When brewers turn hops and malt into "liquid gold," its quality is largely dependent on the process
technology that in every instance and at all times must ensure optimal operation. The Paulaner brewery in Munich, Germany, relies on a motor management system that continuously ensures the highest product quality.
World famous beverage manufacturer Paulaner produces approximately 2.6 million hectolitres of beverages per year, and around 2.5 million hectoliters of this is beer. Production is around the clock, seven days a week. To keep failures and downtimes in this large plant to a minimum, Paulaner relies on a Profibus-compatible motor management system, which reports all events to the central control room.
Paulaner first installed Simocode DP for the brewery’s wastewater system in 1999. After that, the entire malt receiving area was equipped with 30 such devices. In this area, different types of incoming malt are transported with the help of conveyors through sieves and scales, whereby samples are automatically taken for quality control. If the malt is accepted, it is stored in silos.
Paulaner moves some 46,000 tonnes of malt every year. Simocode does not transmit the actual current values, but rather, the percentages of the nominal current. As Mr. Herbert Eger, Master Electrician in the Industrial Engineering Department of Paulaner in Munich explains, "with the help of current metering, we can tell immediately when something goes wrong. The appropriate percentage tells us immediately whether there is a need for action, without actually knowing the exact level of current consumption of the respective drive."
Fully functional without PLC
All of the electric motors involved in the malt transport are monitored and controlled by Simocode DP. Motors up to 5.5 kW are started up directly at Paulaner, and those over 7.5 kW via a star delta circuit. These can be operated either automatically or manually through a control box located near every drive.
One of the reasons for the decision to use Simocode was the fact that individual drives remain functional even without PLC support. As Mr. Eger explains, "particularly in the cooling area, it is extremely important for the pumps to remain running, even if there is a failure in the PLC."
Another advantage is the free assignment of inputs directly on the devices themselves. Thus, there is no need to resort to auxiliary or similar contacts, which helps to considerably reduce wiring while also minimising the risk of failures. Previously, system technicians had to define appropriate messages for specific bit patterns of an 8-bit signal of the "motor byte" to immediately know the cause of failure. Today, if a gate switch in the malt receiving area signals a malfunction, the signal is fed directly to the motor management system. There, the signals are pre-processed, with the devices indicating to the controller precisely why a drive has failed. The result is displayed in the control room and can also be read locally.
The same technology also applies to the skew position monitoring of the malt elevators for their speed monitoring. Given the fact that there is always a risk of dust explosion in this area, the deployed devices must be configurable in accordance with the specifications stipulated by the Ex-protection Zone 20. That means that the operation of a motor must always be occupied by a logic of 1, whereby wire breaks are also detected.
Fully compatible
During the course of the control technology upgrade for the filtration plant, the management at Paulaner chose to install Simocode Pro, a follow-up system that is fully compatible with its predecessor. The increased use of such devices lays the groundwork for the development of a standard alarm protocol, which can be used plant-wide to establish consistent control architecture for all production systems.
Additionally, the Simocode Pro units offer many more functions than their predecessors, for example, in terms of the number of signal connections as well as the capability of multiplying the contacts on the units. Two additional modules can be connected to the basic unit for signal detection and evaluation. As a result, the most important signals of the various sensors monitoring and controlling the processes in the filtration plant are fed directly to the motor management units of the ten motors.
For Herbert Eger and his colleagues, it is of critical importance to be able to detect any and all changes occurring in the plant as quickly as possible. The "only real diagnostic solution," according to Eger, is Simocode, which immediately detects when pumps or fans are not working properly. If, for example, only the contactors were monitored, no alarm would be sounded in the event of a line break, a disconnected motor or a broken fan belt. The contactors would also not be able to detect a constant increase in the rate of current resulting from a faulty bearing or wear.
One aspect requiring close attention in the brewery environment is the function monitoring of the ventilation in the cooling systems, which must be performed daily. Simocode monitors these ventilation motors and forwards the data to the control room. If a unit does need to be replaced, an event which, according to Eger, "has never actually occurred," it is very simple to replace the unit.
The main device and the current detection module are separate units with the new Simocode generation. They are connected using a plug-in cable with reverse polarity protection. A memory module can be used when replacing the devices, into which the entire parameterisation data, including the Profibus address of the main device, can be copied.
In the event of a failure, a new device is simply installed and the data saved in the memory module is copied onto it. The data can also be stored on a PC. At Paulaner, all of the device parameterisations are documented and stored on a computer. When changes need to be made, they simply access the appropriate file and copy it onto the new device on the shopfloor.
Motor management with a future
The use of the extensive motor management system has brought with it great improvements for the plant technicians at Paulaner. The modular and scalable Simocode Pro V devices also offer the members of the technical unit the assurance of having invested in a viable technology for many years to come. Thus, Herbert Eger concludes, "Simocode is our kind of motor management system."
Advantages at a glance:
- Increased operation management and process quality
- Multifunctional, comprehensive electric motor protection
- Detailed operation, service and diagnostic data
- Open communication capabilities via Profibus DP
- Safety-oriented switch-off of drives thanks to emergency stop monitoring
- Compatible with previous Simocode DP system.
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