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Aston Dane has recently
completed control system improvements for the Whitbread Beer Company
at their brewery at Magor South Wales. This successful project is the
latest in the ongoing long-term relationship developed between
Whitbread and Aston Dane over recent years.
Whitbread wished to improve their
processing facilities to increase the overall capacity of the brewery.
Intellution's Ifix and FIX32 SCADA systems have been used around the
site to provide real time data and information to users remote from
the actual production areas. The geography of the site requires 45
SCADA and VIEW nodes to effectively oversee the entire brewing
process. The workstations were linked together by a combination of
Token Ring and Ethernet systems and are able to communicate with all
of the remote PLC control systems around the site controlling the
various processes, such as: beer brewing, fermentation, maturation and
packaging. Due to historic legacies PLC's of various types are used
around the site, include Allen Bradley, Siemens and Satt.
Key aims of the project were
improvement of the efficiency and productivity of the manufacturing
processes. Sub-elements included: transfers of products between plant
areas using mix-proof valve technology; precision control of
ingredients additions to improve the beer quality and flavour; and
measurement and control of product strength.
Increased flexibility of the
plant to accommodate varied and changing production schedules was also
an important requirement of the completed systems. This was achieved
by facilities enabling the flexible transfer of products between
vessels and to other processing areas and tried and proven methods
were established to ensure proof of route before any transfers are
allowed to take place. Maximum beer routing flexibility has been
achieved by the installation of mix-proof valve blocks allowing total
flexibility for the operators to decide on final destination of the
product. Increased throughput of the processing areas and
significantly reduced changeover times between products have resulted.
Naturally considerable
importance was attached to protection against contamination during
transfers. All routes, valves and instrumentation are monitored
continually to ensure no risk of mixture of products, such as other
grades of beer or cleaning fluids. Product flows are monitored and
measured to allow precise emptying and filling of vessels and to
ensure minimal wastage of beers.
An unusual feature implemented
on some SCADA systems is the inclusion of document viewer software to
allow the user to view AutoCAD drawings such as P & ID drawings and
Electrical Schematics or specification documents such as Functional
Design Specifications or User Manuals. The viewer is configured as an
integral part of the SCADA system to preserve the security and
robustness of the whole system. Operational users remain securely
within a single application shell without the need for direct access
to any part of the computer operating system. |
