Blommer Chocolate Automation Upgrades

Blommer Chocolate wanted to upgrade their piecemeal production line—with standalone machines each with an HMI—into a modern SCADA system run on Inductive Automation’s Ignition platform. Corso Systems was brought in to leverage our PLC and HMI Development experience to upgrade their legacy PLCs to modern hardware. We also converted existing HMI screens on a number of different platforms to Ignition, and built a fully integrated system to control the entire production line from any Ignition client on the floor.

Automation Upgrade Solution

• Legacy Hardware

  • SLC-500 PLCs from Allen Bradley

  • PLC-5 Hardware from Allen Bradley

  • SY/MAX PLCs (with DOS-based PLC Programming software!)

  • Modicon PLCs

• Upgraded Hardware

  • Siemens S7-1500 PLCs

• Legacy Software

  • Panelview and Panelview Plus HMIs from Allen Bradley

  • Legacy Square D HMIs

  • Legacy Red Lion HMIs

  • Custom developed iPad based batch management system

• Updated Software

  • Inductive Automation’s Ignition SCADA platform

  • Microsoft SQL Server

Automation Upgrade Summary

Corso Systems spent three weeks working with the Blommer Chocolate controls team to go through each step of the existing process, figure out all of the functionality required in the new system, and to understand how to access all of the programming software for each piece of legacy equipment. We also did a full design analysis of the legacy HMI systems and push button panels throughout the plant before creating a mockup of a new HMI design standard for the plant.

Once the mockups were approved, Corso Systems Engineers spent three months converting all of the graphics into Ignition, including full templatization of every type of control, piece of equipment, and overall layout for identical operations. Concurrently, we also went through all of the PLCs to consolidate and optimize logic before upgrading from a dozen legacy PLCs into three S7-1500s with twenty remote I/O panels spread throughout the line.

After construction was completed, Corso Systems Engineers went on-site to commission the various pieces of equipment as they were wired in. To reduce production shutdown, the line was cutover piece by piece, with a couple of larger sections cutover during a weekend shutdown.

The final piece of the puzzle was a pipe pigging system with automatic route validation. It went from the initial holding tanks for portions of each batch to the full sized storage tanks before shipping. The operator would put two manual valves in the right position, then select the desired route in Ignition. Next, they would receive a go/no-go signal with a graphical representation of any operations that prevented pigging. This route logic was stored in a database, and allowed for instantaneous validation of 210 possible routes with anywhere from 8 to 23 devices depending on the route’s piping.

Results

This project gave Blommer Chocolate a fully modernized automation solution for their production facility. Operators were able to see the entire production line at a glance in one place without having to walk up to each machine to check status.

The system aggregated Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from the line for display on TVs throughout the plant, and it enabled the production line to integrate with another project to perform a full enterprise integration, incorporating production scheduling, warehouse management, and a full suite of shipping and receiving tools.