Product category:
Smaller-Sized PLCs
News Release from: Mitsubishi Electric Automation Systems | Subject: F130MR
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 10 July 2003
Controller goes on and on at QBL
A modest relay PLC at contract pharmaceutical packer QBL in Burnley has been running 24 hours a day, seven days a week for over 10 years - and has never yet failed.
A modest relay PLC, central to the vital clean room regime at contract pharmaceutical packer, QBL in Burnley has been running 24 hours a day, seven days a week for over 10 years - and has never yet failed The PLC, a Mitsubishi F130MR, operates the critical room call system that is used to summon supervisors and other key personnel to each of QBL's nine temperature controlled, Class 100,000 clean rooms where the packaging takes place
It was installed by John Cayzer of local systems integrator 1st Four, who integrated the room call system with the PA system and who has maintained both systems ever since.
Each room is fitted with automated equipment and is capable of packaging thousands of blister packs and pots per hour - round the clock if necessary.
Rigorous checking and control procedures at every stage ensure process integrity, and skilled staff supervise the smooth and efficient transition of the product from start to finish.
At various stages in each packaging run, or if an emergency arises, the production staff can call in a supervisor by pushing a wall-mounted button.
This logs the request, along with the time and displays it on an LCD screen.
The nine call buttons and display are networked through the PLC, which records the calls, queues them by time and scrolls the screen through a number of displays such as actual time, number of calls waiting, time lapsed for each call, call sequence and actual time.
At the time of the installation Mitsubishi did not have a real-time clock module available for its smaller PLCs, so 1st Four designed and built its own - which is proving just as reliable and long serving as the PLC and is reset against a datum clock once a day.
"The PLC has been clicking away since we built the facility in the early 1990s, probably thousands of times per shift", says QBL's MD Michael Payne.
"Every time I walk past the control cabinet I think about how reliant we are upon that little Mitsubishi controller - and how it has never let us down".
The secret to QBL's own success is that it is serving one of the great trend in the pharmaceutical industry, in which the majors are increasingly preferring to concentrate on their core competence of developing and manufacturing new drugs and subcontracting downstream processes such as packaging.
"We have to be incredibly efficient at what we do", explains Payne, "otherwise our customers may as well keep the process in house.
We are usually running several different jobs at once, and our supervisors and technicians have to move around between them.
To use their time as efficiently as possible, we use the room call system as one of our primary efficiency enhancing tools".
The F130MR is part of Mitsubishi's FX micro PLC range, the world's best selling "brick" type PLCs.
Small size, low cost, high power and virtually infinite flexibility means it remains a favourite with OEMs and end users year after year.
As well as main stream industrial automation uses, FX controllers have been installed in huge numbers in unusual and ground breaking systems, such as chiller cabinets, security barriers, stage sets and animatronic displays. Request a free brochure from Mitsubishi Electric Automation Systems ...
• Mitsubishi Electric Automation Systems: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Engineeringtalk email newsletter
• Engineeringtalk Home Page
