Page 8 - EngineerIT October 2022

AUTOMATION AND CONTROL

plant covers. Additionally, Engelhard’s
products include mouthwashes for In areas such as the
tank storage facility
dentists, including chlorhexidine, and and pigging systems,
suspensions for infants, such as Velgastin. the signals are
“We are currently analysing whether collected via EtherCAT
Box modules with an
it would make sense to produce these IP67 protection rating.
products in the plant as well,” says John.
Every time production switches to a new
product, extensive cleaning cycles are
set in motion – and this is where one of
the plant’s first special features comes in.
“We have created the various cleaning
cycles as well as recipes for producing
liquids in the TwinCAT control, and they
are then brought to life in the recipe
management system, which works on
the basis of TwinCAT HMI,” states Stefan
Maßmann, who has been working with
Andreas Wieners and Jürgen Bolte to
provide support for the automation
project since its initial planning stages. located on the roof or in the basement and are linked to the plant via heat exchangers.
Naturally, they also provide air conditioning in the production halls themselves and in
Cough syrup, drops and liquids the offices. Mastering this balancing act is not easy. “During the process of designing

In Niederdorfelden, Engelhard produces and optimising the control engineering, it was – and continues to be – an advantage that
and packages pharmaceuticals for the various technical systems are automated with PC-based control, including TwinCAT,”
the global market. The storage and states Andreas Wieners. Rüdiger John adds: “With the exception of a few smaller
production capacities of the new components and in sub-assemblies, the entire control technology in production comes
production plant are designed to reflect from Beckhoff, including software and engineering.”
this scale: The five batch tanks alone This might be a quick summary of the equipment, but the units and assemblies
comprise two containers with a volume involved actually make up a respectable quantity structure: to give an idea of the scale,
of 10 000 l each, and three with a the process automation includes 335 drives (valves and pneumatic actuators), 17 pumps
volume of 5 000 l each. There are also and agitators, plus around 240 measuring points (for pressure and temperature, as well
additional tanks for basic substances and as mass flow meters, ultrasonic flow meters, level sensors and 13 trace heaters. Also
intermediate storage. This production integrated into the technology are sub-assemblies such as the purified water supply,
area predominantly uses IP67-protected product transfer via four pigging systems, wastewater treatment, a central exhaust system
EtherCAT modules, which collect and a nitrogen and argon supply and ethanol storage, which is needed for producing
numerous signals from the sensors and alcohol-based cough drops. Numerous EtherCAT terminals from the ELX series for
actuators. explosion protection applications are used in this part of the plant, covering a wide range
To ensure that the processes run of process variables. The entire control technology is networked via EtherCAT and various
smoothly, Rüdiger John relies on I/O terminals distributed over several control cabinets and IP67-protected EtherCAT
PC-based control from Beckhoff, due modules. In total, about 460 EtherCAT slaves are installed at Engelhard, including several
in large part to his experience while IO-Link masters for integrating RFID read/write heads.
the production hall itself was being
constructed. In this case, Elektro Beckhoff Process reliability and product quality come first
(a Beckhoff Group company) carried out Rüdiger John highlights the video monitoring system integrated into the tanks as one of
the majority of the electrical planning the stand-out features: “This allows us to monitor foam formation in the tanks and check
and installation work – something that the fill levels for plausibility without having to open the tanks.” Doing this prevents the
Andreas Wieners says “greatly simplified pharmaceuticals from becoming contaminated. A total of 16 cameras plus lighting are
the work we needed to do on integrating integrated into the plant visualisation system, working on the basis of a TwinCAT HMI.
the technical building equipment into our If required, each operator can have the live images displayed on one of the 16 Beckhoff
process automation.” control panels and panel PCs distributed throughout the plant. Rüdiger John had a
To illustrate this, he uses the example CP3716-1076 control panel installed directly in the office that the team management
of cough syrup production, which uses. “This gives managers full access from the office without the need to connect the
requires process heating and cooling. office IT system to the production network,” the head of engineering explains.
The assemblies used to achieve this are Each operator station has an RFID reader that production workers must use to log into

EngineerIT | October 2022 | 6