Intro
A U.S. manufacturing company needed to modernize equipment and control systems to achieve safety and environmental goals.
Challenge
Excel’s Fortune 100 industrial manufacturing client came to us with a corporate environmental requirement that called for upgrades to the dust collection (bag house) systems in all their U.S. manufacturing facilities.
Each of their manufacturing production lines had different mechanical requirements, different bag house vendors, and varying levels of control system integration into the production line PLCs.
In addition to receiving subpar performance from the existing dust collectors, the PLC/HMI systems were obsolete, difficult to troubleshoot, and provided little to no data on the performance of the equipment.
This level of complexity combined for a highly unique but impactful project.
Solution
Excel Engineering was selected for this project due largely to our industrial automation service offering and expertise. We were asked to play the leading role in ensuring each dust collector electrical and control system package complied with the client's corporate engineering standards.
Working with each of the client’s U.S. manufacturing sites and the dust collection equipment vendors, Excel led 19 projects to success by performing the following tasks:
- Developed a control system drawing package that met the client's standard naming and wiring conventions.
- Provided PLC/HMI programming that met the client's standards for Allen-Bradley ControlLogix, Siemens S7/TIA Portal, and Modicon PLCs.
- Completed control system integration of dust collection equipment PLCs into the main production line PLCs to ensure the equipment could be enabled/disabled at the proper time in the production process to minimize environmental and safety concerns.
- Integrated dust collection data into the plant historian so that equipment performance could be tracked and trended over the long term.
- Provided onsite automation and electrical commissioning of new dust collection equipment to ensure proper operation and sequencing with the main production line.
Results
The new control systems and PLC/HMI programming have greatly enhanced the efficiency and reliability of the client’s dust collection systems. Our client now has access to real-time and historical data, enabling them to monitor and analyze the performance of their dust collection systems, make informed decisions, and take proactive measures to minimize environmental impacts.
Excel Engineering’s efficient and cost-effective solutions have enabled our client to achieve significant improvements to their dust collection system's performance while achieving compliance with environmental regulations and improving operational efficiency. Our client can now dedicate even greater focus toward their core business operations, knowing their dust collection systems are operating optimally and are compliant with environmental regulations.
Excel Engineering is a reliable partner that can provide you with turnkey projects or work as an extension of your in-house team. Our industry-best knowledge and fluid collaboration enable us to engineer better and more cost-effective results for our clients.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you with your electrical and automation engineering needs.