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E Tech Group is excited to announce that after several successful installations and completed audits, we are now one of the first integrators to become Rockwell PlantPax 5.0 certified. We want to thank our team members who worked diligently to ensure this prestigious achievement was possible, and hope you’ll consider us for your next PlantPax installation/solution
One of E Tech Group’s- Life Sciences East customer is the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab. The lab supplies space craft programs to NASA for scientific research. Life Sciences East supports one of their test facilities maintaining the industrial control systems of the Thermal Vacuum chambers. One of the missions John Hopkins University tested in the facility LSE supports is getting ready to come to a SMASHING conclusion later this month. JHU tested the DART spacecraft in their lab. The DART mission is NASA’s demonstration of kinetic impactor technology, impacting an asteroid to adjust its speed and path. The Dart spacecraft is scheduled to crash into the asteroid on September 26, 2022. Several people from LSE have worked on projects supporting JHU during the 6 years they have been a customer to maintain and upgrade the systems at JHU. To learn more about DART and its program and mission click here.
E Tech Group, being a trusted system integrator for this biotech client, was asked to consult on the analysis of their current control system and evaluate potential new platforms. Our automation team helped them bring an aging control system up to current needs with future growth in mind.
An American biotechnology company was dealing with an aging control system. The vintage installation of GE iFix, iBatch and CompactLogix were approaching end-of-life, making an upgrade essential for multiple locations in California. Understanding intervention by an automation company was necessary.
The client grappled with key questions such as: What is the best control system platform to meet their business needs? Do they upgrade their current system or install a new system altogether? The company approached E Tech Group with this problem, interested in learning about the different platform options and working with a control system integrator to make the right choice based on their needs.
For a project of this magnitude, creating a strong partnership between client and integrator was crucial. Fortunately, the E Tech Group automation team included seasoned engineers who have been through large-scale control system platform selection and conversion projects before and supported similar decisions for other clients.
E Tech Group went through a process of user requirements definition and user group meetings, assessing the company’s site and global needs. E Tech Group control system engineers participated in workshops with all stakeholders within the company:
Based on experience in providing countless custom controls upgrades, the E Tech Group team challenged the client to think beyond basic requirements from a technical and business perspective. Engaging the team together in workshops enabled each group to learn about how others in the company would be using the system.
At the conclusion of the process, the control platform vendors considered were evaluated against the newly-defined requirements. E Tech Group worked with all of the internal stakeholders at the company to evaluate the options and assess how the different platforms could best support the business’ current and future needs.
Using a scoring system and working with the decision analysis team at the biotechnology company, E Tech Group supported efforts to develop financial and statistical models to help the client determine the best option from a financial and risk perspective.
After deep analysis and evaluation, it was unanimously decided that the proposed DeltaV control system would best help reduce the risk that obsolescence and instability will disrupt the supply of critical patient therapies, help enable agile expansion of future capacity through a thoughtfully-designed automation system, provide flexibility and self-sufficiency for production needs, and ensure delivery of quality product in a compliant manner.
The client and all stakeholders, having been provided with control system software options and educated on the pros and cons of each, reached a unanimous decision on the future platform for the site, landing with DeltaV.
Understanding what a large financial undertaking this would be, the client, the platform vendor, and E Tech Group continue to collaborate on a long-term roadmap to support the upgrade/conversion of the site to the new platform.
Author: Kevin Tom, E Tech Group lead automation engineer Pharmaceutical control system integration: Fixing a blind spot in the process design helped user requirements for a heat exchanger control system. A control system may not be able to fix a faulty process. Learning Objectives A system integrator was tasked with fixing a control system flaw for a pilot plant at a large pharmaceutical company. The integrator had to make several changes to the temperature control unit (TCU) to compensate for different variables with the liquid nitrogen flow. Thorough initial design and investigation helps prevent a scramble at the end of a project end to patch design holes. System Integration Insights System integrators are often the last people involved in an automation project, which gives them a unique perspective on operations. That perspective is a double-edged sword, though, and can be problematic if there are design flaws in the system. In this case study, the system integrator had to make several changes to the temperature control unit (TCU) to compensate for the liquid nitrogen flow, which resulted in a few challenges that had to be addressed. The adage of automation always coming last may well be true, but the system integrator can avoid some pitfalls if the initial design and investigation is thorough. A workable process design is the foundation for successful control system design. That can conflict with the timing of the old system integrator adage about new plant construction: “Automation always comes last.” It’s only after everything else is put in place that the system integrator can step in to install and test the control system, so they’re often the last member of the construction team. However, what happens when the system integrator encounters a conflict between the process design left to them and the practical operation of the … Continued
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