Spartan Metals uses Think&Do for waste water process improvement and
cost reduction
The Spartan Metal Finishing Company builds Zinc plating and E-coating process production lines for various automotive and consumer products at their Detroit, Michigan plant. As part of their ongoing process improvement to become more efficient and to increase company profitability, Spartan Metals is using Think & Do software for process control and HMI on their production lines for waste water treatment and recycling applications.
Process engineer Joe Busutill developed the process and monitoring system for their waste water treatment line. He plans to convert all production line controls to Think & Do as they develop new lines and retrofit existing plating lines. Their requirement for integrated HMI, process and discrete control, recipe management, alarming and data logging functions in a cost-effective package led to the selection of Think & Do and Ethernet-based I/O from Automationdirect.com.
The waste water treatment system controls a multiple filtration process performed on fluid pumped from the plating lines. The main particles filtered and removed from the fluid are plating chemicals from the zinc and copper plating processes, and the hardened metallic sediment that forms in the plating process. Proper pH balances are controlled and monitored at all times to allow the solvents to form the appropriate solids that accumulate and fall to the bottom of the accumulation tanks for removal. As the fluid moves through each filtration tank, the water becomes more pure, until the water is at a purity level suitable for discharge to the city. Spartan Metals discharges pure water at a rate of 45,000 gallons per day. This is a considerable improvement over the 135,000 gallons per day discharged prior to overall process improvement and recycled use of the purified water from their waste treatment process. Some of the recycled water is used for back-flush and rinsing operations in their plating process. The reuse of the water has been a significant cost savings to Spartan because they must pay the city for their total water usage as it enters the plant.
The I/O system consists of multiple DirectLogic DL205 Ethernet-based I/O racks, with a total of 64 digital inputs, 48 digital output, 24 analog inputs, and 6 analog outputs. Many sensors and meters monitor fluid levels and pH balances in the system. Maintenance information is logged every time a pump is operated and the data is flagged on maintenance screens. This information is used for preventative and predictive maintenance of the entire line. They have been able to save other component costs, such as on pH meters, replacing intelligent meters with less costly 4-20mA operated voltage meters that can be set and changed from the Think & Do HMI screen.
Spartan Metals' goals of process improvement and lowering overall costs were accomplished with the Think & Do PC control system. They now have better access to process data and have reduced development time in building their new waste water treatment line.
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