Process Manufacturing
New Water Pumping Stations
Integrated and Networked
What was required:
Growing mushrooms commercially requires the use of a lot of water. An established local button mushroom producer was installing six new water pump stations. They approached Fitzwilliam Electrical to integrate the system controls and communications.
A key objective of the project was to schedule wastewater discharges to occur during off-peak times. Also, to accurately monitor and record flow rates, in order to fulfil local body requirements around daily discharge volumes.
What we did:
- The six new water pumping stations were integrated by way of seven PLC’s connected through a network of fibre optic cable, category six cable and industrial ethernet
- A SCADA/HMI visual interface to display real-time graph data about water flow rates
- Automatic cut off of the discharge pump when daily allocation is reached
- Notifications of any faults on critical water pumps were set up
How it helped:
The fully integrated control system for the plant’s water pumps proved of great assistance to the mushroom growing business. Accurately controlling water distribution throughout the plant and control, record and display water discharge rates to stay compliant with council regulations.
The automated controls system improved efficiencies and record-keeping accuracy. The control system integration has operated without major incidents for three years.
