Challenge
Outdated systems have the potential to transform assets into liabilities. It is important to know the signs and risks of using outdated systems, and when it is the right time to invest in a modern solution. This was a challenge faced by a company specializing in environmental management services who was operating eleven water well sites across a five-mile area. These sites were being controlled by legacy PLCs and HMIs and relied on slow serial radios for communication, posing several risks such as high maintenance costs, poor HMI responsiveness, and limited scalability due to the outdated equipment. The customer recognized how their outdated system negatively affected their productivity and efficiency which prompted them to seek engineering support. The company engaged E Tech Group to design and deploy a modern solution, which included upgrading their PLC, HMI, and radio controls as well as install an additional water well to expand their operations.
Solution
Before installing the new water well, the project team focused on updating the customer’s existing hardware which included the PLCs, HMIs, and radio controls. E Tech Group partnered with Applied Technology Group, a company specialized in radio controls, to investigate how to implement a modern Ethernet communications protocol for the customer with minimal disruption to their operations. The research concluded that the best order to implement the upgrades was in two phases. The first phase was to upgrade the Access Point (AP) radio at the customer’s control office, and then upgrade the remote radios that communicate to the AP radio and the main control PLC. With this information, E Tech Group began developing the updated system.
The project team upgraded 13 legacy SLC controllers and Panel Views for newer CompactLogix controllers and Panel View 7 Plus terminals, using Studio5000 and FactoryTalk View Studio to program them. The application also integrated Inductive Automation’s Ignition Perspective SCADA system which provided an operation and management overview of the wells status to the customer’s local and corporate offices.
The project team set up an intermediate infrastructure at the customer’s control office that could run the water well upgrades in parallel with the legacy system. The team installed the new PLCs to run concurrently with the legacy PLCs, and configured messaging between the controllers so the main legacy PLC was unaware of the upgrades.
The team then upgraded the customer’s networking communications from serial radios to Ethernet radios with a more powerful antenna. Lastly, the project team decommissioned the legacy PLC and converted the water wells to run exclusively on the upgraded system.
Throughout this process, E Tech Group also resolved challenges with the customer’s remote water wells which faced poor connections from antenna height limitations. The team implemented a store-and-forward capability for the remote radios, which transmitted data to a closer radio station and then forwarded to the main AP radio to improve data connectivity.
After modernizing the existing water wells, E Tech Group installed and commissioned the new water well.
Results
The project, including the design and control panel construction for the new water well, was completed in just a few short months. E Tech Group successfully supported the modernization of the customer’s outdated system by assigning subject matter experts in network design, radio configuration, PLC/HMI coding and conversions, and the Ignition Perspective module to the project. The implementation of the new system resulted in significant enhancements for the customer in terms of speed and reliability. They now have real-time data available on a per-second basis instead of waiting for minutes, allowing them to depend on it more effectively. Moreover, the customer managed to expand their existing infrastructure by integrating the new water well, effectively meeting their growing demands and overcoming the challenges posed by their previous outdated system.
When you look at supporting industrial utility systems like ammonia refrigeration, you may wonder how often you might actually encounter them. They appear far more in your daily life than you realize. Look at the rooftop of an industrial facility and see if you notice orange pipes or windsocks. It is likely that this facility has an ammonia refrigeration system. Now, when it comes to the maintenance of these systems, there are a few pain points that tend to plague facilities more than others. Aging Systems: These systems are decades old in most cases, many around 20–30 years old, and tend to require human labor occasionally. By comparison, the average industrial boiler system in the United States is around 30-40 years old, and many of these systems require large amounts of human interaction more often. The thing both these systems share is a lower level of automation, utilizing control panels dependent on relays and contactors to implement control schemes. Incorrect Sequencing Causing Inefficiency: Not only primitive automation, but the inability to adapt to changes in demand or load can present a challenging issue. This can often result in incorrect sequencing equipment due to simple control implementations, leading to lower overall system efficiency. A common instance of incorrect sequencing is having the largest piece of equipment either always running or brought online when demand is lower, which can be less efficient in its operation and energy consumption. Keeping in mind these systems can also be slow to start or restart if personnel are not quickly notified when a fault or issue occurs. Lack of Integration into Larger Control Systems: Even if a modern system has been implemented, it is less likely that it is part of a BMS (Building Management System) or DCS (Distributed Control System) which could better control … Continued
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 Lead Automation Engineer, Kevin Tom shared his knowledge and expertise on Best Practices for Effective Automation Applications for Control Engineering Magazine‘s webcast on August 16th, 2022, where he discussed the nuances of control system applications. When Should a Process be Automated? Kevin explains the criteria that a company should consider when weighing whether or not to apply automation to a process: What is being made and how is it currently being produced? Consider tools, parts, mechanisms. What is the environment like? Consider space constraints, equipment, hazards. What is the labor pool like? Consider union/non-union, labor shortages, turnover. In considering automation, goals and constraints must also be hashed out: Are we trying to replace human labor with mechanized processes? Are we trying to scale up operations/increase throughput? What is the capital we have to/are willing to invest in this project and what is the necessary ROI? These questions are all addressed early on in a project’s inception, as stakeholders hold the keys to the budget needed for an automation project. However, control system engineers should also be consulted early on to give insight into the specifics of these questions, like cost, ROI, improvement caps. Applying Automation is as Much Planning as Execution Kevin Tom’s cohost points out that much of the time, the options are: automate or die. It may sound histrionic, but the labor shortage is a real and pervasive issue, especially when manufacturers are trying to scale. Increased production goals means hire more people. But there aren’t enough people to be found, and/or high turnover, and/or lack of qualified professionals, which all present labor bottlenecks. Automation is the best (and only) solution to avoiding the obstacles associated with labor shortages. However, it isn’t as simple as design-build-implement. For the transition to automation to run smoothly, the system first … Continued
