Client: Daiken NZ Ltd
Scope: Upgrade 1771 Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) K and I/O racks for the Line 2 Forming Area
Timeframe: 7 months
Overview
Medium Density Fibreboard manufacturer Daiken NZ Ltd is a joint venture between two Japanese companies; Daiken Corporation and Itochu Corporation. As part of their continual improvement program, Daiken commissioned Brightwater to undertake the upgrade of their 1771 Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) K and I/O racks on their Line 2 Forming area located at their Rangiora manufacturing plant.
Solution
Their existing PLC was replaced with Rockwell’s 1756-L62S, a safety PLC designed to future proof the site and provide support infrastructure for any possible safety upgrades. In addition to the PLC K upgrade, Daiken’s DH+ network was decommissioned and replaced with a new Ethernet/Fibre backbone.
The Rockwell PLC system controls all aspects in relation to Daiken’s Fibreboard Forming area on line 2. Constant electrical feedback is received from the line’s essential systems to provide motor status, positional status, line speed and various alarms. All this data is managed on the fly by the PLC which can perform automatic adjustments where possible, or provide feedback to Daiken operators in the control room via an ArchestrA HMI (Human Interface Device) or SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition).
The entire project including onsite installation spanned seven months. In order to minimise the impact on production, key changeovers and testing onsite were completed in Daiken’s monthly 12 hour maintenance shuts. The result being that Brightwater, along with technology partners Industrial Controls Christchurch Ltd, delivered all the necessary changes and the final upgrade without any disruption to Daiken’s production.
