Distributed Control Systems (DCSs) are dedicated systems used to control manufacturing processes that are continuous, such as oil refining, petrochemicals, central station power generation and pharmaceutical plants. DCSs are connected to sensors and actuators and use setpoint control to control the flow of material through the plant. A typical DCS consists of functionally distributed digital controllers capable of executing several thousand control loops. The input/output devices (I/O) can be integral with the controller or located remotely via a field network. Today's controllers have flexible features such as PID, Logic and sequential control plus the advantage of open architectures based on industry hardware components and standard communication networks. Local communication is handled by a control network with transmission over twisted pair, coaxial, or fiber optic cable. DCSs can consist of one or several workstations and can be configured at the workstation or by an off-line personal computer.
Applied Integration UK Ltd are able to provide our clients with a variety of DCS solutions having excellent knowledge with a large number of market leading manufacturers. We can supply systems ranging from single integrated controllers to large turnkey installations including control panels, sensors and actuators.
Obsolete DCS systems can be brought up to date with the latest products, upgrades often being installed without need for complete plant shutdown.
Strong, effective project management is key to the success of any project particularly with larger or turnkey projects. In order to meet the standards that are expected for each project, a dedicated project manager and design team is assigned to complete the project to the client's specification and requirements.
Applied Integration UK Ltd has already successfully supplied new and upgrade systems into the following industries.
- Chemical Industry - 1500 I/O System upgrade from Toshiba to MTL MOST re-developing the original Fix32 SCADA system and providing an alarm management system.
- Glass Industry - Furnace control system upgrade from obsolete Eurotherm and Paragon SCADA to current Eurotherm hardware using Eurotherm E-Suite SCADA software.
- Steel Industry - Blast Furnace stoves pressure equalization system using Eurotherm T2550 together with Eycon HMI displays.
- Steel Industry - Energy recovery turbine, control of turbine guide vanes and gas off-take control valves to automatically start-up and shutdown a 14 MW turbine.
- Reheat Furnace - Zone Temperature control system using Lead/Lag ratio with cross limiting combustion control together with zone to zone strategy interlocking.
- Gas Distribution - Control of main gas pipeline flow from Scotland to Ireland using discrete micro DCS nodes developed in a triple redundant configuration.