Fluidised bed dryer sees 50% productivity improvement 12 April 2012

Optimal Automation is claiming that its work for an unnamed "major blue chip pharmaceutical" company, upgrading old control systems to a PLC and SCADA system for a large fluidised bed dryer, demonstrates its ability to automate and improve the productivity of such plant.

Martin Gadsby, a director at Optimal, says the new control system has delivered "a staggering 50% increase in productivity" for the fluidised bed dryer.

"We automate and improve the performance and productivity of all types of fluidised bed dryer – large and small, fully automatic and semi automatic, new build and refurbished, solvent and non solvent based," asserts Gadsby.

"Using a range of automation vendor hardware and software, the systems we have supplied range from those with very traditional push button controls, through to systems with HMI interfaces, to those with full-blown Client Server SCADA and even DCS [distributed control system]."

The most recent control system replacement involved a control strategy that included not only tower automation, but also all the batching of raw materials, including dispensary control, together with tracking of raw materials and finished product in IBCs, he states.

The system supplied is based on a Siemens PCS7 in a server arrangement with four clients and an engineering station. PCS7 has an integrated recipe system, and produces batch reports that are used as part of the total batch release documentation set.

Brian Tinham

Related Companies
Optimal Industrial Automation Ltd

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