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Product category: Plant- and Machine-Wide Communications
News Release from: MatrikonOPC | Subject: Matrikon OPC
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial Team on 17 March 2006

Paper plant updates communcations

Paper production company benefits from quick, reliable and secure access to high quality data using standards-based connectivity.

Propal Paper Production in Valle del Cauca, Colombia, recently upgraded its plants as part of a strategy to enhance profitability, stay competitive and increase its ROI in the demanding paper market The firm used standards-based OPC industrial connectivity to provide a complete off-the-shelf method to give it quick, reliable and secure access to highly accurate data

Before upgrading, limited data were available from four paper machines during and immediately after the production of each reel of paper.

The data that were available were stamped on the end of each reel, and never stored electronically.

Limited access to the existing data impeded Propal's operating capacity and its ability to make timely and efficient decisions at the business level.

Without instant access to the data from every reel, Propal's ability to reduce cull and improve quality to meet customer requirements was disadvantaged.

Its ability to plan, schedule, manage inventory and accurately determine operating costs was hindered by a lack of data.

These deficits made staying competitive in a challenging market and improving overall business performance difficult.

To optimise its upgrades and eliminate these deficits, Propal needed to interface its ABB AC450 quality control system (QCS) with its new manufacturing execution system (MES).

This interface would involve three paper machines and one off machine coater (OMC) in plant one, and one paper machine in a second plant on a remote site.

The QCS could only provide real-time data, not historical data typically needed for reporting and analysis.

The interface system would have to obtain real time data from the paper machines and OMC, store them and then present them to the Optivision MES provided by Honeywell via an OPC historical data access (HDA) server.

Process control network (PCN) security was also a major concern for Propal.

Before the implementation of this interface, the PCN was secure and isolated from the corporate network.

Interfacing the PCN with the corporate network created opportunities and potential risks.

In today's paper market, production facilities must improve the timeliness and effectiveness of production decisions to stay competitive.

This involves the integration of real-time production systems with business applications to streamline the flow of information.

However, security issues with Windows and internet-connected business networks have caused significant reliability issues for systems in operations.

Incorrectly configured firewalls, viruses and uninstalled or outdated system patches are some of the primary causes of lost production that lead to financial loss.

Propal had two main integration objectives.

First, acquire high quality data, store the data and present the information to local and remote sources.

Secondly, maintain a high level of PCN security.

One option for Propal was to use vendor specific protocols and write proprietary interfaces between the systems.

However, this would require custom coding, delay implementation, drive up costs and limit Propal to vendor specific products while leaving the security issue unaddressed.

Another option would be to use OPC standards-based industrial connectivity.

OPC technology is used to transfer data between devices and applications which is an inexpensive, easy to use and commercially off-the-shelf method.

Based on industrial connectivity standards, OPC is quick to integrate and provides a stable, reliable and secure environment.

Propal chose Matrikon OPC technology because it is based on the OPC published standard.

This provided advantages for Propal, most importantly, mitigating proprietary problems between its ABB and Honeywell systems enabling them to operate with more agility and efficiency.

To address these issues, Propal's Process Control Engineer, Mario Lopez, integrated the Matrikon OPC Desktop Historian, Transporter and Tuneller into its mills.

QCS data was acquired from Propal's ABB AC450 control systems and stored in multiple Matrikon OPC Desktop Historians which were combined.

The Desktop Historians enabled Propal to collect, analyse and manage data at the operation level using its ABB 800xA client applications.

For Propal to use QCS data at the enterprise level, a vital part of process optimisation and production tracking, the data had to be transferred to Honeywell's Optivision MES.

Propal integrated the Matrikon OPC Transporter as a quick and easy way to transfer historical data.

No custom programs or scripts were required to move the data.

The Historical Transporter is an off-the-shelf application that makes transferring data from historians quick, easy and seamless.

It also enables Propal to transfer archived data from an off-site facility to Honeywell's Optivision for MES on the corporate network for off-line analysis.

To address the issue of PCN security, Propal chose Matrikon OPC Tunneller to provide a way to communicate between networked computers.

OPC Tunnelling is a secure way to transfer data between different network domains.

Once Tunneller was installed on the network of each domain, Propal could seamlessly transfer data between the two systems.

It achieved this by installing Tunneller on the OPC client and OPC server nodes, stipulating a computer name and the port setting.

Tunneller eliminated any need to reconfigure the existing IT infrastructure.

No vendor specific protocols and proprietary interfaces requiring custom coding were needed.

With 6000 QCS points connected and updated every 30s, Propal's production efficiency is steadily increasing.

Quality paper manufacturers such as Propal cannot tolerate defects either in the paper itself, or in the coatings applied.

Its web inspection systems inspect paper at the speed it needs, and offers real-time detection and imaging of defects.

While cutting paper products to meet customer requirements, Propal can section out bad sectors of the roll leaving significantly less cull and reducing production costs.

In addition, Propal can take full advantage of the historical PCN data in its corporate environment while keeping the PCN secure.

Off line data analysis with Optivision MES has resulted in timely and effective decision making for Propal.

More effective planning, scheduling, inventory management and accurately determining operating costs have made staying competitive in a challenging paper market and improving overall business performance a reality.

Propal is growing into the advantages of its scalable system that amply meets current needs and enables continued expansion and improvement as required. Request a free brochure from MatrikonOPC ...

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