SCADA for filling &
bottling applications
As speeds increase and filling-line machinery becomes more sophisticated, both operators and
management teams require improved visualisation and control information to ensure efficient plant
operation.
T
he good news is that current
generation SCADA solutions have
all the answers, regardless of your
job role.
Filling and bottling are fundamental
steps in most automated process plants
producing liquid products. The medium
could be free-flowing or viscous, stable
or volatile, heated or chilled, foodstuff,
pharmaceutical, chemical or lubricant -
packed in volumes from a few millilitres
to many litres.
In all cases the process is essentially
the same and integrates similar steps,
including aligning the filling head with
the receptacle, dispensing a measured
amount of fluid, capping or sealing,
labelling and palletising.
Significantly, a typical filling line will
have several dispensing heads, all
working simultaneously, multiplying
the number of functions that need
to be synchronised and controlled.
Furthermore, most filling operations
are performed at high speed, yet need
to dispense precise amounts of product
while not spilling a drop.
To complicate the matter further, alarms
will have to be monitored and data
will have to be collected and processed
in real time if production targets and
schedules are to be met.
Therefore, a filling station requires a
control system is that is high speed,
accurate, can communicate with
other machine controllers and feed
information up to an overall production
control system. The control system
also needs to be adaptable, because
it is a fact of manufacturing life that
requirements will change on a regular
basis.
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SCADA solutions
The best control solution for a filling
line is likely to be based on a SCADA
(supervisory control and data acquisition)
system. This can collect and process data
from field devices, HMIs (human machine
Interfaces) and local controllers, such as
PLCs (programmable logic controllers).
It interprets the data and can adjust
machine settings as necessary to
optimise or re-optimise production. It
can also activate alarms and initiate
appropriate actions if required.
SCADA can also be integrated with
a plant wide control system or an
enterprise management system to
provide a seamless 'shop floor to
boardroom' information and control
system that allows production to be
constantly monitored and adjusted to, for
instance, increase throughput, change
product or packaging. Finally, SCADA can
log all data for review, analysis, track-
and-trace.
Given all this capability, you might
expect SCADA to be expensive, and
indeed it can be – especially if restrictive
user licences are applied. However, some
suppliers, such as Products4Automation
are committed to reducing the costs of
SCADA while expanding its availability to
an ever-widening range of users.
www.products4automation.co.uk