Electricity + Control August 2017

round up

STANDBY + BACK-UP

New opportunities for gas operations Nampak Glass has commissioned a 1 km-long high pres- sure underground pipeline, which feeds from the existing Sasol Gas transmission network and ties into the newly constructed Nampak Pressure Reduction Station (PRS) in Germiston. Implemented for strategic business decisions, the high pressure underground pipeline construction includes a pressure reducing and metering station with two parallel lines; one in service and the other on standby. Each of the lines boasts a filter separator to clean the gas, an electric heater to heat the gas prior to the Joule Thompson effect when the pressure is reduced, a flow meter to measure gas flow, a regulator and slam-shut valves for pressure reduction and control, and to protect the downstream equipment. The project encompasses all necessary civil, mechanical, electrical and instrumentation work. According to Morkel du Preez, Saiyl Project Engineer, “This high pressure pipeline and metering station is one of the few in South Africa that is not owned by Sasol. Ener- gasTechnologies was commissioned to supply the electric heaters, filter separators, flow meters, insulation joints, isolation valves, control and slam-shut valves as well as relief valves.” The construction of the high pressure underground pipeline was overseen by project management team, Sai- yl, and commenced in April 2016 with basic engineering. Enquiries: Laetitia Botha.Tel. +27 (0) 11 397 6809 or email laetitia@energas.co.za

productive, as well as being empowered to explore manufactur- ing innovations by leveraging the latest innovations such as Big Data, Natural User Interface (NUI), and Internet of Things (IoT), all without compromising proven PLC reliability and robustness. The challenge was to use Sysmac machine control in con- junction with an existing operating system like Windows. This can normally be done by means of full visualisation, but influ- ences machine control negatively, which means it was not a viable option at the end of the day. Instead careful positioning has been deployed to allow both operating systems to work independently of each other. Integrated platform: The Sysmac integrated platform means continuous operation, productivity, efficiency, and safe- ty. Vertical integration delivers production data from the manu- facturing process directly to the IT systems. Data management enables machine data to be recorded, stored, and analysed in

order to improve productivi- ty even further. Furthermore, the installation of production modules and safety devices is simplified due to EtherCAT connectivity. Development environ- ment: The familiar VB and C# language enables easy reuse of application assets. This also translates into a low switching cost, and an excellent integrat- ed development environment,

This IPC has been designed to meet the requirements of industrial end users for maximum robustness and reliability.

including debugging and monitoring functions to boost devel- opment efficiency. Superior execution performance means im- proved operational efficiency, even in the event of limited hard- ware resources. Control and flexibility: It comes equipped with Windows RTOS that, combined with a powerful control capability, pro- vides for maximum flexibility. It is not only motion control that is the main beneficiary, as it also enables the creation of high-res- olution graphics and customised applications for high-end pro- duction requirements. The system can perform predictable motion control, while running data-handling applications at the same time. Uniquely, it will continue with motion control tasks even if the operating system stops working.

Electricity + Control

AUGUST 2017

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