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Danieli recently hosted its Danieli week at Buttrio in Italy. One of the non-ferrous technologies presented to delegates was Hipac (High performance automation and control). The system consist of intelligent solutions for Level 1 and 2 automation for all types of flat rolling mills. By Frank Mchlich.
As a state-of-the-art process control and automation system, HiPAC is structured in layers. Each automation level is equipped with the latest hardware and software technology based on market standards. The complete system is modular and is therefore flexible and scalable to the needs of each application. Beside a strong control system concept, one of the most significant features of HiPAC is the implemented technology.
All 'standard' control concepts were analysed in detail and several improvements and new strategies were the results of extensive research.
LEVEL 1
The latest Motorola Power PC technology, inserted in extended 64 Bit VME racks, represents the heart of the HiPAC Level 1. Multiprocessing CPUs, running under the VxWorks real time operating system, enable high dynamic performance controls of the mills actuators and state-of-the-art thickness and flatness controls.
The VME system offers Ethernet TCP/IP, high speed FieldBus and Remote I/O interfaces. Reflective memory boards enable a real time data exchange between the VME systems and any other CPU.
All sequence functions as well as basic actuations are performed on the right platform for these kinds of operations: PLCs are fully integrated components of the HiPAC Level 1 configuration.
An engineering workstation, running under Windows NT, serves for the development of the application software in a function block diagram language in compliance with IEC 1131. The software programming is done in the control scheme editor. Function blocks are available from the standard as well as from the application related libraries.
A network variable database offers an easy and centralised organisation of all variables. Useful features are the signal cross-reference, the software and signal simulator and an online monitoring function.
The operator workstations run under Windows NT, and a SCADA package is used for the Human Machine Interface.
The Danieli Troubleshooting Unit TU95 gets access to all Level 1 and Level 2 CPUs via the common Ethernet TCP/IP link. Thus, a totally free monitoring of any variable within the complete automation network is enabled. Real...