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References58

SIMATIC ET 200eco

Veronesi, Italy –

Animal feed manufacturer modernizes basic materials in-

feed

Requirements

One of the largest European manufacturers of animal feeds,

Veronesi S.p.A, Italy, was looking for an efficient solution for

modernized automation of their basic materials infeed. Mate-

rials infeed is the critical point in production for the animal

feed manufacturer. When no products continue to come in,

the entire plant is idle. Thus it was important that production

continues without restriction. The safety regulations for in-

stallations in a dust-filled atmosphere must also be satisfied.

The greatest challenge, however, was presented by selection

of the technical configuration: All sensors and actuators had

to be connected to the distributed I/O over the shortest possi-

ble connections; this demanded a cabinet-free configuration.

Solution

The Swiss system integrator ASE-Bühler AG developed the

new plant concept – taking into account the plant philosophy

of Veronesi: All subsystems are subdivided into individual sec-

tors. The materials infeed too. This was automated by means

of a SIMATIC S7-400 controller. It replaced the aging relay con-

trol. The special feature of the new plant is the PROFIBUS ar-

chitecture. Four PROFIBUS lines run from the S7-400 PLC into

the concrete towers containing the silos. A total of 150

SIMATIC ET 200eco stations are connected to the four bus

lines which were installed without a cabinet directly in the

plant. Control boxes were only required for the repeaters that

were installed to support PROFIBUS branches. The connec-

tions were implemented using the standardized ECOFAST sys-

tem with data and power supplied along the same cable.

Benefits

Commissioning of the fully automated complete solution was

problem-free and implementation was possible during normal

operation of the plant. The wiring over the ECOFAST connec-

tions was extremely easy, so the retrofit was completed quick-

ly. The new solution supported a cost-saving bus architecture

with cabinet-free distributed I/O as well as increased transpar-

ency in the automation system.

Since the entire solution originates from Siemens, the training

time for the maintenance personnel was reduced. In the event

of a disturbance, they merely need to contact a partner at

Siemens.

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