Specialty Film Coater Upgrade
Faced with increasing demand for specialty films, the owner of a large manufacturing plant invested $40 million dollars to convert an idle web coating line to a start-of-the-art specialty film coating line.
Challenges:
- The existing control systems, drives, motors, instrumentation, and operator interface needed to be completely replaced.
- The machine had to be operational in 5 months from the start of engineering.
- Portions of the machine were reclassified to Class I, Div 1.
Benefits:
- Sectionalized approach to controls design allowed for concurrent design, faster installation and made troubleshooting easier.
- Use of distributed I/O reduced wiring costs and installation time.
- New coordinated drive system provided a more consistent coating.
Project Included:
- Thermal oxidizer
- Laminator
- Treater
- Coordinated drive system
- Instrumentation
- Area classification/intrinsic safety
- Winder
- Unwinds
- Oven
- Coater
- Web steering
