The whole grain solution
Mechanical and automatic grain handling
“We have found Eaton to be a reliable partner and supplier for electrical engineering, drive engineering and automation over several years. Products and systems from Eaton offer us a high level of flexibility, compatibility, efficiency and safety - and are naturally always state-of-the-art, as well as providing the required approvals and certificates.”
Background
Feerum S. A. is a company that is active in grain processing. This ranges from transportation from the field, cleaning, drying, and right through to storage. All the machines, plants and systems used in this process are manufactured in Poland. Feerum produces grain dryers, chain and belt conveyors (redler and conveyor lines) as well as elevators, and for years Feerum has primarily used components and solutions from Eaton for the motor control, the circuit protection switchgear and the automation.
Challenge
The success of the Polish company is based on its many years of experience as well as the practical input from the agricultural sector. The use of advanced technical solutions in its plants is important to Feerum as it ensures the highest degree of care is taken when handling grain in this process, as well as maintaining a natural environment for drying, conveying and storage. ln order to ensure optimum system reliability and availability, the 150 Feerum motors required systems to be controlled, protected via DOL, soft starters and drives. One of the main requirements was, that the process is continuously monitored to ensure the highest availability and identify potential issues even before the operation would be interrupted, e.g. by a tripping device. The system also had to be equipped with central and remote operator stations, and all process data had to be fed centrally to the LabView-based SCADA system. A manual and automatic setup of the system were also required, project installation and commissioning time should be kept as short as possible.
Solution
Collecting data in machines and processes is becoming more and more important in today’s highly efficient process plants. Operators can monitor the system performance and – even more important - identify deviations and take countermeasures before the process is interrupted. The use of Eaton’s smart devices like drives or the Electronic Motors Starter (EMS) with integrated current sensing eliminates the need for additional measuring equipment to be installed. When these devices are connected via the intelligent wiring system, SmartWire-DT, installation and commissioning times can be notably reduced. The intelligent wiring eliminates the complex and error-prone point-to-point wiring, which saves time when installing the control cabinet which is crucially important outside of the cabinet in the periphery where smart devices, pushbuttons and control units near the silos must be connected. ln Feerum switchgear systems, this reduces the effort required for wiring, testing and commissioning drastically and excludes possibility of wiring errors. To one single SmartWire-DT line up to 99 devices can be connected with a maximum network length of 600 meters inside the cabinet or with high protection class IP67 outside of the cabinet.
At Feerum the intelligent wiring system is combined with the HMI/PLC panel of the XV100 and XV300 series via the integrated SmartWire-DT interface. XV300 HMIs are used as a premium solution with its state-of-art design and intuitive multi-touch gesture usage. Using the combination of the intelligent wiring and Eaton’s control devices eliminates the typical device layer such as the I/O modules of a central PLC, as well as the associated installation and maintenance cost and therefore saves project costs. The visualization is implemented with the intuitive Galileo 10 design tool. PLC’s in Feerum applications are programmed with xSoftCodesys-3 programming system in accordance with lEC61131-3. XC300 with its gigabit ethernet port ensures fast communication with SCADA system. The inherent data transparency provided by the automation solution, including the smart devices and the intelligent SmartWire-DT also delivers energy efficiency related information for the machine and plant. The actual current values give an indication about the energy consumption and the diagnosis data of all motor starters is a highly relevant input to the monitoring system. This kind of innovative control system enables the optimum coordination of all individual plants at Feerum, as well as the continuous monitoring of their operations and it ensures process safety.
Result
Eaton automation solutions help Feerum offer new capabilities, like cooling grain in main siloes, for example. Additionally, the customer is enabled to safely store high amounts of grain, keeping its biological properties at the highest possible levels. Thanks to SmartWire-DT, users can enjoy short project implementation times and high data transparency through a complete electrical system – inside and outside of the cabinet. Highly qualified specialists are no longer required for integrating drives in the control system. The distinctive features of SmartWire-DT are the simple structures, easy handling and system protection. The seamless connection and communication system for industrial automation from Eaton speeds up the planning and commissioning of machines or plants and at the same time, ensures fewer downtimes. It also simplifies process optimization and facilitates the efficient, intelligent and careful use of resources.
