Posted to News on 24th Mar 2014, 13:10
Advanced Industrial Devices uses Unitronics as "go-to" PLC
Advanced Industrial Devices specialises in building master control panels for all types of industrial equipment. While the control can be as simple as a relay system, it can also be a much more sophisticated electronic product - it depends on what the customers want and need. Keith Walker of AID syas: "Our go-to PLC control is the Unitronics for many reasons. One of the consistent themes is the wide range of available products and price structures."
One of the industry functions AID serves is wellhead gas and storage tank vapor recovery equipment. The capture of these gases involves either an engine or electric motor-driven compressor. AID has customers that want and need "ultra low cost controls" - for this, they typically use the JZ10-11-R31 PLC to meet this need.
Walker says: "It provides a very capable control in a low cost product that has two built-in analogue channels with 16 digital inputs and 11 relay outputs. We program the PLCs to allow the end customers to self-select almost everything about how the PLC reacts to the outside world. Everything from deciding if an expected digital input will be normally closed or open to whether or not they want a system event to be considered an operational point, an alarm, or a full system shutdown; these are options that the end user has to choose from even in the low-cost JAZZ model PLCs."
For AID's compressor customers that need more real-time data for either collection or control, they move to the Vision570 unit, in combination with the V200-18-E6B snap IO module. This gives their customers five analogue inputs, two analogue outputs, 18 digital inputs, and 15 relay outputs. Walker says: "Along with the two included isolated com ports and SD card slot for large data logging sessions, it makes a very nice control package. The hardware also has a lot to offer, and we use it all (well, a lot of it anyway). We allow the users to dynamically decide if they are going to use any or all of the five analogue inputs and have programmed the screens to hide anything they choose not to use to remove visual clutter from the view screens. Programmed multi-level user passwords and large full-detail history files for both alarms and shutdowns make this a great package."
Follow the link for more information about the combined PLC/HIM units Unitronics Jazz and Vision570.
