Written by Tony Deane, Technical Manager- Control Systems
The Client
Major food manufacturer in the North East of England.
The Application
New Thermon heat tracing units fitted to the fermenter processing plant. The collected values needed to be fed into the existing ABB DCS system.
The Problem
The trace heating of temperature zone monitoring element was added to the scope of works after the original ABB DCS design and implementation had been completed. The Thermon heat tracing units have Profibus interfaces and can be seen as slaves by a Profibus master.
Unfortunately, the ABB DCS system was not originally intended to have a Profibus interface and this is the only way the Thermon units can communicate to a third party. The existing DCS could not be economically retrofitted with a Profibus interface.
The new Profibus hardware had to fit into the existing DCS I/O marshalling racks and integrate seamlessly with the DCS for operator monitoring and long term logging of trace heating temperature zones important to the production process.
A cost effective solution was called for to solve this issue.
The Solution
Phoenix Contact’s Technical Manager, Tony Deane, was contacted by the client’s project engineer and asked if we could offer a solution to this particularly awkward issue.
After consideration, Tony suggested that an ILC 131, Phoenix Contact’s entry level Inline controller, could be used in conjunction with an inline Profibus interface to harvest the values and then present them to the DCS via Analog outputs via a Modbus TCP Inline bus coupler using the Modbus TCP Client functionality of the inline controller. This would involve an entry level Phoenix Contact ILC 131 Controller communicating on two protocols simultaneously.
This solution would be easy to install and, importantly to the client, it would be robust and cost effective.
A demonstration was conducted by Phoenix Contact and then once the client was satisfied that this was a viable solution, the necessary components, including PC WORX programming software, were purchased.
A subcontractor was engaged to undertake the project.
Phoenix Contact worked very closely with the subcontractor to make sure the project went according to plan, including PC Worx programming software training, Profibus network diagnostic services, Modbus TCP implementation as well as on site assistance.
Conclusion
The project is now complete and the heat trace monitoring is now integrated and available to the overall process, both for operational and logging purposes.
Both the client and the subcontractor are pleased with the successful outcome of what, potentially, could have been a very costly issue for the client.
Thanks to the versatility of Phoenix Contact’s solution based on the ILC 131 Controller the issue was resolved in a compact, efficient and cost effective manner. As a result, we have been invited to look at several other projects as they come up on the site.
The components used
- 1 off Inline Controller ILC 131 Part No 2700973
- 1 off Inline Profibus Interface IB IL PB MA-PAC Part No 2700630
- 1 off Inline Ethernet Coupler IL ETH BK DI8 DO4 2TX-PAC Part No 2703981
- 12 off 2 Channel Inline Analog Slice IB IL AI 2/SF Part No 2726285
- 1 off PC Worx Programming Software Basic Licence (IEC 61131) Part No 2985275
For more information, contact Tony on 07824 437393 or email: tdeane@phoenixcontact.com
