News
Case Study: Integrating PlantPAx into an Existing Process Cell for a Pharmaceutical Company
A major pharmaceutical company was in the process of commissioning a control system for a new process cell and asked ECS to provide site support to complete the commissioning and qualification.
The control system supplier had taken a simplistic approach to keep costs down. A single controller with multiple Panelviews provided the heart of the control system that also interfaced with some OEM skids. The control hardware consisted of a quality Rockwell ControlLogix controller with multiple Panelviews. The controller code was all custom with little use of off-the-shelf products and was an assortment of custom blocks of code tied together, providing minimal functionality.
Little to no thought had been put into the operator and how they would run the system to create quality product. Standard operating procedures had not yet been developed. Producing a quality product was dependent upon the operator selecting the correct sequence of functions from operator stations at multiple vessels. This approach exposed the company to a great deal of risk in producing a quality product and controlling the rate of production.
Read More | Posted In: Case Studies, FactoryTalk Batch
Case Study: An Expansion of a Water Treatment Plant
A municipal utility asked ECS Solutions to design and construct an expansion to one of their Water Treatment Plants. It was proposed to expand an existing facility from ten million gallons per day (MGD) to a total treatment capacity of 30 MGD and upon completion of the expansion, an existing 18 MGD plant was to be shut down.
Earlier, ECS had provided the configuration and start-up support for the SCADA system used to operate the plant and had installed the existing SCADA and control system at both the plant to be expanded, and the one ultimately to be shut down. The proposal provided by ECS Solutions for the expansion covered the control and/or monitoring of:
- Four existing and four new aerators.
- Existing and new primary and secondary settling basins.
- Existing sludge and reclaim equipment.
- All existing and eight new filters.
- Existing and new high service pumps.
- New chemical feed equipment for lime, sodium hypochlorite, fluoride, and polyphosphate.
Read More | Posted In: Case Studies, SCADA