Software Engineering

Companies operate machines to make money, not stress. We engineer our control systems so that the people that run and maintain the machines can do so efficiently and profitably.

We design our control systems with machine ownership in mind and writing good, well structured and commented software is integral to those objectives. Our engineers think beyond the design and commissioning stage and consider the long and critical period of machine ownership. So our clients can optimise their machine productivity, availability and profitability.

Isn’t that why companies run machines?

A vitally important part of the systems that we engineer is the functional software – the software that resides in SCADA systems, PLC’s and intelligent drives. Well constructed and commented software is a given, however, the sequential PLC code that we write is done using state transition techniques. This system allows us to express the functionality of a machine independently using graphical methods then to implement that functionality using traditional ladder tools. The upshot is an efficient, easy to follow structured software product. This has three significant benefits:

  • The machine functionality can be confirmed before software is written
  • Thorough testing of the software is possible prior to shipment
  • Ownership of the system is made much easier due to the ease of fault diagnosis should the system suffer a field component failure.

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.

Recent Posts

Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Drive Technology from Optima

The innovative sinamics G220 variable frequency drive from Siemens not only helps reduce harmonics (Gary Wilcock) but is also a more sustainable drive choice. Let us explain.

The animation below shows the draft panel layouts for 8 drives using the G120 drives along with the required input and output reactors due to the long cable lengths involved for this installation. 

Shown on the right of the animation is the draft layout using the new G220 drives.

The new G220 drives, allow us to accommodate double the number of drives in one cabinet as no chokes are required.

SINAMICS G220 – the variable frequency drive for all industries

It has helped Optima Control Solutions Ltd make this a more sustainable design. 

Not only have we have reduced CO2 emissions in transit as the cabinet is lighter, we have also reduced the amount of minerals required to build by avoiding additional copper in the line chokes and steel in the chokes and cabinets.

The fusing for the other 8 drives has been moved to an adjacent cabinet where there are other drive sizes located. The control panel build is now underway. 

A big thanks to Ben Poole, too for his timely demonstration of these excellent drives. Sustainability CleanTech

 

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