Columbia Automation Systems, Inc.

Columbia Automation Systems has been supporting a boiler start up requiring strict emissions for nitric oxide (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO). The boilers are single burner natural gas fired with diesel backup.

We have been teamed together with the plant, boiler manufacturer, burner manufacturer, and contractors. Our involvement in the project has been supplying combustion and burner management engineering and consulting services throughout the installation to include:

• Distributive Control System (DCS) combustion controls programming
• Field wiring installation checkout and troubleshooting
• Calibration of field devices
• Implementing fuel / air ratio curves in DCS
• Tuning PID loops in DCS
• Operator training

The plant is currently operating three boilers that are exceeding expectation in emissions and beating the required 13ppm NOx and 18ppm CO on natural gas.

Contact Columbia Automation Systems for more information.

Columbia Automation Systems, Inc. a Vancouver, WA Systems Integrator and Automation Engineering Co., famous for their 24/7 Emergency Service, now offers Energy Efficiency Assessments for LED lighting retrofits and upgrades in the Industrial segment. This is a new option for selection in their Service Package providing their clients with even more cost saving benefits!

Demand-side economics speak in favor of LED lighting (LED’s MAGAZINE)

The economic benefits of taking on a LED lighting retrofit could not have come at a better time. Business owners have seen their assets decrease in value over the last 24 months as profits have dropped while utility rates, materials costs and labor rates continue to rise. For the first time in over a decade, facilities managers, asset managers and property owners are looking at cost cutting as the only way to increase their revenues.

LED lighting retrofits offer a significant opportunity to reduce costs in multiple areas.

LED lighting retrofits can demonstrate quantifiable savings in power consumption, air-conditioning demand, material and labor cost for replacement, and recycling cost. Add to those savings the tax benefits of the deductibility of an operating lease or the ability to depreciate a capital lease structure and one can see a payback as short as 1.78 years on fixtures that have a rated life of over 9 years. That’s not to mention the benefits of “going green” including a significant carbon footprint reduction.

CAS has developed and released a new HMI package to update your Paper Machine Winder Controls.

Do you need help with any Maxon needs? We are Maxon Sales Representatives for Washington and Alaska (Excluding Southwest Washington).

CAS is a distributor for ABB Industrial IT Control Products.

The Beloit Beltronics winder control system in a paper mill had become difficult to maintain due to its age. This system was used for slitter positioning and roll structure curves. The Beltronics system was comprised of a VAX computer with an operator terminal, Allen-Bradley PLC5/12, IMC 120 motion controller, 1391 Drive, and 1771 I/O. An Allen-Bradley Remote I/O card was used for communication to the PLC and I/O racks. The Beltronics system was interlocked with the winder drive system through hardwired I/O points.

The paper mill contracted with Columbia Automation Systems (CAS) to meet the client’s need to reduce its maintenance costs. CAS designed a new electrical system to use the original Beloit mechanical equipment and be integrated with the other winder control systems. The VAX based Beltronics was replaced with a twin PC-based WonderWare HMI system (hot-backup, automatic fail-over) complete with custom slitter positioning software. The HMI communicates over Ethernet to an existing ControlLogix that replaced the PLC5. A new 1756-MO8SE module in the ControlLogix chassis is used to communicate over a SERCOS network to an Allen-Bradley Ultra3000 servo drive. The original 1771 I/O is incorporated directly into the ControlLogix system to save hardware and wiring costs.

A new ControlNet interface was implemented between the ControlLogix and the Reliance AutoMax drive system using the 1756-CNB and MBCN cards. This removed the hardwired interlocks and made more information available to the operators. The AutoMax code was revised to incorporate new alarms, interlocks, and roll structure set points.

The new HMIs with roll structure and slitter positioning improved the operators’ ability to run the winder and reduced their dependence on the maintenance personnel due to enhanced status and control features. The system is interfaced to the mill roll tracking system to eliminate the need for operators to manually enter roll width set points. Roll structure curves are now stored in recipes and stop-to-length and stop-to-diameter options are available. Quick troubleshooting is now possible with the inclusion of more status information and alarms.

Equipment and services supplied by CAS includes:

• Stainless Operator Console with twin HMI computers and 18″ color touch screen monitors with industrial keyboards.
• Servo drive cabinet from our UL listed panel shop
• Servo motor
• ControlLogix hardware
• AutoMax hardware and programming
• ControlLogix programming
• WonderWare programming
• C programming
• Project management
• System design
• AutoCAD documentation
• System manuals
• Operator Training
• Installation supervision and commissioning
• Drive system tuning

Contact Columbia Automation Systems for more information.

The Columbia Automation Systems team successfully completed a paper machine PLC upgrade. The project was a conversion from Reliance AutoMate to Allen-Bradley ControlLogix. It was accomplished on a planned four day shutdown.

The original system was a Reliance AutoMate 40 PLC with AutoMate remote chassis I/O and rail I/O. It had redundant masters with fifteen remote drops. I/O was a mixture of digital and analog. There were four Modbus serial interfaces to the Honeywell DCS.

The new system is a redundant ControlLogix system (1756-L55, 1757-SRM, 1756-CNBR). All AutoMate chassis were replaced with ControlLogix chassis (1756-A10, 1756-A17). All AutoMate analog I/O modules were replaced with ControlLogix isolated analog I/O modules (1756-IF6I and 1756-OF6CI). All remote chassis are on ControlNet.

The new system utilizes existing rail I/O to reduce costs. Reliance I/O Saver modules are used to communicate to the rail I/O. The ControlLogix masters communicate over ControlNet to remote 1756-DHRIO modules then over Allen-Bradley Remote I/O (Blue Hose) to the I/O Saver modules. This approach greatly reduced costs while simplifying the installation.

The Modbus interfaces to the Honeywell DCS were replicated in the ControlLogix so that no reconfiguration was required in the DCS. Four ProSoft Modbus Communication Modules (56MVI-MCM) replaced the four Reliance Gateway modules. These four ProSoft modules are installed in a remote ControlLogix chassis with its own dedicated Logix processor for handling the communication to the DCS. Information is then shared with the masters over ControlNet.

A software interface to the Reliance AutoMax drive system was added using an Ethernet/IP Bridge (1756-ENBT) and an AN-X DCSNet module from Quest Technical Solutions. This interface passes PLC interlocks to the drive system to simplify drive system troubleshooting and for trending on the Reliance Sigma Universal Process Monitor (UPM).

CAS worked closely with the mill in a team effort to complete this upgrade in the scheduled shutdown time.

Contact Columbia Automation Systems for more information.

Columbia Automation Systems designed and implemented a network gateway solution for a paper mill customer who was updating the wet end of an existing paper machine. Different contractors were selected for the process control system, quality control system, and motor control center (MCC). CAS was asked to integrate these new components into the existing control system while working closely with the other suppliers to create a viable complete system.

The customer selected a variety of vendors based upon careful analysis of each system. The chosen process control system was Fisher-Rosemount Delta V, which was preferred for its connectivity to existing Rosemount transmitters, its operator friendly graphics, and use of Foundation Fieldbus. An ABB quality control system with an Advant controller was selected for measurement. Cutler-Hammer Advantage motor starters and SV9000 drives were prearranged in a factory DeviceNet MCC package.

The customer needed a way to integrate all of these systems into the existing Allen-Bradley PLC5 control system with WonderWare and PanelView operator interfaces and Eurotherm and Westinghouse drives. For commonality of spare parts and minimization of training for the maintenance team, the customer wished to stay with the Allen-Bradley PLC5 platform. CAS engineered a solution using a PLC5 controller as a network gateway to connect all of the different systems. 1785-KE modules were used to communicate with the Fisher-Rosemount and ABB systems which each have serial DF1 protocol capability. Data Highway Plus (DH+) was used to connect to the existing PLC5 controller. Allen-Bradley 1771-SDN DeviceNet scanners were used to control the MCC from the PLC5. A SLC5/04 controller connected to DH+ was added to replace analog circuits for reference generation in the existing Westinghouse drives. The Eurotherm drives were integrated with the X-Link from SST.

In order to complete this project, CAS worked closely with the customer and the other suppliers to ensure a seamless start-up. A database of shared signals was developed and maintained to clearly define the interfaces between the systems. Modifications to the existing PLC program were made to support the new equipment. CAS joined with Cutler-Hammer personnel to fully test the MCC prior to start-up.

Due to careful planning, thorough testing, and teamwork, the start-up went extremely smoothly. Everything worked as designed and the customer was pleased. The customer was especially appreciative of the documentation and structure of the PLC program, which was designed to make troubleshooting fast and easy. Of our performance on this project, the mill project manager said, “I always have high expectations, and you exceeded them every time.”

Contact Columbia Automation Systems for more information.

Columbia Automation Systems completely upgraded a paper machine drive system, providing system design, hardware, software, project management, and start-up. The original system was comprised of a line shaft and several analog drives. The upgraded system is a fully digital drive system interfaced with other mill systems complete with on-machine operator interfaces and control room human machine interfaces (HMI).

ORIGINAL SYSTEM

• Analog drives and DC motors
• Sectionalized wet end
• Line shaft from dryers to the reel drum
• Push buttons and potentiometer operator controls
• Drive system monitoring with analog meters, pilot lights, and annunciation panels

PROJECT GOALS

The project goals were accomplished over several short shutdowns to allow production goals to be met throughout the project

• Remove line shaft and sectionalize the machine.
• Upgrade to digital drive system from analog.
• Upgrade operator controls from push buttons and potentiometers to a networked system of touch screen panels (on the machine) and HMI computers (in the control rooms).
• Revise the control scheme to make the couch the master with progressive draw from wet end to dry end.

NEW EQUIPMENT

• AC motors and drives for sections previously driven by the line shaft
• Common DC Bus supply with regenerative unit for AC drives
• Digital front ends on existing analog DC drives
• Supervisory control system for the drives
• Touch screen panels (one per section) on the machine
• HMI computers (wet end control room, dry end control room, drive room)
• Dedicated trending computer with high speed real time and historical trends

IMPLEMENTATION

• Installed new supervisory controller and upgraded several wet end analog drives to digital. Installed touch screens on wet end. Temporarily hardwired interlocks and analog signals to remaining analog drives.
• Installed new AC drive line up for dryers, breaker stack, calendars, and reel. Pre-commissioning was accomplished with motors temporarily placed behind the machine.
• Starting at the reel drum and working toward the wet end, the line shaft was systematically broken and a new motor installed and commissioned on short shutdowns. With each new motor and drive, a touch screen was added for operator control.
• Concurrent to the installation of new AC motors and drives, the remaining analog DC drives were upgraded with digital front ends. Additional touch panels were installed for operator control. Hardwired signals and interlocks were removed.
• Communication interfaces were installed to interlock the drive system with other machine control systems.
• HMI and trending computers were installed.

Contact Columbia Automation Systems for more information.

Columbia Automation Systems has been servicing paper mills’ flame safeguard systems and building their Burner Management Panels from our UL 508 panel shop. In the Fall of 2000, a Portland area mill substituted a new Fireye Insight Scanner for their existing Fireye Signature Scanner for a trial period. They were so pleased with their first unit that they have purchased more Fireye Insight models for replacement of their other scanners.

The power boiler has four front-fired dual fuel ring burners. Due to the close proximity of the burners, dual fuel, and background refractory radiation, we decided that this would be an ideal application for ‘Smart Scanners’. Fireye’s Signature Scanners perform UV discrimination required in order to insure the highest level of safe boiler operation.

Fireye scanners have been performing flawlessly for years. However, the ambient temperature rating is continuously challenged by the boilerplate radiation and the scanner life is shortened. The mill asked CAS for the same equipment to increase the longevity of their flame safeguards. Together with Fireye’s latest release, we provided them with their desired solution.

The Insight Scanner retains its predecessor’s ease of programming the ultra violet signatures in the firing chamber, and adds many new features. The new scanner heads are designed for the most abusive industrial environments a flame supervision device may encounter. In addition Fireye has a new Vortex Cooling Jacket available.

The Insight Scanner’s most notable characteristic is the integral UV amplifier. The scanner head assembly contains the amplifier in a single housing; removing the need for a separate DIN mounted flame amplifier in a remote panel. The list price for the Insight scanner is more than a 45UVFS1-1000, but when compared to the price of a scanner with a separately mounted amplifier you will see a definite advantage.

The Insight Scanner requires a new cable, but once it’s installed, the optional quick disconnect is another benefit the mill personnel have appreciated. The Vortex Cooling Jacket option protects the electronics from the normally harsh environment on the boilerplate. The increased longevity of the scanners and the elimination of a separate component for the amplifier has allowed Fireye to improve on a remarkable flame safeguard component. Whether it’s the boiler operators, storeroom, or purchasing agents, everyone has compliments on the new changes. Fireye has listened and answered the industries needs. CAS is proud to be the Fireye Representative for the Pacific Northwest.

Contact Columbia Automation Systems for more information.