Meeting modern requirements

To meet the trend towards increasingly smaller orders and tighter delivery deadlines, Papelera Brandia in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, called in the engineering consultancy firm, ABECOR Sistemes, S.L., to provide a solution that would give the factory a more flexible manufacturing process.
ABECOR Sistemes, S.L. specializes in the automation and management of industrial installations, and specifically developed an innovative control system for continuous dosing during the paper-manufacturing processes.

The solution developed involves a control system for up to 35 loops and features Omron equipment based on the CS1 programmable controller. It allows the factory to optimize its manufacturing processes to meet the current trends in paper demand.

Continuous dosing

In paper manufacture, there are two basic ways of arriving at a mixture of ingredients or components with specific characteristics: by batching and by continuous dosing.
The batch process involves placing predetermined quantities of raw material in a vessel according to a recipe. The final quantity or volume of pulp is then leaned, deflaked and refined until the desired characteristics are achieved. With continuous dosing, however, which is now installed at the Papelera Brandia factory, components are conveniently prepared and treated individually before being placed directly in a mixer vessel. This method reduces raw material and energy costs while saving time during changes in production. It also gives maximum manufacturing flexibility, which is an increasing requirement in today's paper industry. 

Highly sophisticated process

Continuous dosing calls for the tracking and analysis at all preparatory stages of pulp manufacture and maximum flexibility in terms of monitoring. It also calls for precise control, including the coordination of all movements and actuations (opening and closing valves, stopping and starting motors, with control loops, tank levels, flow rates and pressure values, etc.), as well as the realization of calculations using the real variables of the process, flow rates, production figures, proportions, etc.

Smooth software changeover

All of the above aspects were achieved using Omron equipment, which included the CS1 programmable controller and NS12 touch screens.
However, it was the CX-One software that made a key contribution to the project by enabling the transformation to continuous dosing to be carried out in record time and without interrupting production. In fact, the plant continued to produce at normal levels, around the clock and without having to disappoint a single customer.
A spokesman for ABECOR Sistemes, S.L. said, "The features and power functionality of the above devices, together with the new CX-One software, enabled the project to be carried out in a record time of only three months for the design and development of the applications, while the set-up of the complete system was realised in only six weeks. This was achieved without interruptions to the continuous 24-hour manufacturing process."