Value Propositions
Kerry Ingredients opts for the perfect blend
A Rockwell Automation solution for the blending system at the Kerry Ingredients Murarrie plant yields substantial savings and an estimated payback period of two years.
Background
One of the two-ton blenders, central to blending different quantities of wheat flours to produce a range of cereal products. |
The flour blending process automated by this project at the Murarrie site relies on a pair of two-ton blenders. The machines combine different quantities of wheat flours to produce a range of cereal products. Originally, the management and control of the blending process was performed manually. Flour was delivered in bags and transported on pallets. An operator would transport the ingredients to the blender by physically lifting each bag up, cutting it open and dumping the contents into the machine. Automation was limited -- existing Rockwell Automation MicroLogix 1500 PLCs were used on the factory floor to simply perform blender timing control.
Challenge
The manual handling process, explains Al Zenoni, Kerry Ingredients Site Engineer, suffered from a number of drawbacks. The first of these was that it required that flour be delivered in packaged form - a more expensive option than procuring the flour in bulk. This was compounded by operator safety issues and the logistic problems of trying to manage everything in 25 kilogram bags.
"When you start talking about the amount of flour that went through that room - you had to schedule the batches and make sure all the raw material was there. Storage space in the warehouse was limited and there was considerable traffic movement from forklifts. There was a lot of scheduling to do," he remarks. Improved quality control was also a key objective at the plant. Manual handling invariably led to occasional variations in quality. Zenoni and his team aspired to the more repeatable premium quality that a fully automated batch control system could offer.
Kerry Ingredients' blending issues soon gained attention. As part of a major investment in its asset base in the Asia Pacific region, the company sought ways to modernize its blending system at the Murarrie site. The challenge was to automate the system that transported flour to the blenders while providing better quality control and less waste. In addition, the platform had to be both reliable and easy to operate.
Solution
The blender automation project commenced in March 2001. The solution was a completely automated bulk-flour handling facility centred on a Rockwell Automation DeviceNet-based control system. Sydney equipment supplier, ABP Milling, installed the new plant materials storage and handling equipment and system integrator, i.Power Solutions, provided the electrical solution. Although six months in duration, Zenoni asserts that the project was not excessively disruptive. "A lot of the work was external and the only other work was done on the weekend. So we lost very little production time from the changeover," he says.
The new flour storage and transfer system was designed to accept bulk flour delivered by truck. It consisted of four new 60 ton silos for storing different types of bulk flour; augers with variable speed drives (VSD) for accurately metering out the flour from the silos; an 'aerzen' blower for providing compressed air to fluidize and transport the flour; and a new weigh-bin for collecting and weighing the mixture prior to dumping to one of the two blenders. Other mechanical components included vibrators, baghouses and fans for the silos; and sieves, rotary valves and an 'entoleter' for controlling product quality.
To ensure the new system operated reliably and efficiently, Kerry Ingredients selected i.Power Solutions to provide a turnkey solution for control and monitoring. Drawing from its strong materials handling background, the company designed and implemented a fully integrated automation system, utilizing a Rockwell Automation ControlLogix PLC as the central process controller. DeviceNet was chosen for the plant level communications platform and connected the ControlLogix to MicroLogix PLCs and third-party equipment, such as the weigh-bin scales and VSDs. In addition there were two Allen-Bradley PanelView electronic operator interfaces (EOI), located at each blender.
RSView32 provides not only supervisory-level machine interface, but contains the database for Kerry Ingredients' production requirements and work orders, updated regularly from their AS400 management system. |
Results
The plant was commissioned and up and running by the end of August 2001 - the benefits have been many. Primarily, the new system is more reliable and efficient. According to Zenoni, there has been negligible downtime since commissioning. The accuracy of the new flour weighing system, coupled with Rockwell Automation control, has reduced food waste and led to an increase in the yield of the batch and improved overall efficiency by 25%.
Zenoni explains the impact of the automation improvements: "With the manual system, you were relying on operators for timing and consistency. The new system is fully automatic - you get a degree of consistency that you didn't have before and that, in itself, has reduced rework and operator error. The amount of waste that you produce has been reduced considerably, because you don't have all those bags that you have to dump. It has significantly improved the process."
The driving force for the project was to reduce cost by improving productivity and reducing the purchase cost of flour. This has been realized, with the payback period for this successful upgrade projected to be approximately two years.
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