Applications Engineering Manager, Jeff Allen recently co-presented a webcast for Control Engineering covering how edge computing can be used for mission-critical, high-reliability automation and control applications. Applications demonstrate how edge computing can be used for mission-critical, high-reliability automation and control applications. See how system integrators have applied edge computing and see how it integrates in automation and control applications. Challenges and benefits will be discussed. Learning objectives: Understand how edge computing is being applied to automation and controls. Explore how edge computing enables certain applications. Learn how edge computing integrates with cloud resources. Review application benefits, return on investment considerations, and other benefits for automation and controls. Presented By:Jeffrey Allen, Applications Engineering Manager, E Tech GroupNate Kay, P.E., Control Systems Engineer, MartinCSI Moderated By:David Miller, Content Manager, CFE Media and Technology Click here to view the webcast.
This article was written by engineering technician at E Tech Group- Bradly Wright and originally appeared in Automation World. Click here to view the original post. To maintain uptime, ensure compliance, and maximize the use of skilled labor, more facilities than ever are centralizing production control and monitoring. There’s a reason more and more facilities are changing the way their production floor has been operating for decades: the current labor shortage. When production floors were fully staffed, it wasn’t uncommon to find a worker stationed at each point in the manufacturing process, monitoring the HMI (human-machine interface) as the PLC (programmable logic controller) repeated its programmed task, ensuring consistency and efficiency at each step. PLCs were designed to function optimally by executing one line of code at a time—with nothing else running in the background. This was a completely viable solution when manpower was available to individually monitor each process. Even now, the PLC remains in wide use because of its flexibility and ease of programming. It’s still incredibly reliable, allowing the operator to make on-the-fly adjustments thanks to real-time information transmission. The big difference now is in how PLCs are being used as more manufacturers are forced to implement a control system that will help centralize production control and monitoring. The use of a distributed control system (DCS) allows a central point of monitoring and operation that coordinates and supervises an entire plant completing a variety of processes and can be scaled facility wide. A PLC, however, is isolated in its control and monitoring. Because the DCS allows full visibility and control into a plant’s production, it helps make it possible to run at full capacity with a limited staff. What does the future look like? If the current trend continues, the production and manufacturing industry will likely take … Continued
Challenge
Acting as the brain behind industrial operations, PLCs are designed to perform logical decision making for control applications. But, what should be done when a PLC system reaches the end of its life cycle? This case study explores how E Tech Group supported the PLC upgrade for a carbon fiber manufacturer. The customer faced the challenge of modernizing their outdated control system which included control panels operating with an Allen-Bradley PLC-5 controller and other legacy hardware. This system was used to control their traction drive process which included VFD controls for multiple motors. The customer wanted to improve their process by upgrading their control, visualization, and machine safety systems, and sought E Tech Group’s expertise to navigate the complexities of this upgrade and seamlessly transform their outdated system with a modern solution.
Solution
E Tech Group designed a plan that fulfilled the customer’s specific requirements and adhered to a tight completion timeline. The customer needed upgraded control panels with new PLC, HMI, and VFD components, alongside a modernization of their existing machine safety system to align with the latest industry standards. The project team carefully assessed each system slated for enhancement, gaining a comprehensive understanding of the customer’s existing system and their other production lines. This supported the factory acceptance testing phase, ensuring the components and controls worked properly according to the functionality of the equipment.
With proof of functionality, quality and integrity in place, the project team swiftly deployed the required upgrades which included build-to-print control panels, an Allen-Bradley PLC-5 to Rockwell Automation Compact GuardLogix controller migration, POINT Guard safety-rated I/O module configuration, Panel View Plus programming, and PowerFlex AC Drives to improve the system’s flexibility and performance.
Results
The project was successfully completed in less than 90 days, with two months dedicated to development and two weeks allocated for commissioning. E Tech Group utilized the expertise of multiple control engineering experts for this project, and effectively leveraged their experience to meet the customer’s tight completion timeline. As a result of the upgraded system, the customer experienced substantial enhancements in productivity, increased reliability, simplified system maintenance, and a user-friendly interface. The project not only met the customer’s requirements but also delivered tangible benefits to improve overall operations.
E Tech Group Director of Operations, Cassy Gardner, is featured as a part of the following article, which originally appeared in Food Engineering Magazine. The better you know what you already have in place, the easier it is to plan for a successful future. Unless you operate a brand-new state-of-the-art plant, you probably have a facility with a mish-mash of aging processing and packaging equipment with various vintages of network and application software support—maybe several areas still requiring manual labor. As technology continues to move forward, piecemeal, aging automation systems reach a bottleneck, hampering further growth and competitiveness for the company. For older facilities, knowing where and what to automate—what your priorities should be—is important to helping you stay competitive now and in the future. For those with new plants, it’s never too late to plan your future goals – today’s turnkey automated factory is tomorrow’s control system retrofit. In this article, we consider how to know when, where and what to automate in an older facility. Of course, the answers to these questions won’t be the same for every plant, but we can see a framework essential to all automation projects come through regardless. Automation Solving Labor Shortage Problems The primary motivations driving food processors to automate their operations include labor reduction, increased production efficiency and enhanced product quality, says Ryan Beesley, CAP, Regional Engineering Manager at Kennewick, Concept Systems, Inc., a Control System Integrators Association (CSIA) Certified Member. But the labor aspect has especially been an acute problem for the last couple of years as manufacturers realize the labor shortage is not a short-term problem. Other Advantages of Process Automation Getting Started in the Planning Process No two automation solutions will be the same—each one is unique. “Custom automation solutions typically begin with a feasibility and concept phase … Continued
