Challenge
Heating and cooling technology has come a long way in recent decades. Upgrading legacy HVAC controls can be a daunting project for many businesses where downtime is simply not an option. This was a challenge faced by a California-based wine company who needed to recontrol their HVAC system in one of their largest production facilities. The original system was outdated, hard to maintain, and only supported local control. The wine company engaged E Tech Group to upgrade their HVAC controls and integrate Inductive Automation’s Ignition SCADA system for improved efficiency and system reliability.
Solution
The first step was to identify how the customer’s existing system was designed and functioned. Due to limited documentation of the original install or existing modifications, the project team completed extensive field research to determine the current system’s functionality. Once accomplished, E Tech Group worked closely with the customer to add additional functionality to the system’s efficiency and reliability. The project team leveraged Allen Bradley ControlLogix PAC with ethernet remote IO and integrated Inductive Automation’s Ignition HMI platform for remote control plus a panel mount touch PC for local control. Throughout this process, the project team’s goal was to integrate the new system with little to no interruption to the customer’s current operations. With careful planning and coordination with the customer and other contractors, E Tech Group deployed a smooth transition to the upgraded HVAC controls system with no downtime.
Results
The project was completed in about four months. With the new system, the wine company can experience new remote monitoring functionality and the ability to receive mobile notifications of critical failures. E Tech Group staffed the project with subject matter experts in HVAC controls, the Ignition platform, and project management. Experienced controls engineers used their knowledge to create a robust PLC control backbone for HVAC controls and an efficient system design integrating the Ignition SCADA platform. Project management coordinated the implementation of the project to meet the customers goals and supported a smooth transition to the new system with no interruptions. To date, E Tech Group has completed four HVAC and refrigeration related projects for the customer and is currently in progress to complete another refrigeration project.
Challenge
SCADA systems play an important role in production processes. Over time, these systems can become unsupported or lack the same level of functionality of new SCADA systems. This was the challenge for a company specialized in environmental management services including water pollution. The company’s existing HMI software and server operating system were at its end-of-life status which impacted the visibility of their groundwater remediation processes. For example, the existing HMI application only allowed a single remote desktop session into the server through a legacy VPN solution, which was a challenge as many of their operators worked in remote offices or in the field. The company chose to migrate to Inductive Automation’s Ignition platform with the Perspective Module as its web-based interface would enable multiple operators to monitor and manage processes from any mobile device. E Tech Group was engaged to support the Ignition SCADA migration which consisted of upgrading the HMI software and servers, networking equipment, and VPN solution.
Solution
The first step was developing a plan that reduced migration risk and increased visualization flexibility. E Tech Group created a network diagram and planned for the customer’s operators to predominantly use the new HMI software and servers during the transition period. The legacy software was also available to reference if needed. The new networking solution included considerations to mitigate the facility’s frequent power outages and incorporated a new uninterruptible power supply (UPS) with network diagnostics in addition to Ignition Alarming functionality. This would alert operators of a power outage and automatically perform a controlled shutdown of the SCADA server, supporting a longer server lifespan and increased data protection.
The system was programmed to automatically restart and resume its operations once the power was restored without personnel needed to be on-site. As a custom solution, E Tech Group leveraged virtualized Windows-based servers for the operating system, Ignition Perspective for the SCADA platform, an open-source SQL database to house the historical process data, and an industrial grade VPN solution to support secure process monitoring and control for remote personnel.
Results
The design of the new SCADA platform was completed in a month, with two weeks of development for additional features as requested by the customer. The final design was a collaboration between the customer and E Tech Group who staffed the project with subject matter experts in the Ignition platform, server hardware and configuration, and SCADA programming. The new design enhanced the customer’s HMI features and supported mobile-optimized, real-time reports to control their environmentally conscious processes across the customer’s remote locations.
Barnum Mechanical Inc. hosted an interview with the CEO of The Better Meat Co. to discuss how Barnum Mechanical and E Tech Group supported their new production facility.
Many food processors create a proof of concept in several sizing stages before they build a full-scale processing facility. Designing an automated processing facility requires flexibility in the design and the ability to constantly improve the system with things discovered through research and development efforts. This is the story of how The Better Meat Co. partnered with Barnum Mechanical Inc. and E Tech Group to design, build, and automate a full-scale processing system at The Better Meat Co.’s new mycoprotein fermentation facility in Sacramento, California. Industry partner Barnum Mechanical teamed up with E Tech Group to support an expedited completion timeline.
Solution
The Better Meat Co. needed a full-scale processing system built from the ground up. The first step was understanding The Better Meat Co.’s current laboratory operations and what they were expecting to do in the new industrial scoped system. The project team assessed existing equipment, current system requirements, and collaborated with various stakeholders to best design the full-scale processing system, keeping alternative meat processing standards and scalable performance capabilities top-of-mind. “We have never built a fermentation plant before, whereas Barnum and E Tech Group had.” explains Paul Shapiro, CEO of The Better Meat Co. “They had a lot of experience that was very helpful in informing the decisions that we would end up making. And many of these decisions I don’t think would have been so simple for us to figure out on our own . . . They were partners with us in helping us decide what type of a design we wanted in the first place.”
The project team leveraged their expertise in automated control systems and process design to create a custom solution. The project team connected new Allen Bradley ControlLogix PLCs to Inductive Automation’s Ignition HMI application and SCADA software over an Ethernet switch. During this phase, multiple experts from both engineering firms collaborated and programmed simultaneously. The project team accomplished a software redundant control system that was capable of developer remote access support, redundant databases, recipe controls, historic data logs, and interactive reports. All of this supported The Better Meat Co.’s ability to control efficiency, remain flexible to meet new production cycles, and make real-time, data-driven decisions.
“We need lots of flexibility and variability in our facility because everything that we’re doing on our pilot scale is designed to inform what we may do at our future fermentation facility. And so, we don’t want just one process that we could lock in here.” added Shapiro. “What we’ve done with Barnum and with E Tech Group is to create a plant that actually has a lot of flexibility in terms of what we’re able to do . . . The system that Barnum and E Tech Group helped to build allows us to experiment, simultaneously with different types of feedstocks so that we can sterilize different media in order to run different types of fermentations.”
In a few short months, the automated system was capable of successfully developing The Better Meat Co. products on demand. “. . . If you can afford to add automation, it’s a good idea to do it,” endorses Shapiro when asked his thoughts on the value of automation. To date, the new system continues to support The Better Meat Co. and has not experienced a technical outage since its deployment.
Barnum Mechanical and E Tech Group enjoyed the opportunity to partner on this project to deliver a flexible system that is scalable for The Better Meat Co.’s growing operations. To learn more about the project and the customer’s satisfaction, we welcome you to watch the interview with Paul Shapiro, CEO of The Better Meat Co.
Challenge
The pump-over method plays an important role in modern wine extraction and can impact the wine’s flavor, intensity, and color. For a Californian winery, their red fermenter tanks used manual pump-over technology, but it was experiencing inconsistent timing as well as limited electrical capacity to run all pumps simultaneously. For instance, each Motor Control Center (MCC) could only run 50-70% of the pumps at a time. The winery needed to upgrade to an automated pump-over system to improve monitoring and control performance, reduce maintenance costs, and support their production needs. E Tech Group was engaged upgrade their existing tank controls effectively and efficiently given their expertise with similar projects in the wine industry.
Solution
The first challenge to address was the customer’s limited electrical capacity to run their pumps simultaneously. E Tech Group created a first in, first out (FIFO) scheduling algorithm for each MCC which would allow the pumps to run in the order that they were scheduled. The FIFO scheduling structure simplified the pump-over process, queuing pumps to run based on priority with the customer’s electrical capacity in mind.
With the algorithm established, the E Tech Group team pivoted to tackle the next area of support. The customer needed an automated pump-over system that was user-friendly, powerful, and modular. The team leveraged the customer’s existing ControlLogix PLC and Ignition SCADA platform by Inductive Automation to build robust code that could be swiftly tested and deployed. For example, the project team utilized the add-on instruction (AOI) to maximize code reusability and simplify code development in the ControlLogix PLC programing. Ignition’s user defined types (UDTs) were also utilized as a powerful tool for dynamic system modeling, and field devices, such as flowmeters and temperature and pressure sensors, were IO-Link enabled to provide diagnostics and data more effectively.
Results
The customer was equipped with a fully automated pump-over system for their red fermenter tanks by their upcoming grape harvest. E Tech Group’s subject matter experts in wine processes and the Ignition platform fully automated the customer’s existing pump-over technology, improving its efficiency, reliability, and ability to scale with the growth of the company.