just about every walk of life openly embracing the freedom offered by wireless technology, why does it seem that industry has lagged behind? We look at some of the perceived issues and how many of the leading suppliers are starting to address these and develop industry-specific software and hardware solutions.

One of the most important prospects for the industrial fieldbus arena is the incorporation and deployment of wireless infrastructures and capabilities into industrial products, equipment, processes and facilities. Speed and bandwidth improvements have made this approach inevitable, as industrial companies also attempt to leverage the same benefits they see from wireless solutions in other walks of life.

As Manufacturing 4.0 and the so-called “Internet of things” philosophy begins to permeate into the mind-set of industry leaders, more and more suppliers are releasing wireless- and internet-capable equipment in order to leverage the wireless protocols that already exist for a number of established and proven communication solutions. Most of these solutions are simply wireless variants of their existing wired counterparts. They deliver the same functionality, but with the obvious benefit of significantly less cabling.

A wireless approach offers many benefits, especially in remote and geographically dispersed installations, where a traditional wired infrastructure would potentially be difficult to deploy and maintain. A good example would be in a liquid or gas storage facility, which would typically deploy multiple sensors to gather a wide variety of state data, such as level, temperature, volume, flow, etc. This data eventually needs to be fed back to a central repository, which could be kilometres from the furthest sensor. With wireless access points and repeaters, a single wireless network could easily replace many hundreds of kilometres of cabling.

Industry has been slower on the uptake of wireless, arguably because it demands more from its solutions in terms of signal quality, bandwidth, speed and robustness.

With many of us experiencing domestic wireless issues, such as signal drop offs and less-than-ideal router performance, it is understandable that some of these misgivings have rubbed off and have made their way into the business sector. A two second delay in handshaking between your PC and a wireless office printer is one thing, but the same delay in a factory environment could stop a production line. For this reason, the industrial arena demands more capable hardware specifically designed to operate in critical manufacturing and process applications.

The other issue with wireless in a sensitive industrial environment is security, with wireless Ethernet being a big target. However, security solutions are often sold hand-in-hand with industrial wireless suites, allowing industrial wireless networks to be integrated with (but ring fenced from) enterprise solutions using gateways and buffer zones.

RS currently offers a range of wireless-capable products, covering multiple protocols from many leading vendors. These products range in size and complexity from wireless pushbuttons from Schneider Electric, up to wireless access points from Omron. These leading vendors, and many others like them, are introducing new technology on a regular basis and much of it will leverage the flexibility and ease of use available from wireless infrastructures. Access points also open up wireless capabilities to just about any type of industrial hardware you care to mention, as long as it can ultimately ‘talk’ with the more popular communication protocols such as Ethernet.

The beauty of most standardised wireless solutions is that they tend to be ‘agnostic’ in the fact that a certified products from any vendors should happily operate side by side with products from another vendor and deliver data over a common shared network. This lack of a closed approach means that users also have a much broader base of products to choose from, especially down at the lower levels. In most instances, an automation suite, whether it be wireless or not, will be designed in the same way, with higher-level components such as PLCs, drives, HMIs, etc. all coming from a  single supplier, but the lower level (low voltage) components can be sourced from other suppliers. They don’t even have to be wireless themselves as wireless I/O modules – which offer wireless data/signal transfer to and from PLCs – are readily available.

Industrial wireless technology is only going to get better as products evolve in line with revised standards, enhanced technology, greater bandwidths and faster speeds. One only has to look at the way Ethernet has evolved over the last 40 years to see how a single, basic protocol has mutated into to the most widespread commercial and industrial communications solution on the planet. It may be that in the next 10 years wireless will overtake wired solutions and become the industry standard. With investigations gathering speed into, among other things, wireless energy transfer, the future certainly looks interesting.

This article was written for Publitek on behalf of RS Components.

Warehousing fire risks handled by mature standards and contemporary testing routines

 

Mark Fletcher speaks to Dan Steppan, a Senior Staff Engineer with UL, to discover how warehousing and storage facilities are assessed for fire risks and firefighting equipment. He discovers that there are multiple factors involved in the assessment, as well as multiple approaches to addressing potential risks

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Dan really knows his stuff: “I’ve been working with warehouse sprinkler systems my whole career here at UL and I’ve seen an incredible array of tests and technology go through our facility. The building in which I do most of my testing is a one-of-a-kind structure developed specifically to assess warehouse fire protection. We use it for the evaluation of warehouses and industrial plant fire sprinkler systems as they have similar risk management issues.”

The large-scale laboratory in which he works measures 36.5 x 36.5 m (120 x 120 ft) and is 18.3m (60 ft) tall. “We also have a moveable 30.5 x 30.5 m (100 x 100 ft) ceiling, which can be positioned anywhere, ranging from 2.4 m (8 ft) to 14.6 m (48 ft) in the air. The moveable ceiling plays a core role in our fire assessment activities as different warehouses have different ceiling heights and over the many years we have been doing these tests we have proved that the ceiling height plays a huge part in a fire’s dynamics. This truly is a unique test area and we can accomplish many things at the push of a button.”

Dan works with a number of stakeholders, including sprinkler manufacturers who are looking for certifications, the insurance industry, which has many concerns over what they are insuring and finally end users – owners of distribution centres and warehouses as well as manufacturing locations (for both parts and warehousing) including those that produce combustible products.

“The primary standard we use in these evaluations,” he continues, “is the National Fire Protection Association’s NFPA13, which covers the installation of sprinkler systems. NFPA documents are well used in Europe and in the Middle East and Asia. There are of course other standards, both national and international, but they follow very similar testing regimens and have a similar set of demands and results. The primary job in relation to this standard is related to industrial fires and it asks the question, ‘once a fire starts, will the sprinkler systems be adequate to deal with it’.”

UL and NFPA13 define a commodity classification as the basis of the measurement system used in the test methodology. “An insurance company would go in and look around a site to assess the hazard of the products in the warehouse using NFPA13. This provides a wide path to lock down hazards, which can be anything from low, Class 1 commodity, such as non-combustible materials in wooden crates. The class level then increases from Class 2 through to Class 4 as the amount of combustible materials increase.

“Class 2 may typically be corrugated board (cardboard) boxes with minimal combustibles inside,” he adds, “with plastic packaging and products – which burn significantly hotter – taking the Class levels up to 3 or 4. Plastics have their own sub categories. The lowest being unexpanded Group A plastics, such as hard plastic cups inside a corrugated box, up to expanded plastics – including Styrofoam  that is used for product protection – that burn very well. All of these categories are defined in NFPA13.”

Once the class of the product and packaging has been defined, the stakeholders can then determine how much water the sprinkler system needs to supply. “So the definition of different products and their packaging is key to understanding if the existing system is adequate, if not either the insurance rates become higher or the sprinkler system gets upgraded.”

“A lot of what we do requires large scale testing of a portion of a warehouse full of products, but we also offer another test that allows us to assign hazard-class rankings to specific products,” Steppan elaborates. “Warehouse owners and fire marshals may not understand how a product is created and the issues associated with creative packaging; and guidance may simply not exist. What we can do is test a product to ascertain the rating. But it is not just the product defining the hazard class. We look at the makeup of the product and what materials are involved, as each may have a different role in the overall hazard class. If we look at a stuffed toy, for example, the product itself has a plastic outer shell and plastic beads internally (which burn really well). One could consider the toy to be an expanded plastic (fur outer shell) or unexpanded (internal beads), so the customer may not know how to rank it and if their sprinkler system was between the two, they may want to do a test with us.”

When UL does a test it deploys eight full pallet  loads of products. “The classification rank is not just for the product, but also the box, any secondary packaging and the support platform on which the secondary packaging sits – such as a wooden or plastic pallet. Quite often the packaging and content will conflict in terms of ratings. An example will be appliances, stored in cardboard boxes with styrofoam packaging. A metal washing machine is not inherently that combustible, but its packaging is. The product maybe Class 1 or 2, whereas the packaging will be expanded plastic.

“We use 24 pallet loads of product in total, in order to perform three tests (8 pallet loads each).  We burn the product and then apply water when a sprinkler would have activated. The test demonstrates how the products react with water,” he continues. “We do three different tests relating to water levels from low levels, where the fire continues to burn, through to higher level of water where the fire is fully controlled or even suppressed to the point of extinguishment. As long as we can understand what water levels are needed, we can then assign a hazard class. Big box stores are hugely impacted; and sometimes we get manufacturers coming to us to look at different packaging schemes, as they understand that different packaging can have different penalties, either for them or their customers.

“We also have a category for plastic pallets, which burn much hotter than wood,” Steppan continues. “We use our own standard – UL 2335 – to look at plastic pallets in order to assess flammability and the effectiveness of fire retardants, which are added to make them burn in a way similar to or lower than wooden pallets when sprinkler systems are employed.”

Plastic pallets are being used more and more – especially in taller, automated warehouses – due to the fact that wooden pallet can break or splinter and jam the automated systems. The food industry is also using them more frequently due to cleanliness issues (washability).  Another reason for the use of plastics is due to the proliferation of RFID technology, which does have limitations with wooden pallets that may have picked up moisture from the atmosphere.

Within NFPA13, non-approved plastic pallets attract a penalty, increasing classifications by one or two classes.  Steel reinforced plastic pallets are even worse as they can keep the product in the racking for longer periods of time. With non-reinforced pallets, the product may fall through the racks and subsequently be better protected by the discharging water.

“There are always interesting scenarios,” Steppan explains. “When a beer manufacturer came to us, they had a Class 1 commodity product, but they wanted to use reinforced plastic pallets – and this would have meant a move from Class 1 to Class 3. They came to us and argued ‘we have a lot of water in our product… how does this water content affect the pallet’s classification?’ We tested cans and glass bottles and discovered that the liquid in the beer was able to ‘help’ keep any fires under control, so the brewer was able to make a case for maintaining a Class 1 status, even though NFPA13 says they should have a 2-class penalty. There is a paragraph in NFPA13 that states when there’s an unknown hazard class, you can go to a nationally recognised test laboratory to evaluate hazard classification’. It’s rare that the testing allows for a lower classification, but with in-depth testing it can make a difference.

“Other variations can include mixed storage areas,” he continues. “NFPA13 allows you segregate areas, using firewalls and compartmented spaces in order define different classification areas, but as a general rule, you protect for the highest classification. Insurance companies may also have data that might allow further reductions, but that typically comes as part of large-scale fire testing.”

“NFPA13 is on three-year revision cycle and this allows it to evolve to cover new technologies and new materials. One example would be the recent proliferation of lithium ion batteries. This is challenging from a suppression standpoint,” Steppan explains, “as we can see both fires and rocketing of the burning batteries due to their effectively being combustible liquids in a metal container. In cases like this we evaluate the product and firefighting technology in order to create or improve acceptable suppression procedures.

“Looking to the future, NFPA13 has the provision for larger K factor (flow vs. pressure) sprinklers due to the fact that taller warehouses need more water to get from ceiling to floor.  Sprinkler system effectiveness is often helped by the deployment of rack-based sprinklers. Another technology being proposed for warehouses is lowered-oxygen environments, into which typically only robots would venture. This is in its infancy in terms of standardisation, but we are aware of this approach and its current deployment in data centres; it is only a matter of time before we see it being used more and more in warehousing operations.”

NFPA13 may have found its roots in 1896, but it still forms an intrinsic part of testing regimens for many variations of industrial premises. Like all standards, it is not set in stone and through effective supplementary testing, such as that carried out by UL, owner/operators can gain a bit of flexibility from their insurers. It is great to see that even the old standards still carry weight, thanks in part to the impressive work undertaken by UL, associated stakeholders and all their worldwide peers.

This article was published in ‘International Fire Buyer‘ published by Hand Media