ABB Limited has won a contract for a control system to help one of the world's leading producers of industrial adhesives to achieve more efficient control of its batch processes.Dynea UK Limited, located in Mold, Flintshire has purchased the latest System 800xA control system to improve and update its existing system used for its Urea-Formaldehyde (UF) resins and adhesives process. The overall process control system including the Phenol-Formaldehyde (PF) process has in excess of 1000 I/O signals, with operator access via four operator stations for the UF plant and three for the PF plant. Rick Hirons, Plant Engineer for Dynea, says: One of the major benefits of the ABB system is that it includes batch management software, allowing Dynea to produce a more consistent product based on the ability to call up stored recipes. The chosen system will allow Dynea to meet all forthcoming legislative requirements .
Dynea chose ABB for the new system based partly on its strong relationship with ABB and previously Alfa Laval who supplied the original Sattcon system on site. Says Hirons: We worked with Alfa Laval for 10 years and in all that time we never had a problem - we always got the best service from them. In fact we have not pursued a formal service contract as they were always there when we needed them. Because ABB is using the same engineers, we were happy to award them the contract to also update the Sattcon system. Hardware for the system includes the 800xA, two AC800M controllers and S890 I/O modules. The I/O modules are ATEX certified, allowing Dynea to meet the latest requirements. The I/O modules used for both plants provides commonality of spare parts and also feature built-in Intrinsically safe area barriers, reducing the space required for panels.The system software enables Dynea to collect production data, so giving production staff the ability to identify bottlenecks for future improvements.
System 800xA also allows software written for one part of the control system to be easily copied and re-used. For example, the UF plant has several reactors. Once the software is written for one reactor, it can be instantiated to serve other reactors. Any changes or amendments made to the original software are updated in the copies and a change log maintained - thereby keeping software maintenance costs down.Future benefits will be achieved through the system's ability to configure HART devices remotely over the Fieldbus, centralising maintenance and cutting costs.The hardware and software for the project have been jointly engineered by Dynea and ABB personnel. Dynea engineers worked on the graphics as well as the functional design & test specifications, giving them invaluable experience that has already helped in the operation and maintenance of the system.