r 2002
Author:
Heise, O., Vanderbloemen, L., Wickesberg, S.
VOITH PAPERS PILOT PLANT AUTOMATION
PERMITS REMOTE CUSTOMER MONITORING
Oliver Heise, Director,
Lynn Vanderbloemen, Process Control Engineer,
Steve Wickesberg, Supervisor, Pilot Plant
Voith Paper Technology Center, Voith Paper Inc., Appleton Wisconsin, USA
Phone: 920-731-0769
Fax : 920-731-7840
Email:
oliver.heise@voith.com
To remain state-of-the-art in the art of papermaking, Voith Papers world-leading 1.25 ton-per-hour pilot plant in Appleton,
Wisconsin, USA has upgraded to the latest in automation technology. A modular and scalable process control system
DeltaV from Emerson Process Management has replaced a traditional DCS (distributed control system) installed when
the plant was built 10 years ago.
The major reason for the upgrade: To access Voith papermaking equipment in customer plants around the world via the
Internet to perform remote maintenance and performance monitoring. Remote monitoring could be best accomplished by
bringing the pilot plants control into the more open world of PCs, Microsoft, and Internet and wireless communications
standards and by gaining powerful trending and data capture/analysis capabilities.
Savings gained by Voith and its customers from remote monitoring are expected to quickly pay for the automation
investment by eliminating some of the need for Voith technicians to visit customer sites.
Worlds Largest Pilot Plant
The pilot plant, located in Voiths Technology Center, is the largest pilot stock preparation and papermaking facility in the
world. Its also unique because it employs continuous flow, like a production paper line, not batch. Within the pilot plant
is a testing laboratory for evaluating pulp and the final paper product during trial runs. The facility is even designed for
hands-on training of customer operators.
Figure 1. Pilot plant, Voith Paper Technology Center, Voith Paper Inc.,
Appleton, Wis. The control room is at the top of the stairs (center).
An Online Exclusive from Tappi.org Reproduced by permission The plants process train, which is modular for maximum flexibility, can be quickly customized to add or delete process
modules or to switch process sequences around. A typical customer trial, including customizing the train, making test
runs, and performing evaluations averages about two weeks. Two trials are sometimes in progress at the same time.
Since the day the pilot facility opened, Voith has continuously updated it with the latest prototype and commercial
technologies so that customers can benchmark the performance of their most up-to-date commercial papermaking lines.
The pilot plants new automation continues the companys upgrade philosophy.
Process Flexibility Essential
The plants process train includes conveyors for loading pulp bales and/or recovered waste into either a high or low
consistency pulper. Both have de-trashing loops. Typically, the customer supplies the stock; tons of material regularly
arrive in Appleton from all over the world.
The slushed pulp proceeds to two dump chests of 2.5 tons capacity each, then moves on to refiners, deflakers, cleaning
systems, screens with holed or slotted baskets, flotation systems to dislodge and float out inks, thickening presses, fiber
loading machines, water clarification, etc. The thickeners recirculate water back into the process, which makes the plant
very mill-realistic.
Automation must be flexible because customer trials seldom employ exactly the same equipment and sequences. This
means that each piece of equipment must be capable of being operated as a standalone as well as being configured
into an interactive process train.
The facilitys lines and valves are oversize to allow a wide range of throughputs. DeltaVs expert autotuning permits
back-to-back tests to be made when switching from 1/8 flow to full flow, as an example, without losing control even if
all equipment is started at once. Tuning optimization is not possible, however, because of no single design throughput
exists. The plant is evaluating fuzzy logic to achieve even tighter control stability.
Personal knowledge of pilot plant equipment and processes and a very good memory of test setups is required by
the three operators assigned. They also serve as the plants pipefitters, equipment installers, electricians, instrument
techs, and programmers. The new automation has made setup for test runs easier and faster, and flows and pressure
drops are more quickly stabilized. Speedy navigation through Windows-based engineering and operator workstations
helps.
Cost-Effectively Scaled
The automation has the power, flexibility, and capabilities of a traditional DCS in a compact, substantially more cost
effective package. Although the pilot plants basic configuration rarely needs to be changed, the graphical IEC Function
Block Diagram and Sequential Function Chart languages employed are easy for operators to follow. Helpfully, interlock
logic was written only for conveyors because of the need for trial flexibility.
If the pilot plants control needs grow, the system can be scaled in 50 DST (device signal tag) increments to minimize
additional investment. The initial system, which supports up to 500 DSTs, is comprised of a two DeltaV process
controllers, about 450 I/O points made up of Foundation fieldbus instruments and valves plus discrete and 4-20 mA
analog devices, two PC operator stations, PC application and engineering workstations, and an Ethernet network tying
the controllers and workstations together.
Figure 2. The pilot plants testing laboratory evaluates pulp samples
and final paper products during trial runs. Most of the plants existing valves and instruments remain. Fieldbus was selected for new devices because of the
simplified wiring and because large amounts of information can be extracted from these instruments for remote
monitoring purposes. Further, diagnostics and calibration can be performed from the workstations.
Remote Equipment Monitoring Coupled to Process Control
Voith plans to use the new control technology to remotely monitor Voith papermaking machinery in customer plants all
over the world. Although a remote monitoring system could be assembled independent from the pilot plants process
control system, there are advantages for coupling pilot plant monitoring and control, customer monitoring, and the pilot
plant laboratory instruments as well.
The advantages owe to DeltaVs global database and built-in OSI PI historian, plus its ability to accept additional PCs
and third-party PC software packages for gathering, storing, integrating, manipulating, and analyzing data collected from
pilot plant, customer, and laboratory equipment alike. The system also offers OPC for open access to a variety of data
sources plus DeltaV EasyIT for establishing Internet-based data transactions. Coupling remote monitoring to the process
control system also permits Voith to perfect monitoring procedures in-house before offering them to customers.
Figure 3. New terminal strips and wiring at the back of the DeltaV
process control cabinet.
Figure 4. Rosemount F
OUNDATION
fieldbus transmitters (left) and fieldbus
segment connector block (right). Figure 5. DeltaV operator stations in the pilot plant control room.
Figure 6. A shaft vibration/bearing temperature/kW/power factor analysis
system instruments the pilot plants newest Multi-Fractor screen and
drive motor.
The company only has the outlines of what it wants to do with remote monitoring, but the potential for assisting customers
at a relatively low cost is enormous. If phone calls and emails cant do the trick today, Voith service technicians must fly
worldwide to help customers re-establish equipment design conditions, among other tasks. The cost is obviously very
high. Additionally, personnel within the Voith Technology Center often gain knowledge before the companys service
technicians are made aware; at the minimum, they could bring other opinion into the mix.
Maintenance Monitoring First
Voiths first effort in customer monitoring will be to assist in equipment maintenance. After some experience is gained,
performance monitoring will be added.
Maintenance monitoring, the easiest and most straightforward, can either backstop the customer in assuring maintenance
intervals are followed, or it can be his primary resource. Via Internet technologies, Voith plans to view its machinery in
distant plants and track such operating parameters as downtimes and uptimes. The idea is to alert customers about
impending PM dates as well as dates for changing components such as bearings and motors. The information could
also alert Voith Manufacturing when parts might be needed.
Performance monitoring for equipment health, performance, and optimization is more complex. Here, the Technical
Center envisions installing sensors on customer equipment to indicate how well the equipment is operating, when it
needs attention, and how to make it run better. More and more, open-platform sensors and sensor systems are coming
on the market, which should speed performance monitoring development by Voith. Just keeping up with all of the new
open sensing technology is a job in itself.
Performance Monitoring Undergoing Tests
To test the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of performance monitoring, Voith recently installed a shaft vibration/bearing
temperature/kW/power factor analysis system on the pilot plants newest Multi-Fractor screen and drive motor. This
research project relates screen operating data moment-by-moment with stock consistency, also instrumented. Hopefully,
comparing trended data from Time 0 will help the company ascertain the degre