Advanced textiles and materials processing company Albany International has implemented a Schneider Electric automation solution in its NSW Central Coast factory that controls more than 80 ventilators in a 50,000 square metre roof.
Albany International installed a “Whirlybird” ventilating system fitted with butterfly valve controls to improve production environment, quality, and energy-efficiency savings during replacement of the main roof at the Lisarow manufacturing site.
Ventillation is essential for the factory’s operation and needed to be trimmed in or out either individually or in groups to retain or release heat, thereby ensuring ideal temperature and humidity levels for the fabrics being processed on sophisticated looms. Extensive gas heating equipment is utilised in cooler conditions.
The automation solution is clustered into six zones using Advantys OTB remote intelligent Input/Output modules with localised control by staff on the factory floor via a Magelis HMI or PC.
Albany International Electrical Maintenance leading hand Warren Benstead said the company connected almost everything by Ethernet to each cluster.
“The cost of cabling a comparable system would have been huge — literally 20 or 30 kilometres of copper and an endless maintenance task afterwards,” he said. “Instead, we have maximum runs of 90m of Cat5e copper cabling on each control cluster.
“The system can control every ventilator individually or collectively or be overridden so individual ventilators can be operated manually to suit special requirements or maintenance. You can even operate the system from a remote PC.”
The PC can replicate/control any of the Whirlybird via Webgate features in the HMI touch screens upstairs by using Microsoft Internet Explorer and wireless Ethernet.
Schneider Electric’s Unity programming software allows simplicity of design, ease in programming and maintenance in a reusable DFBS (Derived Function Blocks) library. Schneider Electric’s human-machine interface (HMI) configuration software offers a simple efficient way to view and exchange data, as well as allow wireless remote control of the system.
The indirect benefit of having an Ethernet network installation which spans the entire roof area and across the whole plant floor is that it will cater for future expansion of automation connectivity, according to Schneider.
“The solution that Albany international has implemented can handle this automation task superbly well, but is also capable of being extended in the future to handle further automation tasks such as SCADA across the factory floor,” said CK Lee, Schneider Electric industrial automation engineer.
“It can adapt to functions ranging from line and process automation, historian or MES and better OHS monitoring.”
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