Visualization and control of the production line used for the manufacture of soundproofing materials for the automotive industry at VEST-IZOL

The VEST-IZOL company is a world-famous producer of soundproofing materials used in the automotive industry. In 1995, VEST-IZOL was bought by the German company STANKIEWICZ GmbH, which belongs to the PHOENIX A.G. transnational company. Since the beginning of 1995 with 18 employees, the company has grown to more than 350 professionals in the field of the automotive industry.

VEST-IZOL is a supplier of soundproofing products for middle and luxury class vehicles including sports and commercial vehicles for AUDI, BMV, VW, Skoda Auto, Seat, MAN, Scania, Opel, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Nissan, and many other brands.

VEST-IZOL's soundproofing products have become very popular among consumers – they are sold in Europe, Asia, North and South America.

A new system for the visualization and control of the line used for the production of soundproofing materials was put into service at the end of 2001. The first implementation of the Reliance SCADA system provided control of the process oil levels in two oil tanks. Through the years, the entire SCADA system was extended and upgraded with new components, subsystems, and technologies. In 2004 a brand new extensive control system was installed to provide control and monitoring of most processes and states including power, gas, and heat consumption.

For data transfer, the following communication types are now used

• Modbus RTU and EpsNet over RS-485
• Modbus TCP/IP over Ethernet
• Profibus DP, MPI
• OPC servers SIMATIC MPI, WinCC

According to the needs of individual users (from service engineers to top management), the system can be divided into the following six parts:

• Production systems
• Auxiliary systems
• Tanks
• Power engineering
• Monitoring of systems
• Service feature

Production systems

Reliance's visualization windows allow displaying, for example, production lines or a production machine. Each window provides display and control of many parameters (e.g., temperature, pressure, level, weight). Reliance SCADA can also monitor and control chemical dosing used during the production process. All these parameters can be displayed via trends, reports, and custom reports.

Auxiliary systems

This section was created in order to be able to monitor the nonproductive systems, which are very important for the production process. It provides monitoring of:

• Thermal oil heating
• Steam production
• Compression system unit
• Air compression
• Water quality
• Water cooling system

Tanks

The SCADA system was also extended to control supplies of raw materials stored in the tanks. Reliance provides control of:

• Processing oil supplies
• Calcite supplies
• Light fuel oil supplies
• Thermal oil supplies

Power engineering

A very important part of the SCADA-based control system is the control of power consumption. The control system provides control of:

• Energy consumption
• Load shedding
• Gas and heat consumption

Monitoring of systems

The control system provides control of the factory and administration buildings. The Reliance SCADA system is used to monitor:

• Air conditioning in each factory building
• Heating in each factory building
• Heating in each administration building

Service feature

Reliance also provides control of the SCADA system service features. For example, the system can display a window with communication stations. Another feature is SMS Operator, which automatically sends information via text and email messages to clients' cell phones or email addresses. These messages are sent using the predefined settings in the Reliance system. They are are used to warn the personnel of any emergency condition or leakage of raw materials.

System topology

The number of computers connected to the system indicates the extensiveness of this SCADA-based control system. The following pictures display the topology of all computers connected to the Industrial Ethernet network and systems with the Profibus, Epsnet, and Modbus protocols.