Fieldbuses combine for good chemical production
Fine chemicals manufacturer Rockwood Electronic Materials has just completed a major upgrade to its Derbyshire site, based around a multi-fieldbus control system, to create a state-of-the-art mixing plant
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The new control system, which was implemented by systems integrator Golconda based in Nottingham, had to integrate fully and easily with the ‘Protean’ control system already operating at the plant. Mitsubishi Electric was chosen as the PLC supplier on the project as its existing equipment had already performed well on site.
Golconda proposed an architecture based on a single PLC with multi-fieldbus capabilities since this would be flexible and reliable, but would also allow very fast installation and minimise disruption. Mitsubishi’s Q25HCPU PLC was selected for the task, which has Ethernet, Profibus DP and ASi fieldbus modules rack mounted with it. The PLC acts as a master controller for the entire production operation, including mixing, packing, clean room sample analysis and communicating with the existing control networks. Golconda used Mitsubishi’s GX IEC Developer software for programming on the project. DP
Pointers
* Rockwood went for flexibility and reliability by using a control architecture based on a single PLC with multi-fieldbus capabilities
* Mitsubishi’s PLC acts as a master controller for the complete chemical production operation including mixing, packing and clean room sample analysis
* Systems integrator on the project was Golconda
