Sandvik Materials Technology, a part of the Sandvik Group, is a world-leading developer and manufacturer of products in advanced stainless steels and special alloys for the most demanding environments, as well as products and systems for industrial heating.

The project

The company’s factory, in Sandviken, Sweden, makes everything from razor blades to deep-water drill bits, and uses ABB’s MicroSCADA Pro to manage its power systems.

Sandvik took delivery of new Historian functionality as part of an upgrade to MicroSCADA Pro, which has been in use at the factory since 1998. The Historian system comprises a single server, with one or two associated workstation. The server archives data gathered by the SCADA system. The company uses the data to spot trends in energy consumption, transformer temperature, feeder loading and other operational parameters.

Historian is so flexible that after a year of use Sandvik is still finding new value in the accumulated information.

Benefits

Knowing what's happening now is important, but putting that knowledge into context can make it even more valuable.

With, arguably, the most-comprehensive MicroSCADA Pro system in Sweden, Sandvik wanted to see, and analyze, the data flooding in from sensors across its power systems, which is why the company chose to install ABB's Historian software.

Customer requirements

Sandvik wanted to make better use of the information being gathered by its SCADA system, creating value out of historical data, so the Group asked ABB for a solution.

ABB solution

ABB provided Historian during a planned upgrade of the existing system to version 9.3. The Historian system was installed and integrated in a couple of days, plus a day’s training to ensure Sandvik could get the best out of it, and started collecting data in February 2013.

From the workstation the Historian software provides access to archived data collected from across the country’s-biggest MicroSCADA Pro system. The existing installation constantly collects data from across the site, but without Historian that data is discarded despite the value it can provide.

Historian in use

With accumulated data the company can see trends develop, not only observing which feeders are taking the biggest load but also showing where capacity is spare for future expansion or reconfiguration.

The system is checked weekly, to observe trends over the preceding month, and is also used for specific enquiries. Historian can provide details of energy flow through a specific transformer, or a list of which alarms have been triggered and when, or total energy consumption across the factory, with all the reports placed into a historical context for easy analysis.

Customer benefits

For Sandvik that means decisions can be made based on accurate data, measured loads can be used to judge whether new feeders are up to the job, while problems with harmonics or intermittent overheating can be quickly identified and addressed before faults occur.

This unprecedented access to information, and the tools to understand it, make for genuine return on investment, but the benefits of ABB Historian aren't only financial. Knowing what happened, as well as what's happening, makes for improved confidence and vision from which comes better planning and a clearer grasp on the complexities of a modern power network, delivered by ABB's MicroSCADA Pro-based Historian.

For more information please contact:
ABB Finland Oy, Substation Automation Products
P.O. Box 699, FI-65101 Vaasa, Finland