Moravian instruments, Inc., source: https://www.mii.cz/art?id=1026&lang=409, printed: 30.04.2025 11:10:10
29.11.2019 |
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There are not many production plants that are completely constructed from pure water and fully interconnected and equipped with the appropriate control and communication technology in the spirit of Industry 4.0 slogans. Usually in every company there is some legacy of the past - whether in buildings and their equipment or in production machines and technologies. The versatility and wide range of functionality of the Control Web software system enables virtually any production site to be digitized and integrated in an extremely efficient and elegant way. Let's show it on specific example. |
Courtesy of the owner we can introduce a successful solution of the complete digitization of the factory production of traditional plastics processor, the company Auttep Ltd. Although there are production lines and plants that have been built on the "greenfield" and have been fully automated and interconnected from the start, the vast majority of industrial plants have been evolving for a long time. Therefore, it is common to have machines of different age and different equipment side by side in production halls. A machine whose capacity and quality of production is still sufficient is usually not wise to throw away simply because it has served us well for several decades. Here is an example how to effectively digitize production where high-performance and modern machines stand side by side, along with machines and other technologies that were not initially foreseen for inclusion in communications networks. The system provides many functionalities of modern digitized production:
Portable terminals make it easy to pick up goods from the warehouse by picking up barcodes. They also run applications in the Control Web environment. The applications are operated via touch screens and have a simple and clear graphical user interface. Goods are transported by elevator on several floors. Throughout the premises the terminals are connected wirelessly via Wi-fi. The supplier of the pallet transport system is TMT spol. s.r.o., Chrudim. The basis of the system functionality is two redundant servers and a communication structure. Both servers run the same applications in the Control Web network environment. In case of downtime or failure of one server, the whole system continues to run without any restrictions. Also, data on SQL servers is replicated between two computers. The system is hidden from the outside world behind a firewall. A richly dimensioned distribution of Ethernet connections is then available throughout the plant. Mains switches are safely housed in the switch cabinet always high on the walls of the production halls. Due to their location, they also do not interfere with anything. An interesting feature, as well as a demonstration of the flexibility and functionality of the DataLab units, is the elegance and simplicity with which older production date machines are connected to the network monitoring and control system. The DataLab Compact units also controls hot air units and hall doors and gates. The compact Datalab units take up very little space. They can also be placed in the switchboards of modern machines without any problems. Machine vision VisionLab, integrated into the Control Web environment, detects the movement of people in entrances to the halls and in selected areas using camera images. The cameras are also connected to the TPCP / IP network via Ethernet cables. The described production digitization system uses exclusively DataLab units with Ethernet connection, but there are also units for remote connections via RS485 and especially units with USB interface. These can be advantageously used for direct machine control due to the high data throughput and short response time. The principles underlying the described factory digitization solution demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of using DataLabs with Ethernet connections on a TCP / IP network, as well as the versatility and scalability of the Control Web programming environment. The whole system is a good investment for the future as it is permanently open and allows the integration of new devices, communication protocols and other software. This solution thus fulfills the principles often referred to as Industry 4.0. RC |