Experience Success.

zenon in action.

Experience Success.

zenon in action.

4 I table of contents

Table of contents.

8 andritz PrimaryProducts|zenoncontrolsbalefinishingline.

12 sasol PrimaryProducts|zenon,afuture-proofsolution–

efficient,flexible,easilyintegrated.

14 arcelor mittal PrimaryProducts|Complexplantsclearlyvisualised.

18 ferriere nord PrimaryProducts|Circularredundancysafeguards

steelproduction.

22 collini PrimaryProducts|SeamlesselectroplatingatCollini.

24 lafarge perlmooser gmbh PrimaryProducts|LafargePerlmooserupgrades

transportsystem

26 italcementi PrimaryProducts|Prefabricatedautomationstructures

atItalcementi.

30 mabey & johnson CivilEngineering|zenondeliversmanufacturing

performance.

table of contents I 5

Table of contents.

33 krones MachineBuilding|Gettingequippedtoday,readyfor

tomorrow‘sdemands.

36 pepsi-cola Food&Beverages|Highestqualitybottlingfor

Pepsi-Colausingzenon.

40 braun-gillette Production|SmilesallroundatBraun-Gillette.

43 clarks Logistics|i-Pointtrustsinzenon.

46 hörmann at modine Logistics|Streamlined,sequencedproduction

withoutstock.

48 converteam Utility|Transportingheavyloadssafely.

51 cawleys Utility|SCADAwastemanagementandrecycling.

54 bmw dingolfing Automotive|zenon–Greaterflexibilityinproduction.

57 audi györ Automotive|Engineconveyorsystemsareoptimized

withzenon.

60 volkswagen werk emden

Automotive|Conditionmonitoringwithzenon–

allthekeyfiguresatthepressofabutton.

64 ford Automotive|zenon–aninnovativesolution

istheengineofsuccess.

66 bmw Automotive|zenonbringsprecisiontoa

manufacturingoperation.

69 bmw leipzig BuildingAutomation|Operatingtechnicalfacilities

efficientlyandsafely.

72 allianz arena BuildingAutomation|KickoffwithCOPA-DATAinthe

AllianzArena.

76 montblanc BuildingAutomation|Usingenergyefficiently.

79 tcvvv Energy|CleanheatforSantaCaterina.

82 uttendorf Energy|HightechforÖBB–powergeneration.

editorial I 7

cars, machinery, food, buildings, infrastructure – eachsharingsomethingcommonandhighlyeffective.Thatsomething iszenon.Our

HMI/SCADAsystemisatrulyuniversaltool,afactthatisborneoutbythestoriesin

ourreferencebrochure.Butthat‘snotall…

zenonisnotonlyasystemsuitedtoawiderangeofdifferentrequirements,italso

combinesallmannerofdifferentfunctionsinasingletoolandinonesingledevelop-

mentenvironment.zenoncanbeusedformanydifferent taskssuchascontroland

visualization,communicatingandexchangingdatawithotherapplicationsandmonito-

ringplantoperationaswellasanoptimizationtooltoincreaseplantproductivityand

efficiency.Allofthiscanbedonewithjustafewmouseclicks.

zenonwillrunonanyofthecurrentWindowsoperatingsystems.Incombination

withzenon,stratonprovidesafully-integratedsoftPLCandSCADAlogicsystemthat

interfaceswithvirtuallyanyhardware.Itsupportsover300communicationprotocols

asstandard,andourengineerswillwriteadditionalprotocolsonrequestatanytime.

zenonalsoexchangesdatawithotherapplicationsandlinksdirectlytotheERPlevel.

Allthis,needlesstosay,iscarriedoutonanetwork,configuredformulti-useroperati-

on,acrossalldepartmentsinacompany,andconformstotheUSFDA21CFRPart11

standard.Asforconfiguringzenon…well,allittakesisafewminutesandafewclicks

ofthemouse.

As you can see in our Reference Brochure zenon has been deployed in a wide

varietyofapplications ina largenumberofdifferent industries.Youwill seezenon

beingusedforcontrolandvisualization,oftenwithmultiplemonitors.Youwillalsosee

zenon being used for plant analysis and optimization.All of these applications use

manydifferent interfacesandcommunicationprotocols.Thecommonfactor inallof

theseapplications istheeaseofuseanddeploymentevenforverycomplicatedand

complexsystems.

Wewouldliketothankeachofourcustomerswhohaveparticipatedinsharingtheir

experiencesofzenonwithus.

Welcometotheworldofzenon.

Yours

ThomasPunzenberger(CEO)

do it your way.

bale finishing seeks visualizationInthebeginningof2005,Andritzbegan

to look for a new software platform for

the consistent control of all their bale

lines. The legacy visualization package

havingreacheditslimits.

A project of this size is a real chal-

lengeforautomationproviders,especial-

ly in the HMI/SCADA technology field.

Therewerespecialrequirementsinorder

to provide a successful “Balematic sys-

tem”forbalefinishinglines.Justafewof

themanyrequirementsthatneededtobe

fulfilled,included:

reliability,

decentralizedintelligence,

compatibilitywithWindowsCEto

XP,and

fullintegrationofallsystemsfromthe

terminaltothecontrolroom.

Andritz researched the HMI/SCADA

market carefully, as the previous tools

werenotabletofullymeettheircomplex

demands. However, it was not only all

zenon controls bale finishing line.The international technology group Andritz (Austria) is the leading provider of process equipment. Amongst other systems, Andritz successfully delivers cellu-lose processing lines (bale finishing lines) around the globe. The software package zenon from COPA-DATA, of Salzburg, was chosen as the HMI/SCADA system, a good start for a long-lasting successful cooperation.

about the system’s functionality, it was

equally important for Andritz to find a

reliablepartner,apartnerthatwoulden-

ableAndritztokeepitspositionasworld

market leader and to be able to deliver

continuousinnovationtothemarket.An-

dritzchosezenon,theindependentHMI/

SCADA system by the software innova-

tors COPA-DATA in Salzburg. The first

experience with the systems turned out

tobeverysatisfyingandzenonhasnow

beeninuseforallapplicationsinthePulp

&Paper/BaleMatic™systemssince2006.

8 I primary products I andritz

andritz I primary products I 9

GerhardSchiefer,headoftheengineering

and software group ofAndritzAutoma-

tioninGraz:“Wecreatedaverydemand-

ing catalogof requirements forournew

HMI/SCADAprovider.Wewantedperfect

integration, system independence and a

topproductbasedonthelatesttechnol-

ogy–andofcourse,wewerealsolooking

for mutual understanding and synergy.

We were looking for a partner that we

couldrelyon.Asitturnedout,itwasthe

rightdecisiontochooseCOPA-DATA.”

independence wantedzenoneveninitsbasicformhasthefea-

turesthatmeetsomeofofAndritz’most

important requirements: independence

andcontinuity.zenonworkswithallcur-

rentWindowsoperating systems– from

CE to XP, Vista and Server 2003/2008.

It isalso the firstHMI/SCADAsoftware

package to be “Certified for Windows

Vista”, supporting all the new security

featuresofWindowsVistawithout con-

strainingusers.zenon’sscopeguarantees

fullcompatibilityfromtheterminaltothe

controlroom.

zenonreducesengineeringtimeswith

intelligent features such as automatic

engineering with intelligent wizards for

theefficientreuseofsectionsofexisting

projects. These features also convinced

Christoph Sedminek, project manager

from Andritz software engineering: “In

modernproductionsites,itisessentialto

always have the latest technology. Fast

information flow ensures efficient and

effectivework.Thecontinuityofzenon,

i.e. theabilitytocreatecompletelyplat-

form-independent projects, gives us the

freedom to engineer and structure our

systemsasweprefer.”

zenon also delivers complete hard-

ware independence. It comes with over

300drivers,connectingtoanyhardware

without problems. Andritz can use any

typeofmachinewithoutworryingabout

connectivity.zenongivesfullfreedomof

actionandallowsAndritztousethebest

technology available in each part of the

systemandtointegratethemseamlessly

to provide a complete solution. zenon

alsohassophisticatednetworkfunction-

ality.Afullyoperablezenonnetworkcan

beestablishedwithafewmouseclicksin

justafewminutes.Severaluserscanwork

ononeprojectandmaintainandupdate

it online, even if the machines are on a

differentcontinent.Thiscanallbedone

without interruption because zenon can

updateprojectswithouttheneedtostop

machines.

Besides the sophisticated network

technology, Christoph Sedminek appre-

ciated the openness of the zenon PLC

connectors: “Andritz delivers products

aroundtheworldandourcustomershave

very different requirements. In South

America,forexample,wehavemanySie-

mens S7H PLCs. Other customers prefer

AllenBradley,yetotherspreferB&R.The

modularstructureofzenonisthekeyto

itssuccess.”

overview raises productivityThosewhoprefer tobeproactive rather

than reactive need an overview of the

production data and information and

their interrelationships. In order to run

large-scaleproductionprocesseslikepulp

10 I primary products I andritz

mills at a high level of productivity, the

operatormustbeabletoevaluatedatain

real time and also keep an overview of

historicalevents.Forthat,zenonnotonly

providespowerfularchivingandanalysis

tools; it also lets ERP systems, such as

SAP,access itsdatabasewithouthinder-

ance.

Stefan Reuther, sales manager at

COPA-DATAsays:“Costpressureandfast

innovation cycles require safe and flex-

ible solutions that are state-of-the-art.

zenongivesusersadetailedoverviewof

allprocesses.Withitsintegratedseamless

redundancy, zenon guarantees that this

clearoverviewisneverlostandtheplant

alwaysstaysoperable.”Andritzisalready

usingzenonforotherapplicationsbesides

balefinishing.Asaglobalplayer,Andritz

implements projects in many different

marketsworldwide.Themanyintelligent

functions and wizards of zenon make it

easytocompleteprojectsinafastandef-

ficient way. For example, zenon’s online

languageswitchallowsprojectengineer-

inginonelanguageandexecutioninany

other language. Engineers, commission-

ers, operators and maintenance staff

can always switch to the language they

prefer:anindispensablefunction–espe-

cially for international companies. Also

indispensableforAndritziszenon’sabil-

itytotransfercompleteprojectstoother

systems with a few mouse-clicks and

thenmaintainthemeasilyfromafar.The

teamatAndritzhavebeenconvincedby

zenon’spowerfulfunctions.Afteralltheir

positive experiences, they have decided

toupdate tozenon6.22 tobenefit from

thefeaturesofthelatestversion.

zenon 6.22Withitslatestzenonversion,COPA-DATA

sticks to its philosophy of flexible inde-

pendenceandcertifiedsecurity.Forsever-

alyears,zenonhasbeenfulfillingvarious

securityregulationssuchasFDAandvari-

ous European regulations. Additionally,

operatorsprofitfromzenon’soperational

securityinruntime.e.g.theclearstructure

ofthealarmlists.

Alarm lines can be highlighted with

colorsorgrids.Thereisaseparatecolumn

actingasan“alarmsignallight”thatshows

thestatusofeveryalarmataglance,with

freely definable colors. Operators imme-

diatelyseethealarmsthatneedtheirat-

tention.This reduces the cognitive load,

reducingerrorsandcostsandminimizing

the effects of downtime. zenon’s wide

rangeof functions for remoteaccessde-

livers speed and convenience. Whether

Remote Transport, Web Server, Remote

DesktoporWebAccess,itsfunctionssave

operatorsanddevelopersmuchtimeand

effort during commissioning and main-

tenance. The integrated Remote Engi-

neering module establishes connections

toremotemachinesdisplayingthetarget

screendisplaysontheEngineeringsystem.

Thisallowsyoutoeasilyprocessmessages

deliveredbytheoperatingsystemofare-

motedeviceonyourowncomputer.You

canalsoreloadprojectsonlineortransfer

projectswithouttheneedtorestart.

Theusercanchoosehowhewantsto

connecttothetargetdevice:intheclass-

icalway,withadirectnetworkconnection

viathezenonRemoteDesktop,orwitha

webbrowservia the flexible zenonWeb

Access.WebAccessusesastandardweb

browser and enables computers without

zenoninstalledtoaccessothermachines.

andritz I primary products I 11

TheapprovedWebServer(averyse-

cureclient-serverapplication)evengives

accesstozenonfromoutsidethenetwork.

Thiscanbeused,forexample,byanad-

ministratortocheckalarmmessagesfrom

hishomecomputer.Ormaybeanoperator

wantsdirectaccesstoastationthatislo-

catedonadifferentcontinent.

Allofthesefeaturesprovideessential

advantagestocompanieslikeAndritzwho

deliver powerful solutions to companies

aroundtheglobe.Remotesystemscanbe

maintainedandupdatedinrealtime,with

significantreductioninsupportcosts

partners for perfectautomationAndritz andCOPA-DATAare two ingen-

iouspartnerswhohavefoundeachother.

Bothcompaniesarestrikingnewandcre-

ativepaths.Both companies relyon so-

phisticatedandeasy-to-usetechnology.

ThesuccessstoryoftheAndritzgroup

beginsin1852inthesmallvillageofAn-

dritznearGraz,wheretheHungarianim-

migrant JosefKörösi establishedan iron

foundry.Today, the listedAndritz group

employsabout12,000people inover35

production plants and service facilities

and has over 120 subsidiaries and sales

officesworldwide.

TheAndritzgroupisoneofthelead-

ingvendorsofcustomizedlines,systems

and services for the pulp and paper in-

dustries,thesteelindustry,hydroelectric

plants plus other specialized industries

(solid/liquidseparation,animalfeedand

biomass).

COPA-DATA has been known as the

innovation leaderforHMI/SCADAsoft-

ware for 20 years. With zenon, COPA-

DATA introduced the first graphic visu-

alizationsystemtoruncompletelyunder

Windows. Many companies worldwide,

from diverse industries like automobile

construction,plant construction, food&

beverage or energy management, enjoy

the advantages delivered by the hard-

ware independent and flexible solution

zenon.

Thenewgenerationofbalefinishing

lines was successfully launched around

the globe. Andritz is the market leader

inthisarea.However,AndritzandCOPA-

DATA are not resting on their laurels.

They are already working together on

futureprojects.❚❙❘

❘❙❚ ThefactoryinBrunsbüttelemploys520peopleandisamod-

ernandimportantproductionunitfortheSasolgroup.Thanks

toexcellentinfrastructure,thelocationisalsoperfectforfuture

growth.Technologicalprogress,newdevelopmentsandtheuse

ofmodern technologies is day-to-daybusiness for this global

player in the chemistry industry. Manfred Rohwer explains

SASOL’sphilosophy,“Weseechangeasachance forconstant

improvement”.Rohwermanagesthedepartmentforelectronics,

measurementandcontrol.TheSasolgroup is aSouthAfrican

companywith30,000employeesworldwideandasalesvolume

ofabout10billionUSdollars.

In Germany, Sasol produces raw materials for detergents

(tensides)andfattyalcohols,ethyleneoxideandalkylphenol,

as well as solvents, waxes and oleochemicals. In Brunsbüttel,

Sasolproducesfattyalcohols,theirderivatesandspecialanor-

zenon, a future-proof solution –efficient, flexible, easily integrated.

Sasol, an international player in the oil, gas and chemistry industry, uses zenon for its pipeline system in the German factory in Brunsbüttel. The innovative solution controls the lines and valves in the pipeline network, ensuring the flexible and reliable transport of alumina products.

12 I primary products I sasol

ganic chemicals, such as high purity alumina. Alumina is re-

quiredfortheproductionofrefiningandchemicalcatalysts,it

helpswithcleaningautomobileemissionsanditisusedforthe

productionofheavy-dutyplastics(forexample,foruseinthe

aviationindustry).

for a successful future: modernizing the infrastructureSasolhasapipelinesystemwithabout300valvesforrouting

aluminaandchemicalsinthealuminahallsintheirBrunsbüttel

factory.Thisresultedinatotalofabout200differentpathsof

gettingfromthesourcetotherequireddestination.Theexisting

processcontrolsystemwasusedforroutingcontrol.Allfunction

blocksweredevelopedbySasolemployees.Becauseofthedis-

tributedstructureoftheprocesscontrolsystemthevalveswere

connectedtodifferentprocessstations.Thecross-communica-

tionrequiredbythisstructureresultedinhighnetworkloading

andperformancerestrictions.

Inorder to improve theexisting infrastructure,andat the

sametimeincreaseflexibility,Sasollookedforaflexiblecontrol

systemthatcouldalsobeextendedinthefuture.Keepingthe

routing control unchanged after extending the system would

nothavebeenpossible.JörgBrouwer,inchargeoftheprocess

controlsystematSasol,decidedonanewapproach.Thetaskof

findingandevaluatinganewsolutionfor routingcontrolwas

postedasadiplomathesis.Theinteractionofthenewsuperor-

dinatedsystemforthecontrolofroutesOPC.TheOPCinterface

ensuresthesmoothexchangeofinformationbetweendifferent

controlcomponents.Thediplomathesiswasundertakeninco-

operationwiththeUniversityofAppliedSciencesinHannover:

KamilJanuswassupportedinthisprojectbyProfessorRüdiger

KutznerandJörgBrouwerofSasol.

zenon as the optimum solution fortransport controlAfter extensive market analysis, Manfred Rohwer and Jörg

BrouwerchosethesoftwarepackagezenonfromCOPA-DATA.

zenonisnowusedinthealuminaproductionarea.zenonsup-

portstheflexibletransportofaluminaproductsthathavetobe

deliveredfromthesourcetothedestinationwhilegoingthrough

storage,processingandpackaging.Now,Sasolusestworedun-

dantzenonoperatingstationsinacentralcontrolroomensuring

highavailabilityroutingcontrol.Thereweremanyreasonsfor

choosingzenon:

Sasolneededamodularsolutionthatwouldbeeasyto

extend

theintuitivezenondevelopmentenvironmentallowsfor

flexible,quickengineeringandimplementationofnew

softwarecomponents,

zenonhasanintegratedsoftPLC-straton

thecomprehensivesupportprovidedbyCOPA-DATA.

automated route selection savestime and gives a better overviewWith the new routing control system, users can now config-

ure665differentpaths.Atthesametime,theyalwayshavean

overviewofthestatusofeverypath.Aszenoncommunicates

with theprocesscontrolsystem,via theOPC interface,which

alsoallowsforthemanualcontrolofeachvalve,zenonmustbe

abletoquicklyreacttoallinputs.Thistaskisperformedbythe

stratonprogrammingsystem,whichisintegratedwithzenon.The

sequencesdevelopedwithinstratonreacttoallpossiblestates

oftheroutingcontrolsystem.“Thecontrolsystemwewereus-

ingrequiredalotofmaintenance.Atthesametime,wecould

notextendthesystemaswewishedto”,JörgBrouwerexplains.

Hestatesthattheprocessstationsandthesystembusexperi-

encedsuchahighloadthatswitchingactionswouldsometimes

takemorethanaminutewiththeoldcontrolsystem.“Now,the

switching actions are limited only by the speed at which the

valvescanmove.Userscannowreactreallyquicklyandeasily

to all events and situations.”At the same time, the operators

canstillmanipulatethevalveswiththeprocesscontrolsystem.

“Thisallowsustoactfasterandmoreflexibly.”

The application of zenon with straton by SASOL demon-

strates the effectiveness and flexibility that this combination

provides;improvingplantoperationandprovidingareliableand

expansiblesolution.❚❙❘

sasol I primary products I 13

14 I primary products I arcelor mittal

❘❙❚ ArcelorMittalisbasedonasiteofaroundsevensquarekilo-

metresnexttotheWeserRiver inBremen,where ithasbeen

producingsteelsince1957.Thisintegratedsteelworksincludes

plantsforallproductionstepsfrompig-ironproductiontothin

sheet metal. The company produces exclusively sheet-steel

productsandtodayincludesablast-furnaceplant,anLDsteel-

works,acontinuouscastingfacility,ahot-rollingplant,acold-

rollingplantandtwogalvanisingplants.AtpresentthisBremen

steelworksemploys3,600people,andtheproductiontargetfor

thecurrentyearis3.2milliontonnesofsteelslabs.Inaddition

toitssteelworksinGermany,thisinternationalgroupisrepre-

sentedinmorethan60countries,employingatotalworkforce

ofaround310,000.Thecompanyachievesaturnoverofaround

70billionEurosandcommandsashareofaroundtenpercentof

theinternationalmarket.

Complex plants clearly visualised.The world steel market grows on average by just under ten per cent per year, and therefore demand increases accordingly for steel produc-ers like ArcelorMittal. In order for the compa-ny to benefit from these positive changes it is all the more important that production should run smoothly and round the clock.

arcelor mittal I primary products I 15

modern galvanising plant – hot-dip galvanised strips in a new dimensionBREGAL(BremerGalvanierungsGmbH)wasfoundedin1993,

andbelongstotheArcelorMittalGroup.Itisresponsibleforhot-

dipgalvanisingthecold-rolledthinsheet.BREGALisoneofthe

mostmoderngalvanisingplantsintheworld,andallitsproducts

aresuppliedtotheautomotiveindustry.

Thegalvanisingprocedure isas follows: twodecoilersand

aweldingmachinearecombinedtoformanendlessbeltinor-

der that the plant can be operated continuously.The process

section itself comprises a strip cleaning station, a continuous

furnace,amelt-adeviceforadjustingthezinccoating,anda

coolingstation.Thecontinuousfurnaceissubdividedintoapre-

heatzone(450°C),holdingzones(800°C)andacoolingzone.

In thecoolingzonethestrip iscooleddowntoa temperature

closethatinthemelt.Thestripisimmerseddiagonallyintothe

melt(temperaturewithzincisaround460°C),thenitisturned

inanupwarddirectionbyarollerinthemelt,andpassesoutof

themeltagain.Themelt-immersion-refinedsteelstripisdressed

andaligned.Afterthis,thestripiswoundbackintoacoil.De-

pendingonthethicknessofthestrip,itcanreachaspeedofup

to180metresperminute.

Thecorrosion-resistantsheetsareproducedinthegalvanis-

ingplanttoamaximumthicknessof2.8mmandamaximum

width of 2,080 mm.As well as products with a conventional

zinc coating, significantquantitiesofmaterialwith a ‘galvan-

nealed’coatingareproduced(zinc/ironalloy).Surfacequality

ismonitoredcontinuouslybyanautomatic surface inspection

system.Thegalvanisingplantincludesaninspectionsystemfor

checkingthematerialanditsquality,andothersystemsforair

conditioning,coolingwater,hotwater,ventilationflaps inthe

roof/walland,lastbutnotleast,awastewatersystem.

zenon has been leading the fieldSince 2003ArcelorMittal has been converting its steel galva-

nising plant step-by-step for visualisation, and zenon is the

softwareithasbeenusingforthispurpose.Thesoftwarethat

hadbeenusedforvisualisationontheseplantsupto2003was

withdrawn as no successor product was announced. What‘s

more,therepaircoststhatwereincurredasaresultofusingthis

software were huge and its design was inflexible – no longer

capableoffurtherdevelopmentandcostlytomodify.Thisfell

a longway shortof the criteria setby themanagement team

atArcelorMittalBremenforstability,compatibilityandfuture

viability.AttheendofathoroughevaluationprocessJosefVal-

lant from the electrical maintenance team consulted with his

colleagues, and thedecisionwas taken toopt for zenon soft-

ware.Thisteamwashopingtofindasystemthatwouldbeneat

andcompact,easytointegrateandstraightforwardtooperate.

“zenon(version6.22)isaserver/standbysystemthathasbeen

carefullydesignedandiseasytoconfigure.Itisalsoquitein-

tuitivetoprogram”,explainsJosefVallant.Vallanttalksabout

itsimpressiveflexibilitythankstotheintegrationofVBA,and

alsostressesitsexcellentdriverinterfaceviaanApplicomcard

and OPC server/client.Another important issue for the team

fromArcelorMittalBremen is that there isawell thoughtout

and, above all, customer-oriented upgrade strategy. Josef

Vallantexplains:“Wedon‘tchangeoursoftwareversionevery

timethere‘sanewreleaseorupdate.Thecompatibilityofthe

latestversionwithallearlierversionsisthereforevitallyimpor-

tanttous.Itiseverybitasimportantasthefacilitytoincorpo-

rateallkindsofdifferentcontrolcomponents, someofwhich

maybequiteold,intotheoverallsolution.”

complex processes visualised ina way that is thorough and well thought throughTheinspectionsystemwithitstwoservers(standbyandduty)

and three clients was the first to begin operation with zenon

backin2003.Laterthesameyearthegalvanisingplant,which

also had two servers (duty and standby) plus 18 clients, was

visualised. ArcelorMittal Bremen uses both Simatic S5 and

SimaticS7PLCs,whicharelinkedeitherviaanH1busorTCP/IP.

Thegalvanisingplant,comprisingeightprojectsplusanumbrel-

laproject, isvisualisedonmore than250displays containing

approx.33,200variables.TheteamatArcelorMittalBremenhas

definedthevisualisationofthestripcleaning,thezincstripping

deviceandthedatafromtheprocesscontrolsystemasprojects.

Therewerefurtherprojectsforsecondarysystemssuchaswa-

tercircuits,ventilationflaps,atemperpassagentconditioning

system,aprojectforthewastewatersystemplustheoverallgal-

vanisingplant,andaminidiagnostictool.Otherprojectsarethe

central controlmodule for switchingcontrol, thevisualisation

oferrormessages,andtheinspectionsystem.Thevisualisation

nowprovidestheoperatorwithanextremelydetailedviewof

allthecomponentsinthesystematalltimes.Thisappliesacross

theboard,fromtheproductionsequenceintheinfeedandcon-

tinuoustracingofthecoils(striprolls)totheplantandtransfer

tothehigh-baywarehouse.Alltherequisitetargetandactual

dataforeachcoilisalwaysavailablesuchas,forinstance,which

components (welded sheet metals) it contains.At a more de-

tailedlevel,theuserormaintenanceengineercanalsoorganise

thedisplayoftheflushingcircuitsoreventhespeedofthein-

dividualbrushesinthepre-cleaningormaincleaningcycles.At

thesametimetargetandactualvaluesareshownatallmanner

ofdifferentlocationsinthesystems,forinstancevaluesforthe

degreeoftemperrolling(percentagethicknessreductionofthe

sheet).Valuescanalsobeadjustedfollowingtheinputdiagno-

sis.Forexample:inzincstripping,ifthecoatingistoohighor

too low, then thepressure targetvaluesmustbe corrected in

order to control the amount of zinc on the metal sheets.The

wholesystemisextremelycarefullythoughtout,withfinishing

toucheslikeabuilt-inWikiforoperators.AWikiisapublic-ac-

cesspageorwebsitethatcanbemodifiedbyanyuserorvisitor,

16 I primary products I arcelor mittal

orbyapre-definedsetofusersorvisitors.“Wiki”isatermde-

rivedfromtheHawaiianwordmeaning“quick”–aplacewhere

information is made available and updated quickly.The best-

knownWikiistheonlineencyclopaediaWikipedia.“Sincethe

systemsandthevisualisationsoftwarearebothextensiveand

complex,webelievethereisaneedtoprovideaknowledgebase

forstafftoensurethateveryonecanobtaininformationabout

thesystemcomponentsandtheprocessesatanypoint inthe

system”,explainsJosefVallant.TheWikiencompassesnotonly

backgroundinformationandbasicexplanations,butalsonews,

forinstanceonallaspectsofwastewaterdisposal.

excellent level of security in multi-layer operationSinceoperationinthegalvanisingplantneedstobesafeguarded

24hoursadayand365daysayear,itwasdecidedtobringzenon

inandrunthetestphaseinparallelwiththeprecedingsolution

fromstatten.Theintegrationphasewentsmoothly, justasop-

erationnowruns;thankstotheredundantconfigurationopera-

tion isnowcomprehensivelysafeguarded.Theelectricalmain-

tenance team has implemented the system with no assistance

ofanykind,butnonethelessJosefVallantisextremelypositive

about the cooperative working relationship with COPA-DATA:

“Alongwiththetechnicalsolutionitself,supportfromthecom-

panywasequallyimportanttous,bothinthecourseofconfigu-

rationand ineverydayoperation.COPA-DATA isone-hundred

percentdependableinthisrespect.Anyquery–beitdirectedto

themanagersinMunichorCologne–receivesanimmediateand

professionalresponse,andeveryproblemissolved.”

galvanisation made transparentAnother advantage to the zenonautomation system:Arcelor-

Mittal benefits, thanks to the visualisation module, not only

fromaconsistent,uniformpresentationofallprocesses,butat

the same time has the opportunity to request diagnostics for

thesystemwithallitscomponentstoenableittorespondrap-

idlytoallmannerofevents.ForArcelorMittalthisincludesthe

so-called“minidiagnosis”,whichindicatesamongstotherstates

whethertheplantisreadytostartup,whetherarollerorroller

cleaningdeviceisoutofposition,orwhetheralightbarrieris

notworking.Inadditiontherearetheconventionalerrormes-

sagesthataresenttozenonwithatimestampfromtheS7PLCs

viaTCP/IP.JosefVallantstresses:“Thediagnosticpossibilities

–includingremotediagnosis–automaticallyreducethemain-

tenancecosts.But it isnotonlydiagnostic facilitiesanderror

messages that provide greater transparency, there is also the

ExtendedTrend.ThiszenonmoduletakesadvantageofArcelor-

Mittaltogainadetailedoverviewoftheinformationwhilstthe

systemisoperational,forinstanceinordertocheckthefilllevel

inthezincpot.”❚❙❘

arcelor mittal I primary products I 17

18 I primary products I ferriere nord

Circular redundancy safeguards steel production.

As far as high-quality rolled steel is concerned, the steel producer Ferriere Nord SpA sets great store by dependable production processes, regulated safety and high availability in its plants. The company is a steel producer based in northern Italy, and it has carried out an ambitious project to create state of the art automation systems. For the purpose of process control the company opted for COPA-DATA and its zenon visualisation system. zenon’s circular redundancy ensures that data is acquired continuously, thus ensuring re-liable production. zenon has also enabled plenty of long-term aspirations to be realised, and functions that were lacking in the past have now been easily added on.

ferriere nord I primary products I 19

❘❙❚ ThePittiniGrouphasbeenpartofthe

history of the steel industry in Italy for

generations.The largest company in the

Group, Ferriere Nord SpA, is based in

Osoppo in northern Italy. It comprises

anelectricsteelplant,awirerollingmill,

a rod rolling mill and production facili-

ties for reinforcement steel meshes and

grid fencing for the construction indus-

try.Allthesteelproductsitproducesare

first-rateintermsofelasticityandsafety

standards.Theyare ideallysuitedtoap-

plicationswherehighqualityisarequire-

ment, suchasconstructionof roadsand

houses.

converting scrap and cast iron into high-grade steelThe production of rolled steel is an ex-

tremely challenging process requiring

large amounts of energy. Production

plantsmustbecontrolledandmonitored

with great precision. The raw material

usedisscrapmetal.Incombinationwitha

numberofothersubstances,whoseroleis

toloweritsmeltingpoint,thescrapisfed

intothemainfurnace.Asystemofelec-

trodes raise the temperature to melting

point.Ladlesare thenused tomove the

metal to a second furnace, the refining

furnace.This iswheretherefiningproc-

essestakeplace,cleaningandrefiningthe

material through the addition of other

metals.Theladlesarethenpassedonfor

theactualproductionofrolledsteel.

Ferriere Nord has resolved to thor-

oughly update its automation systems

by2011.Thisaffectsall thesteps inthe

productionprocessaswellasthemajor-

ityofcomponents,frommachineryright

through to software. The automation

system has already been upgraded by

RBAutomazione,usingtechnologyfrom

COPA-DATA.

circular redundancy safeguarding the system Theplantforproducingrolledsteelcon-

sists of three linked systems: the main

furnace, the ladle furnace and the con-

tinuous casting machine. Each of these

three systems is controlled by a server.

Ferriere Nord’s previous control system

did not operate reliably. Furthermore,

maintenancetaskscarriedoutfromaPC

frequentlyresultedinlengthydowntime

fortheplant,andiftheserverfailed,data

wouldinevitablybelost.Thehighestpri-

orityformanagersonthetechnicalsideat

FerriereNordwastosignificantlyincrease

availability of the production plant.The

aimwasforthenewsystemtomakese-

cure data available to users at all times

withouthavingtodoublethenumberof

computers.Thiswaswherezenon,withits

circular redundancy, entered the frame.

ThisSCADAsystemfromCOPA-DATA is

basedonclient-serverarchitecture,andis

capableofnetworking serversusingcir-

cularredundancy.Eachcomputerdoubles

up as a stand-by for another computer.

InthiswayonlythreePCsareneededto

implementa secure systemwith circular

redundancy.

“Wewere lookingforasolutionthat

wouldensurethatsystemswouldbesafe-

guardedintheeventoffailureandcould

guaranteeuninterrupteddataacquisition

without increasing the number of com-

ponents.zenonhasenabledus tocreate

a system based on circular redundancy

between the servers that significantly

reducesboththefailureriskandmainte-

nancecosts”,explainstheelectricalmain-

tenance and automation manager from

FerriereNord.

Thenetworklinkingthethreeservers

isespecially fast,andhasbeenreserved

fordatatrafficbetweentheservers.There

is thus no risk of delays. This solution,

implementedusingzenon,controlsatotal

20 I primary products I ferriere nord

of16,000tags:8,000forthemainfurnace,

4,000fortheladlefurnaceand4,000for

thecontinuouscastingmachine.

client with doublemonitorThereareeightzenonclientsrunningwith

thethreeservers:2inthecontinuouscast-

ingmachine,2intheareacontainingthe

ladlefurnace,and4inthemainfurnace.

Oneimportantstrengthofthenewclients

istheirabilitytoworkwithtwomonitors:

youcandecidewhethertoshowthesame

display or two different displays on the

twomonitors.Thiswasanimportantfac-

torforthemanagementteam:“Thisfacil-

ityisveryimportanttousasitenablesus

tovisualisealargerquantityofinforma-

tionforeachclientatthesametime.This

makesour staff’sworkagreatdealeas-

ier.”Thedata forvisualisationoriginates

from a number of field controllers. The

continuouscastingmachine incorporates

oneS5135SinecH1,sixS7400RFC1006

TCP-IP,sixC7withEcholinkandoneS7

300 RFC1006 TCP-IP. The ladle furnace

hastwoS5135SinecH1s.Themainfur-

nace,ontheotherhand,hastwoS5135

SinecH1s,threeS7300RFC1006TCP-IP

andoneS7400RFC1006TCP-IP.

Sincezenonsupportscommunication

basedon theTCP-IPprotocol, the auto-

mationprojectcanbeupdatedveryeas-

ily, and it is also straightforward to link

theservers,clientsandPLCstogether.

simplified maintenanceWith zenon’s redundant architecture,

eachservercontrolsitsownsectionwhilst

atthesametimeactingasabackupserver

for another section. This configuration

ensuresthatintheeventthatoneserver

fails,anotheronewilltakeoveritsfunc-

tions.Asaresult,costlyinterruptionsto

theprocessareavoided.

Systemmaintenanceisalsosimplified:

“Ifyouhaverestoredthefunctionalityof

the faulty server, or have replaced that

server”,explainsRogerBogna,ownerof

thesystemintegrationfirmRBAutomazi-

one,“themachinecanbequicklyreinte-

grated into the circular redundancy, and

the clients can resume communication

withtheirmainserver.”

The fact that theTCP/IP protocol is

supported represents another advantage

in terms of system maintenance. “With

zenon it is possible to transfer project

changesdirectfromthedevelopmentsite

to the runtime server using the TCP/IP

protocol.Thedata–which is constantly

synchronised between the servers – is

updated and automatically forwarded to

the clients”. This enables the project to

controlled remotely: the system integra-

tor,RBAutomazione,canaccessthesys-

tem using a remote computer and make

changes to the program online via an

internet connection. The customer thus

savesbothtimeandexpense.

Roger Bogna is also happy with the

technicalsupportprovidedbytheexperts

from COPA-DATA: “The technical sup-

port,whichCOPA-DATAguaranteedthey

would provide, was outstanding. From

ourpointofviewasthesystemintegra-

tor,supportisvitallyimportant”.

improving performance and flexibility in the visualisation module“With the old system we had a problem

with visualising the trends from one of

thetwofurnacesinrealtimebecausethe

datasimplytooktoolongtocaptureand

process.zenon,ontheotherhand,works

veryfast.Thanksalsotothefactthatdata

is updated at a high frequentcy, it can

deliverthetrendswewant inrealtime”,

explainFerriereNord’smanagershappily.

ferriere nord I primary products I 21

Userscanalsochooseexactlywhichvari-

ables are to be displayed.They can add

anyvariablestheylike,theycanexclude

others,andtheycanchangethecolours,

etc.Assoonasthevisualisationmodehas

beendefinedthatbestcorrespondstothe

specific requirements, it can be saved in

aprofileandretrievedatanytimewitha

simplemouseclick.Inmanydifferentsitu-

ationszenonexhibitsexcellentflexibility,

even when working with historical data.

Inthiscase,zenon’sExtendedTrendfacil-

ity proves especially useful. This allows

historicaldatatobemanagedintheform

ofatableusingthereportgenerator.

precise control over energy Energy charges represent an important

cost factor in a production plant. The

abilitytocontrolenergyconsumptionac-

curately is therefore of key importance.

zenon provides a module for controlling

energy consumption in the shape of its

EnergyManagementSystem (EMS).This

modulemonitorsconsumptioninrealtime

andpredictsthetrendforthenext15to

30minutes.Contractswithgridoperators

definespecificwindowsforconsumption,

and it canbecomecostly if consumption

fails to be kept within these windows.

EMSenablesastrategytobedesignedand

implementedtomanagetheuseofenergy

andtopreventtheagreedsupplyfrombe-

ing exceeded.This system isvaluedpar-

ticularly where production is organised

inso-calledproductionislandsandwhere

the sequence of frequency-dependent

loadsheddingcanbeprogrammed.Inthis

way blackouts can be avoided, and the

most important machines in the plants

willcontinuetooperate.

However,itisnotalwaysidealoreven

possibletoprogramloadsheddingorthe

shutdownofanentireproductionsection,

which is very advantageous to compa-

nieslikeFerriereNord:“Inourcase,load

sheddingandtheassociatedshutdownof

the plant would prove very costly. Our

preferred approach was to renegotiate

thetariffswiththegridoperator.Weare

now no longer obliged to remain within

a specific consumption window, but in-

stead merely to maintain a certain bal-

ancetoourconsumptionthroughoutthe

day.Evenso,westill find itveryuseful

tokeepourconsumptionundercontrolat

alltimes.”

target achieved FerriereNordhasachieved the targets it

set itself in terms of reliable plant man-

agement: increased reliability, data secu-

rityandcontinuousoperationeveninthe

eventofserverfailure.zenonticksboxes

withitscircularredundancy,databackup,

less time-consumingmaintenance sched-

ule, simultaneous display of two screens

for each client, flexible trend configura-

tionandsmoothtransitionfromWindows

NT to Windows XP. zenon performed

superbly both in terms of accuracy and

speed:“Redundancyhasbeenimplement-

edquicklyandeasily,andtheconfigured

systemworksextremelyreliably.”❚❙❘

The technical support, which COPA-DATA

guaranteed they would provide, was outstanding.

From our point of view as the system integrator,

support is vitally important!

roger bogna, owner of the system integration firm rb automazione

22 I primary products I collini

direct connection of erp to scada?Protecwasgivenalonglistofrequirements:Itstartedwiththe

designandengineeringofallthesiteelectricalequipmentand

thezenonsupervisoryprocesscontrolvisualizationforoperat-

ingthesystem.Productiondatawastobetransferreddirectly

fromaSAPapplicationattheERPleveltotheSCADAsystem.

As an additional process data acquisition task, all production

datawastobemeasuredandlogged.Colliniattachedgreatim-

portancetoguaranteeddatasecurityandoperationalavailabil-

itythroughtheuseofaredundantsystem.

Seamless electroplating at Collini.Metal refiner Collini in Vorarlberg, Austria, is one of the biggest refining companies in Europe. When they planned the supervisory control of an electroplating system, they looked for a strong partner that would fulfill their demanding requirements. They found one in experienced system integrator Protec, who tailored a future-proof soluti-on with the zenon process control system by COPA-DATA – including a direct connec-tion from Collini’s SAP® application to the process.

zenon refines processes in electroplating system ThebarrelplatingsystematColliniwasdesignedandengineered

downtothelastdetail.zenonistheheartofthesystem,pro-

vidingredundantcentralprocessvisualizationwithcontinuous

data synchronization utilizing zenon’s built-in circular redun-

dancy.Alexander Ettinger of Protec: “With our multi-faceted

knowledge of machinery construction and COPA-DATA’s soft-

wareexpertise,wedevelopedasolutionusingzenonthatmet

Collini’srequirementsexactly.”

collini I primary products I 23

zenonestablishesadirectconnectiontotheSAPapplication

via a standard interface and gets its production data from it.

Whilethetruckisstillarrivingwiththerawmaterials,theSAP

system already has basic data such as lot number and article

numberandassignsthemtotheappropriateproductionproc-

esses.Forthispurpose,itcombinesdatafrom7recipegroups,

eachofwhichhasahundredrecipes.

Allthattheoperatorhastodonowisreadthelotnumber

of the raw materials with a barcode scanner. It is then auto-

maticallycomparedwithatablethatisheldontheserver.Thisis

wherezenongetsitsproductiondatafrom.Thezenonoperator

thenchecksthedata,confirmsthatitiscorrectandthenzenon

automaticallysends itdirectlytothePLC.Duringtherefining

process, all relevant data such as temperatures, currents and

pH-valuesarelogged.Thisrecordswhichlotpartwasprocessed

where,whenandforhowlong.zenonsendsselectedproduction

datadirectlytotheSAPapplication,therebykeepingtheSAP

informationuptodateinrealtime.

flexible zenonOwing to its open interfaces, zenon was perfect for the solu-

tionproposedbyProtec.AlexanderEttinger:“Wewereableto

usestandardinterfacesforconnectingtoSAP,whichsavedus

alotofdetoursandadditionalprograms.Wewereparticularly

impressedbythehugeamountsofdatathatcanbeprocessed

directly via the SAP application and by the reliability of the

archivingfunction.Ultimately,westoreabout2GBperyearin

thezenonfileformat.”

The Protec engineers benefited from zenon’s ease-of-use

engineering.Sincethesystemwaslaunchedinsummer2003,a

numberofchangesandoptimizationshavebecomenecessary.

zenonmade iteasy to implement thesechanges ina fastand

secureway.

It is very easy to enter recipes and target values in the

object-oriented HMI/SCADA system, zenon. Its sophisticated

alarmmanagementandarchivingfunctionsmakeprocessesse-

cureandalwaysundercontrol.Datarecordedduringproduction

isavailableastrendcurvesandasnumericalvalues,creatingan

exactoverview.Thisway,eachlotisfullytraceable.COPA-DATA

product manager Reinhard Mayr: “The open design of zenon

allowscommunicationwithmanysystems.Wecandirectlyad-

dress SAP applications via different interfaces. Since summer

2008,wealsohaveacertifiedbidirectional interface–noad-

ditionalsoftwareisrequired”.

security mattersFor sensitiveapplications suchaselectroplating, fail-safe reli-

abilityisofvitalimportance.Thisiswherezenon’scircularre-

dundancy©comesintoplay.Withafewmouse-clicks,userscan

turnnodesintoapplicationserversandstandby-servers.Ifone

ofthemcrashes,thestandby-servertakesoveritstaskswithout

lossofdata.AlexanderEttinger:“Anotherusefulzenonfeature

forusasintegratorsistheremotemaintenanceofSCADAand

PLCs.Wecanuseasecureconnectiontoaccessoursystemat

anytime,withoutanytimelag.”Protechasusedzenontocreate

asolutionthatmeetsCollini’sspecificationexactly–including

functionsforprocessdataloggingandproductiondataacquisi-

tion(PDA)aswellasanSAPinterface.

KurtKlienofCollini:“Withitsopenness,zenongaveusthe

flexibilitywewerelookingfor.Atthesametime,itissecureand

makesourproductionfail-safe,anditgivesusaperfectdirect

linktoourSAPapplication.”❚❙❘

24 I primary products I lafarge perlmooser gmbh

❘❙❚ LafargewasfoundedinFrancein1833.

Today it employs 71,000 people in 70

countries. Perlmooser Zementwerke has

been a 100% subsidiary of the Lafarge

group since 1997, operating under the

nameLafargePerlmooserGmbH.

energy from tyresCement plants have a great potential

for substituting normal fuel with waste

materials. Using alternative fuel for ce-

mentproductionsavesnaturalresources

andreducesCO2emissions.LafargePerl-

mooser protects the environment and

saves resources in many ways, one of

whichisbyusingusedtyresasfuel.MGX

Automation was been commissioned to

a perfect team for smart solutions: straton and zenonOnthewaytothefurnacetheusedtyres

arefirstpickedupbyanautomaticcrane

that places them on to a slat conveyor.

From there, they are moved through a

separating system where they are an-

alyzedandseparatedbyalaserscanner.

Thescannersystemtransfersthecollect-

eddataviaModbusTCPtostraton.Inthe

sameway,stratonsendstargetvaluesto

thesystem,whichthencheckstyresfor

parameters such as maximum diameter

or thepresenceof rims.Tyresmatching

therequirementsareconveyedthrougha

weighingstationandthenintotherotary

Lafarge Perlmooser upgrades transport system

Cement and environmental protection sounds like an unlikely combination, but it is a perfect partnership at Lafarge Perlmooser, where used tyres are used as an alternative energy source for cement production. Controlled by straton and zenon, the completely renewed tyre trans-port system supplies the rotary furnace with about 25 % of the fuel required per hour.

renew and upgrade several parts of the

plant.Theobjectivewastoreduceoper-

atingcostsandincreaseproductionout-

put.Animportantsubprojectwasrenew-

ingthetyretransportsystem.

WolfgangLuger,headof theproject

departmentintheplantatRetznei:“We

replacedabout25%ofthefuelrequired

forourrotaryfurnacewithusedtyres.In

theautumnof2007,wedecidedtocom-

pletely renew the electrical equipment

andautomationoftheusedtyresystem.

Aboveall,wewantedtoenableouroper-

atorstosolvetransportproblemswithas

littletravelaspossible.Untilnow,solving

suchproblemswasalaborintensivetask

asitinvolvedtravellinglongdistances.”

lafarge perlmooser gmbh I primary products I 25

furnace. For this the transport system,

atotalof30inverterdrives,fortheslat

conveyors,rollerconveyorsandconvey-

orbelts,hadtobeconnectedtothePLC

viaProfibusDP.Theelectro-mechanical

designwas completely changedand the

MCC, Motor Control Cabinets, and the

inverterswereplaceddirectlybythemo-

tors.MGXAutomation chose the zenon

HMI/SCADA system as the redundant

control system. straton was chosen to

control the WAGO and Siemens slaves.

stratonandzenonareveryopenandal-

low easy communication with existing

automation components via protocols

that include Profibus DP, Modbus TCP

andIEC60870-5-104.

stratonalsointerfaceswiththeWAGO

750/753fieldbusnodesandtheSiemens

ET200S,whichhasbeeninuseatLafarge

Perlmooser for a long time.This degree

offlexibilityandopennesswasadecisive

factorinselectingstraton.

Another fact that was well received

byLafargePerlmooserwasstraton’sabil-

itytomakeonlinechanges,whichallows

program changes to be imported during

operation. Interrupting the operation

of process automation systems like the

ones at Lafarge Perlmooser would in-

volve problems and costs. With straton

andzenonchangescanbemadewithout

stopping the system. straton’s binding

featureoffersaveryconvenientwayof

dividing the overall process into several

decentralized areas that stay in contact

without anyextra cable connections. In

thisway,partsof theconveyingsystem

that are far from each other were inte-

grated into theoverall system inavery

elegantway.zenonandstratoninterface

withnearlyanyhardware.Therefore,La-

fargePerlmoosercandeployandchange

PLCsasrequired.Thisallowsfortheflex-

ibleextensionofthesystemandthecon-

nectionofdifferentprojects.

MartingGrübler,CEOofMGXAuto-

mation:“Wefoundtheastonishingdepth

of the integration of straton with the

zenoncontrolsystemtobereallyhelpful.

They both use a common database and

thereforevariablesarealwaysavailablein

bothsystemsautomatically.Additionally,

wecanusesophisticatedcommunications

suchasProfibus,ModbusandIEC60870

for connectingnewandexisting system

components.”

one stop solutionMartin Grübler: “The big challenge for

us, besides the short time available for

thechange,was toconsider theoptimi-

zationrequirementsoftheoperators. In

March2008,thesystemwaslaunchedin

itsnewdesign.Wewereabletomeetthe

requirementsoftheoperators:Theycan

nowsolve90%ofallproblemsdirectlyin

the control station without the need to

travellongdistances.”

stratonandzenonwerealsoused in

the LABCONTROL project. This system

automates and visualizes the high level

processes of a fully automated labora-

toryforproductionanalysisandquality

management in the cement production.

LABCONTROListhecommunicationhub

betweentheconveyingsystemsandan-

alyticaldevicesofthelaboratoryonthe

onesideandtheexistingcontrolsystem

and process data acquisition system on

the other. Here straton runs as a soft-

PLC, together with zenon, on a PC and

usestheflexiblecommunicationfeatures

ofthemulti-driverconceptforconnect-

ingtoothersystems.

RoberMeixnerisresponsiblefortechnol-

ogyandautomationintheplantinRetz-

nei: “With its convenient user-interface

and its integration with zenon, straton

makes work easier for our maintenance

employees and allows us to perform

program changes and small automation

projectsonourown.”❚❙❘

26 I primary products I italcementi

italcementi: more efficiency thanks to automationItalcementi is one of the biggest international producers of

aggregates, ready-mixed concrete and cement.To increase the

efficiencyandproductivityoftheirplantstheFrenchsubsidiary

of this Italian company was looking for a solution that would

bringwithitseveraladvantages.PauloPereira,TechnicalManag-

erAutomationforGranulatesandConcrete,FranceandBelgium,

explains:“Wewantedareliablesystemforsimplifyingthecrea-

tionofourprojectsinover80plantswithdifferingautomation

requirements.Wealsowantedtobecome

independentofexternalservicesandalso

tolowerourcosts.Additionally,wewant-

edtomakeourprojectseasiertomaintain

thanbefore.Theperfectinteractionofall

componentsisveryimportantforus.Our

maincriterionwasamaximumdegreeof

automationduringprojectcreation.”

After considering the various solu-

tionsavailableonthemarket,Italcementi

Prefabricated automation structures at Italcementi.

For most companies automation takes time; sometimes taking several weeks to get from a project plan to a completed system. Italcementi now creates its projects within an hour and the complete design and engineering phase takes no more than three days. This enormous acceleration was achieved by using a Wizard created by JS Automation using COPA-DATA’s zenon, which is now in use in Italcementi’s French plants.

italcementi I primary products I 27

opted for JSAutomation.The managers

ofItalcementiasked,“Canyouautomate

ourengineering?”andJSAutomationan-

sweredwithaclear“Yes”.TheFrenchdis-

tributorofCOPA-DATA’sinnovativesolu-

tions used the joint power delivered by

zenon and its fully integrated soft-PLC,

straton.InJanuary2008,JSAutomation

started implementing the Application

Generatorthatwouldpermitacompletely

automatedengineeringprocess.For this,

theyusedthefreelyprogrammableinter-

faceofstratonandzenon.Byfall,thefirst

four plants had been equipped with the

Generator.Then, all plants will be using

zenon,stratonandtheWizard.

Hervé Seyfried, technical project

managerat JSAutomation, “stratonand

zenonweretheobviouschoice.This‘team

oftwo’wastheonlysolutiononthemar-

ket thateasily fulfilledall requirements.

Thetightintegrationofstratonandzenon

madeourtaskmucheasier.Additionally,

straton can communicate readily with

manydifferentnetworks.Thisallowsdi-

rectaddressingofthemachinesviaI/O.”

automatic engineering: the appli-cation generator Automaticengineeringcreatesnewspace

and liberty. Engineering times and costs

areloweredsignificantly,asareon-going

support costs. Automatic engineering at

Italcementinowmeans:Answeringsome

questions about the design and then

watching theWizard create the produc-

tiontool–theApplicationGeneratorper-

forms about 90% of the required tasks

automatically.Thismeansthatlessexpert

knowledge is required in the company,

which in turn means less training costs,

lessconsultingcostsandreduceddepend-

enceonexternalresources.

HowdoesthisWizardbyJSAutoma-

tionwork?AfterstartingtheApplication

Generator, the user defines the project

using an interactive dialog. The Wizard

then creates the complete automation

projectforstratonandzenon.straton,an

IEC 61131-3 programming environment,

is integrated seamlessly into the zenon

HMI/SCADA system, via one single da-

tabase.Functionalblockshavebeende-

velopedinIEC1131-3standardlanguages

foralltypesofmachinesencounteredon

productionsites.TheApplicationGenera-

tor maintains a connection between the

block’s inputs and outputs. The process

staff then only need to configure ele-

mentssuchasthemachine’sstartupand

shutdown sequences, timing, alignment

etc.ItconnectsdirectlytoI/Osystemsof

differentmanufacturerssuchasWagovia

a network interface. If required, straton

canalsocommunicatewithanyPLC.But

thereallyimportantthingisthetightin-

tegrationofzenonandstraton.

collaborative workfor direct controlzenon handles the visualization for Ital-

cementi projects, collects data and ana-

lyzes it. Thisdata isused, for example,

by the zenon “Industrial Maintenance

Manager” module (IMM) to optimize

maintenanceactivitiesand tomake sure

there isonlyminimuminterferencewith

everyday operations. It allows for the

exactandtargetedschedulingofmainte-

nanceactivities.Ataglance,theusersees

which devices, systems and machines

require maintenance and when. Addi-

tionally,itlogsallthemaintenancework

performed in thepast.As thedata is in

aSQLdatabase, itcaneasilybeusedby

other applications. In addition to seam-

less integration with straton, zenon fea-

turesatrulyopendesign,includingover

300 communication protocols, and also

withconnectivitytosuperordinatedsys-

tems. Italcementi is profiting from this

teamwork, which was also one of their

requirements. Many sources of error

are ruled out in advance; time-consum-

ing and expensive detours are avoided.

application generator for italcementi:

Application Generator automatically

creates projects for straton and zenon

direct connection via I/O

straton masters all current protocols

zenon Reports

zenon Industrial Maintenance Manager

faster automation

less time required

simple maintenance

independence

Practice has shown that project mainte-

nance effort has also decreased. zenon

itselfisreallyeasytouseandmakeswork

simple even for inexperienced users.

Changescanbeimplementedatanytime,

evenduringoperation-anadvantagealso

providedbystraton.

straton: power at all levelsAt Italcementi, straton plays the role of

anintelligentfieldbuscontroller,commu-

nicatingdirectlywithphysicalinputsand

outputs on the I/O level. However, the

mainreasonforchoosingstratonwasits

capabilitytoactatotherlevelsaswell.

Ontheprocesscontrollevel,itactsas

apowerful, real-timecontrolunit in the

formofasoft-PLCthatreceivesdatavia

all commonly found fieldbuses.Thisal-

lowsforthesimpleuseandintegrationof

existingPLCsofmanydifferentmanufac-

turers.Byintegratingstratonintothein-

dependentSCADAsystem,zenon, itcan

also work as the computing centre.The

powerful interface between zenon and

straton guarantees optimum real-time

behavior and allows processing of large

amountsofdatainashorttime.Bothsys-

temscanbeeasilyconfiguredforredun-

dantoperationto increasesecurity.stra-

tonmakesiteasytoruntheHMIandthe

PLConasinglesystem,ensuringagood

overview and saving costs. The straton

workbench – an IEC 61131-3 program-

ming environment – is integrated seam-

lesslyintozenon,deliveringconsiderable

advantagesforengineeringtasks:redun-

dantvariablepoolsorvariablelistimports

arenolongernecessary.Withafewmouse

clicksinthestratonWorkbench,theuser

can configure the data to be shown in

zenon.The straton Workbench supports

allfiveprogramminglanguagesdefinedin

theIEC61131-3standardandallowsfor

the smooth conversion of one language

intoanyotherIEClanguage.

zenon: perfect teamwork stratonandthezenonHMI/SCADAsoft-

wareworkasateamintheplantsofthe

ItalcementiGroup. zenon isprovidedby

COPA-DATA, an innovative European

company specializing in HMI/SCADA

systems, and delivers striking advantag-

es with its truly open design. Just like

straton,itsupportsanykindofhardware

and all current Windows operating sys-

tems.But aboveall, it can create secure

networks with only a few mouse clicks.

Within minutes, it creates a redundant

system where every computer can be

the server or the standby server. If one

of themcrashes, thestandbyserverwill

seamlessly take over its tasks, without

data loss.Additionally, zenon– just like

straton–featuresahotreloadcapability:

engineeringchangescanbeimplemented

duringoperationwithouthaving to stop

thesystem.

zenonalsoensures agoodoverview.

With only a few adjustments, several

projects can be combined in an integra-

tion project. The integration project

takesovertheroleofanindex,listingall

projectsandprovidingfastaccess–even

acrossplantsorcountries.Italcementican

28 I primary products I italcementi

italcementi I primary products I 29

The decision to use zenon was a very logical and obvious one.

It ensures optimum connectivity to existing systems in our

plants, it gives us exactly the automation that we need and it

convinced us with its excellent integration with straton.

paulo pereira, technical manager automation for aggregates and ready-mixed concrete, france and belgium

nowcombineanynumberofprojectsand

alsomonitor andcontrol them remotely.

Thefoundationforthisalreadyexists;the

actualengineeringprocedurerequiredfor

this feature is a standard task.A finely

structureduserrightssystemallowsdefi-

nitionforeveryuserandwhichprojects

theycanviewandwhichsettingstheyare

allowedtochange.

more productivity, lower costsByspecifyingzenonwithstraton,JSAuto-

mation made it easy for the Italcementi

Grouptoselectthem...zenonandstraton

wastheonlysystemthatwasabletomeet

alltheautomationrequirements:agener-

ator that would adjust to the individual

requirements of the users.TheApplica-

tionGeneratorlowerstheeffortrequired

for engineering and maintenance.As do

zenonandstraton,enablingthetargeted

useofresourcesinmanyways.Forexam-

ple,withzenon’snetworkfunctionality,it

onlytakesafewmouseclickstocreatea

completelyfunctionalnetwork.Itenables

secureredundantoperationandcreatesa

clearoverview–acrossdifferentplants.If

atanytime, Italcementiwantedtocom-

bineseveralplantsormaybeallofthem

and monitor, control and visualize sta-

tionsremotely,thatwouldbeaneasytask

forJSAutomation,zenonandstraton.❚❙❘

30 I civil engineering I mabey & johnson

❘❙❚ Mabey&Johnsondesignsandmanu-

facturesarangeofsteelmodularbridging

-andhavebeendoingsosuccessfullyfor

almost35years.AttheMabey&Johnson

facilityinLydney,Gloucestershire(United

Kingdom), they manufacture on average

30,000tonnesofbridgingperannumand

exporttoawiderangeofcountries.There

are250employeeslocallyandmanymore

located across the world. Customer re-

quirementsrangefromasinglebridgeto

a fully supported project for supply and

installation. New bridges provide an es-

sential link to the development of agri-

culture,healthandeducationinoverseas

rural communities.Throughanumberof

supported programmes, Mabey & John-

sonworksalongsidethecustomertobuild

bridges quickly and efficiently at low

overallinstalledcost.

Mabey & Johnson bridges are con-

structed from standardised and inter-

changeable components that are easily

transportedanderected– thebasiccon-

ceptbeingfieldproveninthe1940’s.Raw

material steel stock arrives at the plant

zenon delivers manufacturing performance.Mabey & Johnson builds modular bridges; the complex metal fabrications require both precise control and monitoring so that factory efficiency stays high. To achieve this Mabey & Johnson man-agers have to have accurate and timely manufactur-ing information. Integrating the various cutting,

welding and drilling machines to the company’s management system coincided with the develop-ment of an easier manufacturing cell interface and data acquisition for OEE; both tasks were com-bined into one project using COPA-DATA’s flexible zenon SCADA solution.

mabey & johnson I civil engineering I 31

andisconvertedbycuttingtolengthand

atvarious angles tobecomecomponents

of their bridge modules. The modules

themselvesareassembledbyweldingon

large automatic machinery, fixing holes

aredrilled,thefinalproductisgalvanised

andisthenreadyforshipment.Thebridg-

esareassembledatthedeliverysitefrom

setsofmodulesusinglargediameterpins.

The metal decking of the bridge is also

suppliedandcanbesuppliedwithvarious

optional road-deckcoatingssuchasgrit-

tedtarmacforimprovedvehicletraction.

The current automation project finds

itsrootsinanewRoboticWeldingCellup-

gradeinSweden–wheretohaveremote

access for maintenance and diagnostic

from the UK was required.The robotics

vendor(ABB)recommendedBeckhoffas

thecontrolsolutionandfurtherconsulta-

tionwithBeckhoff intheUKresultedin

thespecificationofsuitablehardware.The

visualisationwasundertakenasabespoke

solutionandalthoughthiswasfunction-

allysatisfactoryitpresentedasignificant

learningcurvefortheUKengineersifthey

weretoadoptthisasastandard.Thefirst

UK-located project was for the automa-

tionofthereclaimingofgritfromaroad-

deck“gritshaker”coatingmachine.Here

thesolutionwasagainBeckhoffhardware

but with embedded zenon (running on

Windows CE). The engineers at Lydney

quickly realised that in zenon they had

averyflexibletoolformanyothertasks

that were in their improvement plan.

It was here that Steve Grice, Electrical

ProjectEngineerfoundthat,“youcanget

zenontodowhateveryouwantittodo,

withvirtuallynobarriers.”

simple for oee measurementAs with many manufacturing industries

most machines are standalone and the

workflow is governed by material flow.

Mabey & Johnson knew that much in-

formationwaslockedupineachmachine

andinparticularOEE(OverallEquipment

Efficiency)wasthekeytotheircompeti-

tivepositionand to sustaining customer

satisfaction. The workflow is organised

according to the production plan, a ma-

chine’s overall capacity and then adapt-

ed when maintenance is required. OEE

reveals machine utilisation and allows

production and capacity planning to be

optimised.

Initially this requirement resulted in

two projects; one by the control engi-

neers to improve the cell user interface

andobtaindataforOEEandtheotherby

IT to obtain KPI and manufacturing in-

formationthroughkeyboardmanualdata

entry (material usage, historical data).

TheexperienceofusingzenonontheGrit

Reclamation project created the realisa-

tionthatwithzenonbothprojectscould

notonlyberolledintoonebutalsomade

betterbyautomaticdataacquisitionand

menudrivenmachinestoppageandfault

reporting. zenon was easily configured

for this task and was able to communi-

catewiththecompany’sOEEpackageus-

ingOPC,thedatabeingcollectedfromall

othernetworkedzenoncontrolledmanu-

facturingcellsbyahostzenonrunningon

theOEEdatabaseserver.

high level of connectivityThecommunicationlayoutinthefactory

isbyafibreopticbackbonethathasboth

wiredandwirelessconnectiontovarious

32 I civil engineering I mabey & johnson

machines. The machines are very large

andhavePLCcontrollersaswellasspe-

cialistrobotcontrollersforwelding,with

9 motion axes being typical.The weld-

ing motion programmes are developed

bothbyusingthe3DCADdrawingsand

byteach-mode,thecorrectprogrambe-

ingselectedbytheoperatorviatheplc.

Touchscreeninterfaceshavebeenadded

to each cell these are the operator’s in-

terfacetothezenonsupervisorysystem

using Windows XP.Access to each ma-

chine’sPLCisfacilitatedbyzenon’shigh

level of connectivity through its exten-

sivelibraryofdrivers,insomecasesthe

PLCprogrammesare sensitiveandnon-

invasivedataacquisitionisaccomplished

byslaveI/Odevicesthatcanbeaccessed

directlybyzenon’s integratedlogiccon-

troller,straton.

flexible and intuitiveIt is worth noting that the zenon editor

isthesameforPCorCEruntimeoperat-

ing systems, therefore training and ex-

periencewasreusableacrossthesetech-

nologies. Each zenon controlled cell can

beaccessed remotely toprovide flexible

supervision and monitoring by control

engineersandformaintenancediagnosis.

Mabey&Johnsonhasthousandsofpart

numbersandmanybridgevariantswithin

its range of bridge products. Although

theyprovidebridgesonanon-emergency

basisforplanneddevelopmenttheyalso

providecompletebridgekitsatshortno-

tice usually following an environmental

disaster.They pride themselves in being

abletoshipreliablyatveryshortnotice.

All of this takes a great deal of back-

ground planning, and requires knowl-

edgeofwhatisbeingproduced,OEEand

schedule adherence. The use of zenon

as thesupervisorycell controllerhasal-

lowed access to all this information, de-

liveredintuitivecellcontrolandprovided

drop-downmenureportingoffaultsand

stoppages.

Steve Grice, Electrical Project Engi-

neer, “zenon has allowed us to develop

asinglesolutionthatmeetsbothourcell

control and IT reporting requirements,

it is flexible touseand inmanyways is

intuitivetodevelop.”AndyPhillips,Busi-

nessSystemAnalyst,“zenonwasawhole

newworldformeasanITspecialist,how-

ever,thetrainingshowedmewhatcould

beachievedandtheresultishighlyauto-

matedanderrorproofmanagementdata

acquisition.”

All development work has been un-

dertakenwith in-house resource follow-

ing some self-training and later formal

trainingbyCOPA-DATAUKandsupport

and guidance by COPA-DATA’s compre-

hensive support services. OEE is being

driventowards85%.Traceabilityisimpor-

tanttoMabey&Johnsonqualitycontrol

andeachmanufacturedpartcanbetraced

backtoitsoriginalrawmaterialbatch,this

isbeingexpandedtoautomatethe“qual-

itypack”thatissentoutwitheachbridge

set.Thefutureplannedextensionofthe

systemwillbetoprogressivelyaddallthe

other manufacturing cells to the system

(5outof14currentlybeing integrated),

toalsoobtainenergydataforenergysav-

ing,andtointelligentlyintegratethefac-

torylightingsystem.AsSteveGriceputs

it, “with zenon you are limited only by

yourimagination”.❚❙❘

krones ag I machine building I 33

❘❙❚ Unlikeotherproductionplants,fillingandpackagingplants

arenowgenerallynotcontrolledfromonecentralpoint.Many

control panels on individual machines and conveyor systems

lookafterthematerialflowthroughouttheplant.Thedrawback

tothisapproachisthat individualmachinescannotalwaysbe

reacheddirectly in theevent thatoperator intervention is re-

quiredorproblemsarise.It isalsonotalwayspossibletoman

every station with an operator, since this results in excessive

timeandexpense.Inordertoremaincompetitiveandtomanage

theplantmoreefficiently,anoperatormusthaveanoverviewof

everyoperatorstation,musthavetheabilitytointervenerapidly

intheproductionprocesswherenecessary,andmusthavethe

abilitytodetectproblemsandrespondimmediately.KronesAG,

a company specialising in installing and configuring complete

fillingandpackaging lines,understands that informationflow

hastodaybecomeeverybitasimportantasmaterialflow.This

Getting equipped today, ready for tomorrow‘s demands.The demands placed by the market on the beverage industry are increasing all the time: companies are now facing up to the challenge of optimising their filling and packaging proc-esses and becoming ever more competitive. This can only be achieved by using state-of- the-art information technology.

34 I machine building I krones ag

company,basedinNeutraublinginBavaria,isinthevanguard

when it comes to installing state-of-the-art network technol-

ogyand software.Kroneshas already setup countless filling

andpackaging linesforglassbottles,PETcontainersandcans

onbehalfofbreweries,softdrinkmanufacturersandcompanies

involvedwiththewineandspiritsindustries.

network technology underpinsfurther developmentManufacturer-specificbus systemshave so farbeen themost

commonlyusedmeansofconnectingindividualmachineswith

asystemforthepurposeofsendingandreceivinginformation.

Industrial Ethernet has now emerged as the best medium for

transferringlargevolumesofdatabetweenIPCdevices.Krones

usesfibre-opticcableshere,thusavoidingelectromagneticin-

terferencefromthewordgo.Kronesinstallationsarealsoun-

affectedbyany limitationonthe lengthof fibre-opticcables,

since cables within the plant will never exceed the maximum

permittedlengthof2km.Whenanetworkisimplementedwith

coppercable,ontheotherhand,thepictureisquitedifferent:

datatransfercanbecomeunreliableassoonascablelengthsex-

ceed100metres.ThenetworkstructurefavouredbyKronesfor

its filling and packaging lines has a star configuration with a

centralnetworkserver.

Thisguaranteestheusermaximumfreedomfrominterfer-

encesince theconnections in thenetworkareexclusive.Fur-

thermore,everysinglemachinecanavailitselfofa100Mbit/s

bandwidth,andallapplications–includingthelinediagnostics

system,thelinemanagementsystem,theprocesscontrolsystem

and themobile service information system– can run concur-

rentlyandwithoutanyformofmutualinterference.

visualisation and efficient management of plantsKronesbelieves in state-of-the-art technology for itshuman-

machine interface too, and has therefore chosen zenon from

COPA-DATA GmbH for its machines. zenon is a software ap-

plication whose strengths include scaleability, flexibility and

openness.zenonfeaturesadrag&dropinterfacefornetwork-

ingindividualmachinestoformanintegratedsystem;aseparate

machine(knownasa“stand-aloneproject”)isactivatedwitha

clickofthemouseandconvertedintoanetworkprojectwhen

theuserdragsittothedesiredpositioninthezenonnetwork

manager’s project tree. If the user enters the corresponding

computernameorselectsacomputer,thenthedesiredoperator

terminalswillbecomeavailableimmediately.Anintelligentto-

kenensuresthatalloperatoractionsaremanagedinanorderly

fashion.Ifanauthorisedusersubmitsarequest,thenthetoken

ispassedtothatuserinordertoavoidactionsbeingduplicated

anderrorsoccurring.Theprojectmanagercandefineinadvance

which functionszenon isallowed toperformon thenetwork,

andwhicharenotpermitted.Thereisonemorepluspointwith

this software, which is that zenon does not require a central

server.Any control panel that is assigned to a controller can

actasaserverforanotherclient–anoperatorterminal,forin-

krones ag I machine building I 35

stance. In this way, data is transferred between the terminals

and projects are also harmonised as soon as any changes are

carriedoutonaproject.Onefurtheradvantageisthatthereis

noneedforanyadditionalserverhardwaresincethesystemhas

adistributedconfigurationandcanthusoperateonaCompact

Flash-cardbasis.Maintenancecanbecarriedout remotelyon

theHMIaswellasthePLCsystems.Thebasicphilosophybe-

hindthenetworkedvisualisationisthatoperatorscanperform

whateveractionsarerequiredatanytimeandfromanywhere

intheplant.Suchactionsincludeconfiguringsystems,chang-

ingtypes,switchingonunitsand,ifnecessary,retrievingalarms

andtrenddata.

cost efficiency in filling and packagingIntermsofimprovingefficiencyandplantavailability,innova-

tive IT technology has a crucial role to play. State-of-the-art

software and network technology ensure that systems are as

safeanduser-friendlyastheypossiblycanbe,thatfillingand

packaging processes take place as efficiently as possible, and

thatasaresultthecostsperunitproducedcanbereducedever

further.❚❙❘

36 I food & beverages I pepsi-cola

❘❙❚ QABenteredtheRomaniansoftdrink

market in 1991, bottling and distribut-

ingtheproductsofPepsiCo.In1992,the

company opened the first polyethylene

terephthalate (PET) bottling line in the

country, beginning with Pepsi 1.5l bot-

tlesandlaunchingPrigatin1993,thefirst

stilldrinkmanufacturedinRomania.The

Company experienced a 48% increase

in turnover in the year 2004-2005.This

hugesuccesswas the resultof thecom-

pany’sdecisiveactionandtheQABteam

investing over 14.5 million USD in the

Romanian soft drink market in 2005 to

launchnewcarbonatedandstillproducts

and introducing a packing system that

ensures the integrity of their products.

Moreover, QAB was nominated among

thebestbottlingcompaniesintheworld,

inthePepsiCosystem.

Highest quality bottling for Pepsi-Cola using zenon.

Quadrant Amroq Beverages (QAB) is one of the largest American investors in Romania, a licensed bottling company and distributor for Pepsi-Cola®, Prigat, Lipton Ice Tea and Roua Muntilor in Romania and in the Republic of Moldova.

pepsi-cola I food & beverages I 37

krones with zenon hmi software QAB’sdriveforhighqualitywasalsomir-

rored by the investments made at the

production level,whichutilise the latest

trendsandtechnologies.Oneexample is

the state of the art bottling line instal-

lationatQAB,manufacturedbyaworld

leader,Krones.Theproductivity,reliabil-

ity and optimal operation of the equip-

mentaredeterminingfactors inthesuc-

cessofthePepsi-Colabottler.

Allequipmentwasdesignedinsucha

waythatboththeoperatorsandspecialist

teamshavethetoolsrequiredtooperate

and control the complex equipment ef-

fectively.Thesoftwareinterfacehadtobe

direct,immediateandsatisfytheirneeds

perfectly. COPA-DATA’s zenon software

suitewasfoundtoexcedetheserequire-

mentsandwaschosenbyKronesfortheir

HMI(humanmachineinterface).Further-

more,allnewmachinesmanufacturedby

Kronesarenowsuppliedwithzenon6.20

XPembeddedpoweredHMI’s.

scada is simplified with the latest technologyQAB usees the most modern equipment

and their team wanted to push the lim-

itsoftheirmachines.Thespecialistshave

the capability to analyze every machine

in detail, and furthermore the power to

monitortheoverallcharacteristicsofthe

plantwhichhastoprovideoptimalqual-

ityandproductivity.Mr.MihaiCiorbaru,

Technical Manager of QAB and his en-

gineering team, decided to create their

own SCADA application using zenon, as

theprofessionaltoolforvisualizationand

analyzing the plant data. At the begin-

ning of 2006, during the design phase,

QABhaddecidedthatzenonwasthebest

choicefortheSCADAsoftware.Together

withKreatronAutomation,theRomanian

zenondistributor, thecompletesoftware

&hardwaresolutionwasidentified.

Ciorbaruexplained,“Incomplexsys-

tems, SCADA has to satisfy three main

criteria: interface simply with most au-

tomatic control systems, facilitate in the

handlingandvisualizationoftheanalysed

data and to remain flexible for future

modernizationoftheproductionprocess.

Wediscoveredalltheseadvantagesusing

thezenonsoftware”.

As in every SCADA application, ef-

fective communication with the hard-

ware was essential. QAB used a highly

reliable industrial PC, interfacing with

equipment using zenon’s built-in driv-

ers.An advantage of zenon is that over

250 drivers, developed in-house ensure

its integration into complex, heteroge-

neous projects where interfacing hard-

warecomponents fromdiverse suppliers

is the key to successful implementation.

AsCiorbaruhighlighted, thezenonsoft-

waresuitegivesusersthepowertowork

at a high technological level, in a very

accessible way. A practical approach,

the programmer receives highly evolved

softwareinstruments,inordertodevelop

theirownprojectbyfreelyparameteris-

ing components. In fact, developing the

application is closer to engineering than

38 I food & beverages I pepsi-cola

toclassicalprogramming,thefocusbeing

ontheprocessanddesiredfunctionality

ratherthancoding.

Asaresult,theSCADAtooldesigned

“inhouse”byQABcouldbefurtherdevel-

opedbythebottlingspecialistsaccording

to their technological or organizational

needs.Usingzenon,theyarecompletely

capable of maintaining and developing

theirownsystem.

high quality perform-ance from zenonNo matter whether Pepsi, Prigat or Lip-

ton IceTea isproduced,atQABconsist-

entqualitycontrolisessential.Whenthe

market demands flexibility, the change

fromonebottledproducttoanotherhas

tobeachievedwithminimumproduction

downtime and maintaining maximum

quality.“Anyprocesshastobekeptun-

dercontrol,andsometimesthis involves

alargenumberofparametersthathaveto

bemanagedwithinagivenspaceoftime.

Withthezenonprogrammingsystem,this

task becomes simpler, due to the math-

ematical functions included in the soft-

ware.”saidCiorbaru.

The modular structure of zenon al-

lowed the QAB engineers to select the

software mechanisms that could best

implement theapplication requirements.

Theplanteffectively“appeared”ontheir

desktop PC with an overwhelmingly

amountofdata,theythentransformedit

into extremely useful information using

built in tools so that they could control

thequalityandproductivityof thebot-

tlinglineasdescribedbelow:

Theentireprocessispresented

optimallyonscreen,

butoperatorscanalso“zoomin”on

equipmentin

detail,resultinginaneffective

anduserfriendlytop-down

application.

Theoperatorreceivesexactand

completeinformationusingalarmand

eventmanagement.Byfilteringthe

informationaccordingtotheirre-

quirements,theuser’sconcentration

isfocussedentirelyontheanalyzed

aspectsoftheprocess.

Dataarchivingisaccessibleand

flexibleusingthezenonarchiving

module.Thedataisarchivednot

onlyasitiscollecteddirectlyfrom

theprocess,butalsointheprocessed

formusingso-called“derived

archives”.

Thepiecesofinformationgathered

becomevaluablebecausetheyare

processedandpresentedinan

advancedgraphicalsystemand

analysedwiththehelpofthebuilt-in

reportgenerator.

Accessible,flexible,wellfounded

mathematicalfunctionsassistwith

thedevelopmentandexpansionof

SCADAprojects.

Softwaremechanismsensurethat

usersfromtheoperatorstothemain-

tenanceteamoftheplant,quality

assurancedepartment,production,

planningandsurveillanceteam,

receivethemostrelevantinformation

toperformtheirindividualroles

effectively.

pepsi-cola I food & beverages I 39

great future Now, thezenon-basedSCADAsystem is

alreadyofferingbetterthantheexpected

results,beingasourceofideasforfurther

technological developments and helping

moreandmoredepartmentsoftheQAB

teamsolvetheir informationandcontrol

needs.Becausezenonisanopensystem

based on standards such as OPC, SQL,

SNMP,theSCADAsystemisgoingtobe

easily integrated intotheERPsystemof

theplant.Suchhappymeetingsbetween

innovation and quality suppliers do not

happen by mere chance. Pepsi-Cola and

QABisacontinuingsuccessstory,driven

bythepromiseofqualityandcreativity

servicingtheconsumerthatreliesonthe

QAB team’s innovation and everything

the latest technology can offer. In the

sameway,COPA-DATAhascontinuedits

tradition of innovation and applying its

experienceinautomationtopushthelim-

itsofHMI/SCADAtechnology,providing

customerssuchasQABwiththetechno-

logicaledgetheyneedtosucceedinsuch

acompetitivemarket.❚❙❘

Any process has to be kept under control. With the

zenon engineering tool this task becomes simpler, due to

the mathematical functions included in the software.

mihai ciorbaru, technical manager of qab

40 I production I braun-gillette

❘❙❚ Dittmaier,ProjectManager&ComputerEngineer,spearhead-

edthecompany’s“ProCICS”projecttodeployaProductionCell

InformationandControlSystemwhichwouldimproveproduc-

tivityandsimultaneouslyreducecostsatBraun-Gillette’sfacto-

ryinMarktheidenfeld,Germany.UnderDittmaier’sleadership,

theprojectteamanalyzedthenecessaryfunctionalityrequired

byanypotentialnewinformationsystem.Toachievethis,they

reviewed the experiences of every co-worker involved in the

dailyfunctionoftheinjection-mouldingcell.Therequirements

theteamidentifiedincluded:

Integration of the peripheral equipment on the injection-

mouldingmachinesuchaspartremovalrobots,feedunits,

temperature-control units. Previously, this had been ex-

cludedfromthecontrolsystembut itwasthoughtthatas

a result of full integration, immense advantages through

efficientsignallingofincidentalerrorandfailuremessages

couldbeexpected.

Anappropriatedata-transfertothecentralsiteswas

necessarytorealizethisgoal.

Furthermore,softwareshouldbe“easytouse”

Smiles all round at Braun-Gillette.Braun-Gillette’s toothbrushes promise cus-tomers a “beaming smile” - and now Braun Project Manager, Gerhard Dittmaier, has every reason to enjoy a “beaming smile” too! Under Dittmaier’s leadership Braun-Gillette developed a requirements profile that formed the basis for the construction of an informa-tion and control system for the company’s in-house plastic part production. The realized application is based on COPA-DATA’s process control system zenon and its embedded control solution straton and now gives Braun-Gillette universal transparency of production data for its plastic parts operations.

braun-gillette I production I 41

By deploying COPA-DATA’s visualization system, zenon, the

meaningfuldisplayofsitedatawaspossible.Thiseffectiveover-

view of plant operations could facilitate quick responses and

manual interventionwhereappropriate,soproductiondefects

wouldbedramaticallyminimized.

a single point of administrationInitially, the project team had not considered it necessary to

integratebusinessorproductiondata intoProCICS.However,

followingtheirresearchitbecameclearthatintegrationwasde-

sirable.Anycontrolsystemwould,therefore,havetosupport:

modularupgrades,ortheabilitytoaddextra

functionalityasrequired

independencefrommanufacturers,toallowfor

futureexpansion

machineindependence

productioncontrolfromvariousworkstationsorother

locations,and

theintegrationintoacentralmanagementsystem.

Dittmaier explains: “With ProCICS we wanted to establish a

singlepointofadministration‘inourfactory.”Facedwiththese

requirements,thoseinvolvedwiththeprojectrealisedthatopen

andflexibleintegrationwasgoingtobeakeyfactorforthem.

Everyinjectionmouldingcellcomprisedofseveralindependant

deviceswithvariousinterfacesandcontrols:

modbus-interfacesforthefeedunits

profibus-interfacesforthetemperaturecontrolunits

serial-interfaceswithmanufacturer-specificprotocolsfor

theremovalrobotsandinjectionmouldingmachines

I/Ointerfacesonolderdevices.

Thisvarietyofinterfaceshadmadeitpreviouslyimpossibleto

createdirectcommunicationbetweentheindividualdevices.

Importanttechnicaldatawasnotvisiblethankstothepro-

prietarycommunicationprotocolsandheterogeneousenviron-

ment. Without integrated communication, if a process com-

ponent failed, no remedial action was taken, for example to

redirectorrestarttheprocess,soproductiondefectsoraplant

stand-stillcouldeasilyoccur.

Todelivertheproject,Braunworkedwithlocalsysteminte-

gratorProzesstechnikKropf.Foron-siteoperation,anembed-

dedPLCwithtouchscreenfromLauerwaschosen.Asaspecial

feature, the hardware was equipped with two network inter-

faces.This enables the entire production cell to be sealed off

from the outside networks so unauthorised access to internal

data could be easily prevented.Through the second network

interfacethecellobtainsauniqueIP-address inthecorporate

internalnetwork.Thisallowsittobeableto,forexample,re-

trievedatafromthecentralcontrolroom.Braundecidedtouse

thesoftwarerecommendedbyProzesstechnikKropf;thezenon

SCADA and straton embedded control application from Aus-

triansoftwarespecialistsCOPA-DATA.Onepowerfulreasonfor

selecting the zenon/straton product suite was because the

stratonembeddedcontrolsystemmadeitpossibletoachievethe

controlofsuchawidevarietyofinterfacesandperipheralcom-

ponents.straton,thezenon-embeddedIECsoft-PLC,canutilise

over100 communicationdrivers.Modbus,Profibus and serial

protocols are available as driver interface and therefore only

havetobeconfigured.Onlythepart-drawingrobotfromReis

presented communication problems as there was no standard

driver for it.However,ProzesstechnikKropf andCOPA-DATA

workedincollaborationtodeliveranewdriverinaveryshort

timescale It is now possible to automatically and continually

monitortheprocessparametersofallthecomponentsthatare

involvedintheproductionprocess,andgenerateerrormessages

whenacomponentfails.

parallel operation of old and new systemsA multiplexer was developed especially for this application,

whichreadsthedatafromtheinjectionmouldingprocess.Via

aserialinterfaceitsimultaneouslysharesinformationandma-

chinedatawiththenewProCICSsystemandtheoriginalPro-

ductionDataCollectionsystemthatwasinplace.Thenewlyde-

velopedProCICSsystemintegratestransparentlywiththePDC

system. By using the integrated zenon/straton solution, data

fromthevariousperipheralmachinescannotonlybeextracted

butlogicallycombinedwitheachother.Butbymaintainingthe

PDCfrontend,fortheusersontheproductionteam,thefamil-

iardevelopmentenvironmentisstillavailable,whichisamajor

advantage.Engineeringtimescanbeshortenedanderrorsmini-

mised.

Bycombiningthevariousprocessparameterswithinasingle

controlapplication,itisnowpossibletoproactivelymanagethe

process. Before, production failures could occur, for instance,

whenchangestotheprocesstemperaturevalueshadgoneun-

noticed.With the new system, an error message is generated

immediatelythroughzenon‘salarmmanagementfunctionsand

istransmittedtothecontrolpersonnelviaSMS.Iftheerroris

notremovedwithinaspecifictimeperiod,theproductionproc-

essisautomaticallystopped.Productionerrorsandscraphave

therefore been dramatically reduced. This represents a huge

rawmaterialcostsavingpotentialovertheonebillionpartsthe

facilityproduces inayear.Anotheradvantagerealisedbythe

integratedcontrolsolutionisthemanagementofprocessvari-

ables.Anappliedvariableinzenonisimmediatelyavailablein

thestratoncontrolprogramandviceversa.

system expansion already scheduled“Having successfully deployed the system on the first injec-

tionmouldingcell,thepilotphaseoftheprojectwassuccess-

fullycompleted.Thedeploymentoftwoadditionalsystemsare

already underway. These two additional systems will be de-

ployedoncellswithanevenmorecomplexenvironment”says

Dittmaier.Hecontinues:“Itmakessensetoequipat leasttwo

thirdsoftheexistingproductioncellswiththissystemandcon-

solidatethetechnicaldataatonepoint,toprovideasingleover-

viewofoperations.”Theprojectteam’sambitionofdeliveringa

singlepointofadministrationcouldnowberealised.

Braunarealreadyconsideringhowtheycandeploysomeof

zenon‘sotherfeaturesinthefuture.Modulesbeingconsidered

include:

zenon‘sReportGenerator

completedatarecordingusingthe

ChronologicalEventList(CEL)

IndustrialPerformanceAnalyzer

theERPPPSsystemwhichenables thewritingofalldata

inadatabaseoverasingleSQL/ODBCdriver–sincethisisa

readandwritedriver,datacanbeaccessedbyavarietyofap-

plicationsatanytimeInaddition,zenon‘snetworkingcapabili-

tiesmakeitpossibletoeasilyintegratetheprojectataprimary

controlstationorcontrolcentre,withouttheneedforadditional

configuration.❚❙❘

42 I production I braun-gillette

clarks I logistics I 43

❘❙❚ A new Clarks’ distribution center has

been built in Somerset, UK, because of

increased order and distribution volume.

Thebuildinghasgiganticdimensions:188

mlong,152mwide,itcoverstheareaof

six soccer fields, and rises up to 18.5m

high. Ithas enough room for theentire

population of south-west England! The

buildinghasthecapacitytostoreupto6

millionpairsofshoesandisdesignedfora

dailythroughputof200,000pairs.

Inordertorunsuchacentersuccess-

fullyyouneedastrongpartner,forwhich

Clarks turned to the logistics company,

Knapp,basedinGraz,Austria.Knapphas

The right fit for Clarks shoes.When Cyrus Clark established a small sheepskin shop in 1825, nobody could have imagined that this would be the foundation stone for one of the most successful companies in the United Kingdom. Today, Clarks produces 41 million pairs of shoes per year, has 13,000 employees, a turnover of 1.4 billion Euros and is one of the largest companies in this business sector.

more than50yearsofexperience in the fieldof logistics.The

know-how from more than 700 projects in different business

sectorsmakesKnapponeoftheleadingcompaniesintheglobal

market.Inadditiontoagreatdealofmechanicalautomationand

Electronics,thevisualizationisacorecomponentofeachsystem.

Forthis,Knappsuppliesitsi-Pointstorageinformationsoftware.

Knapp i-Pointdelivers a consistentuser interface for all tasks

inastoragefacility.Inadditiontothevisualizationofdataand

storagestatus,i-Pointalsodeliversmonitoring,controlfunctions

andtheabilitytoconfigurecomponentsinthewarehousethat

arelinkedtothesetasks.Thismeansthattheentirestoragefacil-

itycanbeoperatedandmonitoredfromonecentralstation.

informed by zenonKnapp’s i-Point storage information system is based on the

zenonHMI/SCADAsystem,fromtheSalzburgsoftwarecompa-

nyCOPA-DATA.Knapphadselectedzenonastheircontroland

visualisationsoftwareofchoiceasearlyas2001.

WhenplanningClarks’storagefacility,itwasclear,thatthe

i-Pointsystemwouldplayacentraland importantrole.Clarks

demandedcontrolcentersoftware,whichcouldbeusedasacen-

tralsolutionfortheentirefacility.Basedontheserequirements,

Knapp identified several elementsof core functionality,which

thei-Pointsystemmustdeliver:

Visualizationandstatusdisplayoftheentire

storagefacility

Integrationofallsystems,

Highavailabilityandreliability,

Highqualityvisualizationandfunctionalitytoensure

customersatisfaction.

Inaddition,inordertohaveaclearoverviewofafacilityofthis

size,theabilitytoutilisemultiplemonitorsisnecessary.Inthe

Clarks’application,thedecisionwasmadetouseaneightmoni-

torsysteminacentralcontrolroom.Fortunately,thiswaseasyto

deliverbecausemulti-monitoradministrationisabasicfunction

ofzenon.Atthesametime,theClientwantedittobepossibleto

accesstheprojectfromanyworkstationviatheirintranetorthe

internetandtodisplaythedataononesinglescreen.Todothis,

itwasnecessarytodevelopacompletelynewdisplayconceptfor

userguidance.Ontheonehand,eachfunctionshouldbeavail-

ableineachpicture;ontheotherhand,amenubarwithbuttons

needsalotofscreenspace.Afterfullconsideration,andwiththe

supportofCOPA-DATA,Knappfoundanelegantandstandard

solution.Atthetopleftofeachdisplayisasinglebuttonwhich

displaysadropdownmenudetailingall functions thatcanbe

executed.An entire floor of the Clarks storage facility can be

displayedoveralleightmonitorsatonce.

Thei-PointatClarks’isthecentralmonitoringstation,where

allinformationisgathered.Itisherethatproblemsintheware-

housearedetected,usuallybeforetheemployeesintheware-

housewouldnoticethem.i-Pointisnotonlyusedtomonitorthe

warehouse,butalsotomanageworkallocation.i-Pointdisplays

thestatusofallofthe600rampsofthesorter.Ifmanualinter-

ventionisneeded,warehouseworkerscanbeinstructedbyradio

fromthecontrolroom.

TheresultisasolutionwithwhichClarksiscompletelysatis-

fied:“Evenduringcommissioning,thei-Pointsystemhasbeen

animportanttool,”Dr.RupertTemel,Dipl. Ing.,HeadofQual-

ityManagementatKnapp.“TheKnapptechniciansworkingat

Clarkscouldcheckthestatusofthesystemwiththehelpofthe

i-Point system.Thiswasuseful at the startof theproject, for

example,defectiveandincorrectlyconnectedmotorswereeas-

ilyidentifiedandrepaired.Withthei-Pointsystemwesimply

printedoutthealarmlistandhandedittotheelectrician,who

could quickly fix the problem. For a facility of this size with

around1,000motors,thiswouldhavetakenconsiderablylonger

withoutthei-Pointsystem.Withthei-Pointsystemwehavein-

creasedtheefficiencyofthefacilityconsiderably.”

In a storage many different control levels and interfaces have to

be reconciled. One of the many reasons for deciding on zenon.

44 I logistics I clarks

easy to network, flexible, openDr. Temel continues: “The demands and functions of visuali-

zation in our industry sector can differ from one customer to

another.Even if thestorage facilitieshave thesamestructure,

eachcustomerhastheirownrequirements.Thisispartlydueto

thegreatvarietyofthetypesofproductsthatcouldbestored–

shoes,pharmaceuticalproducts,tobacco,CDs,etc;thesizeofthe

storagefacility;themachinesthatareused;andthecustomer’s

method of operation. In a warehouse, many different control

levels and interfaces have to be reconciled; these include ma-

chines, PLCs and warehouse management systems, etc... This

wasoneofthemanyreasons,whywedecidedinfavorofzenon.

zenonisanopensystemandoffersmorethan300differentcon-

nectorsordrivers,so itcanconnecttonearlyeverysystemas

standard.”StefanReuther,Ing.,ofCOPA-DATAagrees:“Avery

goodHMI/SCADAsystemshouldrunonanyhardwareandcom-

municatewithanysystem.Inthisway,youcanstayflexibleand

secureyourinvestments.Aboveall,youcanreactquickly.zenon

hasbeencreatedforexactlythispurpose.”

Thatmeanszenondelivers:

Anopensystemwhichempowersthecustomertodecide

whichhardwarehewantstoworkwith

morethan300differentdriverconnectorsoutofthebox–

sonolossoftimewhenconnectingtonewmachinesand

modules,

spontaneousdatatransfer–theloadofthecommunication

channelisconsiderablyreducedand,atthesametime,

transferstimedatestampingandthestatusvaluefromthe

PLC–soaccuratedatarecordingbecomespossible.

paralleloperation-diversehardwareenvironmentsare

partofeverydaylife;itisveryeasytoconnecttoseveral

PLCsofthesametypedirectlyandinparallel,becauseany

numberofdrivers–evenidenticaldrivers–canbeused

simultaneously.

ManydirectPLCconnections-therearedriverswhich

communicatewithawidevarietyofstandardinterfaces,

suchasOPC,SQL,DDE,SNMPorModbus.

standardization is a real benefitForDr.TemelatKnappthewayzenonallowsforthecreationof

standardprojectsisarealbonus.Hesays:“Animportantbenefit

isthestandardizationofthemodulesandtheautomatedcrea-

tionofprocesspictures.”Forprojectautomationpurposes,the

zenonEditorhasanextensiveVBAinterfacewhichallowsitto

elegantlysolverecurringtasks.Allprocesspictures, functions,

menuentries,alarmmessages,etc.canbecreatedautomatically.

TheVBA development environment integrated in zenon helps

whencreatingspecialscripts.Inadditiontothetimesavings,this

solutionhasanotherbigadvantage:completeaccuracy.Anerror

freescriptalwaysproduceserrorfreeresults.Thesescriptscan

thenbere-usedinanyprojectatanytime.Qualityincreasesand

thetimeandcostofdevelopmentdecreaseconsiderably.This,in

turn,increasescompetitiveadvantageandEndUserbenefits.❚❙❘

clarks I logistics I 45

46 I logistics I hörmann at modine

Streamlined, sequenced production without stock.

In its conveyor and storage system from Modine, Hörmann Logistik has imple-mented a production concept that gives customers the ability to manufacture their products in a streamlined, sequenced manner. This has enabled Modine to reduce its stock of finished goods considerably. zenon from COPA-DATA is re-sponsible for the visualisation and efficient operation of the conveyor processes.

❘❙❚ Modine’s innovationshave set stand-

ardsthroughouttheindustryforefficien-

cy,costeffectivenessandlongservicelife

inthefieldofheattransfer.Thecompany

hasbeen inexistence forover90years,

andhas registeredmore than2,000pat-

ents. It isnowinthebestpossibleposi-

tion for overcoming challenges now and

inthefutureintheareaofheattransfer.

Togetthesolutionstomarketreliablyand

quicklycallsforjust-in-timeandjust-in-

sequence production and logistics proc-

esses.Theinternallogisticsmustfunction

practically,reliablyandeconomically.

reliable supply of prod-ucts to the bmw groupModine Wackersdorf GmbH is an

assemblyplantoperatedbythecompany

that leads the way in the international

coolingandheatingsystemsmarket.Mo-

dineproducescoolingsystemsfortheau-

tomotiveindustry,mostofwhichareused

withintheBMWGroup.Modineproducts

arewellknownforreliability.Inorderto

keepupwiththeever-growingvolumeof

ordersandthehighdemandforproduct

diversity,thecompanygottogetherwith

HörmannLogistik to redesign the entire

productionandmaterialshandlingopera-

tions andbuild anewplant inwhich to

setuptheseoperations.Needlesstosay,

the aim was to satisfy the requirements

of their customers, and to supply them

with products just-in-time and just-in-

sequence. The aim was to ensure total

transparency in the production process

aswellas traceabilityofeach individual

product.Modine’saimistoachieveflex-

ibility despite fluctuations in capacity,

because100percentreliabilityinproduc-

tionanddeliverymustbeensuredatall

times.

maximum degree of automation and efficiencyThe plant in Wackersdorf is now struc-

tured and implemented using a sophis-

ticated intralogistics solution from Hör-

mann Logistik. HiLIS, the intralogistics

system from Hörmann, manages all the

storage and buffer areas, controls order

picking, and with its “Factory Control”

hörmann at modine I logistics I 47

module, takes control of the entire pro-

duction process. HiLIS thereby ensures

maximum transparency and plant avail-

ability in all functional areas. Using the

‘target goods out date’ and ‘sequence

chain’ parameters, the whole plant is

controlledinsuchawaythatallthecool-

ingsystemsareshippedjust-in-timeand

just-in-sequence.Theprogrammablelogic

controllers (PLCs) supply the informa-

tion for controlling the storage/retrieval

equipment and conveyor systems. The

HiLIS Warehouse Management System

moduleisresponsibleformanagingstor-

age, stocktaking and order handling.

Materials flow control coordinates and

optimises all the manual and automatic

storage, conveying and transportation

systems. The flow of goods can be ad-

justedandcustomisedineachfunctional

areaaccordingtotheoperationalrequire-

ments. An international transport order

can be broken down into partial orders

foreachspecificplant.zenonformsapart

ofthissolution.

intralogistics withzenonCOPA-DATA’s zenon software is respon-

sible for theplantvisualisationatMod-

ine,depicting all the functional areasof

the intralogistics plant in real time.The

ergonomic, graphic display in zenon as-

siststheuserwithsimpleworkingdialog

boxes.zenonissetupasamulti-station

system,andateachstationitprovidesa

comprehensiveoverviewoftheplantand

thestatesoccurringwithintheplant.The

softwaresuppliesallthedetaileddataat

each conveyor device (storage/retrieval

device, cross-carrier, suspended electric

train) and at each storage location, be

thatinagridsystem,palletconveyorsys-

tem, inworkpiececarriersorahigh-bay

warehouse. Altogether there are seven

operator stations (server, redundant

server,webserverprowithfivelicences).

Theoperatorsandmaintenanceengineers

can therefore, thanks to zenon, always

seeandunderstandwhich latticeboxor

palletcontainercontainswhichindividual

componentsforthecoolers,orwherethey

are located in the high-bay warehouse.

zenon also clearly displays the convey-

ing processes involved in moving cooler

componentstowheretheywillbefurther

processed.Fromthehigh-baywarehouse

thecoolercomponentsaremovedtothe

workers’ stations using suspended elec-

tricoverheadconveyorinorderthatthey

can be further processed on the work-

piececarriersandthenmovedonto the

inspectionstationsandqualityassurance.

Theinspectedcoolersthenpassintoase-

quencingbuffer,wheretheycanbemade

available in the order requested by the

car manufacturer.At all times, through-

outtheentirestorageandassemblyproc-

esses, the cooler data can be accessed.

13 programmable logic controllers (S7),

linkedtogetherviaTCP/IP,aredeployed.

Approx.22,000valuesarereadandproc-

essed in zenon. Transponders pass the

informationontothesuspendedelectric

trains,andbarcodesensurethatthedata

exchangedattheloadsuspensiondevices

iscorrect.

zenon ensures that monitoring is carried out comprehensivelyAt Modine, zenon also provides a com-

prehensive system monitoring module.

Users and Maintenance Engineers can

rapidly diagnose and rectify potential

systemfaultsbecausetheycanaccessall

the information directly. zenon flags up

anyerrorsthatarise,andrecordsthemin

acentralerror-loggingmodule.Thestatis-

ticsnotonlypermitdetailedfaultanaly-

sis,butalsoenabletrendstobeanalysed

in the long term. All these systems can

alsobemaintainedfromaremotelocation

viaaVPN(VirtualPrivateNetwork).Any

informationthatisgeneratedandrecord-

edinthecourseofthelogisticsprocesses

canalsobeexported if required.Thanks

totheflexibleinterfaces–inthisinstance

totheSAPsoftware–HiLIScanbelinked

up with existing ERP systems. Mobile

devices like PDAs and tablet PCs with

touchscreenscanalsoalwaysbereliably

connectedviathewirelessLAN.Aplant

operator or the maintenance engineer

will be provided with electric vehicles

withintegratedmobilecomputers.If,for

instance, fault messages occur, then the

relevant employee can respond quickly

anddirectly.Thankstozenon,faultscan

bedisplayeddirectlyonthemonitorand

rectifiedusingthetouchscreen.❚❙❘

48 I utility I converteam

Transporting heavy loads safely.Converteam, a specialist in traction technology, deploys COPA-DATA’s zenon software for visualization and control on large-scale cranes. Converteam’s most important reason for choosing zenon: the flexibility of the software makes it easy to adapt a suitable solu-tion for every traction technology project.

❘❙❚ Today, large-scale cranes are used in

ports, shipyards and industrial plants

worldwide. Customer demands on the

cranes are rising steadily: available re-

sources must be used more efficiently,

processes must be improved and accel-

erated. Karl-Heinz Schacht, responsible

for automation solutions at Converteam

GmbHinBerlin,explains,“Theoperators

ofindustrialplantsareincreasingtheirin-

vestmentsinmoderntractiontechnology

to establish a high level of performance

and, consequently, to reduce handling

times.”

Specialists in industry automation

can confirm this statement. For exam-

ple:acontainershipusedtostayinport

forseveraldays,buttoday, ittakesonly

a fewhours to turnaroundhundredsof

containers.Thistaskisexecutedbyhigh-

lyautomatedcargohandlingtechnology.

Many movements are now automated.

Thecraneoperatornolongerhastowor-

ryabout swinging loadsoraboutwhere

toplaceacontainer–sensortechnology

on the crane and computer-based logis-

tic systems allow him to concentrate on

“driving”andsupervising.

converteam I utility I 49

creating tailor-madetechnological solutions Converteam is represented in 25 loca-

tions in eight countries through which

it supports its worldwide customer base

to efficiency-boosting solutions. Besides

powerelectronicsforthedrives,theCom-

pany also delivers complete automation

solutionsandelectronicequipment.Con-

verteamcanalsohandletheprojectman-

agementandtheengineeringofcomplex

electronicsfordrivesystemsandautoma-

tionforitscustomers.Thecompanyhas

amodernmanufacturingplantwithpow-

erful production and system testing fa-

cilitiesatitsdisposal.ConverteamGmbH

employs about 800 people in Germany

and over 4,500 people worldwide.Their

totalvolumeofsalesreached876million

eurosin2007.

safe crane management The “Materials Handling” division of

Converteam GmbH delivers electronic

equipment for large-scale cranes. zenon

has been used by the division for the

visualization of control and drive tech-

nologyand theelectromechanicalequip-

mentof large-scalecranessincetheyear

2003.Beforethat,thecompanyhadused

an in-house solution, which was power-

fulbutdidnot satisfymodernhardware

andsoftwarerequirements.Italsotooka

greatengineeringeffort toadaptthis in-

housesolution,which iswhyKarl-Heinz

Schacht and his colleagues decided to

perform a market analysis and evaluate

availabletoolsforvisualizationandauto-

mation.Karl-HeinzSchachtexplains,“We

have used zenon successfully in several

partsofourcompany;forinstanceinmin-

ing.However,ourdepartmentdecidedto

makeanew,morecomprehensiveevalua-

tion,inordertotestwhetherzenonwould

satisfy important criteria like flexibility,

networkcapabilityandanopeninterface

architecture.Ourevaluationprovedzenon

did fulfill our requirements.”There were

several reasons forusingzenon.Because

COPA-DATA offers very flexible license

models, the customer is never “over-

licensed” and the solution always stays

attractiveinrelationtocosts.Inaddition,

the user training effort required is rea-

sonableandemployeesareabletoadapt

thevisualizationthemselvesafterashort

timeusingthesystem.Thissavestimeand

costs,becausethereisnoneedtoemploy

forspecialistdevelopers.

Anotheradvantageofusing zenon is

that the software runs on Windows CE.

Thismeansthatitcanalsobeusedonrug-

gedpanelsthatperforminadversecondi-

tions.Becausetheydon’tuseharddrives,

zenonpoweredHMI(human-machinein-

terfaces) can operate in difficult climatic

environments and can withstand other

influenceslikevibrations.

zenon – optimum operation and targeted monitoring Today,Converteamisusingzenonasanef-

fectivetoolforoperatingandmonitoring

large-scalecranes.Thesoftwaredisplays

current states, delivers statistics whilst

50 I utility I converteam

archivingallthenecessarydataandmakes

daily operation more secure, thanks to

its alarm functions. Several cranes are

integratedvertically in a central station.

Therefore,employeescanaccessthecur-

rentstatesofallcranesandthecommon

alarmlistfromacentralpoint.

Additionally,Converteamuseszenon’s

Industrial Maintenance Manager to plan

anddocumentmaintenance tasks. Both

Converteam (as the equipment supplier)

andConverteam’scustomers,theultimate

endusers,theoperatorsofthecranesand

industrial plants benefit in several ways

fromusingzenon.ForConverteam,zenon

supportstheconfigurationofequipment.

Startuptimesarereducedforseveralrea-

sons: adaptationsare simple toperform;

projects can be synchronized automati-

cally;andclientscanbelaunchedquickly

and safely. The user-friendly interface

of the zenon editor enables even non-

softwarespecialistslikestartuppersonnel

and technicians to work with the solu-

tionafteraveryshortperiodoftraining.

Thishas improvedtheacceptanceofthe

softwarewithinConverteamsignificantly.

The customers also value the numerous

advantages of the software.They profit

fromtheopennessofthesystemandcan

make small changes on their own. The

softwareisbasedonWindowsstandards

and enjoys a broad acceptance – which

protects the investment. Additionally,

the powerful information display in the

central station and the error detection

support increase the availability of the

cranes.Thestateandalarmdisplaysare

user friendly and easy to understand,

according tousers.Theopennessof the

systemisalsodemonstrated intheabil-

ity to interface with other information

systems and establish connections to

error analysis tools, electronic docu-

mentationsystemsoroverlying logistics

solutions.

zenon – proven, field-tested solutionszenonisusedinthecranesoftheworld’s

biggest manufacturer ZPMC and also

serves the cranes of Kocks Krane In-

ternational GmbH. Customers such as

HHLA CTT Hamburg, China State Ship-

building Corp. and Eurogate in Ham-

burgandBremerhavenbenefit fromthe

competenceofConverteamandthesoft-

warefromCOPA-DATA.

Eurogate isacontainer-terminaland

logisticsgroupwhichoperatesseatermi-

nalsontheNorthSea,intheMediterrane-

anandontheAtlantic,withconnections

to Eastern Europe.With nine terminals,

andthehandlingof12.1millionTwenty-

foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in 2005,

Eurogate is the Number One in Europe.

Converteamsuccessfullyinstalledcranes

foradivisionofthistransportandlogis-

ticsinfrastructure.Thisincluded13con-

tainercranesinHamburgand5container

cranes in Bremerhaven, each of which

havealreadybeen-orareintheprocess

ofbeingequippedwithzenon for crane

management.

Karl-Heinz Schacht is pleased with

this success: “Eurogate is one of the

many satisfied customers who profit

fromourhighqualityprojectstandards.

COPA-DATAassistsusasanexperienced

automationspecialistandasacompetent

and reliable software provider. zenon

meets our requirements and enables us

toimplementcustomerprojectsinafast

andcompetentway.”❚❙❘

cawleys I utility I 51

❘❙❚ Thecompanyhasjustacceptedanewsortingfacilitydesigned

andinstalledbyOKLMRecyclingTechnology,withDBControls

ofDoncasterbeingsubcontractedforautomation,motorcontrol

andSCADA–forwhichtheyusedCOPA-DATA’szenon.

Cawleysofferaprofessionalandexpertserviceforwasteman-

agement and recycling requirements. The company has been

dedicated to recycling anddivertingwaste away from landfill

sincethe1970’swhenitsfirstWasteReclamationFactorywas

constructed inLuton. Since then the sitehasbeendeveloped

and now houses a 40,000 sq ft Materials Recycling Facility

whichenablesthemtoreclaimandrecycleasmuchmaterialas

possible.

SCADA waste management and recycling.Cawleys in Luton, United Kingdom, is a leading waste recycling company. Cawleys’ business is to collect commercial waste and sort it to high grade material for recy-cling. The recycled material income offsets the cost of the landfill which is required for the small amount that is left over after sorting.

ThenewOKLMreclamationfacilitytakesmaterialdeliveredin

skipsthroughaprocessofautomaticandmanualseparationto

sort out the main recovered recycling material types of Card,

Polythene, Paper, Film, Plastic, Metal, Timber and Hardcore.

The plant has many conveyors that transport the waste from

stagetostage–ateachstepvaluablerecyclablematerialisre-

moveduntilthefinalstagehasresidualmaterialthatcanonly

gotolandfill.

Theseparationusesvarioustechnologies,suchasinfra-red,

magnetic,andsortingbyblowersinalargerotatingdrum.Sort-

ingoperationsareundertakenintwoshifts.Theplanthastorun

atalltimes,withcarebeingtakenofsafeworkingforoperators

52 I utility I cawleys

andalsotoprotectthemachinery.Thissecondaspectisofsig-

nificanceastheinverter-drivenmotorshavetobeabletocope

withawiderangeofloadsasdifferentmaterialismovedbythe

conveyors.Theyhavesufficientpowertodomuchdamageto

theplantifleftunsupervised,especiallywhenanabnormalitem

findsitswayontotheconveyorsystem,orbuildupofmaterial

causesablockage.

supervising operationsThewholemotorised conveyor system ispoweredbya latest-

generationMCC(MotorControlCentre)–designedanddevel-

opedbyDBControls.Theplantcontrolroomisfittedwiththe

zenon SCADA system that communicates with various points

withintheMCCandalsoacrosstheplant.Theprimaryfunction

oftheSCADAistoprovidesafeandreliableplantoperation.

AswithmanySCADAsystemscolourisusedtodrawtheatten-

tionoftheoperatortoanyproblems,andalsotoprovideanin-

dicationofhowlongaproblemhasoccurred.Anexampleofthis

ismonitoringoftheloadofeachdrive;wherethisismeasured

asbeingabove80%forseveralminutesthecolourofthatarea

changestoredandtheoperatorhastotakeaction.Experience

and common sense shows that such a load condition is likely

tobeajammedorpartiallyjammedconveyor,probablycaused

by an abnormal item on the conveyor or a build up of waste

material. To quickly check the source of the problem CCTV

cameras are installed inmany locations around theplant.The

displaysofmaterialinputanddispatchareshownondedicated

CCTVmonitorsinthecontrolroom.TheinternalCCTVcameras

thatmonitortheplantarecalledupasandwhenneededbythe

operatorusing theSCADAdisplay–avideowindowopens in

theSCADAscreenandahigh resolution colourdisplayallows

theoperatortoquicklyseetheproblemandthencallamobile

operatorovervoiceR/T,tocleartheproblem–keepingtheplant

runningandprotectingplantmachinery.

Inasimilarwayallkeycomponentsintheplantareconstant-

lymonitoredandkept running.Situations thatdonot require

immediateattentionarenotifiedbyacolourchangetoorange–

drawingtheoperator’sattentiontothatpartoftheplant.When

thescreenshowsallgreen,thenalliswell!Allalarmsarestored

inanalarmlistwithinzenoninchronologicalorder.

TheMCChashightechnologyinverterdrivesthatallowthe

conveyorstorunatthecorrectspeedeventhoughtheloading

maybecontinuouslychanging.Althoughthedriveparameters

weresetatcommissioningthesecanbedisplayedandchanged

directly in a zenon SCADA pop-up window – the window re-

semblingthe“hard”interfaceoftheinverter itself.Thisavoids

time-consumingtripstotheplantfloorwheretheMCCisposi-

tioned–theeaseofusealsoencouragesthesupervisortotune

theplanttoanewstateshouldtherebeasignificantchangein

thematerialbeinghandled.Inasimilarwaythestatusofallof

themaindeviceswithintheMCCcanbedisplayedonthecentral

SCADAscreen.

scada – mcc – cctv integrationSystemIntegrationwasundertakenbyDBControlsLtdonbe-

halfofOKLM,themaincontractor.ThezenonSCADAcommu-

nicateswithaSchneiderElectricM340controllerthatisatthe

heartofaPrismaPlusMCC(MotorControlCentre),usingthe

standardzenondriver;theprotocolbeingModbusTCP/IP.The

deviceswithin theMCCeachhaveanactivewebpagethat is

accessedthroughzenontoopenupwindowsontheSCADAdis-

playthatshowdeviceparametersandstatus–usingastandard

zenonHTMLpicture.

Thefacilityrequiresvisualcheckingwhenanalarmisraised,

this is provided by CCTV that is directly interfaced to zenon

andappearsasfullcolourvideousingthezenonvideopicture

template–allowingveryfastvisualdiagnosisofanabnormal

situation.DBControlstechnicaldirector,GrahamAllmendinger,

said,“Wefullyutilisedthecomplexobjectsandobjectsstruc-

ture within zenon, this allowed us to develop and test each

majorcontrolelementandthenre-deployinstancesofthemas

manytimesaswasrequiredintheproject.Thishassignificantly

assistedustoproduceaclosetoperfectsolutionpriortoinstalla-

tionandcommissioning.Thesystemisfullyaccessibleremotely

atDBControl’sengineeringoffice;thishasalsoeasedthetuning

andresolutionofresidualteethingproblems.”

ThesystemrunningatCawleysisafulldevelopmentsystem

aszenon’svaluemakesthisanattractiveandaffordablepropo-

sitionforongoingdevelopmentsastheserequirementsappear.

in operationAndrewPegg,CawleysRecyclingManager,“thesystem[zenon

SCADA]allowsustostayinfullcontrolofourrecycling–we

couldnotruntheplantwithoutit”.

The system was commissioned on time and the first few

months have shown reliable operation. User feedback is now

being gathered to allow the specification of enhancements to

theoriginalsystembasedonexperience.Onesuchadditionwill

beanaudiblewarningofplantstatuschangesfromtheSCADA

inthecontrolroom.

Wastemanagementandrecyclingisanimportantpartofmod-

ernlife.Theautomationofsuchrecyclingplantshastobecost

effectivesothatrecyclingcanbeefficientbusinesses.DBCon-

trolsuseofzenonassistedinthisobjectiveandhasresultedina

fullyworkingsystemthatwasproducingfromtheoutset.❚❙❘

cawleys I utility I 53

54 I automotive I bmw dingolfing

❘❙❚ During recent years the automotive

industry has been transformed, and the

final assembly phase has changed even

morethanothers:thenumberofdifferent

vehiclemodelshasincreased,andavehi-

clemustbedeliveredtothecustomeras

soonaspossibleaftertheorderisplaced.

This is made possible by ensuring that

productionpersonnelarehighlyqualified

and thatproductionplants are regularly

modernisedorreplaced. Intheassembly

sectionatBMW’sDingolfingplant - the

Group’slargestproductionfacilitywhichproducesaround1,200

vehicleseveryday-severalthousandcomponentsareassem-

bledtocreateafinishedvehicle.zenonalsoformspartofthe

assembly facilities. This software is used for automation and

visualisationofaconveyorsystemintheassemblyplant.Thisis

aflexiblestorageandconveyorsystemcomprisingelectricvehi-

cles,suspendedelectrictrainsandlifts.Afterpainting,thedoors

areremovedfrombodyshells,andarethentakeninliftstothe

storagelevel;thedoorsfordifferentvehicletypesareallstored

together.These electric vehicles then transport the doors for

furtherprocessing,initiallytotheflexiblestoreandthen,when

requested,ontothedoorfittingstation.Oncethebodyshells

zenon – Greater flexibility in production.

The flexible storage and conveyor system in BMW‘s Dingolfing plant picks up all the doors from the assembly line and reunites them with the bodies at the right moment. This storage system, whose display requirements are handled by zenon, boasts a minimal space requirement whilst at the same time offering excellent flexibility.

bmw dingolfing I automotive I 55

havebeencompleted,thedoorsarebroughtbacktothemfor

finalassembly.Thepurposeofremovingandrefittingthedoors

inthiswayisthatitiseasierandmoreconvenientforworkers

tocarryoutthenecessaryfittingoperationsonthedoors.The

bodyshellsalsotakelongertoassemblethanthedoorsdo,and

sothelatterneedtobeputintotemporarystorageinthebest

space-savingwaypossible.Thenewstorageandconveyorsolu-

tion was developed in such a way that it takes up very little

shopfloorspace.Atthesametime,theoverviewisensured:all

doorsarelabelled(model,chassisnumber,doorposition,etc.),

allload-carryingmediaareprovidedwithRFIDtags,andthere-

forethelocationofanyparticulardoorisknownatalltimes.At

various points in the plant are located distributed read/write

stations that control and monitor the suspension gear routes

thatcanbeuniquelyidentifiedateachpoint.Userscanreadout

thedata,butalsochangeandupdateitifnecessary.Tomakethe

doorsavailableattherighttimeandintherightplacepresentsa

particularlylargelogisticalchallenge;thisisanextremelycom-

plextaskforthecontrolsystemtoachieve.

conveyor system professionals optimise the plant’s internal logisticsThecompanyStaudingerGmbHsuppliesthesoftwareandthe

entirecontrolsystemforthedoorconveyorsystem.Staudinger

hasdevelopedasuitablecustomsolutionforoperationandvis-

ualisationbasedonCOPA-DATA’szenon.Thissoftwaredepicts

the entire system. This company, which is based in Loiching

(near Dingolfing) was founded as long ago as 1950, and now

specialisesinthreefields:controlsystems,plantandmechanical

engineering,andsimulationmodelling.Staudingerhasaround

150 employees, and produces solutions for challenging open-

and closed-loop control tasks in all types of automation sys-

tems.ThiswasthefirsttimethatStaudingerhadworkedonsuch

alargeproductwithzenonfromCOPA-DATA.Anotherpartner

intheprojectwasthecompanyRofaRosenheimerFörderanla-

genGmbH,whichspecialisesinautomatedconveyorsystemsfor

materialflowandmanufacturing.

complex control processes implemented with clarityTheobjectiveforthedoorconveyorprojectatBMW’sDingolf-

ingplantwastoimplementandvisuallyrepresentthecomplex

controlprocessesnecessitatedbythestoragesystemsoclearly

thattheplantmanagerormaintenanceengineercanalwaysre-

tainanoverviewandcanseeimmediatelythelocationsofvehi-

clebodiesanddoors.Theflexiblestorageandconveyorsystem

hasafullgraphicaldisplay.Thesystemdisplaysshowtheopera-

torallthestrandsofconveyingandstorage.Eachboxinastor-

agestrandrepresentsonedoororasetoftwoorfourdoors.The

colourprovidesinformationaboutthevehicletype,andthesta-

tusofthedoor’smanufacture(unfinisheddoor,fullyassembled

door,emptyvehicle).Inorderforthedoorstobefitted,arobot

transfersthemtothesuspendedelectricoverheadconveyorsys-

temforpre-assembly.Thisprocess,too,isvisualisedwithzenon.

Once the doors have been completed on the production lines

theyaremovedbacktostoragetoawaitthebodies.Asequence

listismaintainedtokeeptrackofwhencarsarereadytohave

56 I automotive I bmw dingolfing

theirdoorsfitted.Light-greyboxesinthevisualisationareunoc-

cupiedspacesinthestorageandconveyorsystem.Beforedoors

passintothelines,acheckiscarriedoutautomaticallytodeter-

minewhetheralineofdoorsofthesametypealreadyexists.If

itdoes,thenthedoorwillbestoredthereinorderthatseparate

lines are created for each model.There is likewise a colour to

indicatewhendoorsarere-fittedinthevehicle–likedoorre-

moval,thisisaprocessthatisperformedmanually.Whendoors

areremovedfromthestorageandconveyorsystem,theempty

hangersreturntothedoorremovalstation–thiscompletesthe

cycle,andtheprocessstartsfromthebeginningagain.

Thezenonoverviewdisplayenablesoperatorsandmainte-

nanceengineersaliketozoominonanydetailoftheplantwhilst

at thesame timekeeping theentireplanton thescreen. “The

overviewdisplay is formeoneof zenon’sbest functions as it

hugely increases user-friendliness and enables the plant man-

agertoworkefficientlyandretainanoverviewhowevercom-

plextheplant”,saysMarkusMärz,acontrolsoftwaredesignerat

StaudingerGmbHwhoisresponsibleforvisualisationsystems.

networking, consistency and inheritanceThebasicideabehindnetworkedvisualisationisthatoperators

canperformallthenecessaryoperationsatanytimeandfrom

anyposition:definingparameters, switchingunitsonand re-

trievingalarmsandtrenddata.zenon’sconsistency,incombina-

tionwithitsuniquenetworktechnology,opensupallkindsof

optionsforintegratingandoptimisingproductionandinforma-

tionflows.Staudingertookadvantageofthisconsistencyearlier

whenconfiguringthevisualisationsystem:Thesystemplanners

have integrated the standard project specified by BMW and

usedonlyasmallpartofit(faultreportingsystem)thattheyre-

allyneeded.Thecostistherebygreatlyreduced,andefficiency

increased. Object-oriented parameter definition makes system

configurationverysimple:assoonasanobjecthasbeendefined

centrally, it is available for use throughout the system. And

wheneveranyitemismodified,it ishandedondownquickly,

securelyandaccuratelywithoutanyfurtherinput.

all eventualities calculated inThe zenon application also enables data sets to be modified,

movedordeleted,anditallowsthedatasystemtobeaccessed

directly should the need arise.With the help of the relevant

operationthecontrollercannowdeterminewhichsubsequent

processesarenecessary.Thisentirecomplex,yetflexiblestor-

age system is extremely user-friendly. This demonstrates the

high level of automationandefficiency that ismadepossible

by this software”, explains Markus März from Staudinger.To

implementtheirsolutionMarkusMärzandhiscolleagueshad

tocalculateinallthepossibleeventualitiesinordertorepresent

thenecessaryprocessesandotherresultingprocessesintheso-

lution: if,for instance,adoorhasbeenincludedinthewrong

conveyorlineduetoadefectinthesoftmaterial,thenthismust

be corrected immediately. The visualisation includes a waste-

paperbasketthattheusercanusetothrowawayanyrecordsthat

arenotneeded.Usingdrag-and-droptechniques,theresponsi-

blepersoncanthenmovethedoordatatothecorrectposition

inthesystem.MarkusMärzfromStaudingerGmbHcontinues:

“Thisentireprojectisvisualisedusingzenon.Withallitstechni-

callyrefinedhardwareandsoftwaresolutionsitisatrulystate-

of-the-artautomationsystemwhichnotonlyworksextremely

reliably,butisalsounparalleledintermsofflexibility.❚❙❘

audi györ I automotive I 57

Engine conveyor systems are optimized with zenon.

For Audi Hungary based in Györ, COPA-DATA’s integrated software solution zenon, offered additional potential for optimizing its Engine conveyor systems: now zenon’s smooth flow of information enables more efficient operations.

❘❙❚ The Audi brand stands for progres-

sive design, serious environmental pro-

tection and trend-setting technology, in

short: “Innovation through technology”.

The HungarianAudi plant in Györ, with

morethan500employees,ispartofthis

successstory.Foundedin1993,theHun-

garian plant manufactures up to 6,500

enginesaday,startingwithfour,sixand

eightcylinders;all thewaytotencylin-

dersandspecialcustommadeengines.All

inall,AudiGyormanufactures1.9million

engines every year for use throughout

the entire corporation including Audi,

Volkswagen,SeatandSkoda.Thissuccess

is made possible through sophisticated

productionandplanttechnology.

efficient information flow enables smooth transportationInordertoensurethecontinuedsuccess

storyattheAudi’sGyorplant,theengine

conveyor systems were earmarked for

further expansion. The plant manage-

mentdecidedtoextendandoptimizethe

facilitybyaddingstorageandautomatic

sortingmechanisms.Thefinishedengines

are transferred to the conveyor systems

atdispatchstationson transportpallets.

Audi wanted to improve this process so

thatimportantadditionaldatalikepallet

number,enginenumber,enginetype,re-

ceptionstation,dispatchstationandoth-

erparameters couldbe submitted to the

control system. Deploying COPA-DATA’s

zenonsoftwareenabledthemtodothis.

The engines that have been dispatched

fromdifferent locations in theplant are

first buffered and sent to a pre-storage

location where a rough sorting by en-

gine type and reception station is done.

From the pre-storage, the engines are

transferred to a circulating store where

themainsortingwithABCanalysistakes

place. From here, the engines are for-

warded to the appropriate main storage

location.The Gyor facility currently has

two main storage locations and two re-

ception stations. Because the reception

station is already defined when the en-

ginesaredispatched,thedeliverytothe

receptionstationorthemainstoragelo-

cationhappenssafelyandeasily.

In the reception station the engines

arepulledoutofthemainstoragelocation

58 I automotive I audi györ

in blocks and then prepared for further

transport. Additionally, the conveyor

systemhasareceptionstationbeforethe

mainstoragelocations.Thiswayengines

can,ondemand,bepulledoutofthecir-

culatingconveyerandsentdirectlytothe

desireddispatchlocationthroughahigh-

way.Thishappens,forexample,withcus-

tommadeengines.

audi has the perfect solution: zenonForanautomatedfacilityofAudiGyor’s

size, it is important to apply a control

software solution that allows status and

operatinginformationtobevisualizedin

acentrallocation.Thevisualizationsoft-

warezenonhasbeensuccessfullyputto

use at Audi to help deliver the current

improvement projects.The project man-

agers had already decided to use COPA-

DATA’szenonsoftwareforthevisualiza-

tion of the SKID facilities in Ingolstadt,

Germany,asJohannMayr,memberofthe

AudiIngolstadt´splanninggroupinelec-

trical engineering explains: “We found

a specialist for IndustrialAutomation in

COPA-DATA.Theirprofessionalism, from

theplanningphaseallthewaytoimple-

mentation, has convinced us that with

COPA-DATA we are relying on the right

partner.Theperformanceofthesoftware

confirms this again and again in each

project.Together, we managed to create

an innovative and safe engine conveyor

system.”

There are a number of critical require-

mentsthesoftwaresolutionhadtomeet:

Runtimeredundancyhadtobe

guaranteed

Guaranteedsystemstability

Extensivealarmmanagementwith

apropriatealarmstatistics

Acleardepictionoftheproject

structure

Extensiveandflexibleuser

administration

Itwasalsoimportanttohavea

universalsolution,fromthesingle

work-stationthroughtotheIntranet.

BecausetheplantinGyör,Hungary,isan

internationalAudilocation,thelanguage

switch between German and Hungarian

hadtobeguaranteedaswell.Thezenon

softwarebyCOPA-DATAmetallofthese

requirements: “The flexibility of zenon

allowsus tomeetour requirements ina

quick and uncomplicated manner”, adds

JohannMayr.

everything at one glance – from any-where in the facilityThe individual components of the solu-

tionweredeployedatnumerouslocations

across the plant. The visualization has

a Runtime server and a Standby server,

whicharelocatedindifferentareasofthe

plant for fire protection. The additional

web server enables the depiction of the

visualizationon the Intranet.Twosingle

workstationdisplayshavebeensetupon

theplantfloorintheenginehandlingand

maintenance offices.The receiving loca-

tions have a total of eight zenon Client

displaysattheirdisposal.

“Eachemployeetodayhasaccesstoall

relevantinformation,inafastandreliable

way,which iscritical inamanufacturing

facilityforcompetitivenessandsuccess.”

says Zoltan Ponty, Head of engine han-

dlingatAudiGyör.

eliminating sources of error and optimizing operationsInorder toavoidsourcesoferror in the

futureandtomaketheconveyorsystems

even more efficient, alarms have to be

analyzed regularly and systematically.

Ifanerrorhasoccurred,analarm is im-

mediately forwarded to maintenance by

MessageControlviaSMSande-mail.This

helpstokeepthereactiontimeasshortas

possible. zenon’s Industrial Performance

Analyzer allows for a statistical analysis

of errors. This tool displays frequently

occurringerrorsinatransparentmanner

audi györ I automotive I 59

and detects weak points in the facility.

Additionally, the sophisticated monitor

administrationhelpstomaketheMainte-

nanceteam’sworkaloteasier:theprocess

picturesaresplitbetweentwomonitors.

Thisway,theusercanhaveanoverview

picture displayed on one monitor and a

detailedpictureontheothermonitor.

increased transpar-ency allows for faster decision-makingThevisualizationoftheplantencompass-

estheelementsfordisplayandinput,as

wellastablulardisplaysoftheoccupancy

ofindividualtransportchannelsandstor-

agelocations.TogetherwithCOPA-DATA,

theprojectteamatAudiGyorgenerated

several status pictures that depicted the

currentconditionoftheindividualtrans-

portchannelsthroughtheuseofsymbolic

elements.Oneoftheconditionsdepicted

wasthedirectiontheconveyerwasmov-

ing. Additionally, the project-team cre-

ated pictures that allow the setting and

visualizationofparameters for the facil-

ity,suchasmodesofoperationorstorage

properties.

Inordertogeneratethesetables,Audi

GyörusestheIEC61131-3programming

system, straton. straton is able to take

overthecomplexcalculationsandregula-

tionsforprocesscontrolandautomation

fromthezenonSoftware.Thisembedded

controlsystem,orsoft-PLC,isfullyinte-

gratedwithzenoninordertomakeengi-

neeringaseasyaspossible.Thevariable

has tobe createdonceonly and is then

availableinbothsystems.

The occupancy of the conveyor sys-

temsatAudiHungaryisdisplayedinthe

control application by individual FIFO-

components. These data components

include thepalletnumbers that are cur-

rentlyontheconveyor.Asit’snotenough

tojustdisplaythepalletnumbers,straton

ensures that each pallet number is as-

signed the respective pallet parameters

such as engine number, type, reception

station,dispatchstation,etc.

Upto40parametersperdispatchedpallet

canberetrieved.stratongeneratesoutput

strings that show the engineson a con-

veyerwithalltheadditionalinformation

inindividualpictures,eitheringroupsor

sorted.

direct and quick pay-back thanks to zenonForAudiGyorthevisualizationoftheen-

tireengineconveyorsystemcreatesmore

transparency than ever. Each engine’s

pathcanbefollowedovertheindividual

conveyorsthroughtothestorage

locationthroughthesortingfacilityallthe

way to the receiving location.This path

can be corrected and redirected on de-

mand.Thisenablesconstantcheckingand

optimization of the sorting mechanisms.

From the display terminals, the workers

in the reception station can see exactly

whichengineswillbe receivednextand

can make preparations for their receipt.

The detailed alarm administration en-

suresmoresecurityandshorterreaction

times in the case of a breakdown. High

reliabilityisguaranteedbytheredundant

configurationofthesystem.

Thankstothevisualizationofthefa-

cility,AudiGyor todayhasa clearover-

view of the status and features of the

engines,aswellasallrequiredactualand

targetvalues.Theprojectmanagers

JohannMayrandZoltanPontyhaveal-

ready experienced the benefits: “zenon

enables us to use our engine conveyor

systems inaneconomicalway.Thisyear

wehavebenefitedfromincreasedtrans-

parency and optimized operations.With

thedeploymentofzenonwewereableto

respondtothegrowingrequirementson

us anda constantneed to increase effi-

ciency.“❚❙❘

60 I automotive I volkswagen emden

❘❙❚ TheVolkswagenplantinEmdenhasadailycapacityof1,200

vehicles,andhasproducedmorethan9.5millionvehiclessince

theplantwasopenedin1964.ThePassatLimousinehasbeen

builtinEmdensince1977,andthePassatVariantisonlybuilt

here.TheEmdensitehasbeentheleadingplantintheworldfor

thissuccessfulmodel.

Condition monitoring with zenon – all the key figures at the press of a button.

A streamlined production system is based on all the relevant key figures for production and performance always being available, and on production being standardised to the greatest possible extent. At Volkswagen in Emden, zenon is responsible for transpar-ency in assembly, increased productivity and greater plant availability. Thanks to the zenon-based assembly information system, the maintenance engineers benefit from instant access to all production-related information and key figures.

zenon sets new standardsSeveral generations of Passats have been manufactured here.

Halfwaythrough2003the12millionthPassat,andinSeptem-

ber2004the13millionthPassatfromanyVolkswagenplantwas

produced.ThesixthgenerationofPassatVariantwaslaunched

inAugust2005.InNovember2007VolkswageninEmdenpro-

duced its15millionthPassatworldwide.2008wasthe launch

yearforthenewmodel,PassatCC,thatisproducedexclusively

volkswagen emden I automotive I 61

in Emden. The launch of a new model is usually also the

eventthattriggers investment innewmachinesandsoftware.

VolkswageninEmdentooktheproductionofthenewseriesof

Passatmodelsasatriggerformodernisingtheassemblyplant

andstandardisingthebasesoftwareaswellastheoverlaidvisu-

alisationsoftware.Here,thezenonsoftwarefromCOPA-DATA,

whichisusedforthecentralplantmonitoringsystem,hasbeen

settingnewstandardsinproduction.

consistency in the vw passat assembly processIntheassemblyprocessatVolkswagen’sEmdenplantzenonis

nowresponsible fora totalof fourassembly shopsaswell as

for communication with high level and low level systems, for

the entire flow of information in the assembly plant and for

preparing all the data for use in a high-performance, effec-

tive information system.Therewasnoother system thatwas

capableofsatisfyingtherequirementsofVolkswagen’sproject

managers.Animportantevaluationcriterionforzenonwasits

useofdifferentcontrollersanditsextensiveintegrationability.

“Becauseoftheincreasedvolumeofdatainmodernplantswe

werenotabletocapturedatafromallsectionsoftheplantand

tovisualiseitall.Thesystemswereoverloadedandgrewcon-

siderablyslower.Anewsolutionwasrequired”,explainsMario

Ewen,projectleaderatVolkswageninEmden.Inthiscasemore

than120controllersareinvolved–differentmodelsfromdif-

ferentmanufacturers.zenonvisualisesandoverseestheentire

production flow using more than 50,000 variables, which are

transferred tozenon.Theentireassemblyprocess isnowvis-

ualisedwith172displays.Another incentive fordevelopinga

newapplicationwas thefact that thepreviousoperatingsys-

tem,WindowsNT,wastobediscontinued.What’smore,oneof

the toolsusedwasno longer supportedby themanufacturer.

“Overall,theapplicationsfromourpreviousproviderswereno

longeruptothejobwiththemodern,upgradedstructure.We

comparedanumberofsystems,takingintoaccountourrequire-

ments,andreachedtheconclusionthatzenonmetallthecrite-

riaonourlist.Wearenowusingaconsistent,standardsolution

fortheentireassemblyprocess”,explainsGeorg-JoachimLoger,

maintenanceengineeratVolkswagen’sEmdenplant.Thisproject

wasimplementedbyprocessmanagementstaffandproduction

facilities management staff working with staff from COPA-

DATA. Volkswagen was especially happy with the efficient

directapproachandthereadinessoftheCOPA-DATAteamtotry

togiveuseverythingwewantedaswellastoincorporatechang-

esastheypresentedthemselvesinthecourseoftheproject.

distributed, secure and functionalzenonfeaturesallthemoderntechnologythatacarmanufac-

turercouldpossiblyaskfor.TheVolkswagensoftwareisconfig-

uredasaclient/serversystemwithredundancy,andistherefore

fail-safe.TheinternalnetworkatVolkswagennowincorporates

eightzenonclients.Aswellastheredundantserverpair,there

isalsoadatabaseandawebserver.TheCOPA-DATAwebserver

serves100webclientssimultaneously.Thevariousprocessdis-

playsarebroughtupaccordingtothespecifictaskorfunctional

62 I automotive I volkswagen emden

area.Forstoringandarchivingdata,themanagersatVWdecid-

edona(Microsoft)SQL-Server.Thedatabase isautomatically

populatedfromthezenon-SQL-Serverconnector,whichalsoen-

suresthatthedataisreadbackautomatically.Alsoincludedis

apowerfulusermanagementmodulefordefiningaccessrights

totheprojectandsystem.Theusermanagementmoduleisused

tospecifywhichusersarepermittedtoviewormodifywhich

functions–suchastheshiftschedules.

well-thought-out project structureThe umbrella project, which integrates all the systems in the

four assembly shops, includes the system overview displays,

theindustrialperformanceanalysis,theproductionandfacility

manager(fortheshiftmodels),thehigher-levelalarmmanage-

ment, thechronologicalevents list,countersandplantdown-

time,plustheinitialprojectforthewebclient.Theindividual

sub-projectsincludethesystemdisplayswithdetailedinforma-

tion,thedriverlinksandcontrolvariables,alarmzonesandthe

plant’sshiftreference.

zenon – successes become measurableOne of the important goals for the new overall system at

Volkswagenwastogainclearandtotalcontrolovertheassem-

blyprocesses,bothformanagementandforthoseworking in

theassemblyshop.Oneofzenon’sexceptionalstrengthsis its

abilitytomanipulatelargevolumesofdataandtodisplaythem

inausefulformattomanagersorthoseworking intheplant.

Volkswagen’smaininterestforitsEmdenplantlayinpresenting

thekeyfiguresfortheproductionprocessandoutputintheform

ofgraphsandtables.Thecarmanufacturercannowusethese

keyfigurestoseehowcost-effectivelytheassemblyshopisop-

erating.Inotherwords,resultsbecomemeasurable.Thekeyfig-

uresmight,forinstance,includetargetandactualvaluesforthe

overalllifeofaproductionline,possibledifferences,thecycle

times,thesettingupofeventsintheplantandtheircauses,and

thenumberoffinishedcars.MarioEwenexplains:“Monitoring

thekeyfiguresensuresthattheassemblyprocessisrunningas

efficientlyaspossible,andatfullcapacity.Thissystemprovides

uswithanoverviewofalltheimportantinformation,allowing

ustocarryoutdetailedanalysesandreactquicklytoeventsas

necessary.”Volkswagencouldalsouse thisdata todetectany

delays in the course of the assembly process and the causes,

allowing an appropriate response. The integrated soft PLC,

straton,whichcomplieswiththeIECstandards,isusedtocalcu-

latethebuffer,unit,andoutputcounters.Toensurethatallthe

keyfiguresreflecttheassemblyprocessesexactly,Volkswagen

uses an additional zenon module.The production and facility

scheduler(PFS)controls thechronologicalsequenceofopera-

tionsinEmden:atthisplantanumberofworkinghoursmodels

(shiftsystem,lengthsofbreaks,etc.)areused.Theshifthours

enteredfromthePFScanbeclassified,groupedandevaluated.

Theyarealsofedintotheperformancecalculations.“Whenall

thefiguresarecombined,theytellthestoryofhowmanycars

weareactuallyproducing.Theopportunitiesforevaluatingand

monitoringour assembly processes are more detailed and so-

phisticatedthaneverbefore”,observesMarioEwen.

all the key figures, clearly presented and ready for useVWmanagerscanviewall thekeyassemblyfigures ineither

volkswagen emden I automotive I 63

tableorgraphform.Individualuserscanchoosehowtheywant

theinformationtobepresented.Theycanalsoselectfrommany

timescales,anddifferentperiodsoftimecanbecomparedwith

one another. In this way,Volkswagen workers have access to

extensiveandat thesametimehighlycondensed information

thatisavailableatthepressofabuttonintheformoflistsand

analyses.

Thereportgeneratorshowsthearchiveentriesintableform,

andoutputsthereportsinHTMLformat-likewiseeitherasa

graph or a table.The ExtendedTrend module is provided for

preparingdataingraphform.Atruntimeuserscanarrangefor

various graphs to be displayed, and even for more than one

graphtobecompared.Thisensuresthatalltherelevantopera-

torscanviewanduseanalyses,reportsandgraphs.“Thecentral

plantmonitoringapplicationisatoolforimprovingavailability”,

explainsMarioEwen.

total controlThehigher-levelvisualisationisnowalsousedasacentralpoint

for all events in the plant and system messages.Volkswagen

usedtooperatetwosystemsforthispurpose,butthesehave

nowbeenreplacedbyasinglestandardsystem.“Aswellasthe

systemandplantmonitoringwealsowanteddetailedanalyses

–ontheonehandtoensuremaximumavailabilityandonthe

otherhandtoexploitanypotentialforoptimisation”,explains

Mario Ewen ofVolkswagen.All the operators now know in-

stantlywhattheyshoulddoiftheyreceiveasystemmessage,

andcanrespondstraightaway.

Around5,500operatingmessagesandsystemmessagesper

dayareproducedbytheassemblylinesinShops1(engineand

gearbox),2(mainassembly,driveassembly,disks,cockpit,etc.)

7(headlamps,batteries,seats,wheels,doors,etc.)and16(ini-

tialassemblyfollowingpaint).Allthe informationisonhand

toenablestatisticalevaluationandanalysiswiththeindustrial

performanceanalyser.This informationcanalsobeviewedin

the form of bar charts or pie charts. Filtering options enable

onlinealarms,historicalalarms,pendingalarmsorresetalarms

tobeshown,andtospecifytheirdisplayorder:bytime,class

orpriority.

AtVolkswagenthealarmsarealsocleanedupatabreakor

shiftchange.Thisoverlaidcleanupprocessensuresthatoverlap-

pingmessagesarenotonlyadded,butthatthenetdowntimes

aretakenintoaccountincalculatingthedurationofanalarm.

Everyalarmthathascausedadowntimeisstoredalongwith

thepossiblediscrepancyinunitnumbers.Thediscrepanciesare

evaluatedeitherindividuallyorintotalusingtheline,time,and

shiftplanfilters,andaredisplayedonazenonscreen.

optimising machines activelyTo ensure that the entire system can be serviced, maintained

andupgradedefficiently,MarioEwenandhiscolleagueshave

optedforzenon.Itisimportanttothemanagersthatallfuture

systemupgradesaswellasallmaintenanceoperationscanbe

carriedoutwithoutinvolvingaserviceproviderorotherexter-

nalpartner.Thissavesbothtimeandmoney.

Theindustrialmaintenancemanagerisresponsibleforlook-

ing after the machinery and maintenance data. Service and

maintenanceintervalsareeasytospecify,manageandschedule,

asare thedetailed instructions.Thoseemployeeswhoare re-

sponsibleformaintenancecannowseeataglancewhenequip-

ment,plantandmachineryisdueformaintenance.Allmainte-

nanceoperationsaredocumentedinlogs.❚❙❘

All values displayed in the screenshots

in this article are for illustration only.

64 I automotive I ford

❘❙❚ ThenameHenryFordstandsforinven-

tivetalent,ideasandinnovations.Hein-

troduced the assembly line, he relied on

the standardization of components and

he led the company to success, thanks

to rationalization and division of labor.

Today, Ford plants still regularly mod-

ernize and optimize existing machinery,

inorder tostaycompetitive.Thecurrent

considerationsforFord’sforginganddie-

casting factory in Cologne focused on

howtoraisethequalityandproductivity

of the equipment there. “Above all, we

wantedtochecktheeffectivenessofthe

machinesthatproducetransmissioncom-

ponentsandengineparts“,explainsFrank

Tils,projectmanagerofprocessvisualiza-

tion,inhallRatFord-WerkeKölnGmbH.

zenon – an innovative solution is the engine of success.

Ford has changed significantly since the introduction of the Tin Lizzy. The cars may have changed, but innovation and modern production technology are still the main focus of the company. For the moderni-zation of its forging and die-casting factory in Cologne, Ford relied on COPA-DATA’s software solution, zenon.

ford I automotive I 65

high expectationsTogether with his team, Tils aimed at

maximum system availability to ensure

smooth production and quality control.

For this, they tested and rated different

processcontrolsystemsfortheirsuitabil-

ity,amongthemzenonfromCOPA-DATA.

zenon had already been introduced to

somepartsoftheplant,butnowtheen-

gineerswantedtoreviewitsperformance

in termsofdowntimeanalysis.Basic re-

quirementswere:

continuity,

Scalability,and

modularstructure.

Inaddition,thesolutionhadtoallowfor

theuseofothercontrollerhardware.

Otherimportantgoalsoftheprojectteam

atFordincluded:

verticalintegrationsothatinforma-

tioncanbesharedwiththemanage-

mentlevel,and

simpleandsafemaintenance.

Frank Tils was looking for a process

control solution that is so simple to use

thattheservicepersonnelcouldperform

modifications quickly and easily. Even

if they don’t have programming knowl-

edge, theusers shouldbeable to adjust

visualization projects. Besides visualiza-

tion, the process control system should

also allow for machine data acquisition

andfailurestatistics.

visualization, mde and performance analysis – all in one Aftertheevaluationoftheseveralshort-

listed systems, Ford chose the software

solution of COPA-DATA. zenon: “zenon

is powerful, easy to use and very flex-

ible.Forexample,wecanadjustprojects

evenduringruntime”,explainsFrankTils.

Another important reason for selecting

zenon was its scalability: ranging from

the machine-oriented operation at the

WindowsCE-Paneltothecontrolsystem

onthePC.Thankstothat,projectscanbe

createdplatform-independentlyinasin-

gledevelopmentenvironment.

Over 300 drivers guarantee compat-

ibility with all PLC and bus systems on

the market. Furthermore, the user can

linkdifferentzenonprojectsinasafeand

powerful way and configure database

connectionssimplybyusingparameters.

The Industrial Performance Analyser of

zenon6.22allowsforastatisticalanalysis

oferrormessages.Ford’sFrankTilssays:

“This tool [the IPA]enablesus tomake

averydetailedanalysisoffacilitydown-

timeandthereasonsforeachinstanceof

downtime.“Theprojectmanagerexpects

anadditionalriseintheefficiencyofpro-

ductionfromtheirnewabilitytoanalyse

downtimeeffectively.TheIPAalsooffers

a detailed report of past messages and

failuresforlateranalysis.

top performance requiredThe new process control system easily

meets the high demands of the produc-

tion environment at Ford-Werke Köln

GmbH.Forexample,zenonprovidesclear

andsimplevisualizationoftheprocedures

duringtheproductionofadiecastcom-

ponent, thanks to thenumerousdisplay

optionsofmovingpictureelements.

“In case of machine downtime we

cangetafastanddetailedunderstanding

of the causes for that particular case of

downtime.Asaconsequence,wecanre-

act quickly and apply counter-measures

to reduce downtime”, says Frank Tils.

Thankstozenon,Fordnowusesaspecial

systemto identify themachineoperator

attheprocesscontrolsystem.Asaresult,

therearegenerallyfewerinputerrorsto-

day.Duringmachineoperation,thezenon

archiveserveralsorecordsproductionand

machinedata.Themachineoperatorcan

viewthisdatainarow,intrendcurvesor

inareport.Thisallowsacomprehensive

overviewofthecurrentproductionproc-

ess.Fordplanstodevelopthesystemin

thefuture,andazenonwebserverwillbe

deployed toprovide relevantproduction

data for management via the company

network.❚❙❘

❘❙❚ Withadegreeofautomationofbetween90and95percent,

vehiclebodyconstructionrepresentsthemostautomatedarea

ofautomotiveproduction.Industrialrobotsfinishtheindividual

componentsfromsheetaluminiumorsheetsteelhere.Thesheet

metalcomponentsofavehiclebodyshellarefirstjoinedtoform

smaller assembly groups such as doors, front section or floor

assembly,thenwelded,bondedorscrewedtogether.Avehicle

bodyconsistsofseveralassemblygroupsthataremanufactured

inadvanceonseparateweldinglines.Increasingautomationin

theautomotiveindustrymeansthatproductionplantsandsys-

temsmustbemonitored and controlled evermore efficiently.

Moreover, as the degree of automation increases, more and

moredata isproduced thatneeds tobeanalysedquicklyand

withgreatprecision.Thisiswhyzenonisofsuchinteresttothe

zenon brings precision to a manufacturing operation.

Welding, bonding, riveting, screwing – in vehicle body construction several hundred components are combined to form a single finished product. Nowadays industrial robots and state-of-the-art technology ensure that vehicle bodies can be produced to the most precise specifications. zenon is an automation and visualisation tool, representing production processes in detail and offering control of all aspects of these processes.

automotiveindustry.TheBMWGrouphasbeenusingzenonin

differentdivisionsandplantssince1999–andnowitisintro-

ducingzenoninvehiclebodyconstructiontoo.

zenon offers excellent consistency and hardware independenceUsers are now benefiting from the many advantages offered

bythezenonsoftware.Thesystemisscaleable,hardwareinde-

pendentandconsistent,andthesoftwarerunsonCEmachines

justasefficientlyasonPCs.zenon’sconsistencymeansthatcon-

figurationproceduresonlyneedtobecarriedoutonce,andthis

allowstheusertomakesignificantsavingsintermsofbothtime

andmoney.ThenewdisplaysystemalsoallowstheS7graphi-

calsequencestobediagnosedindetail.zenonRuntimedisplays

66 I automotive I bmw

thesequencedatafromtheS7graphicalsequences.Thedatais

copied automatically from the programming software. In this

way,userscanmonitorthestatusesofthesequencesindepend-

entlyfromtheprogrammingsystem.Atruntimezenonshowsa

graphicaldisplayofthecurrentlyactivestepsinthePLCtogeth-

erwiththeirstatuses.Allthisinformationcanbesubsequently

evaluated and analysed. In the event of an error, this module

will carryout aheuristic evaluationof thedisrupted stepand

will then deliver a probable cause of the error in the form of

plaintext.AnotheradvantagetotheCOPA-DATAsolutionisthat

zenonscoresalotbetterthancompetingproductsintermsofthe

big financial/economic picture.This takes into account licence

costsaswellasconfigurationandtrainingoverheads.

high level of automation in convey-or systems and manufacturingInvehiclebodyconstruction,bodyshellsandothercomponents

such as doors and covers are manufactured.The sheet metal

partsareproducedinthepressingplantandthentransported

viaconveyorsystemstothemanufacturingfacilities,wherethe

process is continued. Each of these plants is subdivided into

variousdifferentmanufacturingcellsknownasoperatingmode

sections (BA).Eachoperatingmodesection representsanau-

tonomoussub-cellintechnicalandorganisationalterms.Asys-

temcancompriseofupto15operatingmodesectionsanduses

anS7-400asitscentralcontroller.Alltheconnectedprocesses,

includingrobotsandthesafetysystem,arelinkedviaProfinet.

Thiscontrolsystem,togetherwiththedisplaycomputer,isin-

stalledinthecentralBVScabinet.“BVS”standsfor“bedienen,

visualisieren, steuern” (operation,displayandcontrol). In the

centralstationzenonassemblesallthedataforcontrol,moni-

toringandinspection,displaysitandpreparesitforthehigher-

levelstatisticssystem.Theoperatorsalsousezenoniftheyneed

tomakeanykindofmanualinterventioninthemanufacturing

process.Distributedstations,mostofwhicharebasedonzenon

CE,enablelocaldisplayandoperation(BVO=Bedienung-Vor-

Ort(localoperation)).

Bywayofexample,isataskthatmaybeperformedinthe

plant:thesheet-metalpartsarepositioned,fixedinplacewith

clamps and then welded or bonded together.These processes

areperformedlargelybyrobots.Differentmeasuringmethods

(includingultrasoundandlaser)mustbeemployedinorderto

check constantlyand thoroughly todetect anypositionalde-

viations inthebodiesorotherpartsatanearly juncture.The

conveyorsystembringstheseparatecomponentsinandcarries

themanufacturedbodiesout.zenonprovidesavisualdisplayof

alltheseprocesses.

planning is the keyDefinitionofstandardsrepresentsatried-and-testedmeansof

settingupaprojectefficientlyandimplementingsoftware.This

includes the definition of functions that the finished system

mustoffer,thespecialcharacteristicsthatneedtobeincluded

in the corresponding production process, together with the

bmw I automotive I 67

68 I automotive I bmw

interfacesandthevisualpresentation.Oncethesepre-defined

standards and methods have been successfully tested in a

project or a system, then the user can use them at different

productionfacilitiesthroughoutthecompanyorgroupofcom-

panies.

standards ensure reuseability and efficiencyTherelevantpersonnelhavedevelopedanddocumentedsample

projectsforthesestandards,whichdefinethefunctions,visual

appearanceandinterfaces.Basedonthesesampleprojects,sys-

temprojectscanbesetupquicklyandeffectivelyeithernowor

inthefuture.Thesampleprojectcontainstemplatesforthedis-

playobjects.Thuspre-defineddata types for communication

arestored,andthesealreadycontainallthenecessaryelements

suchasvalue ranges, limitvalues, coloursorgraphicobjects.

Basedonadatatype,thevariablesforthedisplayarethencre-

ated.Here,thevariablenameandthePLCstartaddressmust

bespecified.All itsotherpropertiesarealreadystoredinthe

datatype,andthevariableinheritstheseautomatically.Graphi-

calsymbolsarestoredinalibraryforcreatingsystem-specific

images. For instance, one graphical symbol will represent a

robotandanotheronewillrepresentaconveyor.Thegraphical

symbolscontainallthegraphicalpropertiesoftheobject,and

matchthedatatypes.Ifthedisplayiscreatedusingdrag-and-

droptechniques,thenalogicallinkisautomaticallyestablished

betweenthegraphicalsymbolandthevariable.

avoiding problems at an early stageInzenon,alarmprocessingshowsdetailedmessages insucha

way that theplantoperator can rectify the causeof anerror

rapidlyand,ifpossible,withoutanyhelpfromthemaintenance

engineers.Foralarmdefinitions,too,theplannersandrespon-

siblepersonnelhavedraftedtemplatesforPLCprogrammingto

ensurethatthemessagesalwayscontaintherequireddetails–

ontheonehandfortheplantoperator,andontheotherhand

for the purpose of statistical analysis.The details in question

maybetheoperatingmodecode,theoperand(physicaladdress)

andtheoperand’ssymbolname(“Forwardmovementatrear”)

foreasyidentificationandlabellingforaradiocommunication

system.Apartfromalarmmanagementtherearealsomanyoth-

eradvantagesandstrengthstoimpressusersintheautomotive

industry:Thezenonsolutionensuresflexibility,consistencyand

qualityinproduction.❚❙❘

❘❙❚ Ifthefacilitiesofacompanyarenotoperatedandmanaged

efficiently, costswill rise and resourceswill bewasted.BMW

Leipzigthereforedecidedtostrikeanewpath.Alreadyinthe

design phase, BMW Leipzig aimed at creating an efficient,

reliable and secure system with the new building automation

technology;asystemthatwouldmonitor,controlanddirectthe

technicalfacilities.IncooperationwithCegelec,facilityandau-

tomation technology GmbH & Co. KG, from Frankfurt, BMW

designedanintegratedcontrolsystemforthecompletetechni-

calandelectricalfacilityequipment.Allrelevantsubsystemsare

connectedwithstandardized,openandmostlynon-proprietary

protocols.Thecommunicationbetweenthesecomponentstakes

placeviaTCP/IPinthenetworkofBMW.

analysis and optimizationBuildingautomation technologydisplays theoperating condi-

tions and technical parameterswith clearly structured facility

pictures:altogether, itprocessesabout53,000realdatapoints

Operating technical facilities efficiently and safely.From the very start of the planning process, BMW decided to use only the most modern building automation technology for optimal operation of the technical facilities and build-ings - with minimum personnel expenses. The project implementation was entrusted to Cegelec, while zenon by COPA-DATA GmbH was chosen as the software for build-ing automation.

bmw leipzig I building automation I 69

(sensors,actuatorsandreadings)and70,000virtualdatapoints

fromdifferentinformationsources(datacollectionpoints,con-

trolcabinetwithPLC)ofthewholeplantanditvisualizesop-

eratingconditionswithover1,500facilitypictures.Withzenon

software by COPA-DATA and the project implementation by

Cegelec,BMWcannowgetaclearoverviewofallcost-relevant

processesconcerningtheirtechnicalfacilitiesandbuildings.This

allowsforprofessionalfacilitymanagementandplantcontrol.

Thedatacollectedinbuildingautomationisbasedonanewly

developedequipment identificationsystem(AEI).Thissystem

identifies all the components of the technical and electrical

building equipment, even the passive components of the IT,

acrossdifferentassemblysections.

the logical structure of the aei supports an efficient alarm managementProcessmanagementbyoperatingpersonnelmakesitpossible

torunalltechnicalfacilitiesintheLeipzigplantinanefficient,

energy-savingandcost-efficientway.Requiredparametersthat

arenotgeneratedonfieldlevel(likeperformancedata)arecal-

culated inthebuildingautomationsystem.Thesolutionsaves

allparametersinarchivesandprovidesreportsforindividually

configurable trends.The powerful zenon SQL interface stores

relevant values in an Oracle database for a long-term plant

optimization.These values include meter readings or detailed

consumption data. Collecting this data makes it possible to

optimizecontrol loops.BMW,for instance,calculatestheNET

value (Normal Effective Temperature = temperature as per-

ceivedbyemployees)fromtemperature,humidityandairspeed

anddisplaysitonline.KurtFingerhut,manageratCegelecand

responsible service provider for this project at BMW Leipzig,

explains: “BMW has created the foundation for efficient en-

ergy and cost management, because all information about all

buildingsandtechnicalfacilitiesareavailableforanalysisatall

times.”Buildingautomationwithzenon®makesitpossibletoday

tochangeallrelevanttargetvalueseithermanuallyatthework

placeorautomaticallythroughanintervaltimerprogram.

For this purpose, the convenient Production and Facility

Schedulerofzenon isemployed.Thisallows, forexample, for

theflexibleoperationofventilationfacilitiesindifferentoper-

atingand loadconditions.Afurtherexample:Theresponsible

employees can control all lighting systems (manually through

theuser interfaceor automaticallydependingon lightingand

timeconditions)andthereforeadjustthemtothechangingre-

quirementsoftheproductionflow.

working efficiently with minimal resourcesItwasveryimportantforBMWtocombineflexibleworkplaces

withrelatively lowlicensecosts.Theintegrationofalltechni-

calsystemsadministeredbyFacilityManagementintoasupe-

rior building automation system makes it possible to control

thewholeplantfromarelativelysmallcontrolroomwithtwo

redundantzenonworkplaces.Theoperatorcanwatch,control

anddirectthefacilityprocesseshere.Anadditionalstand-alone

server isusedasanengineeringworkplaceforfuturemainte-

nanceandoptimizationprocessesofthesystem.Apartfromthe

twofixedworkplacesinthecontrolroom,thereareonlyabout

tenlaptopsthatareusedasadditionalzenonoperatingstations.

Ontheselaptops,employeesofFacilityManagementcanwatch

andtesttechnicalfacilities.Becauseofthesystemconceptand

70 I building automation I bmw leipzig

bmw leipzig I building automation I 71

thehighavailabilityoftheGLT,BMWLeipzigdecidedagainst

fixed on-site operating stations and saved costs for hardware

andsoftware.

secure servers control the facilitiesThe system concept of building automation consists of two

redundantzenonservers,whichareinstalledinthetwocom-

puter centers of the plant.They form the central element of

the building automation system and they control the entire

communicationwiththeunderlyinginformationsourcesofthe

automation level and the connected operating stations. Fur-

thermore, those twoservershandledataadministration,data

archivingandmanyotheradditional functionsof thecontrol

systemsoftware.

These functions include performance calculations and in-

terval timer programs. With these functions, all the relevant

targetvaluesandoperationmodesofthebuilding-specificsys-

temscanbeadjustedaccordingtothedifferentoperating,load

andtimeconditions.Ifproductionisactiveinahall,thetem-

peratureisautomaticallyloweredifitisgettingtoohotinthe

productionhalls.TheITdepartmentisinchargeofserveropera-

tionanddatabackup.Thetwoserversforbuildingautomation,

whicharerunningWindows2000AdvancedServer,areonthe

samelevelofavailabilityastheserversinvehicleproduction.

Theplant’sFacilityManagementisresponsiblefortheopera-

tionandmaintenanceoftheapplicationsoftwarezenon.

alarm management for securityAlarmmessagehandlingandfailureresolutionisanotherim-

portantprocessinbuildingautomation.BMWLeipzigdecided

againsttheinstallationofpermanentlyrecordingalarmprint-

ers because of the high availability of the complete system

andthepossibilityofaccessfromeveryspotoftheplantvia

mobilecomputers. Instead,powerful color laser systemsde-

liverallthelists,hardcopiesandprotocols,incolorandinsizes

uptoA3.Twoseparatealarmsystemsweredesignedandim-

plemented,inpreparationforrunningthecontrolroomwith

reducedpersonnel.Themost importantalarmgroupsof the

building-specific facilities can be transferred to the perma-

nentlyoccupiedworkplacesofthefactorysecurityofficesof

theLeipzigplant.

Failuresoftheplant-wideinfrastructure(e.g.compressed

air,heatandpowersupply)arereportedadditionallyviaSMS

to the stand-by duty of the Facility Management Provider

outside of the plant. For this, the project team at Cegelec

hasdevelopedaninterfacefortheautomatictransmissionof

alarmdatatoanSMSserver,whichwasinstalledforthewhole

plant.

complete monitoring and controlThenewsystemforbuildingautomationwastestedthoroughly

overseveralmonths–underthemostdemandingconditions:

Thesystemsurvivedaplant-wideblackoutofthepowersup-

ply without problems. Kurt Fingerhut summarizes “We were

abletoreachallthegoalsthatwehadinthisproject:Complete

monitoringandcontrolofthefacilitieswithminimaluseofper-

sonnelandresources.”Professionalbuildingautomationcreates

possibilitiesforcostreductionanddeliversasignificantboost

ofeffectiveness.BMWwasable to tap thosepossibilities for

costreductionthankstothetechnicalpossibilitiesofthezenon

software.❚❙❘

72 I building automation I allianz arena

❘❙❚Frommatchdaytomatchday,theAllianzArenashowsushow

perfectlyorganizedafootballstadiumcanbe.Rangingfromthe

individually controllable lighting system and the sophisticated

buildingcontroltotheefficientsecuritymeasures.Thiscanonly

workwhenthedifferenttechnologiesandproductsareperfectly

coordinatedandvisualizedforthecontrolroom.Thisjobisdone

byzenon,whichwastheonlyHMI/SCADAsystemtofulfillall

therequirementsoftheoperatorsregardingflexibilityandcom-

patibility. zenon maintains an excellent overview, puts all the

importantprocessesonthescreensinthecontrolroomandeven

keepswatchinunoccupiedstations,ifnecessary.

Kickoff with COPA-DATA in the Allianz Arena.

From match day to match day, the Allianz Arena shows us how perfectly organized a football stadium can be. Ranging from the individually controllable lighting system and the sophisticated building control to the efficient security measures. This can only work when the different technologies and products are perfectly coordinated and visual-ized for the control room. This job is done by zenon, which was the only HMI/SCADA system to fulfill all the requirements of the operators regarding flexibility and compat-ibility. zenon maintains an excellent overview, puts all the important processes on the screens in the control room and even keeps watch in unoccupied stations, if necessary.

allianz arena I building automation I 73

open and independentOneofthebiggestchallengesintheAllianzArenawastomain-

taintheoverviewinacomplexsystemandtoensurethesmooth

interactionofallcomponents.COPA-DATASalesManagerHans-

PeterZiegler:“Today,itiseasytomonitorandcontrolallsorts

ofthings,buttheproblemusuallyliesintheoverviewandthe

appropriatevisualization.Itisimportantnotonlytorealizethat

somethinghappens,butalsotoseeataglancewhatishappen-

ingwhere.Preferably,withclearmessages that leaveno room

forinterpretationtothetechnician;thisistheonlywayhecan

reactquicklyandcorrectly.”Forzenon,thismeansdisplayinga

fewthousandsensorsandmanydifferentsignalsinaclearand

conciseway,sotheoperatingtechniciangetsaclearoverview.

Complexprocessesaresupposedtobepackedintosimplesym-

bolsandmessages.Hans-PeterZieglerexplains:“Ifyouwantto

usethebesttechnologyineverysubsystem,youoftenhaveto

coordinateverydifferentsystems.Withzenon,wecancorrectly

receive, interpretandforwarda largeamountofdataandsig-

nals fromdifferent sources in avery safe and straightforward

way.Themaintaskofzenonistomergeallthesubstationsand

connectionsintoonezenonintegrationproject,creatingaclear

overview.“zenonmakeslifeeasierforengineers,whenitcomes

tointegratingdifferenttypesofhardwareandsoftware.Onthe

one hand, zenon brings along over 250 fully developed driv-

ers.Ontheotherhand,itenablesengineerstocreatetheirown

individual connections, for example withVBA. For controlling

theexteriorlighting,theengineerscanaccessthecoloredneon

lamps quite simply and create shining colors on the stadium’s

24,500m²ofmembraneexteriorcover.

COPA-DATAalsofeelscommittedtomakingworkeasierforthe

users.Easier,becausetheycanseealltheimportantinformation

ataglance.Butalsobecausetheycanhandlethesysteminan

intuitiveandsimpleway.”ThetechniciansintheAllianzArena

highlyappreciatethefactthattheycanusuallyworkwiththeir

familiaruserinterface.Bytheway,thisisoneofthespecialad-

vantagesofzenon:Theintegrationofapplicationsintoauniform

user interface. It works with the differentWindows operating

systemsandcooperateswiththemostdifferentkindsofhard-

wareandsoftware.Thisisduetoitsconsistentdesign,thevari-

etyofdriversand–nottoforget–itswell-engineeredsecurity

mechanisms.

zenon – on the ball long before kickoffAttractivematchesfillthestadiumuptotheroofinaheightof52

meters.Onsevenlevels,theperfectlyengineeredinfrastructure

bestowsanuntroubledmatchexperienceuponanaudienceofup

to70,000people:quickyetsafeaccesscontrol,simplepathsto

theviewerseats,climatecontroladjustedtoeverysituation.

Longbeforekickoff,thesystemsinthestadiumarelaunched;

theenergysupplyischecked,theelectronicaccesscontrolwith

videosurveillanceprovidesforasmoothstreamofvisitorsand

highsecurity.Allofthishappenswithoutmucheffort;theor-

ganizationofamatchday’sproceduresispre-programmedquite

simplyonthePC.Afterenteringtimeanddate,allthenecessary

actions are launched in the background.All employees of the

Arenaareequippedwithtransponders,whichenableaconstant

surveillanceof accesses and routes traveled.The access to the

stadiumwithouttransponderoravalidticketisdefactoimpossi-

ble.Thecontrolsystemkeepsaseamlessrecordofallactionsand

messagesandthesophisticatedfilteringandsortingfunctionsof

zenongiveacomfortableoverviewinthefloodofdata.Witha

mouseclick,thecurrentlyimportantdataisfilteredout.Security

isofcourseanimportantissue,alsofortheHMI/SCADAsystem.

WewereabletoprovidetheoperatorsoftheAllianzArenawith

auseradministrationsystem,whichfulfillseventheextremely

strict requirements of the pharmaceutical and food industry.

User rights can be defined very exactly and individually, and

eachmanipulationofthesystemisrecordedindetail.

snmp – all clear in the netAstadiumasbigasthisdependsonahigh-performancepower

supply.zenonProductManagerReinhardMayr:“Inthecaseof

the arena, we are talking about a 12 Megawatts power input.

Two independent transformer stations guarantee a seamless

powersupply.Thisputsfail-safetyontopofthelist.Weadvise

against any compromises here. Redundant wiring, distributors

andnetworksareamust.”IntheAllianzArena,theenergyinfra-

structureisalsomonitoredbywayofSNMP.Withafewmouse

clicks,SNMP-compatiblecomponentsarereadoutandtheirdata

pointsarecreated.Perdrag&drop,theycanbeputimmediately

intotheappropriateprocesspictures.Withoutdisturbingoreven

interruptingthesystem,thealteredprocesspicturesaretrans-

ferredbackviaHotreload.Consequently,newcomponentscan

alsobeaddedwithoutproblems.Thecombinationofredundant

components and zenon functionality guarantees the seamless

availabilityofpowersupplyintheArena.

overview in the control room: automatic messages and remoteconfigurationThe central control room is constantly collecting all informa-

tionandinterpretingit.Theinterpretationissoclearandcon-

cise,thatonesinglepersoncanhandlethecontrolroomduring

calmphases.Evenduringpeakperiods,theoverviewisalways

maintained.The best foundation for this is exact planning –

theExtendedTrendModule(ETM)ofzenondoes justthat. It

showscurrentorarchiveddataandcreatesthefoundationfor

exactevaluations.Forexample,theoperatorsgetanoverview

of power consumption, visitor streams, parking-lot utilization

andmuchmore–atpresentoroveranyspaceof time.With

thisreliablebasis,developmentsandrequirementscanbepre-

dictedandconsumptionpeakscanbeanticipatedandtheirim-

pactsreduced.Additionally,thezenonWebServersupportsthe

technicians. It always displays the system in its current state

andwith the same familiar interface as on the terminals.The

techniciansusewebclientstoaccessthesystemdirectly,which

enablesthemtoreactquicklytoalarms,evenfromoutsidethe

controlroom.

Onmatchdays,thecentralcontrolroomisfilledwithtechni-

cians.Theymonitorandcontrollighting,network,accesscontrol,

parkinglot,ventilation,heatingandcooling.Thingsaregetting

busyandeverybody’sfullattention isrequired.Now,theyare

profitingfromzenon’smultimonitortechnology.Multiplescreens

showalltheimportantinformationsimultaneously,sothatnoth-

ingofimportancegetsoutofsight.Nothingcanbeoverlooked;

potentialproblemsarerecognizedfromtheverystart.

74 I building automation I allianz arena

around-the-clockDuring its operation, zenon handles thousands of data points,

preparesandarchivesdataandtransmitsclearmessages.Mod-

ulesliketheExtendedTrendModule(ETM),Archiving,Alarm-

ing,Scheduler,butalsoSNMPandBeckhoffdrivers,VBAmac-

rosandmanyotherzenonfeaturesareactive.Theyguarantee

a safepower supply, theymonitorentrancesandparking-lots,

checktheUPSoralarmtechnicians,ifnecessary.Andwhenthe

lightsgodownandtheparkinglotsbecomeemptyandthebuild-

ingservicesareshutdowntoaminimumafteralongmatchday,

zenonstaysvigilantandkeepswatch.

zenon in the allianz arena – a summary:

Control and visualization of the complete

building services

Smooth integration of hardware from

different providers with our own drivers

Open interfaces for VBA and OPC

High security standards

Multiple project administration

Simple administration and monitoring

of network devices with SNMP

Analysis and forecast with the Extended

Trend Module

Web server technology for remote

administration

allianz arena I building automation I 75

oranytypeoferrormessageisdisplayed

and managed in the system. Loading

patterns (power consumption over a pe-

riodoftime)andtemperaturegraphsare

stored in zenon‘s long-term archive.The

facilitymanagercanretrievethisinforma-

tion using the zenon “Extended Trend”

module.Theinformationisalsoavailable

intheformofreportsforthepurposeof

precisionanalysis.zenontherebycreates

a facility formonitoring complex techni-

calsystemsandcontrol-engineeringproc-

esses,butmostimportantlyforoperating

❘❙❚ Asanopen,manufacturer-independent

system,zenonisideallysuitedforuseina

buildingmanagementsystem.Thevisuali-

sationandmonitoringofoperatingstates

andtheoptimisationofoperatingmodesin

complexsystemsenablesabuildingtobe

managedefficiently.zenoncommunicates

with the automation level via standard

interfaceslikeOPC(OLEforProcessCon-

trol),LON(LocalOperatingNetwork)and

BACNet(BuildingAutomationandControl

Networks).Everyevent,suchasthefail-

ureofaunit,theviolationofalimitvalue

Using energy efficiently.Simple management of the technical systems in a building and efficient monitoring of all the equipment and systems is the dream of every facility manager. zenon turns this dream into reality. One site to benefit from the zenon system is the Montblanc site in Hamburg, with its workshops and administration building.

these systemsandprocesses in themost

efficientwaypossible.Thisisalsothetask

that falls to Claus-Dieter Brandt and his

colleagues who are responsible for op-

erational systems at Montblanc, the tra-

ditionalcompanybasedinHamburg.The

teammustrespondquicklytofaultmes-

sagesandeitherrestorethefunctionality

ofthedeviceorthesystemorstartrepair

work–thisappliestotheproductionfa-

cilitiesaswellasadministration.“Ourpar-

ticularchallengeinbuildingmanagement

systems is to reflect growing structures

76 I building automation I montblanc

montblanc I building automation I 77

and changes in a company as quickly as

possible, and to monitor all systems

efficiently”,explainsClaus-DieterBrandt,

building technology manager at Mont-

blanc Simplo GmbH in Hamburg. This

companyisnowcharacterisedbygrowth

becausethedemandforMontblancprod-

uctsisstrongerthanever.Forseveralgen-

erationsMontblanchasbeenwell-known

as the manufacturer of exclusive writing

equipment,andmorerecentlythecompa-

nyhasalsoestablisheditselfasasupplier

ofwatches,jewelleryandleatheritemsin

theluxurygoodssector.

writing culture andcraftsmanshipTheseexclusiveproductsareproducedby

Montblanc, which was founded in 1906.

Theysatisfythestrongdemandfortradi-

tionalEuropeancraftsmanshipand time-

less design. Montblanc employs around

2,400peoplein28subsidiaries,andsup-

pliesitsluxuryproductstosome6,000re-

tailoutletsin70differentcountriesandto

70 Montblanc boutiques. Montblanc be-

longstotheRichemontGroup,whichwas

foundedin1988andisbasedinGeneva.

The Group specialises in luxury goods,

anditsmembercompaniesincludethere-

nownedjewelleryandwatchfirmsCartier,

Piaget,VanCleef&Arpels, IWC,Jeager-

LeCoulture, Lange & Söhne and Panerai.

TheGroupalsoincludesotherwell-known

namessuchasDunhill,BaumeetMercier

and the fashion company Chloé. Mont-

blancmanufacturesitsproductsinGerma-

ny, ItalyandSwitzerland inorder touse

andalsotopreservetheexpertiseoftra-

ditional European craftsmanship. Mont-

blancproduces itswriting implementsat

itsoriginalfactoryinHamburg.Theproc-

essisstillverymuchamanualoneinvolv-

ingtheskillofcraftsmen,andproduction

remains centred on the artisan‘s studio.

Thesestudiosproduceverylimitednum-

bersofornatecollectors‘piecesandindi-

vidually made special editions. Not only

are theartisans‘ studios located inHam-

burgbutalsothecompany‘smainadmin-

istration and international headquarters.

Montblanc has around 1,000 employees

basedatthissite.Theproductionbranch

ofthecompanyiscalledMontblancSim-

plo GmbH. It is located in Hamburg and

has820employees.

zenon offers security and protec-tion of investmentMontblanc sets very high standards for

safety,comfortandairconditioninginits

production facilities and administration

officesinHamburg.Atthesametimethe

companyaimstokeeppowerconsumption

andoperatingcoststoaminimum.Claus-

DieterBrandt therefore setout to finda

building management system that would

becapableofmeetingthesecriteria.“What

we were looking for was some standard

software that would offer protection of

our investment. Itwasalso important to

us that we could count on professional

support from experts and professionals

whileinstallingandoperatingsuchasys-

tem”,explainsClaus-DieterBrandt.Mont-

blanchaschosentheCOPA-DATAsystem

partner eNeG to work on this project.

eNeGisalsobasedinHamburg,andspe-

cialises in designing and installing intel-

ligentbuildingautomationsystemsbased

on BACNet, LonWorks and Profibus,

eNeGworkswithstate-of-the-artcompo-

nentsandmakescertainthattheyinteract

perfectly.eNeGisinvolvednotonlywith

buildingautomationbutalsopowersup-

ply systems. The range of services they

offer extends to maintenance, servicing

andmonitoring.eNeGhas60employees,

and its customers include various well-

knowncompaniesincludingJungheinrich

AG,BeiersdorfAG,HamburgerSparkasse

aswellasMontBlancSimploGmbH.

the quest to find a stable standard solu-tion was successfulThe Montblanc team was keen to install

a standard solution thatwouldbe stable

andcapableofrunningtwenty-fourhours

a day. Claus-Dieter Brandt already had

positiveexperiencewithzenonfromear-

lier inhiscareer.Heevaluatedanumber

ofothersolutionstoo,butultimatelyhis

decisionwasaneasyonetoreach.Three

buildings–theadministrativeofficesand

twoproductionfacilities–arenowmoni-

toredcentrallyusingzenon.Intotalthese

buildingshavebeenfittedwithfivetech-

nical hubs.There are 25 ventilation sys-

tems(HVACsystems),twocompressed-air

systemseachwith twocompressors, two

heating systems each with two boilers,

and two cooling systems with ten com-

pressors.Eachtechnicalhubalsoincludes

aheat-recyclingsystem.Thecompanyhas

nowbeenworkingwithzenonsince2002,

withtheprimaryfocusonoperatingand

observing the technical systems in the

buildings. At Montblanc these systems

includeHVAC,compressedairandextrac-

tion systems in the laboratories, heating

and hot water supply. To condition the

air in the administration building alone

Montblancuses77coolersandfourexter-

nalcoolingsystems.

trend analysis is essentialIn total, the systems in the main build-

ing includesome2,800datapoints,with

a further 600 data points in the new

Montblanclogisticscentre.Allthesesys-

tems are comprehensively visualised in

zenon. Any problems or discrepancies

between target values and actual values

are logged in zenon, whereby any con-

sequences they may have will become

apparent. Claus-Dieter Brandt views the

target values and actual values and any

differencesbetweenthemintheformof

agraph.Thisismadepossiblebythe“Ex-

tendedTrend”module.Thismoduleallows

historicaldata(e.g.alltheinformationre-

cordedinthecourseofaheatingcycle)as

well as on-line data to be retrieved and

viewedintheformofagraph.Inthisway,

those responsible for the building man-

agementsystemcanseehowthesystems

areperforming,whencriticalstatesinthe

systems occur, and where immediate in-

terventionisrequired.Itisequallyimpor-

tant toobservesystemsoveraconsider-

ableperiodoftime–ambientconditions

such as outdoor temperatures vary and

affecttheperformanceofasystem.

easy to operateClaus-DieterBrandtfindszenonveryeasy

to use: when an alarm is selected in the

alarmslist,asimpleclickonthe“System

display” button will automatically open

therelevantalarmdisplay.Thisallowssys-

temcomponentstobeinspectedindetail;

theoperatorcan,for instance,determine

whichsystemcomponentisinoperationor

hastriggeredafaultmessage.Thecooling

andventilation systems featureanover-

view display, from which you can move

ontothedetailedviews.Filters,heaters,

coolers,fans–detaildisplaysareavailable

asrequiredforeachcomponentinaven-

tilationsystem.Thesedisplaysclearlyin-

dicatewhethervalvesandsensors,forin-

stance,areoperatingcorrectly.Thanksto

this comprehensive visualisation, Claus-

DieterBrandtisnowabletorunandregu-

larlyupdateacomplexbuildingmanage-

ment system with just a small team and

lowoverheads.Andthereareevenplans

toextendthesystem:thesystemmanager

caneasilyconceivebeingabletomonitor

thesesystemsremotelyandtoupgradethe

alarmmanagementsystemsothatalarms

are forwarded to the mobile phones of

relevantstaff;suchsystemsarealreadyin

placeatthenewMontblanclogisticscen-

tre.This ensures that thorough monitor-

ingcanbecarriedouttwenty-fourhours

aday.Asoldsystemsarereplacedoneby

one,allthenewsystemsareautomatically

integratedwiththezenonsystem.Thiswill

resultincentralmonitoring,anincreased

concentration of data, and thus an even

morecomprehensiveflowofinformation.

“Allnewsystemsarenow linked inwith

thebuildingmanagementsystem–zenon

will play a part in every single project”,

explainsClaus-DieterBrandtwitha look

ofconvictioninhiseyes.Themanageris

planning togradually stepup theuseof

this system. His intention for the future

istostoredetailedsystemdescriptionsas

well asdependencies so that in the long

termdatacanbeanalysedevenmorespe-

cifically and preparation can be carried

outformaintenanceoperations.Likewise,

themanagementteaminHamburgistobe

linkedupwiththenewlogisticscentrein

Ellerbek,sothatthissecondsitecanalso

bemonitoredandcheckedcentrally.❚❙❘

78 I building automation I montblanc

The district heating plant uses mainly waste products from

woodprocessing,treesurgeryandafforestation.Weeklydeliv-

eriesfromlocalsawmillsandotherlocalsuppliersguaranteethe

plant’ssupplyofrenewableenergysources.Toprotecttheen-

vironment,thewastegasesproducedinthecombustionprocess

are constantlymonitored.TheamountofCO2producedwhen

theplantis inoperationisexactlythesameastheamountof

CO2 absorbed by the trees during their life cycle; this is why

thedistrictheatingplantcan justifiablyclaimtooperateona

CO2-neutralbasis.

For control and data acquisition in its district heating

plant,TCVVVAG was keen to go specifically with PC-based

❘❙❚ ThecompanyTCVVVAGwas founded in1997 toproduce

anddistributecleanenergyfrombiomass,anduseitforheat-

ingandelectricitygeneration.Thiscompanybuildsproduction

facilities,anddesignsandconstructsdistrictheatingplantsand

electricitystations.ManagingdirectorWalterRighini:“Ourpri-

mary objective is to use and add value to local resources; by

usingrenewableenergysourcesweaimtoreduceourdepend-

enceonenergyfromexternalsources.ThemunicipalityofSanta

CaterinaValfurvaisnotconnectedtothemethanegasnetwork,

butitdoeshaveaccesstorenewableenergysources,inparticu-

larwood.This is themainpre-requisite forbuildingadistrict

heatingplantfuelledwithbiomass.”

Clean heat for Santa Caterina.There are plenty of winter sports enthusiasts who count Santa Caterina as their favour-ite resort. Santa Caterina has also hosted more than its share of exciting world-cup ski-ing. Cold temperatures may be welcomed out on the piste, but whether you’re a casual weekend skier or a top international athlete, you’ll still want to be snug and warm once you’re back indoors: This represents a challenging task for TCVVV AG and its district heating plant in Santa Caterina Valfurva.

tcvvv I energy I 79

80 I energy I tcvvv

technology and an Ethernet network. For safety reasons, re-

dundancy was to be built into the PC network. In the words

oftheengineerFabioPola,whoheldoverallresponsibilityfor

all thehardwareandsoftware: “Wewereparticularlykeen to

avoid as far as possible working with conventional PLCs, be-

causeredundanthardPLCsaredifficulttofindandalsocostly.

Wewerelookingformodern,opentechnologythatwouldallow

ustoworkinaflexiblewaywhilstatthesametimereducing

ourcosts.”

designing a clean energy supplyCOPA-DATA proposed a redundant, integrated solution to

TCVVVAGtosafelysupplythedistrictwithheating.Thedis-

trict heating plant in Santa Caterina features a zenon control

systemthatgivestheoperatorcentralaccesstoalltheparame-

tersfortheburners.TheIEC61131compliantstratonisalready

integratedintozenon.ThisisasoftPLCwhichisalsoembedded

inahardwarePLC,anditcreatedthelinkwiththecontrollers.

Redundancycaneasilybeincorporatedinboththesesystems.

The zenon operating system and straton work extremely

welltogether,andthisbringstheprojectanumberofbenefits,

especiallyintermsofspeed,datasecurityandcostreductions.

zenonandstratonrunonthesameserver.Theyaresoclose-

ly linkedthat theyevenusethesamedatabase,whichmakes

configurationconsiderablysimpler,quickerandsafer.Variables

thereforeonlyneedtobecreatedandmaintainedonce.

TheserverfortheTCVVVprojectisalsodesignedwithbuilt-

inredundancy,anditwillcontinuetoworkperfectlyevenifa

moduleinacomputershouldmalfunction.

Bothsystems–serverandstand-by–arealwayssupplied

withthelatestdata.Theyalsobothcommunicatewiththecon-

trollers;inotherwordsallthedatasentbyaPLCarrivessimul-

taneouslyonbothcomputers.Ifthecontrolcomputerfails,then

the stand-by machine will take over immediately.As soon as

thefirstserverisoperationalagainitwillautomaticallyretrieve

allthelatestdataandwillresumecontrol,againwithnointer-

ruption.

integrated solution for safe, economical operationDifferentcontrollersareaddressedfromthecontrolstation,and

byusingProfinettheexistingnetworkstructurecancontinue

tobeused.Asthestandardfieldbus,Profibusreplacesthein-

convenientserialconnectionsandexpensivespecialplugswith

IndustrialEthernet.Thisprovidesconsiderablymorefunctions,

simpleroperationandgreaterspeed.ItalsosparesTCVVVAG

thetimeandexpenseofspecialcabling.

stratonchecksviaitsProfinetlinkfiveWago750-340Profi-

netdevicesatadistanceof30to40metresand,asasoftPLC,

controlsvarioussteamboilersusingthesefieldbuscouplersand

retrievestemperaturevaluesforarchivinginthecontrolsystem,

wheretheyareanalysedintrends.Analogsignalsfromtheboil-

ersareretrievedandtherelevantvalvescontrolled.Thecycle

timeis100ms.

However,stratonisusednotonlyontheI/Olevel.Beinga

versatiletoolandanembeddedsolution,italsocarriesoutim-

portantfunctionsincontrollingthepressurecompensatingtank.

Forsafetyreasons,thestandardrequiresthatahardPLCshould

tcvvv I energy I 81

beinstalled.Evenifthedevicelosesitslinkwiththenetwork,

itisessentialtoensurethatthetankiscarefullycontrolled.The

deviceselectedwasaWago750-860fieldbuscontrollerinwhich

straton,embeddedasaruntimePLC,ensuresreliableperform-

ance.Asanembeddedsolution,stratonisparticularlyconven-

ient for the end customer as it simply needs to be unpacked

andconnected.Alltheconfigurationmodulesarecreatedusing

thestraightforwardintuitivestratonconfigurationtoolwithits

graphicalinterface,andvariablesarelinkedviaamenuorusing

drag-and-drop techniques.The district heating plant in Santa

Caterinabenefitsaboveallfromtheextremelyproductiveinte-

grationbetweenstratonandzenon.Bothstratonandzenoncan

beoperatedasredundantsystemswithjustafewmouseclicks.

OnlytwoPCsareneededtoimplementaredundantsystem:all

stratonprojects,justlikevisualisationrunningunderzenon,will

runonasinglePC.Thesecondcomputerispresentinastand-

by capacity.This combination of redundant visualisation, soft

PLCs and fieldbus I/O produces a highly secure solution that

is very easy to configure and can, moreover, be implemented

affordably.Thestratonprojects, likethevisualisationmodules,

areconfiguredinthezenoneditor.SoftwareengineerFabioPola

comments:“Wefoundthisintegratedsolutionespeciallyeffec-

tive from thepointofviewof configuration.Notonlydo the

visualisationmoduleandthePLCsharethesamedatabase,but

thesame,familiareditorcanalsobeusedtoconfiguredifferent

targetsystems.”

Theversatilityofferedbystratonisdemonstratedbytheway

it canoperateasagateway foranABBgasmeasuringdevice.

Interestingly,thegasmeasuringdevicehasonlyanalogoutputs

and needs to interface to another control system that moni-

torsthegasconcentrationandisusedforcertifyingthesystem.

stratonthereforeusestheProfinetcouplersfromWagotoread

out the values, and then makes them available to the control

systemviaModbus.Inthissituationstratonisactingasaslave,

butitcouldalsoactequallywellasamaster.Butanotherpoint

illustratedbystratonandzenoninSantaCaterinaishoweasily

existingsystemscanbeintegratedintoaproject.Inparallelwith

thedistrictbiomassheatingplant,acollectiveboileralsohadto

be integrated with the visualisation and control modules.This

“VAS”boileriscontrolledwithanS7-300whichislinkeddirectly

tozenonbyusingadedicatedS7-TCPdriver.Thealarmsensor

andanalogdata,forinstance,canbeevaluatedsimplywithout

anyneedtoinvestinanyadditionalhardwareorsoftware.

knowing what’s going onDataproducedduringongoingoperationisavailableatalltimes.

Itiscollectedbystratonandzenonandarchivedbyzenon.The

plantoperatoralonemakesthedecisionregardingwherethese

archivesarestored.Iftheywish,zenoncanevenwritearchives

directtodatabases,ensuringthatnodataislostintheeventof

systemfailures.Likeon-linedata,archiveddatacanalsobedis-

playedatanytimeintheformofaninformativetrenddisplay:

TheExtendedTrendfeatureinzenonconvertshistoricaland

currentvaluesintosmoothcurves.Thisfeaturegivesfullcon-

trolovercurveparameters,axisconfiguration,zoomfactorand

muchmore.Anynumberofcurvescanbedisplayedsimultane-

ously,eveniftheirscalingvaries.SincetheExtendedTrendcan

displaytwotimeaxesatthesametimeinthesamechart,itis

simpletocomparedifferenttimeperiodsorbatches.

quick and secure configurationTCVVVAGsucceededincommissioningitsdistrictheatingplant

within12months. Itdidn’t take longtogetzenonconfigured

either.KlausRebecchifromCOPA-DATAItaliacommented:“The

TCVVV AG engineers are particularly enthusiastic about the

wayallthedetails,includingstraton,areconfiguredinasingle

developmentenvironment.Inotherwordsonlyonetoolisre-

quired,andittakesnexttonotimetolearnhowtouseit.”

Thisbringsdownbothtrainingandrunningcostsconsider-

ably,andatthesametimereducesdependenceonoutsideex-

perts.Theredundanttechnologyincreasesoperationalreliabil-

ityandensuresthatthecontrolsystemisavailableatalltimes.

SoftwareengineerFabioPolacomments:“zenonandstraton

haveenabledustomakeuseofinnovativeandaffordablePC-

basedtechnologieswithourexistingEthernet,andtocommuni-

catedirectlywiththePLCsfromaPC.Thissolutionhassignifi-

cantlyreducedourinvestmentandmaintenancecosts.”❚❙❘

❘❙❚ Apart from several “museum-wheez-

es”,almost100%ofallrailroadsaredriv-

en with electrical locomotives. 97 % of

therequiredcurrentisproducedbylocal

hydro-electric power plants. ÖBB tradi-

tionally draws the current, required for

its trains, also from Salzburg’s province

Pinzgau.Shortlyafter thebeginningfor

the20thcentury,theKaprunertal-Valley

and afterwards also the neighbouring

High tech for ÖBB – power generation.

ÖBB’s hydro-electric power plants in Stubachtal have a 210 mega-watt rating.The plants produce the main part of ÖBB’s electricity supply. Obviously, the control and monitoring of such a plant is laid into competent hands.

82 I energy I uttendorf

valleyswereanalysedbytheK&KRail-

road Cooperation concerning their suit-

abilityforhydro-electricpowerplants.In

1929thegeneratingplantEnzingerboden

startedoperation.Thegradualextension

oftheplantsSchneiderauandUttendorf

in diverse preliminary reservoirs fol-

lowed.Thereservoirsprovidewaterthat

is conducted via adits and penstocks to

theplants’turbineswithgenerators.Due

toaratingof210MW,Stubachtal’splants

areabletoprovideabouthalfofthesurge

current required by ÖBB. Without own

plantsthiscurrentwouldhavetobepur-

chased;Ing.WolfgangSteiner,Stubachtal

Group’sforemanconcerningcontrolreq-

uisites in the plant domain: “The entire

Stubachtal plant group is controlled via

SAT 230.This process control system is

consideredasoneofthemostinnovative

products in this field and also provides

visualisation.”SAT230isamodifiedver-

sionoftheprocesscontrolsystemzenon

byCOPA-DATAqualifiedforautomation

ofplantsandtransformerstations.

amazing potentialThefollowingfeaturesareoffered:con-

trolof110kV-16,7Hzsubstations (ÖBB

uses current with 16,7 Hz unlike house

frequency of 50 Hz), handling of start

and shut down action of machines (the

best provides a capacity of 33 MW),

visualisationofmachinesets,watershut

systems, turbine controller and voltage

controller, visualisation of power sup-

ply units, control of headwater systems

(for involvement of reservoirs), control

of home requirement systems, security

service (gate control, door monitoring),

counter logging,aswellasmessage log-

gingandalarmingforall.

smooth implementation Thissystemhasbeenperfectlyinstalled

and implemented byVATECH SAT to-

gether with ÖBB plants’ employees.

Steinberger: “We transmit high energy

quantities via 110 kV main or with

power switches and breakers from the

transformer station to the consumer

(locomotives).Coping this task requires

a modern and reliable control system.

Therefore the implementation of this

new system was necessary. SAT 230

satisfies most modern handling-

principles. During the implementation

processwewerecompetentlysupported

byVATECHSAT.”❚❙❘

uttendorf I energy I 83

© All logos shown here are copyright-protected. We would

like to thank the respective owners for their kind support.

project statusAllianz Arena 04/2006 | Andritz 06/2007 | ArcelorMittal

06/2008|BMWDingolfingstorageandconveyorsystem01/2008

| BMW Dingolfing vehicle body construction 12/2007 | BMW

LeipzigGLT03/2006|Braun/Gillette07/2004|Cawleys12/2008|Clarks 01/2006 | Collini 12/2003 | Converteam 09/2006 |Ferriere Nord 12/2008 | Ford 09/2006 | Hörmann Logistik

andModine:06/2004| Italcementi10/2008|Krones05/2004

| LaFargePerlmooser 10/2008 | Mabey&Johnson 12/2008 |Montblanc 01/2008 | ÖBB 11/2003 | Pepsi/QAB 06/2006 |Sasol02/2007|TCVVV11/2008|VolkswagenEmden12/2008

worldwide HMI/SCADA Solutions

© Copyright 2009, Ing. Punzenberger COPA-DATA GmbH. All rights reserved. This document may not be reproduced, photocopied or transmitted in any form (electronically or mechanically) without a prior permission in writing from Ing. Punzenberger COPA-DATA GmbH. The technical data contained herein have been provided solely for informational purposes and are not legally binding. Subject to change, technical or otherwise. Registered Trade-marks zenon® and straton® are both trademarks registered by Ing. Punzen-berger COPA-DATA GmbH. All other brands or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective owner and have not been specifi-cally earmarked. We thank our partners for their friendly support and the pic-tures they provided. We wish to thank all the customers that have supported us in the preparation of this reference brochure by providing case studies and associated material.

Publication number: CD-RB-E-09-03-01

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