Control Systems: Delivery and Up-grade

At the contemporary level of technology and to the extent reflecting the complexity of the system to be controlled, a control and regulation system is an integral part of basically all industrial furnaces and thermal equipment delivered in this era. Apart from an efficient system of burners and high-quality refractory lining in the furnace, a reliable control system and its software doubtlessly form one of the components that determine the technical standard of the entire furnace facility.

This is why, in fact, part of every obsolete equipment refurbishment also consists of the implementation of new control system or upgrade of the existing control system and I&C circuitry. It is exactly the new control and regulation system and the new HMI, with which the reconstructed equipment operators communicate most frequently and on the basis of which the successfulness of the revamping  is most often assessed (beside energy savings). 

E-therm system engineers and computer programmers have extensive experience with various types of PLCs, programmable controllers, and other components used to regulate and control the processes, coming from a variety of well-renowned manufacturers. As such, the company can exercise forthcoming approaches for customers who prefer only some particular brands or suppliers of related instrumentation and systems. 

In the case of both new and upgraded equipment, our recommendation is to set up remote management by means of Internet. Where justified, this will make it possible to monitor and/or correct the equipment operation mainly during its test stage and while under warranty, as well as afterwards. 

In this way, one can mainly

• monitor the technological process, statuses of individual parts of the equipment and values and trends of the physical quantities measured
• diagnose the discrepancies in the control system functions, including those in the related software or measuring instrumentation and actuator defects
• monitor the operator’s activities and responses and draw up notifications for the owner
• carry out remote interventions with the system in the event of non-standard situations
• modify and tune up the control SW on the basis of field data analysis

The mode of remote connection to the equipment and communication protocols are always checked together with the owner’s IT specialists in respect of all the safety rules to protect the connection to local networks and shared data that must be retained.