automotion automotion automotion automotion - B&R Industrie ...

of individual plants throughout the
entire complex.
Dr. Bernhard Voglauer, managing
control technician in the Lenzing Fibers
technical planning department
found himself confronted with just
this back in 2006. In-house chemists
developed and tested a completely
new process in the laboratory, which
proved to be effective. the goal now
was to implement the results in a
full-scale production system. Construction
of the system was mostly
finished and a general automation
concept had already been created.
even the decision for the process
control technology which would be
used had already been made. the
automation engineers at Lenzing
count on B&R's ApROL for this.
Because the production processes
in this sort of system are complex
and are not entirely hazard-free due
to the chemical processes used, it
is common to build a so-called pilot
system after lab testing and before
construction of the full-scale
system. the pilot system is used to
test and optimize processes scaled
down to kilograms, before they are
applied to the full-scale system. It is
not hard to see how this procedure
can consume a good deal of investment,
time and space. "this drove
us to search for a solution that didn't
require this cumbersome intermediate
step," remembers Bernhard Vo-
glauer. "It was clear that the unproductive
time spent on optimization
during the commissioning phase
was not acceptable."
Safety through simulation
Bernhard Voglauer found the answer
to this challenging task to be
dynamic process simulation, in
Application
The production chain goes from the sustainable raw material wood to the finished fiber.
which the entire production system,
including all process data, is simulated
as a computer model. In this
way, optimization can be performed
on a virtual system. Without production
downtime, without substandard
production and most importantly
without endangering the workers,
the machine or the environment.
As a tool, mAtLAB ® /Simulink ® from
the American manufacturer the
mathWorks was an obvious choice.
On the one hand, because it is a
well-known simulation system used
worldwide that, unlike the product
used earlier by Lenzing Ag, can
handle the required complexity. On
the other hand, because code that is
understood by B&R systems such as
the ApROL process control system
The savings achieved by shortening the
commissioning time for large systems from
weeks to days are enormous.
can be generated directly from the
simulation models.
With respect to the expected benefits
brought by dynamic simulation
of production systems, Bernhard Voglauer
says: "The economic benefits
are a result of being able to start production
at full capacity sooner, with
“Through simulation with MATLAB ® /Simulink
® we were able to shorten the commissioning
time of a new production system to
a minimum. The time saved and the problems
avoided through virtual commissioning
convinced even the toughest critics.“
Dr. Bernhard Voglauer
Managing Control Technician
Faser Lenzing Technik Planung
minimum time lost during commissioning."
Predefined settings for PCS
parameters such as operating points,
limit values, closed loop control parameters,
alarm limits, etc. also contribute
to the control concept and
operability as does the detection of
errors/defects in the pCS programming.
In addition, the plausibility of
the process design can be checked,
and acceptance by the system operators
can be increased by providing
training in advance and implementing
impressive functionality, which is
important for smooth operation.
Over the course of three months and
nearly 400 hours of work, a physical
model and then the Simulink simulation
model were created based
on construction data, the process
graphic, expert knowledge and the
results of lab testing.
the "hardware-in-the-loop" concept
was used: the simulation model >>
automotion 07/2009
53