BH-F (Engineering) Ltd - Touchscreen Control System Page.

Touchscreen Control Systems

Features:

Ease of operation.
Compact control panel.
Simple operator interface.
Autotune facility allowing for accurate tuning.
Paperless chart recording reduces system running costs.
All components are "off the shelf" Products.

Benefits:

When used with the 400 series forehearth start up and job change times are reduced.
Autotune facility reduces the need for specialist tuning knowledge.
Compact control panel with integrated operator interface reduces installation time and allows the unit to be positioned in almost any location.
The use of electronic switching devices in critical circuits eliminates failures associated with Electro-mechanical devices.
Relatively low capital costs.

400 Series Temperature Control Manual (228Kb .PDF File)

Working on customer feedback BH-F developed with Omron a system
which would meet the customer needs of a control system,
and which has more functionality than a basic
discrete single loop control system, but without the costs of a
fully specified PLC and SCADA system.

The task was to develop a compact, relatively low cost system,
with a design which inherently allows for simple operation.

A colour Touchscreen was used for ease of use with simple
unambiguous displays. Changing of set points is a basic
operation as is the ability to autotune, which can now be
activated at the touch of single button per control zone,
allowing the ability to autotune at every job change.
All options are identical for each type of control zone.

Autotune facilities within controls had previously been avoided
due to the fact that there appeared to be instability
and inaccuracy within normal P.I.D. autotuning.

Omron have taken a different approach to these issues and have
developed an Autotuning facility within a dedicated temperature
controller which autotunes using the gains:

Proportional
Integral
Derivative
An Alpha gain.

The additional alpha gain allows the controller to be tuned:
more or less aggressively allowing for better responses
within the glass-conditioning environment.
This now allows staff who have not trained as control specialists
to produce efficient results.

A paperless chart recorder is also an integral component of
the system, allowing for up to 30 days of trend data to be stored
in a spreadsheet format on a conventional floppy disk.
This allows the performance data to be studied at a later date
on a normal PC.
In the unlikely event a problem arises the data can be E-mailed
or mailed to us here at BH-F for remote analysis
reducing the costly need for engineers to fly to a customer's site.

Alarms are also a function of the system allowing for absolute
and also operator defined deviation alarms,
to reduce the need for continuous supervision.