Kodak zooms in on customized software to run a near picture-perfect utilities plant
Toronto - Kodak Canada Inc. is one of a growing number of companies discovering the benefits of using industrial control technology to run its manufacturing operations.
The Toronto-based company, a Canadian subsidiary of Eastman Kodak Co. which makes film, cameras, x-ray machines and digital imaging equipment, recently expanded its facilities here with the addition of a new utilities building. The co-generation plant supplies steam, compressed air, cooled water and electricity to the company's nine main buildings.
The challenge for Kodak in the new plant was to communicate with and monitor many types of equipment and devices, including three brands of PLCs and various embedded controllers. Kodak turned to a local firm, BRIC Engineered Systems of Bowmanville, Ont., to manage the project. The engineering company designed and installed the instrumentation hardware and software required for monitoring and controlling all functions within the utilities building. It also customized all the screens and data logging and alarming functions to Kodak's exact standards using VTS monitoring and control software from Bedford, NS-based Trihedral Engineering Ltd. as the foundation. The system can now be run from the central control room as well as multiple workstations throughout the utilities building.
A key element of the system is its multiple separate windows, which allow an operator to view, size and independently move the plant overview, boiler screen, chiller screen and alarms in the standard MS-Windows set-up, giving operators a distinct advantage in close monitoring situations. The icon-based design of the menu buttons is another effective feature. One click of a button reveals a small picture of the process which that particular button controls, before the full screen actually appears. This helps to increase the operator's ability to travel quickly and efficiently through the menus.
Effective control of the utilities building has reportedly resulted in more reliable plant operations, and significant savings for Kodak in two key areas. The company can now monitor the total amount of steam, compressed air, chilled water and electricity leaving the utilities building, and reduce waste by turning equipment off when demand is met. And by centralizing the monitoring and control functions and expanding the alarm system, the plant can run with only one operator per shift.
- Trihedral's VTS operator interface
Overall, manufacturing downtime has been reduced because the operator can take action before problems affect production or result in expensive and unnecessary downtime.
Kodak is also using a separate VTS system built by BRIC in its motion picture department where it produces color print film. The software performs statistical process control (SPC) functions on data collected from five types of measurement gauges, using samples from the perforating machines. And it automatically notifies the operator before a machine reaches what Kodak identifies as ' out-of-control' limits.
The overall system is reportedly so well received by operators and managers alike that the parent company has recently ordered three additional systems from BRIC for its motion picture department at its worldwide headquarters in Rochester, NY.
