How does a systems integration company with no experience in mining and DCS successfully commission, test and start-up a plant in a short period of eight weeks? Easy, they use the Freelance DCS.
Too many software applications to control a stone mine
Wake Stone Corporation, a recipient of numerous awards in strengthening public education and environmental causes, was founded in 1970. With quarries in east-central and eastern North Carolina, as well as South Carolina, Wake Stone has steadily grown to be the fourth largest crushed stone producer in North Carolina and one of the top 50 in the United States.
The existing SCADA/PLC system at Wake Stone involved too many software applications with an average software load time of almost 20 hours.
The customer was looking for a faster solution. Also the tight schedule of eight weeks made commissioning a challenge.
System Integrator with no previous DCS experience
Carolina Automation Systems (CAS), an automation integration company located in Garner, NC near Raleigh executed this project. Formerly known as Pharma Serv LLC, CAS has 25 years of experience in automation, instrumentation and control industry.
But both Wake Stone Corporation and Carolina Automation Systems (CAS) system integrator had no previous DCS experience. The engineers were required to develop both control and I/O loop drawings, construct control enclosures and write control sequences. There were minimal process flow diagrams and no existing software design specification.
As this was the first mining project for CAS, they required a user friendly system with a complete software package that integrated graphics, trends, alarms, reports and other communication protocols. A system, where all configured tags were managed in a single database and, it could be tested offline too.