Avid Solutions has installed many Rockwell Automation control systems covering their complete product line:
Sample Projects:
DaimlerChrysler
Dynamometer Test Bay with Wireless Operator Interface (link to case study)
Avid Solutions has designed and implemented a PDA as a small, portable and convenient operator station. Our customer had a need for the portability and convenience of a PDA with access to the power of a full HMI. The solution was an industrially hardened PDA running “Instant HMI” software combined with the power of RSView32 on the operation station. The PDA is capable of scanning bar-code data directly into the PLC (SLC 500). The operator uses screen graphics with pull-down menus or buttons to monitor and control the system. The PDA communicates directly with the PLC through a convenient, definable tag database. The PDA uses standard off-the-shelf wireless components to connect to the PLC. The RSView application connects directly with the PLC on an Ethernet network.
Cardinal Health: WFI SYSTEM automation
Avid Solutions completed a turn-key automation project to install the instrumentation and controls for a Water-for-Injection (WFI) system at a pharmaceutical contract manufacturing facility in Raleigh, NC. Avid had full control system design responsibility including panel design, PLC programming, HMI graphics, data historian configuration, and implementation of a Crystal Reports application. The hardware and software included Allen Bradley SLC 500s with 2 remote Flex I/O racks, 6 PanelView Plus Operator Interface Stations, an InSQL database for historian, and multiple control panels. Avid performed all panel fabrication, instrument installation, installation of conduit, wire, tubing, and panels, and instrument calibration services.
Weyerhaeuser: OSB Press Control System Retrofit
The goal of this project was to replace a proprietary press control system at an oriented strand board facility with a PLC 5 based solution. The press controller was supplied by a German company and had been in service since the facility was started up (about 12 years). Documentation was extremely limited for this system. There were several phases to this project. First, a testing procedure had to be developed to collect information about how the existing controller operated. Next, a model PLC program was written that was based on the collected information. A WonderWare application was written both to replace the original proprietary HMI and also to compare the operation of the PLC program to the proprietary system operation. Then the PLC based system was placed in service in parallel with the proprietary system. Both systems inputs were wired in parallel. The PLC systems outputs were not connected to any field devices, but the proprietary systems outputs were connected in parallel to spare PLC inputs so they could be monitored. The WonderWare application trended each of the I/O signals from both systems so they could be compared. This testing went on for several weeks until the new PLC program had been thoroughly tested. The payoff to this type of approach came when the new system was commissioned with only 28 minutes of total plant down time.
