Feature PLCs & Industrial PCs Guiding the future of engineering


Students and apprentices are being provided with a host of different educational scenarios thanks to Mitsubishi Electric control software, PLCs and HMIs that are being utilised at a process industries training rig, built at Humberside Engineering Training Association (HETA)


T


he training rig in Humberside aims to provide courses in a live plant environment, making it a far more practical training tool


than computer-based simulations. It will be used by about 80 full time apprentices and 100 adults on train- ing courses per year. HETA is an industry Group


Training Association providing engi- neering and process apprenticeship schemes from three sites around Humberside. It provides off the job training, monitoring of apprentices in the workplace, apprentice recruit- ment for employers, up-skilling and multi-skilling of workforce person- nel, and health and safety training. The apprentices themselves built the rig over a four year period. Initially a contractor poured the concrete for the civil works, but after that, all mechanical and electrical work was undertaken by the apprentices.


All under control


It is controlled by Mitsubishi Electric SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) and includes a number of Mitsubishi FX and Q-series PLCs (pro- grammable logic controllers), as well as HMIs, pumps, valves, flowmeters and other fluid management equip- ment. The control equipment, hard- ware and software, was supplied by LC Automation, one of Mitsubishi’s biggest UK distributors.


Mitsubishi Electric SCADA is key to ensuring the rig’s flexibility for pro- viding tailored training modules to meet individual requirements. It is


18


Above: the new training rig at Humberside Engineering Training


Association (HETA) will be used by about 80 full time apprentices and 100 adults on training courses per year


designed to provide scalable, flexible and reliable control and monitoring systems, so is a favourite across many industry sectors. And these same fea- tures, plus its widespread use, also make it well suited for the HETA train- ing rig too.


A fully integrated package, Mitsubishi Electric SCADA’s easy to use configuration tools and features enables solutions to be quickly devel- oped and deployed, even for complex requirements. The scalability allows students to easily create solutions for large systems, while its flexibility allows them to explore both centralised and distributed signal processing. The SCADA package has built-in redundancy, which prevents the HETA trainees becoming thwarted by internal faults. Naturally, in industrial applica- tions redundancy prevents loss of func- tionality, performance and data files. The SCADA development tools include graphical process visualisation, historical/real time trending and advanced alarming and reporting, all of which are proving useful in the HETA training environment. Programming is fast using MX4’s library of program modules, wizards and animation genies.


PLCs


It interfaces directly with many makes of PLC, although the HETA rig uses Mitsubishi Electric’s own FX and Q-series controllers. The inclu- sion of the Mitsubishi FX on the HETA rig means students are likely to be trained on equipment they will meet in the field. Launched 30 years


ago, it has constantly developed and today it is used in many industries for roles such as valve sequencing, pump control and flow monitoring. While the FXs allow trainees to become familiar with the basic con- cepts of process automation, the Q- Series units take them to the cutting edge of integrated control. The Q-series has an automation platform that com- bines all key automation types on one controller. However, it has also been designed to be easy to use, as it auto- matically merges all of the sub-systems into a single integrated system. In industrial applications Q-series reduces engineering and re-engineer- ing times, thus saving costs and increasing a plant’s flexibility to adapt to changing market demands. At HETA it allows the students to develop their skills without wasteful down-time between students. HETA has stated that it expects the rig to be a central part of many of its training programmes for generations to come. As technology develops, it will be able to update the control equipment and thus always keep its offer relevant to industry. Finally, an oil industry guest at the official opening late last year was so impressed with the rig that he imme- diately enquired about the possibility of flying in students from the US and other regions where his global com- pany operates.


Mitsubishi Electric


automation.mitsubishielectric.co.uk T: 01707 276 100


Enter 210 MARCH 2013 Automation


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