At the upcoming ACE 2015 taking place in Anaheim, California from June 7 to 10, Festo will be presenting a new modular approach to automating water/wastewater and other processing plants. This new approach reduces the time and cost of manufacturing process systems and makes processing plants more adaptable to changing market environments.
“The biggest opportunity to reduce manufacturing costs for the OEM happens in the design phase, where component selection is made and vendor partnerships are created. We strive to deliver solutions during design that make an impact. We’ve found that with early involvement we can help reduce skid fabrication assembly costs by almost 20 percent,” said Craig Correia, Head of Process Automation at Festo.”
The traditional design for a water filtration plant includes valves, pumps, tanks, filter modules, sensors, and pipes. The required components for actuating the field devices are installed in a control cabinet, and a valve terminal such as a remote I/O system with integrated pneumatic section is connected to a central controller with visualization (management system) via a fieldbus. Plants of this type can be easily modularized by breaking down the process into sub processes and defining a module for each sub-process with all the mechanical and automation components required for standalone operation. Key modules systems in a water/waste water plant include pump, filtration, and clean in place.
At the heart of any Festo modular system is the CPX modular controller with the MPA valve terminal. This in-the-cabinet controller, with an IP67 rating, provides serial linkage and consistent communication down to the valve level for comprehensive diagnostics. The compact MPA terminal has up to 64 valve positions/128 solenoid coils. This design saves considerable space in the control cabinet, helping to reduce cabinet size, and provides reliable feedback-free switching of pilot valves/process actuators.
The CPX modular controller features CODESYS, a software/hardware independent control solution based on IEC 61131-3. CODESYS is extremely cost effective and helps to lower project costs. Standalone or embedded in the HMI or valve/electrical terminal, CODESYS enables communication with leading Ethernet and Fieldbus protocols.
The Festo MPA valve terminal in this application features multipole mounting plates that decrease assembly time because there is no need to produce short runs of pneumatic cable within the cabinet or to make multiple bulkhead connections. Multipole plate gaskets have NEMA and IP ratings so the integrity of the enclosure is maintained against moisture, dust, and gases. By removing all the short pneumatic hoses inside the cabinet, the time to verify connections during the factory acceptance test or when performing field service is greatly reduced. Having all of the pneumatic connections on the outside of the cabinet wall improves the aesthetics and standards compliance for the cabinet.