Reviewer details
Name: J.C. Erasmus
Position/Designation: Automation Specialist
Company: Highveld Steel
Tel: (013) 690 9945
e-mail: [email protected]
Product details
Vendor: Adroit Technologies
Product name and version: Adroit Version 4.2
Tel: (011) 781 3513
e-mail: [email protected]
URL: www.adroit.co.za
General
Q: What industry (eg mining, food and beverage, automotive etc) is the scada being applied in?
A: Manufacturing of steel and vanadium.
Q: Describe the application briefly giving a description of any existing control systems, any previous scada system that was in place etc. If relevant describe the switchover from the previous system.
A: The installation under review is the shaking ladle (SL) and basic oxygen furnace (BOF) scada systems. The control system is fully automated utilising PLCs with the Adroit scada as the HMI. All the PLCs and scada server PCs are inter-connected on the Modbus Plus network. The scada PCs are connected via Ethernet. The previous scada system, AFE, was only used to do monitoring. The previous control system consisted of manual pushbuttons and panel instrument controls. The changeover between old and new was done one unit at a time on a shutdown basis. (seven units)
Q: Who did the system integration?
A: All was performed in house.
Q: Approximately how many man-hours did the integration take?
A: Approximately 170 man-hours for the first unit and approx 100 man-hours for each of the remaining units.
Q: How is the after-sales support handled (eg remote-dial-up, e-mail, Internet access etc)?
A: Via telephone and e-mail.
Q: What sort of licensing agreement is used on this particular system? Does one licence cover all modules, or can the user only buy those modules that he wishes to use?
A: The systems installed have four scada hasps and 12 clients. The four hasps are installed on the hot standby PCs, which are also used as operator stations. Four additional operator stations are installed in various control rooms. Four logons are available from the maintenance/management personnel offices. Yes, one licence covers the complete package. The user selects and buys the system based on the I/O count and the amount of client-stations required.
System architecture
Q: How many tag points/I/O does the installation have? Analog? Digital? Maximum possible?
A: The SL system has 2680 tags (975 analog). The BOF system has 3200 tags (1840 analog). The maximum possible on each installation without upgrade is 5000. If these need to be extended the hasps need to be upgraded.
Q: What operating system is the scada running on (eg Windows NT, Unix etc)?
A: Windows NT.
Q: What impressed you most about the architecture? Open standards, wide range of drivers, the ability to upgrade, etc? Please elaborate.
A: A very extensive range of drivers forms an integral part of the system. To upgrade you only pay from where you are to where you want to be and not all the way from starting point.
Q: Is the system integrated onto an intranet or the Internet? If so, does the configuration allow simple remote monitoring, or is it configured to allow full remote control? If not, what level of intranet/Internet control does the scada allow for future use?
A: Connected to an intranet. The intranet clients are configured with the same mimics as the operations staff but without any control. If need be full remote control is possible via a small change at the NT domain controller security options.
Q: What sort of redundancy is built into the system?
A: The system is configured in two clusters having two servers each running in a hot standby mode. In a cluster one machine acts as master and the other as slave. If the master should crash the slave becomes master. The scada system allows for data catch-up and time synchronisation.
Graphics
Q: Describe the graphics development process - eg did you use standard library images, or did you have to draw images from scratch?
A: A huge library of images is included. An image can be selected and very easily modified to become something totally new. Having an in house team graphics are used over and again on different plants to the benefit of maintenance and operations staff.
Q: How would you describe the library of graphic images?
A: Sufficient.
Q: Did you use any 'special' images (eg embedded video clips, photographs, 3D images etc)?
A: No.
Compatibility
Q: Did you run the scada in conjunction with any third-party application software? Describe.
A: Yes. An Excel process calculation application runs in the background to calculate certain raw material quantities and an access database is used for the material consumption reporting.
Q: Does the scada allow for the user to create scripts to perform specific tasks? Describe any specific scripts that were written for this project.
A: Yes, a script prompts the operator at a given point in the process to enter vital material quantities that are not part of the recipe.
Management reporting
Q: Is a trending and historical data reporting system included? Please elaborate.
A: Yes, both trending and historical features are included in the Adroit package. Enhanced trending features includes: a) Adding bookmarks onto a trend which includes the operator comment, time & date stamp and value, b) Multicolour trend filling to highlight alarm conditions. The historical functionality is enhanced via the plant VCR feature. This is extremely useful where one could play a mimic back and observe what the process was doing at any given time.
Q: Is the system integrated into a manufacturing execution system?
A: No.
Q: Is the scada system integrated into a management reporting or control system (eg SAP, Baan)?
A: No, not at present.
Q: Was any additional software development needed? Please elaborate.
A: No.
Conclusion
Q: What impressed you the most about the system?
A: a) The fact that the limitations of the system are a factor of the configurator's imagination.
b) A very stable and reliable product, which I will use again.
Q: What was the predominant feature (or features) that made you decide to employ this scada, rather than another (ie ease of use, support from the vendor, upgrade path, redundancy features etc)?
A: Various: Initial cost. Ease of use to configure. Easy and cost-effective upgrade paths. Excellent redundancy. Local manufacturers who pay attention to our needs.
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