Cootamundra Oilseed Process Improvement Project
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Project Background
Cootamundra Oilseeds are an Australian owned company that have been in operation since 1992. They provide organic, non-genetically modified, chemical free cold pressed oil which is used in a wide range of food products. The meal, which is a co-product of cold pressing, is used as a supplement in stock feed.
Recently, Cootamundra Oilseeds commissioned a brand new seed crushing plant that has the capacity to process 100 tonnes of seed a day, which is double the capacity of their old plant. Automated Electrics were engaged to improve the current process and streamline various areas of the plant's automation system. These works were completed in conjunction with United Engineering who built and supplied the seed pressing equipment.
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Project Details
The process improvements were targeted in various areas of the plant that included;
Ethernet Data Network
Cootamundra Oilseeds were facing the same issue many regionally based business struggle with, cost effective technical support. This is because support staff were often required to spend several hours travelling to and from site just so they could gain access the plant network to complete their works.
The solution from Automated Electrics was to implement remote access to the site using secure VPN’s for various technical support personnel. Automated Electrics supplied and programmed a new VPN gateway and the data network was reconfigured for secure remote connectivity. Now support services like process engineers, automation engineers and IT staff can gain instant, secure access to the plant PLC and SCADA network from anywhere around the world. This has vastly reduced the costs required to maintain and support the plant. Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)
Automated Electrics were set the task to program a new control strategy that would improve the quantity and quality of oil extracted from the seed product. New PLC code was developed for the plant’s Allen Bradley CompactLogix PLC using Rockwell’s Studio5000 Logix Designer software. The code was then fully tested and pre-commissioned off-site in our workshop before implementation and final commissioning on-site.
The result was a more stable control method that allows the seed presses to maintain their optimum operating point and achieve their maximum oil extraction potential. Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA)
The most important part of any process is information, quality information that is easily accessed results in better operational decisions and production quality. In aid of this, the SCADA system was reprogrammed and configured to give the operators more useful information and greater flexibility in their operation and control of the plant. Trending of the press equipment was implemented on the SCADA system which allowed the plant operators and engineers to effectively monitor the performance of the system as well as giving the administration staff an overview and history of key targets.
Also during commissioning it was identified that the SCADA system was running at about 95% of its licenced capacity. On occasions the licence limit was being exceeded and shutting down the SCADA runtime environment, leaving the operators helpless and unable to control the plant until they restarted the SCADA program. Cootamundra Oilseeds promptly approved the upgrade of the SCADA licence from 1500 to 5000 points to ensure their plant operators had full control over the process at all times. As part of the SCADA improvements, each of the various tag structures and page files that go into the overall makeup of the SCADA system were individually cleaned up and overhauled as part of the system optimisation process. This resulted in a noticeable improvement in both the speed and efficiency of the SCADA system. Human Machine Interface (HMI) Touchscreen
Building on the criteria of improvement in information for the operators, one of Rockwell’s new 12 inch PanelView Plus 7 HMI colour touchscreens were supplied and programmed by Automated Electrics for the plant’s press deck area. This allowed the operators access to the control system from out on the plant floor with monitoring, control, alarming and trending of each press and its associated equipment.
The HMI touchscreen was also set up for operator access from mobile devices using the built in RDP thin client. This gave the operators the ability to monitor the process using the site’s wireless network from anywhere within the plant, which resulted in decreasing alarm response times and improving overall production quality and quantity. |
Project Summary
In summarising, the plant owners and site operators were extremely happy with all the improvements Automated Electrics had made. They noted that the process performs better and the improvements have made their jobs easier to perform with less hassles and stress.
We thoroughly enjoyed working with the Cootamundra Oilseeds team and we had the opportunity to play with Rockwell’s latest range of touchscreens, overall this project exceeded its targets and was a great outcome for all involved!
We thoroughly enjoyed working with the Cootamundra Oilseeds team and we had the opportunity to play with Rockwell’s latest range of touchscreens, overall this project exceeded its targets and was a great outcome for all involved!
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