Product category:
Food and drink manufacturing: processing equipment
News Release from: Rospen Industries | Subject: Production line control system
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 30 December 2005
Peanut butter production control updated
As it was the sole peanut butter production facility in the group, time scales for updating were critical and stringent site surveys were required to ensure installation within the allocated window.
Rospen Industries in conjunction with sister company Mass Measuring Systems recently installed and commissioned a complete peanut butter production line control system upgrade for Premier Foods within the demands of a tight time spread When relocating the production line at its Histon site, Premier decided to upgrade the existing Rospen feeding system with a Siemens PLC and remove the existing blending and transfer PLC to give a centralised control system
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 30 Dec 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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The existing panel suite spanned 9 bays and some 25ft, with additional distributed I/O stations sited around the plant As it was the sole peanut butter production facility in the group, time scales were of the essence and stringent site surveys were required to ensure installation within the allocated window.
Utilising the combined expertise offered by Rospen's feeders and Mass Measuring's control systems, the target was achieved while also meeting Premier's requirements on plant availability and reliability.
Two parallel material feeding lines continuously blend peanuts fed using Teflon coated tray feeders with sugar, salt and stabiliser fed through loss-in-weight screw feeders.
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The control system runs these feeders in closed loop control, constantly monitoring the weight loss and varying the speed of the feeders accordingly.
The peanut feeders are automatically refilled from FIBC discharge stations and all other materials are topped up by hand tipped sacks, with the system alerting operators when a hopper needs filling.
If any feeder falls too short the line automatically stops until it is topped-up.
Finally, peanut oil is proportionally added through variable speed pumps.
All materials are fed into a mill and then pumped to one of two heated agitation tanks, kept at a preset temperature by closed loop control routines within the software.
Routing valves allow extra milling for the 'super' grade.
Mixed product is pumped to one of four holding tanks ready for transfer to the packing line.
'Crunchy' peanut butter is routed past one of two kibblers allowing peanuts to be added to the paste.
The new control system uses an S7-300 PLC system and two Windows CE based MP-370 operator interface panels running identical software, allowing control and viewing of both lines simultaneously and giving online backup should one screen fail.
A colour graphic display also aids production by showing operators an overview of both lines and allows 'zooming-in' to specific areas for closer inspection.
Rewriting the control software also allowed previous system limitations on routing combinations to be removed and other modifications improved operating efficiency while reducing system downtime.
Mix formulations are stored in an internal flash memory.
Full manual control and setting of all mixing and transfer constants are available to authorised personnel through the touch screen.
A maintenance mode allows any drive to be taken out of automatic mode and manually started while maintaining all plant interlocks while a modem allows remote off-site diagnosis and software upgrades.
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