Exit Line Automation and Controls Upgrade
An American industrial company specializing in aluminum products contacted E Tech Group to upgrade their exit line automation and controls. The line had previously been running on vintage reliance analog drives from the ’60s.
The Project: Bring Facility Automation Capabilities into the 21st Century
The project was divided into two phases: hardware design (including design work for a new Portable Control Room) and a phase to build, install and, commission.
Documentation and drawings presented a challenge in this project. With a 50-year-old system and an inconsistent approach to drawing updates and documentation, E Tech Group used biweekly conference meetings to keep the team informed on status and request additional drawings and information from operators and maintenance personnel as needed.
The Solution: Replace Analog Drives with Siemens System Integrators
E Tech designed and commissioned a new PCR, Siemens drives, encoders, process automation controllers, and IO panels. PanelView terminals were installed for operator interface and display. The elongation control system was replaced with modernized controls.
To enable seamless integration of the new technology with the line’s older equipment, E Tech Group’s automation engineers interfaced the new controls with existing legacy analog drives and hardwired relays to confirm that the new system operated in lockstep with the legacy control system prior to commissioning.
E Tech Group’s engineers wrote the drive interface to be transparent to operators and maintenance personnel with a focus on long-term maintainability and improved troubleshooting capabilities.
The Results: Exceeding Client Expectations, but Not Budget or Timeline
Startup and commissioning were completed ahead of schedule. As such, the project came in under the installation and commissioning budget originally quoted. Because of the transparency to the operators, the integration was seamless.
Moving forward, this new integrated control system will save the client money via increased production capacity, as well as reduced malfunctions and subsequent downtime. Even better, E Tech Group engineers designed this control system in a way that will lessen the client’s need to contract outside IT troubleshooting and system maintenance.
Enabling our clients to perform at their best both now and in the future as they grow is at the forefront of our mind in every control system build, upgrade or retrofit. E Tech Group provides disruptive automation strategies with the best automation products in the industry to create robust, integrated control systems that help you reach your goals.
Emergency Support Call and Upgrade of Steel Mill Line Controls
After a steel mill client experienced a flooded basement and damaged equipment, E Tech Group upgraded the obsolete drives, PLC, and HMI, as well as an automatic tension control mode.
Project: Increase Production Capacity and Shore Up Safety
A leading steel company hired E Tech Group to increase throughput and safety on the customer’s six-stand cold mill line. Additional project goals were to reduce head and tail off gage, reduce inner stand strip breaks, reduce electrical downtime, and improve safety.
Solution: Follow the Audit’s Recommendation in Control System Design
E Tech Group conducted a mill drafting study to determine HP and speed limitations, reviewed the mill model, and set up proper procedures. We conducted an equipment audit to determine the failure rate and root causes, before implementing the audit’s recommendations.
E Tech Group’s control system integrators implemented:
- Monitoring and tuning of the inner stand tension
- An MG set stand
- One custom 12 pulse drive to fit on existing gen base
- A screw-down clutchless control.
We also regulated the voltage to the speed reg. Our automation engineers then performed a safety study and implemented recommendations. We performed installation, startup, and commissioning of all relevant systems.
Results: Real-World, Real-Time ROI via Improved Safety Automation
This successful project accomplished several things for the client:
- Reduced head and tail off-gage
- Reduced strip breaks, WR, and BU roll wraps by 50%
- Improved strip shape
- Increased annual tonnage
- Reduced electrical downtime by 50%
As such, this project resulted in a quick ROI for the client, with whom we have worked on other control system upgrades and retrofits since. E Tech Group offers metal manufacturers automation solutions of any size, from integrating a single piece of equipment to providing facility-wide control system builds or upgrades. Our breadth of experience in the industry provides us with the specialized knowledge needed to create intuitive automation systems that set our clients up for success.
Remote SCADA Maintenance and Troubleshooting for a Metals Client
A steel manufacturing company was experiencing errors and downtime with their SCADA system. E Tech Group’s engineers swiftly identified and eliminated the error, getting production back online.
Project: Diagnose & Repair Dueling SCADA Systems
A steel manufacturing company needed to replace an outdated furnace control system and for remote support. The client had a redundant SCADA system where one of the SCADAs stopped working. The issue occurred because, over time, the SCADA system was generating error logs which caused the hard drive to fill up. The error occurred because to the company’s anti-virus system was locking SCADA files that were being accessed and written to by the SCADA system. The hard drive reached maximum capacity which resulted in the SCADA system halting.
Solution: Clean up Corrupted Files and Confer with the Client
E Tech engineers remotely identified the corrupted files causing the errors, cleaned the files allowing their system to start back up, and provided consultation to the client’s IT team. We installed HMIs and PLCs, along with a furnace safety system and a furnace control system.
E Tech Group engineers set up a secure way to remote into their system and worked with their IT department to come up with a better solution for the client’s server set ups. This involves coordination with E Tech Group’s IT team and the client’s IT team.
Results: Cost-Efficient Control System Troubleshooting
This project only took a half an hour, thanks to the ability to remotely support. This saved the cost of a flight, hotel room, and four hours minimum onsite. Plus, we set the client up to be able to troubleshoot the control system in-house in the future, lessening the need to outsource IT support.
E Tech Group has deep domain expertise in the metals industry, designing and implementing robust, strategically-designed control systems that integrate and optimize automated processes. Partnering with the best automation companies on the market, like Rockwell Automation and AVEVA, metals clients can expect streamlined, consistent processes on an adaptable, scalable automation system.
Upgrading a Biotech Company’s Outdated Controls Platform
An American biotechnology company knew their legacy control systems were approaching end-of-life, making an upgrade essential for their site in California. E Tech Group provided several control system upgrades to their automated systems.
The Project: Resurrect an End-of-Life Control System
An American biotechnology company knew the truth – their vintage control systems were approaching end-of-life, making an upgrade essential for their site in California. Our client was grappling with key questions such as:
- Should we continue to perform piecemeal upgrades to our automated systems as needed?
- Is there a more strategic approach that will allow our control systems to meet current and future business needs?
- Can we do a custom control system upgrade that spans the entire facility in a cost-effective way and limit disruption of our manufacturing?
- How do we make sure stakeholders throughout the organization understand the risks of maintaining the current control systems as is?
- How can we ensure stakeholders see the value in a building-wide control system upgrade and integration?
- Will we need to switch to a different controls platform? If so, which one is the best fit for our automated processes?
The Challenge: Find the Right Teammates for the Controls Upgrade
The company recognized the issues they had with their aging systems, their own limited resources to dedicate to this evaluation, and the one thing they themselves could not do: have an outsider’s perspective with an industry-wide viewpoint.
The client made the decision to bring in that outsider perspective and partnered with E Tech Group for their controls platform retrofit. Our team of automation engineers brought with them 30+ years of biopharma experience, as well as knowledge of automation platforms and biotechnology systems. For a project of this importance, creating a strong partnership between client and consultant was crucial.
Our team included seasoned engineers who have experienced large-scale control system platform selection. We’ve also experienced conversion projects as owners and supported similar decisions for other biopharma clients as consultants. This allowed us to bring unique points of view to the project scope, coming in with an understanding of the specific needs of biotech automation.
The Solution: An Organized & Communicative Approach
E Tech Group and the client’s team went through a process of requirements definition and user group meetings with the company’s current and future site and global needs in mind. E Tech Group supported workshops with all of their stakeholders:
- Automation, Environmental Health & Safety
- Facilities/Maintenance
- Instrumentation
- IT
- Production/Manufacturing
- Process Engineering/Development
- Procurement/Finance
- Quality
To ensure the facility-wide control system improvements provided our client with the resources and ROI to continue to grow, our automation team brought several leading control system supply partners into the discussion.
The E Tech Group team challenged the biotechnology company to think beyond basic requirements from a technical and business perspective. Engaging the team together in workshops enabled cross-functional groups to learn about how others within the client’s company would be using the system. Our team was uniquely positioned to objectively facilitate an effective conversation and align their various perspectives through industry knowledge and expertise.
The Results: Collaboration Optimizes Project Design & Progress
At the conclusion of the process, multiple control system platform solutions were evaluated against the newly defined requirements – the team considered PLC/HMI and DCS-based systems and single-vendor/multi-vendor PLC/HMI platform options. E Tech Group worked with the internal stakeholders at the company to objectively evaluate the options and assess how the different platforms could best support the business needs.
In collaboration with our client, E Tech Group supported the development of a decision matrix to quantify the analysis of the different platforms. Additionally, we worked closely with the decision analysis team to develop financial and statistical models to help them determine the best option from a technical, financial and risk perspective.
Through this process, the stakeholders reached a unanimous decision on the future platform for the site. The client, E Tech Group and the control platform vendor continued to collaborate to develop the long-term roadmap to support the upgrade/conversion of the site to the new platform. The updated control system allows the client to optimize current operations as well as lay the ground work for them to reach future goals and industry benchmarks.