Decanter Control System Consolidation and Upgrade

Fast Automation was contracted to upgrade the controls and consolidate a Westfalia decanter system to a single 1000 by 800 panel (plus valve cabinet). This system was to be merged onto the site’s Siemen’s S7 central control system (Siemens and Citect).

Primary Changes:

Differential speed controller removal

The Decanter has a 30KW drive that was operating with another drive with a speed differential controller. At the clients request the differential controller was removed and the drive control was implemented by the main PLC.

Goldstar PLC removal

The controls equipment for the working Balance and Production Tanks was merged onto the main cabinet. An existing GoldStar PLC system cabinet was decommissioned during this process.

Valve Block integration

A Burket ET200s 16 port Valve block was integrated into the system. This simplified the wiring, space requirement, reliability and diagnostics of the valves associated system components.

Burget Valve.bmp

Simplified operation

The primary objective was to simplify the operation of the system. This was achieved in a number of ways:

One centralized controller (no intersystem communications, reduced I/O, a single set of electrical drawings, etc)
SCADA integration (alarm system with better HMI interface and more information)
Reduced process complexity (simple easy to understand modes of operation)

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Touch Screen

Panel layout

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Old panel

Upgraded panel

The upgrade was executed without interruption to production and with all functions operating as simulated offsite.