With automa­tion, pro­duc­tion processes achieve greater effi­ciency. For exam­ple, energy costs can be reduced by con­trolled heat­ing processes of pro­duc­tion plants. HESCH has devel­oped the mul­ti­func­tion con­troller (HE 5697 MFC) for auto­mated sequence con­trol includ­ing the con­trol of fur­ther aux­il­iary processes. It is char­ac­ter­ized by sim­ple han­dling, can be set up even with­out in-depth pro­gram­ming knowl­edge and allows an indi­vid­ual design of the user inter­face.

Its out­stand­ing advan­tage: In many cases, the con­troller makes the invest­ment in a cost-inten­sive PLC unnec­es­sary.

Automa­tion with MFC – a win in every respect

Among oth­ers, a com­pany from the food indus­try achieved deci­sive improve­ments in pro­duc­tion by using the MFC. For the automa­tion of a roller dry­ing plant for the pro­duc­tion of the addi­tive casein – a milk pro­tein that is indis­pens­able for the man­u­fac­ture of a wide vari­ety of prod­ucts – the man­u­fac­turer was look­ing for an easy-to-oper­ate con­trol sys­tem.

With the MFC from HESCH, a sin­gle con­troller now takes over sequence con­trol as well as the con­trol of other sec­ondary processes: It mon­i­tors the sur­face tem­per­a­ture of the roll as well as the strength of the steam pres­sure – a process pre­vi­ously con­trolled man­u­ally. In addi­tion, the MFC con­trols the pump for prod­uct con­vey­ing in con­junc­tion with the level mea­sure­ment.

The MFC offers var­i­ous com­mu­ni­ca­tion pos­si­bil­i­ties via Profinet Class A, Profibus DP Slave, Mod­bus RTU Mas­ter, Mod­bus RTU Slave, Mod­bus TCP Client, Mod­bus TCP Server, Can Bus, or HPR Bus Mas­ter.

The casein man­u­fac­turer ben­e­fits from the auto­mated processes in sev­eral ways. The process is becom­ing more effi­cient and energy-sav­ing over­all. For exam­ple, heat­ing the rollers to oper­at­ing tem­per­a­ture now takes only 3.5 hours instead of 8 to 12 hours. This sig­nif­i­cantly saves energy for the food addi­tive man­u­fac­turer. Pre­cise con­trol of the para­me­ters also ensures con­sis­tent prod­uct qual­ity. In addi­tion, the yield has increased sig­nif­i­cantly, as burn­ing of the prod­ucts is pre­vented by the pre­cise tem­per­a­ture con­trol. At the same time, this reduces wear on the knives and thus low­ers the main­te­nance costs of the plant. In addi­tion, the man­u­fac­turer is cre­at­ing new capac­i­ties: Employ­ees who were used for man­ual process con­trol can now take over other activ­i­ties.

“In many cases, a costly pro­gram­ma­ble logic con­troller (PLC) used to auto­mate sim­ple appli­ca­tions pro­vides many func­tions that are super­flu­ous. In addi­tion, their use usu­ally requires in-depth pro­gram­ming knowl­edge. In these cases, our MFC offers a cost-effec­tive solu­tion that can be used to make sig­nif­i­cant sav­ings in times of high energy costs, among other things,” explains Werner Bran­dis, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor at HESCH.