Shop Floor Data Collection: Paper Converting

The Client: Paper converting manufacturing plants. Installed system at six major paper plants throughout the southern USA, and installing at four major packaging plants throughout Canada. The Requirement: Automate the data collection of status information from shop floor production equipment throughout the plants. Make real time data available for monitoring production status in front office and also from remote locations. Categorize production data to be able to track scrap and improve yields.

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The Design Solution:

Production machinery on the shop floor was retrofit with sensors to count product. The sensors are wired to a local PLC responsible for counting and storing data in various categories. The PLCs throughout the plant are connected on a Modbus Plus Network to a host PLC that concentrates the data, and makes data immediately available to the plant wide business systems on the Ethernet network. The production information can be obtained from any terminal connected to the network.

Additional optical sensors are installed count product input and output from each of the shop floor machines. The machinery includes sheeters, presses, cutters, gluers, window, waxers and other machines from companies like Roland, K&M, Kamori, Bobst, Jagenburg, International, Speed Queen, and others.

The machine status is exchanged with the business administration system and production data is stored in categories for Make Ready, Good Copies, Bad Copies, Sort Copies. Additionally operators input data for downtime cause that is used in a paraeto analysis of machine operation.

The SFDC system is part of a bigger program to modernize these facilities using PECAS software for many of the MIS functions. By retrofitting the control system, these customers have extended the life of some very expensive machinery. They have responded to the end users desire for instantaneous update of order status from any location. And they have put in place a system that lets their engineers see what is happening and effect production improvements.

Major Automation Equipment

• PLC - Modicon Compact Series, Modicon Quantum Series
  
• Sensors - Banner, Allen Bradley
  
• Network - Ethernet TCP/IP, Modbus Plus
  
• Computers - HP Series
  
• Software - PECAS, ModSoft, ModLink, Windows95, HPUX