Canned Meat Retort & Conveying System Upgrade with Documentation
A major meat processing plant needed to upgrade outdated controls on a continuous retort operation. All product made for worldwide distribution was processed through this system, so minimizing downtime for the upgrade was critical.
Challenge
The system had been originally installed in the 1980s and had been “band-aided” with modifications for 30-plus years, with no updates to system drawings. The original four-door control panel had a rat’s nest of wiring and obsolete componentry with an unknown amount of unused wiring and equipment. No one really knew what was going on inside the cabinet, they just hoped they could fix problems quickly. Only one person really knew how to get the system running, because they never shut it down — and that person was retiring. This was definitely a risk to the business.
Solution
Cybertrol designed and built an entirely new control system.
- The existing cabinet was studied in detail, with every wire identified and documented. Each device’s purpose was defined and new drawings were created.
- A plan was created for the demolition of the existing cabinet and installation of the new cabinet. Cybertrol reviewed this plan with the electrical contractor prior to the cut-over shutdown.
- Cybertrol worked around the clock with the customer and electrical contractor to get the system cut over, tested, and up and running on product.
- The new PLC/HMI systems walk operations through a step-by-step procedure for startup and shutdown through user-friendly HMI interfaces.
Results
The new system runs effectively and the customer sees this critical project as a huge success. New operators can easily learn the system and the properly documented software and drawings allow for quick and easy maintenance.
