Systems are comprised of modules that have been developed and tested over numerous years and that reflect the high level of knowledge and expertise the company has. Since the systems are built of standardized and well proven modules they are also easier to maintain. The implementation of any change on the already validated system is faster, cheaper and safer because the change is made only in a separated module, has no impact on the rest, and requires much less re-validation activities.
An automation system is comprised of the following main and sub-modules:
- PDBM (Process Database Management) application is installed on the SCADA server and is used to manage recipes, reports, audit trail logs, users and their access rights. All the data are stored on the SQL database.
- DTS (Data transfer service) service is used as the interface channel between the PLC controller and the PDBM application, as well as the direct interface channel between the PLC controller and the SQL database.
- PLC controls the whole process. It is used to control and monitor the process according to the selected recipe, to trigger the events (messages, warnings and alarms), and to communicate with other systems. Software, which runs on the PLC, has a modular structure according to ISA‑88.01 standard. In this sense, the whole system is divided into a physical and procedural model. The procedural model (the application side) is a multitiered, hierarchical model composed of the several types of procedural elements, which are:
- Unit Procedures are comprised of different operations and are used to perform the whole procedural sequence, such as pre-rinsing, washing and drying in one consecutive sequence.
- Operations define an independent processing activity, such as WFIDosing or Wash.
- Phases are the smallest components of the procedural model and control individual actuators (i.e. control modules) to carry out specific function (e.g. media flow control, media tempering, transfer media from object, etc.)
- SCADA is used to visualize the status of the system and to supervise the process. We have built several modular concepts based on various platforms to support all different kinds of solutions and customers.
Hardware is also designed in a modular way – the whole automation system is split into different functional units which are controlled by remote I/O modules and supervised with the main control PLC. This concept enables us to either add a new functional unit or to make a change on an existing unit without having any impact on the installations or configurations on other hardware units.