Features/Benefits Provided: Reduced dramatically the number/frequency of SRM errors Increased maintenance and diagnostics effectiveness Improved serial communications diagnostics via Ethernet Eliminated bus-bar induced communications noise

A leading U.S. Tobacco Company had concerns with operations interruption at one of their cigarette production plants. Many control system components were no longer supported/available or were less reliable than newer technologies. This created risk to the operation in the event of component failure. To address this, the Tobacco Company selected the Supplier to upgrade SRM controls.

Besides eliminating interruption risk to business operations, goals were to provide a robust remote maintenance capability, and improve the on-board diagnostics. Additionally, due to a high number of positioning errors, another objective was to improve positioning reliability and accuracy.

The first step in the system upgrade was to prepare the PLC programming and the HMI interface for installation. This work was completed and tested at the Supplier's engineering facilities prior to on-site installation. To ensure that the selected wireless devices would provide reliable communications, test equipment was placed on the SRMs prior to upgrading; communication signal strengths were recorded as the SRMs moved through their normal operations. Upgrade of the first SRM was completed during one week. The old control elements were disconnected and removed, the PLC rack and Flex modules were installed, I/O devices were rewired and on-board and off-board components upgraded. This first SRM was allowed to operate under normal production conditions for one month prior to upgrading the remaining 8 aisles. The upgrade of each subsequent SRM followed one at a time, requiring five days each. There implementation meant no interruption to plant production floor operations. The project was completed within budget, ahead of schedule, and met each upgrade objectives.

Important to usability was the addition of the off-board human machine interface (HMI). This allowed the maintenance staff to observe the operating parameters of any SRM form a desktop computer in their maintenance office.

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