Product category:
Control systems, panels, HMIs, interfaces, screens
News Release from: Pro-face UK | Subject: GLC series of graphic logic controllers
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 14 March 2005
Graphic logic controllers improve the
picture
Since replacing mimic switches and tower lights with three graphic logic controllers, a user of CRT aluminising mills is benefiting from real time production data and greater flexibility.
L.G Philips Displays is the world market leader in cathode ray tubes for use in televisions and computer monitors
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 30 Jan 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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At its plant in County Durham the company manufactures approximately 3 million cathrode ray tubes each year.
CRTs are the crucial element in generating a high quality picture, and as the technology leader, L.G.
Philips Displays is committed to achieving ever-higher levels of quality through improved methods of manufacture.
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A recent project undertaken by Sunderland-based Optimum Control Solutions underlines this commitment.
Optimum Control Solutions have completed a number of successful automation projects at the Durham Plant of L.G.
Philips; programming, installing and commissioning PLCs, SCADA systems, robots and servo systems.
This track record meant that Optimum were called in when L.G.
Philips decided to replace the monitoring system on its automatic CRT aluminising mill, which coats the inside of CRT tubes with aluminium.
The monitoring system, comprising mimic panels and lights, was used to confirm that the aluminium coating thickness on the inside of the CRT was within tolerance.
The system had worked well for a number of years, but was inflexible, had recently become unreliable, and needed replacing.
Cameron Hall, Software Engineer at Optimum Control Solutions, takes up the story: "After discussions with L.G.
Phillips engineers we determined a number of key objectives for the new system.
First, it had to be more reliable than the one it was replacing.
Second, it had to be operator friendly, and provide more real time data to assist process quality.
Third, the system had to be able to communicate with L.G.
Philips existing PC20 unit, which controls the aluminising process.
Fourth, the new system needed to be much smaller than the old, which consumed a lot of space.
The third and fourth objectives gave us the most problems.
Because the PC 20 had no facility for serial communication, we had to provide an I/O interface, which could have resulted in an additional PLC between the PC 20 and the operator graphic terminals.
This would have increased both the size and the complexity of the system.
However, we were able to solve both problems using Proface's GLC series of graphic logic controllers.
The GLC units perform control as well as monitoring operations and they offer the facility for simplfied I/O interface with their flexible FN network modules.
The small size and excellent resolution of the GLC 2300 controllers were also important factors in our choice of units.
The controllers have a screen size of 5.7inches and, with a screen resolution of 320 x 240 pixels, provide excellent, clear colour graphics.
We employed three Pro-face units in the L.G.
Philips project; these were interfaced to the PC20 using the FN module in conjunction with a piece of bespoke software that we wrote in-house.
The software is in two parts: the GLC interface in ladder logic, the PC20 in statement list.
It provides system economy by enabling the outputs from the PC 20 to be scanned into a single input on the GLC controllers.
The first two Pro-Face systems were installed just before Christmas (December) 2003: the remaining one in April 2004.
All are proving to be an undoubted success.
Operators in the aluminising mills now get much more accurate indication of the thickness of the aluminium coating in real time, and are also provided with a thickness value to aid quality.
The systems are proving to be much more reliable than the ones they replaced, and are also totally flexible.
The benefit of this added flexibility is that if L.G.
Philips Displays wants to evolve the systems at any time to provide additional process data, then this will not be a problem.
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