Our Projects

Our client is building a manufacturing facility for the production of sustainable and safe benchtop surfaces. The surfaces are made of 85% recycled materials and silica free (silica dust is a harmful substance).

Our role is to architect, design, implement and maintain the automation system of the entire production line. The system includes control logic of the machines, machine intercommunication, calculate and display production line metrics and integrate the operations into the existing ERP system.

Some machines required brand new electrical enclosures. We engineered from scratch the electrical and control systems. The machines include high power motors, water cooling and pneumatic components. The motors are controlled by VSDs. The process cooling system included multiple water supply and recirculation circuits. And the pneumatics system has a complex task to ensure the quality of the produced product. ControlX took the design and implementation of the system very seriously to ensure the client requirements are fulfilled.

To enable digital foundation of the production line MQTT protocol is utilised. It also helped to achieve machine intercommunication. Tracking downtime, infeed, waste and outfeed enabled to calculate the production metrics such as Availability, Quality and Performance for each machine. These metrics are the components of Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). Calculating the OEE metric of the production line helps identify inefficiencies and production bottlenecks. Connected machines automatically report the inventory usage directly into ERP, it helps plan and estimate the production costs.

At a portable toilet manufacturing facility our task was to gather production and downtime data out of two critical rotational thermo moulding machines for displaying it on a production dashboard. We designed and developed a common integration infrastructure for machines to report its data. The integration infrastructure included cloud and machine connection. At the cloud we hosted a server for MQTT broker and IIoT platform software. At the machine level we used gateways to read data from PLC and publish the data to the cloud MQTT broker.

After a few weeks of development each machine has the following:

• Downtime Pareto chart for better decision making to reduce downtime

• Shift/day production charts and counters

• Foundation for OEE calculation: availability, quality and performance

The dashboard with the metrics is available via a web interface from mobile or PC.

There are plans of expanding the system to other machines at this facility.

Last couple of weeks we have been learning a lot about concrete batching systems from Queensland professionals. This project is about automation the concrete batching and discharge processes of a concrete panel manufacturing facility.

This system has a number of independent subsystems controlled by the main PLC. The PLC receives batching recipes from a computerised monitoring system.

Our task here is to:

• Design system architecture as per the clients requirement

• Develop PC software for recipe management and system monitoring

• Develop main PLC program to control and execute the batching recipes

• Design and develop cloud infrastructure for remote process monitoring and data collection

In this project the client’s requirements were to have a cost-effective but efficient control system for a steel rollforming punching machine developed from the ground up.  These requirements were catered to in the design and implementation of the complete electrical circuits and PLC & HMI software programs. The system consisted of control of a combination of VSD and servo motor drives, hydraulic and pneumatic solenoid valves, various interfacing sensors providing feedback and the actuation of hydraulic punches with adjustable tooling.

PLC and HMI programs were developed to increase the output, accuracy, and safety of the existing manufacturing operation at the premises, while also simplifying operation for machine operators. In using a high-resolution touch display in conjunction with a Node-RED program for the HMI, features of programming and saving new production routines via this HMI were provided.

Challenges overcame involved programming optimal operation of the numerous hydraulic punches, dependent on a wide range of variables such as their adjustable tooling sets, user-adjustable material feed speeds, while accommodating as wide a possible range of production patterns for the steel feed material. Tenth of millimetre precession was a requirement adhered to, with automatic and manual operation modes, remote online control and monitoring integrated into the final system package.

The plant contains numerous storage and reaction tanks which were found to be lacking in level switches and condition alarms, having room for improvement

Our solution package included design, supply and installation of the electrical system upgrade to comply with the latest EPA regulations. The design included electrical and control engineering. Electrical schematics and PLC with SCADA programs were delivered as part of the engineering stage.

Supply and installation was delivered on time and within the planned plant shutdown. Upon installation completion we conducted commissioning and handed over the supplied equipment. Commissioning reports is documentation we typically produce and provide for our clients upon completion of jobs.

We designed a control system upgrade for deselection of drives in a 3 x 710kW ABB multidrive system.

The upgraded control system now dramatically reduces downtime risk in the event of drive malfunctioning. The control system allows the  disabling of drives with a click of a button. Disabled drive can be removed from service while the application can continue operating with reduced capacity.

We managed the entire process from discussion of the upgrade with the client to its commissioning. We developed PLC logic, tested it in the workshop and implemented it into the existing client's PLC.

Main challenges overcome were the dynamic assignment of master or follower roles to the drives on-demand.

This job involved the design and development of a control system for a belt conveyor. The scope of work for this job included a full range of control system engineering: design of the control system, writing a functional specification, development of the PLC program, development of HMI screens, and testing of the entire system.

The conveyor is driven by a Voith fluid coupling TPXL where we had to develop the control stages of filling the fluid coupling to achieve a smooth conveyor start. We worked with engineers from Voith and they were a great help.

The winch control system requirements weren't typical for a belt conveyor. As per the requirements, the winch operation had to include multiple modes. The range of the modes had to be extended from just automatic and manual to additional LTU fill-in, LTU empty and conveyor retraction/extension modes. To achieve the desired operation of this winch, ABB ACS880 regenerative drive was chosen. We are experts in setting up controls of ABB drives via Ethernet/IP from ControlLogix (or CompactLogix) PLCs, so this was easily achieved.

Overall, in this project there were some unpredicted delays, however, the development, testing and commissioning stages were completed on time.

Design and implementation of advanced robotic systems. The goal of recognising springs on a pallet, locating their positions, navigating the robot to pick them up and place them on a conveyor was satisfied

The system includes a control PC, a video recognition system and Yaskawa Motoman robotic arm. We developed a software to interact with the video camera and the robotic arm. An algorithm in the software takes a picture of the pallet and, using an image recognition software, analyses the photo. Calculation of the coordinates of a spring is performed and the robot is sent a command to pick the spring. Before placing onto the conveyor, the PC software defines a spot without a spring and sends a command to the robot for placing it.

Development of Control System (PLC and SCADA) for TLO - Train Loading System

Train Loaders are designed to load safely, efficiently and accurately while maximising the use of the capacity in each wagon. There are Volumetric and Gravimetric (Batch) Train Loaders, for any applications that require wagons to be loaded with bulk materials. Train Loaders are easy to use with flexible options for loadout operations. Manually controlled and automated systems are available with the ability to control at local control stations or remotely (on or off site).

* note: this is the company's lead engineer experience, and not the company's achievement.

Design and commissioning of control system for 32 electric motors. The project's result was a specific and complex pattern for a packaging transfer table with omnidirectional wheels. 

We also managed electrical manufacturing process, sourced components and subcontracted an electrical manufacturing company to build the control panels.

Design and implementation of new control system based on Siemens S7-1200 PLC for 10 years old HERBER Tube Bending Machine  EBM-125TB.

Objective of the project is to replace existing PC/PLC based control system (very outdated) with new series PLC and Linux based PC with User Interface developed in Node-RED. Most of the control interface will be transferred to the Node-RED dashboard and will be presented on a big touchscreen display. However, joystick and some existing pushbuttons on the existing control panel will be reused. Some specific operation actions require hardware buttons due to quicker response, so it will be wired to PLC's digital inputs.

The project is ongoing and more updates are coming.

To eliminate downtime and manual labor, we developed a new control system for a refurbished continuous shot peener in a spring manufacturing production line. In combination with a robotic arm this has led to a significant increase in production output.