A kneady case for control
15 Jan 2000
Manufacturer of food-grade emulsifiers for the bakery industry, AB Technology until recently had a totally manually-controlled production plant. Production rates and product quality varied across the four operator shifts, with the possibility of product waste and plant shut-down through operator error. The first steps towards automation came with the installation of a Mitsubishi FX PLC on AB's esterification plant, soon followed by an MX Scada system, inverters, and more PLCs.
AB's Dave Sampson says: `The Mitsubishi equipment has proved very easy to integrate. We have A500 inverters as well as the FX and FX2N PLCs and they have really been "plug and play". They are very reliable so once installed, you can just forget them.' There are now around 20 FX and FX2Ns on the site controlling a wide range of processes including ingredient weighing using the PID function on the FX2N to control feed rates.
The MX Scada system has also allowed AB to compare activity across all shifts and copy work patterns.
