Project Consistently - From The Flow Diagram To The Control

A wide variety of highly complex systems for pretreatment, powder coating, painting, drying and automation for transport and part handling are used in surface treatment and finishing. The topic of environmental compatibility is also an important aspect in this industrial sector - whether air filtering, powder recovery, fan technology, energy efficiency in drying or noise protection: The highest demands are made here. The engineering is correspondingly complex.

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An experienced plant manufacturer in this sector is Rippert Anlagentechnik GmbH und Co. KG, which has held its own on the market for more than 45 years with painting and filter systems, automation and industrial fans. Their growth and the ever increasing demands on automated systems made the surface finishers look for a modern engineering system that grows with them and is sustainable for the future.

Consistency wanted

During the search, consistency was the central issue for the plant builders. The desire for much more consistent processes was the engine that brought the decision forward. "A project, from the process engineering flow chart (P&ID) to control technology - among all the providers that we looked at, only the software developer Aucotec with Engineering Base (EB) was able to meet this requirement," said Thomas Quante, head of the MSR area at Rippert and the EB administrator and key user Thomas Möller.

When deciding on the new system, the engineering experts at Rippert were fully aware that many departments would be affected by changes due to the consistent approach. However, the current standards for P&ID schemes and the new reference labeling (formerly: equipment labeling) made it necessary to rethink anyway and were an additional reason to create more consistency.

A common data model

From sales to processing and production to commissioning, all disciplines use the same, common data model to view or edit engineering information. EB's database and object orientation as well as its special multi-layer architecture make it possible. With the central data storage, even highly complex tasks can be completed quickly and cooperatively - even across multiple locations.

The application server connected between the client and the database relieves the client computer and manages the business logic with its elements and logical relationships to one another. "With EB, different identifications of a component in different documents are a thing of the past, as is the time-consuming comparison of the consumer and field device lists created at the start of the project," says Quante.

Work function-oriented

Function-oriented assembly formation is now an important core point for the engineering process, because it creates reusable standards that significantly reduce the effort involved in making agreements and errors. The modules are made up of individual functions with subcircuits or circuit diagram pages behind them. The structural creation of functions does require a different way of working, but the rethinking is worthwhile, explains administrator Möller: "The function orientation saves a considerable amount of time and, on top of that, divides the subsystems very clearly."

Content of the article:

• Page 1: Complete project planning - from flow diagram to control
• Page 2: Less effort, fewer mistakes

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