Category Archives: News

Digital cloud-based asset monitoring is offered worldwide

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Our new digital cloud-based services platform can be used worldwide. The software means Optima can monitor and track your assets in real time. You can view device history, schedule tasks and monitor the machine via the cloud. This keeps you informed of any issues as and when they occur. Escalation thresholds can be configured, so depending on the nature of the fault, the relevant people are emailed. The monitoring system can also give daily reports via email notifications with programmable triggers.

If the machine starts operting in an unexpected way, an email is tiggered, sending messages to your maintenance and response teams We can use the system
to diagnose the issues with your hardware and ship equipment to site to rectify the problem. 

These online diagnostics can be viewed 24/7 and the software can bring to your attention any faulty systems, sometime even before a breakdown happens.

Please contact us for a no-obligation dashboard trial.

Full Project Turnkey Solutions

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We are pleased to offer turnkey solutions to our clients. Depending upon the client’s brief and the project scope we very often manage the full project, including mechanical engineering and electrical installation. We have select sub-contract companies with whom we work regularly. Alternatively, we will readily work with customer-nominated third parties.

Our project management skills and application experience are valuable assets in this discipline.

On any project the facilities that Optima Control Solutions Ltd. provide are:

  •   Produce a detailed line control specification document
  •   Produce high quality CAD drawings
  •   Manufacture and functionally test your control cubicles.
  •   Ship the cubicles to your site
  •   Installation of the control cubicles (optional)
  •   Commissioning of the line control system
  •   Issue a fully documented User Manual
  •   Maintain a record of your drawings
  •   Provide an expert support service
  •   Equipment Installation.

Need more information? Browse various projects here. Our industry-specific pages also provide details about the control system projects we have completed over the years.

Safety Scanner Issues and EN999

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Optima were recently asked to advise on a safety guarding application for one of our customers. 

There had been a number of false trips of the laser scanner causing the machine to stop. A plastic chain ‘barrier’ had been fitted as a temporary measure with instructions to operators to not breach the barrier whilst the machine was running. 

The customer naturally wanted this rectifying as soon as possible. Optima carried out a service visit to site.

On the site visit, our engineer noted that the scanner was showing a code which indicated that the front screen required cleaning.

 Once the screen was cleaned thoroughly the scanner did not show any faults or errors and was in normal run mode.

 

Further checks on the original software were made to ensure the scanner configuration met the requirements of the safety guarding application. 

The diagrams to the left show the Warning Field configuration (Yellow) and the Protective Field (Red). Both of these were confirmed to be operational. 

The warning field causes the klaxon to operate but does nto stop the machine. The protective field causes an emergency stop of the machine.

We did find some concerns that needed addressing.

1. None of the scanner safety circuit had been documented on any drawings.

2. Non-compliance with EN999 ‘Safety of machinery. This defines the positioning of protective equipment in respect of approach speeds of parts of the human body’. It includes a formula to be used to calculate the distance from a hazard that a safety zone must be triggered. 

Based on the stopping times of the machine, the scanner was placed too close to the machine to be effective in an emergency.

We are working closedly with our customer to assist them with this application and help them achieve a safe and effective solution to this.

If you need any support with safety applications or other upgrades, please get in touch.. 

Parker SSD Microtach Replacements

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Microtach encoders, manufactured by SSD Drives for many years offered reliable transmission of sensitive high-frequency information in an electrically noisy environment.

The technology used a combination of an incremental encoder disk combined with micro-electronics to facilitate the use of single fibre optic transmission of the encoder pulses.

This gave a huge advantage of being able to transmit a noise-free signal over considerable distances.

However, time moves on and the Microtach is no longer available. The fibre optic cable, sending and receiving optics also degrade over time, affecting system integrity and reliability.

 

Link Rack

Fortunately, Optima can upgrade your ageing Microtach units with a modern equivalent that has exactly the same mounting arrangement. We also supply a new coupling with every encoder.

We use our own proven high-quality multi-sheathed cable to give the same reliable signal quality for the wired encoder equivalent. Distances up to 100 metres have been achieved with no signal degradation.

For this, or any other LINK hardware or software support, just get in touch. With over 100 years of combined experience engineering (and for some, designing!) the Link hardware, we have a solution for your obsolete hardware.

Parker SSD Link Upgrades
Link Programming Services

Accelerate your digital and sustainability transformation at Siemens Transform 2024

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Transform 2024: Transform the everyday

We are delighted to invite you to join us for
Transform 2024 – the technology showcase from Siemens.

Join thousands of participants and accelerate
your digital and sustainability transformation to transform the everyday, for
everyone, on 17-18 July at Manchester Central.

·     Hear from, engage with, and collaborate with industry experts on key industry topics – from AI to the
industrial metaverse and decarbonisation.

·     Experience where the real world meets the digital in an extensive technology marketplace and discover
Siemens Xcelerator – the open digital business platform.

·     Work with an expert community to solve real-world challenges and co-create solutions to make your
organisation more competitive, resilient and sustainable.

As a proud partner of Siemens, we hope you will join us at Transform and become part of a community solving today’s most pressing challenges, together.

Click below to register your interest and to receive updates from Siemens on their unmissable schedule of talks and experiences.

https://www.siemens.com/uk/en/company/transform.html?stc=ukcg200474

 

Optima’s Siemens Solution Partner Accreditation for 2024

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Optima are proud to maintain both our Siemens Drives and Motion and Factory Automation accreditations for 2024. Our Solution Partner status as Automation Drives verifies our status of application and system expertise, industry knowledge and project experience with Drives, IOT, Cloud and Edge Applications.

We implement tailor-made solutions with exceptional quality. Our partner accreditation forms part of Siemens’ commitment to their principle of “Ingenuity for life”. We use ingenuity and engineering skill to work on sustainable solutions for your automation tasks.

Siemens Solution Partners are the number one choice for the engineering, system integration and implementation of superior, tailored, future-oriented solutions. Under the Siemens Solution Partner Program, Optima join forces with Siemens by merging our application and industry knowledge with their product and systems expertise to deliver added value to our Customers.

This includes: Consistent, High Quality, State-of-the-Art solutions that increase plant productivity. Confidence that your current project will go well and will be easy to maintain because as a certified Solution Partner, we will use “Best Practices”. We have on-going training that demonstrates our expertise via a bi-annual certification exam which measures our engineers capabilities on both the theoretical and hands-on abilities with the system. Coordinated project planning, supplied with the software tools, training and premium hotline support for fast, smooth and highly efficient implementations of your projects.

 

S88 Solution Solves Obsolescence Issue

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Addressing obsolescence is an issue facing many companies and failure to create a robust action plan can often lead to problems that not only affect the operation of a line or machine, but can also result in unfavourable issues that could have detrimental effects on quality levels and brands.

The dangers of obsolescence were identified early on at a leading British biscuit manufacturer in its mixing plant, where older hardware was not only showing its age in terms of performance and failures, but was also no longer part of a supported spares package. More information can be found here: Rockwell Automation Case Study

More information here:

Allen‑Bradley ControlLogix programmable automation controllers

EtherNet/IP device-level ring network topology

Batch servers

Rockwell Automation integrated-display computer running FactoryTalk View Site Edition (SE)

Rockwell Software FactoryTalk Batch software solution

Up to 5 Years Warranty as Standard on our Motor and Drive Upgrades with Siemens

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As a trusted Siemens Drive and Motion Partner, any machine upgrade that Optima engineer that uses Siemens Drives and Motors, Siemens will provide a 5 year warranty on the drive and 3 years on the motor/ motor gearbox Free of Charge. Optima can also extend this standard warranty further for you at preferential rates as a trusted partner of Siemens. See the below link for more information:

https://new.siemens.com/uk/en/products/drives/extended-warranty-packages.html

To be accepted as a Solution Partner of the “Drives & Motion” arm of Siemens, Optima must fulfill the following qualification criteria:

  • A proven track record of many years of experience in implementing projects in drive systems engineering using Siemens components
  • Qualified management our own projects, configuration and quality
  • Regular auditing of partner performance by Siemens Automation and Drives

Optima achieve accreditation by Avetta for supplier competency

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Optima have been certified as an approved supplier to Schneider Electric and become part of the Avetta Consortium. Membership of Avetta is your guarantee of our quality, procedures and most important of all, safe working standards.

We look forward to working closely with Schneider Electric on upcoming major projects. This enhances our product and engineering services and complements our existing Siemens Automation and Motion Partner services.

Registration Certificate Avetta

 

Re-commencement of commissioning on major projects

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Critical process industry can’t stop, so Optima have been back commissioning on-site for some time now to support our customers.

For this major project, we have written the PLC and SCADA platform to control the whole process from start to finish. The application is written entirely in TIA Portal with a total of three WinCC SCADA platforms. We have used the latest cloud-based remote access technology so that most of the plant can now be commissioned remotely. Remote access using a combination of local Wi-Fi and High-Gain 4G antennas gives us a reliable and secure access to the PLC and SCADA system when it is required.

This project is just one of many that Optima play a key role in. Whether your application is large or small, we have a capable engineering team that are able to provide you with as much engineering resource as you require.

March 2021