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West Chester, OH – E Tech Group, a leader in providing high-quality automation, control, and engineering services for industrial clients and Gold Certified Rockwell Automation Partner, today announced that the brand formerly known as Automation Group has been renamed as E Tech Group. E Tech Group’s acquisition of Automation Group was finalized on October 3, 2023.
As computational processing power has improved, machine learning (ML) has exploded in potential use cases that stand to improve a multitude of different processes. ML’s particular area of strength is its ability to detect and model complex relationships amongst large numbers of variables described in vast datasets.
A cheese producer contacted E Tech Group as they were facing a bottleneck preventing expansions. The project team installed a new panel to house the ControlLogix PLC and associated communications modules to reduce downtime.
A cheese production facility had three PLC5s critical to daily operations at full capacity, creating a bottleneck for an expansion of ongoing reporting projects. Acknowledging there was an immediate need to remove the existing PLC5s for a ControlLogix replacement, they contacted E Tech Group to facilitate the control system upgrade. Having worked with the customer on a CIP automation project, and their intimate familiarity with the three PLC5s, our team was already up to speed and could act quickly.
The project team had to determine physical and communication connections. The challenge was the existence of multiple DeviceNet networks to existing MCCs with legacy VFDs. Additionally, IO was dispersed over many areas, in multiple panels requiring process knowledge of the core of the facility.
Working with the exact opposite of a fully-integrated automation system inside of a 12-hour timeline to completion would require a creative approach to converting and integrating the new controls.
To minimize the downtime necessary to implement the new control system, all PLC5 IO racks were retained in place and a custom control system panel was designed and installed to house the new Controllogix PLC and associated communications modules.
During onsite support, the project team was able to convert a PanelView Plus that had previously been overlooked to the updated application communications. Our automation team had 12 hours to complete the conversion, which involved taking over existing IO, doing point-to-point checks and validating the HMI. This timeline would allow the client to begin their CIP process before production the next day, with the new ControlLogix installed.
IO Lists were developed to help with commissions, and detailed DeviceNet networks were documented. The team also solved challenges from non-default DeviceNet Node configurations and transitioning RIO communications to remote racks.
The existing Wonderware Applications used for SCADA were updated by E Tech Group’s engineering team and communicated on the first attempt. The project team was able to meet and exceed the tight conversion schedule, with the customer beginning CIP sequences within 10 hours. Following these updates, the project team provided 48-hour continuous onsite support, available to assist with any immediate issues. With this project completed, the customer was able to benefit from the improved reporting, visualization and connectivity with the upgraded PLC system.
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A California winery faced challenges due to outdated controls, which caused downtime, expensive hardware replacement, and lack of maintenance knowledge. They hired E Tech Group to create a PLC and SCADA upgrade solution.
Outdated controls can pose many operational challenges. Companies that operate with outdated controls often experience frequent downtime, expensive or obsolete hardware replacement parts, or few personnel with the knowledge to perform maintenance on legacy systems. These challenges were faced by a long-running California winery that needed to modernize the controls for their red fermentation process. The winery needed to address how a control system upgrade would impact their operations and contracted E Tech Group to create a PLC and SCADA upgrade solution.
The first step was to create a well-documented project plan. E Tech Group analyzed the existing system design and detailed existing hardware components, software configurations and network connections. This step was crucial to have an accurate picture of their current control environment to mitigate production impacts during the implementation phase.
The project team upgraded hardware and reconfigured the customer’s existing Ignition SCADA automation software for seamless post-upgrade operations. The original red fermentation process was conformed with three areas: pump over area, continuous press area, and decanters area.
Previously, each area had their own PLC. The upgraded control system connected an Allen-Bradley ControlLogix PLC as the main controller, and remote IO was added to control the three areas into one. The system was programmed with ladder logic to the customer’s existing Ignition SCADA software, and seven new PanelView Plus HMIs were also programmed with FactoryTalk View ME as the client’s choice of visualization software.
The project team leveraged their PLC programming, Ignition SCADA software, and controls engineering expertise to resolve software compatibility issues, bugs in the programming code, and electrical connection challenges. E Tech Group’s automation team supported the project to resolve these challenges and performed extensive testing. With the PLC and SCADA upgrade complete, the client was able to improve the uptime of its red fermentation process and eliminate the key challenges of legacy system maintenance.
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