Vision1210™ Improves Pigging System Cleanliness & Efficiency

Hygienic Pigging Systems (HPS) of Nottingham, UK is a world leader in the development, production, installation and commissioning of pipeline pigging systems for liquid process companies. HPS’ need for a controller stemmed from their need to custom design and manufacture client specific Pigging solutions for more complex multi-source / multi-destination applications. “We had a demo system that we wanted to use to show customers how a pigging system works and what equipment is involved,” Said Ashley Parr, of HPS. “This needed to have an operator interface and a PLC to control the equipment, as well as enough I/O to accommodate and mimic the equipment.” This demo system is located on their demo rig, which is used for exhibitions and in their demonstration room. It will become their standard for all of their more complicated installations.

During production, a pipe work system’s internal liquid is often changed at the end batch or for a change in production demands. Normally, this would mean flushing the pipe work out with the cleaner while it is still full of production liquid until all traces of the liquid are removed. HPS supplies pigs that have a high tolerance fit to the pipe work. These are then moved through the pipe automatically (using a series of valves) to separate one liquid from another. This process makes cleaning (CIP) more efficient, reduces waste and minimizes down time on product change over. The Vision1210 controls the valves in this application and hence the “pig”. This allows an automated efficient change over from one product to another.
“We decided to use the V1210 because we wanted a nice big display to show off the graphics.” Parr says, “Instead of having to buy a PLC & HMI separately, this option enabled us to have both in one unit, which directly translated into cost reduction for the equipment and a more space efficient solution.” Ashley goes on to say, “The huge advantage of this PLC was that with everything built-in, the communications and use of tags in the HMI was so simple and intuitive. We used the snap-in I/O for the back of the unit as this offered an ideal compact solution. The support from the Unitronics team and local distributors i4 Automation was excellent. Within the first few days of playing around with the software I had a lot of questions about what I could and could not do. The response was quick and solved my issues every time.”