BASF benefits from fast implementation and reduced maintenance costs
Successfully migrating an automation system in a polymer dispersion loading centre
Plant commissioning can be a hectic affair, with everyone nervously searching for errors, especially when they only have three days to bring a new machine into service. However, BASF’s migration in one of its shipping bays at the company’s Ludwigshafen Verbund site in Germany shows that things don’t have to be like that. The company was able to load up the trucks and see them drive away – half a day earlier than planned.
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This complex approach extends to BASF´s automation solutions too. More than 100 different liquids produced in the neighbouring building have to be carefully packed in containers. In the shipping bay, interconnecting the multiple tubes and valves can be a challenge. The dispersions need to be transferred through a pipe coupling station and loaded into their final container – which may be a truck, an intermediate bulk container or a tank. The pipe connectors and containers also need to be regularly rinsed out and cleaned.
When the loading facility was first set up in 1996, staff decided to use decentralised automation, with Allen-Bradley® PLC-5® controllers operating via ControlNet™.Today, the plant has more than 3,600 I/O points and BASF’s automation managers consider the existing systems to be a proven solution that should continue to function smoothly in the future, with their key requirement being that the system should continue to function well until 2018.
Tests showed that certain components were nearing the end of their life or would no longer be supported in a few years’ time. The managers agreed that a migration in 2011 was essential – but they didn’t want to wait that long. As Rockwell Automation was not one of BASF’s standard suppliers, the company’s specialist automation centre was asked to verify and approve the project. Rockwell Automation’s concept won over everyone concerned. The BASF team was also impressed with Rockwell Automation’s PlantPAx® system and solution consisting of management, engineering, testing and installation.
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The period planned for the implementation of the new system was only eight months. The start-up itself, was subject to an even tighter timeframe at only three days.
Rockwell Automation’s team first replaced the PLC5 controllers with three redundant Allen-Bradley® ControlLogix® programmable automation controllers (PACs). The existing 10Mbit Ethernet network for the PCs was then replaced by a 100Mbit network with two Rockwell Automation® Stratix 8000™ switches. Several of the display and operator components were also upgraded with newer devices, although these included the same functionality as the old ones. The previous visualisation system was replaced by a FactoryTalk® View client-server system along with a redundant server. “After the migration the system is less complex and delivers a higher performance”, Frübis notes.
On a Saturday morning in February, everything was ready. The plant was powered down and the entire loading facility came to a halt. The transfer of products from the production area to the shipping bay was also suspended – but not for long. “The whole system had been pre-assembled, so all we needed to do was connect ControlNet. After two or three hours we were able to restart the plant and begin testing,” explains Frübis. “The old remote I/O modules worked with the new controllers with no problems.” By Monday morning the team was ready to start transferring a test load onto a truck, and by the afternoon – half a day earlier than planned – the loading facility was back to normal and running like clockwork.
Perfect preparation
The two main reasons for the successful changeover were excellent preparation and an intensive testing phase at Rockwell Automation’s application centre in Karlsruhe. Over a period of two weeks, both teams worked together testing every function down to the last detail. The detailed preparation work in the virtual environment paid off when the real deployment started. Only the modbus connection to the production control system needed some extra engineering and brain power. However, with everything else running as planned, this did not represent a major stumbling block during the vital commissioning phase.
Rockwell Automation puts its domain expertise in the pharmaceutical and other industries to good use for its new process automation strategy. The Rockwell Automation PlantPAx System represents a leap forward in plant-wide integration delivering a best-in-class process control solution geared to BASF´s specific requirements and helping the company to maximise productivity while reducing costs. The platform comprises flexible, fully integrated and scalable solutions that can be used for small or large machines and a range of application sizes. The solution is based on a technology that allows information to transfer from field devices through the control and supervisory layers all the way to business integration systems.
BASF’s polymer dispersion loading facility has been running efficiently during the four months since commissioning. The company has signed a lifecycle agreement with Rockwell Automation that includes a spare part contract with defined costs as well as TechConnect phone support and service availability around the clock. The agreement helps make sure that the collaboration between the two companies will continue to function smoothly up to 2018. Further upgrades are planned before that date, with work already underway to further optimise system efficiency.
For more information, please e-mail us at: info_at@ra.rockwell.com with ref: BASF
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