Fortunately, because of our long-standing relationship with the client, Huffman Engineering’s team helped install the original system. As a result of Huffman Engineering’s disciplined practice around archived records, details of the original system proved to be a strong starting place.
Examination by our engineers found that the system could still be powered on and communicate to verify its viability in production operations. The system was still controlled by the initial standard PLC sequenced program, and all analog and digital input and outputs were still in working order. However, a few key replacements were needed.
These replacements included a new HMI built on Ignition, transitioning from an older Allen-Bradley Control Logix LT5562 (1756-L62) to a newer Allen Bradley Control Logix 1756-L72 processor, and installing a new managed Ethernet switch for cybersecurity along with a few spare parts the manufacturer had on hand.
The process to program the new controller, add it to their network, install a modern HMI in a clean zone with verification and add it to their batch server environment took only a few weeks.
With these updates in place, the locked-out, tagged-out seal-coater that had been dormant for 13 years was brought back to life. Not only was the system revived, it worked equally as well as the company’s newer systems, churning out half a million tablets in one hour.
This out-of-the-box thinking yielded a result few would have considered just weeks prior when looking at a piece of equipment that had been relegated to the forgotten closet of decommissioned hardware. There is no question that, with the increasing speed of technological transformation, modernization of industry is a necessity not a luxury. But this doesn’t mean you have to throw out everything that exists in your plant to achieve this.
A strong system integration partner can marry existing equipment and new technologies with strong results.
