German speciality chemicals maker adds mobile SCADA
5 Apr 2012
London – Speciality chemicals manufacturer Allessa Chemie has implemented a mobile SCADA system at its Frankfurt?Fechenheim manufacturing operation – one of two production plants operated by the company in the Rheinland area of Germany
The company installed the EXTEND7000 system, from SCHAD, to more effectively monitor the consistency of energy distribution levels within its main 400V plant power supply right around the clock, seven days a week.
At Allessa Chemie, changes to power distribution can cause losses to production levels during the manufacturing process and compromise health and safety levels. As a result, it wanted to enhance its ability to notifiy plant engineers of any issues arising.
The system can send notifications directly to an appropriate member of the engineering team within seconds of a problem occurring.
It has also been configured to trigger the use of switching devices and to observe the value of individual bus bars. Previously, both had to be activated via Allessa Chemie’s control room, causing delays to production schedules.
Currently, the mobile SCADA solution has been configured to monitor 540 parameters ? 400 switch positions and 150 alarms - which are recorded and controlled by a Siemens Simatic S7?400 controller using PCS7 and monitored by its existing WinCC SCADA system from a fixed control room.
Allessa Chemie integrated EXTEND7000 with its existing WinCC SCADA system to enable the system to be extended very easily in the future. The company has indicated that one of the most likely additional applications for EXTEND7000 Mobile SCADA will be within its wastewater treatment plant and plans to implement there shortly.
“We are running a large continuous manufacturing operation 24/7 and needed to identify a way to improve the existing fixed monitoring capabilities,” says Klaus Knahl, Head of EMR Operations and responsible for the use of electrical instrumentation and control technology at Allessa Chemie.
“EXTEND7000 allowed us to continue using our existing SCADA system and simply enhance it to suit a more mobile way of working.”
According to SCHAD, which recently expanded its operations with an office in London. the Allessa Chemie implementation marks the first time its EXTEND7000 Mobile SCADA has been used to monitor and control an internal power supply within a manufacturing
operation. It is also the first time SCHAD has integrated its mobile SCADA application to a Siemens S7?PLC via Profibus.
