Application 2
Application 2
Application No.2 - Foam Mixing Plant
Application No.2 - Foam Mixing Plant
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This application deals with the control of a Plant mixing foam, to be extruded into the centre of plastic materials such as soffits and cladding. The project involved panel design, plc and SCADA application software, and on site commissioning.
Key components:- Mitsubishi Q series PLC, Mitsubishi IPC running MX4 SCADA software, ethernet, Red Lion Data Station, Inverter
Please scroll down to see more detail of the application
The above drawing shows the configuration of the system.
The central part of the system is a Mitsubishi Q series plc, communicating with a Mitsubishi colour, touch screen IPC (Industrial Computer) running MX4 SCADA software. The Inverter is controlled using discrete I/O. Data is logged to a red lion data station, communicating with the plc and hmi on ethernet. All manual control is carried out via the IPC
The above drawing shows a schematic representation of the Mixing Plant.
The plant is controlled via a centralised control system. The controls comprise a touch screen Industrial Computer, giving the operator access to all necessary functions, parameter adjustment, and notification of alarm conditions.
Apart from depicting the status of the machine, the SCADA system incorporated several different levels of password protection, and enables parameters to be accessed and modified without the need for a laptop
The manufacture of the panel, in this instance, was sub contracted due to the work load and time scale
What the plant does
PVC resin is delivered by road tanker, all other ingredients are delivered in one tonne bags. The resin is blown into a pair of silos, the other ingredients are entered into the system via big bag discharge stations.
The operator selects the appropriate recipe from a number of stored recipes, and selects a number of batches to run.
The system will automatically:-
weigh out the correct quantities of each of the eight raw materials,
load the weighed materials into the mixer when ready,
discharge from the mixer to the cooler at the appropriate temperature
discharge from the cooler at the appropriate temperature
transfer the mix to the appropriate day bin
All batches are loggged to a data logger
All mixer and cooler temperatures and currents are logged, and viewable via the panel's touch screen IPC
All weighments are logged, and viewable via the panel's touch screen IPC
Manual control is via the IPC
The machine is a PVC Foam Mixing Plant, producing the foam material which goes inside the extrusion for items such as soffits and window sills.PVC, and a number of minor ingredients, are accurately weighed and loaded into the high-speed mixer, and mixed vigorously until the batch reaches the required discharge temperature (approx 115 deg C), when it is discharged into the cooler, and cooled to a temperature at which it will convey easily (approx 40deg C).
The material is then conveyed to storage silos
The slideshow above shows the SCADA screens that PJC Systems designed for this project. Although the mixer itself had it's own control panel, we interfaced with it, and displayed the mixer status on the SCADA screen. PJC Systems developed pages to depict the status of all aspects of the plant, logging all weights and temperatures to the hard drive, enabling historic trends to be retrieved and viewed. Recipes are set up via the SCADA system, and, under the appropriate password level, can be modified and stored. Manual control is also via the SCADA
These photographs are of the control panel that PJC Systems designed for this project.
Due to the timescale of the project, we sub-contracted the manufacture of the panel to a local panel building company with whom we work closely.
The panel was 4,200 wide x 2,100 high (including the plinth) x 400 deep, and was internally arranged into the following sections (from left to right):
Main incomer - Starters & Power terminations - PLC & Instrumentation - Control terminations
Although, in this case, PJC Systems did not manufacture the control panel, we produced the engineering drawings, as shown in the slideshow above. PJC Systems generated the following drawings:
Externals - showing how all the external wiring connects to the system
Internal wiring diagrams - showing all internal panel wiring.
In this case, we didn't generate layout drawings, but worked closely with the company building the panel to ensure a suitable arrangement.
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