The food and beverage market is always a very competitive marketplace. That competition filters through to the shop floor driving ever-increasing production efficiencies. Our design methods and application techniques very often help our clients in the food and beverage sector to squeeze more production from their assets. Higher availabilities and faster production rates improve their competitive position.
Innovation and affordable prices are among the industry’s success factors. Consumer demand for different flavours, natural ingredients and reduced-calorie options is ever increasing. Food and beverage manufacturers should, therefore, adjust to a more flexible supply chain. According the one of the biggest British food retailers, many food manufacturers are not achieving the flexibility needed to stay competitive in the market. Automated control systems are part of the solution for a more agile, on-demand production process.
On the other hand, price-consciousness is now part of the daily decision making including deciding on what we are going to eat and drink. Economies of scale should not be lost in the production process, so that the benefits could be passed on to the consumer. Again, automation is key to sustaining production efficiency. The good news is that obsolete production lines can be brought back to life through a single control system upgrade. Optima has been involved in upgrade projects for a variety of food and beverage production lines.
Previous Projects:
Kerry Foods
Refrigeration line upgrade
Converting S5 to S7 PLC system.
Scope of supply included electrical and Mechanical installation and commissioning.
Spread line upgrade
Converting S5 to S7 PLC system using Siemens S7-315 Profibus + Ethernet Processor
Diageo
Bottle filling line drive upgrade
Control system upgrade using Siemens and SEW-Eurodrive equipment. Scope of supply includes PLC/SCADA/Drives software engineering and commissioning.
Burtons Foods
Bulk Ingredients machine upgrade
PLC5 migration using Allen Bradley ControlLogix with a PanelView Plus 1500 series HMI with Ethernet connectivity.
Cott Beverages
Filling line servo drive upgrade
Complete drive upgrade using Siemens DRIVE-Cliq technology. Migration of PLC software code from Italian to English language.
Soreen
Lid placement machine control system
Supply and installation of new control system using Allen Bradley equipment. Scope of supply includes software engineering, electrical installation and commissioning.
Haribo Dunhills
Univeyor line upgrade
Replacement existing Modicon PLC equipment with Siemens S7-300. Scope of supply includes re-writing software code and emergency stop circuit engineering.
Arla Foods
Effluent plant control system modification
Scope of supply involves modifications of the existing PLC and HMI software and installation of new PLC cards and wires to terminals.
Yearsley Cold Stores
Cold Store Conveyor control system
Conversion from Siemens S5 to S7 control equipment. Scope of supply includes hardware installation, software engineering and full commissioning.
