Inductive Automation Blog

Project Summary:

Madkour Group needed to achieve Digital Transformation on the SCADA agriculture project infrastructure and automation system for the National Project for Developing the New Valley in Toshka. The project aims to reclaim one million acres outside of Cairo as part of Egypt’s overall plan to reclaim and cultivate three million acres in total. Leveraging Ignition’s scalable architecture, unlimited licensing, flexibility, and rapid development tools, Madkour established a central control building to easily operate, manage, and maintain a large number of sites, equipment, and facilities spread out across this vast desert area.

Problem:

The area that Madkour is cultivating — part of the South Valley Development, a vast area in southern Egypt, approximately 1,200 kilometers away from Cairo — was originally barren, with no soil, people, or water. Due to this distance, Madkour faced difficulties transporting materials and equipment to the site and eventually established facilities to produce brick, steel, and concrete locally. The logistics of the construction were substantial: Madkour excavated over 3.2 million cubic meters of rock, poured more than 252,000 cubic meters of concrete, and incorporated an extensive quantity of steel structures, totaling more than 1,852 tons.

Originally, the pump stations were operated manually, and with each station an hour apart, this setup was not feasible given the massive size of the SCADA agriculture project. This led to the idea of creating a control center to manage the entire area of Toshka. To accomplish this, Madkour needed a platform with no limitations that would allow them to begin from a small scale during the first phase, then expand to a larger scope in the subsequent phases, and ultimately encompass the entire project.

Madkour’s challenge was to build this scalable, customizable, and reliable central system that could comply with the Toshka project’s unusual requirements and large scale, all in a relatively short period of time.

Solution:

Madkour ended up choosing Ignition for its scalable architecture, unlimited licensing, flexibility, and rapid development tools. The Toshka control center is designed to monitor and control all elements of the irrigation system, which include more than 200 irrigation pump stations, five main lifting stations, 20 electrical MVSG, LV transformers and electrical panels, and more than 2,000 pivots. Using Perspective’s web-based UI flexibility, Madkour built dynamic templates backed by hierarchically structured UDTs. This iterative approach allowed them to deliver a scalable system in a short time.

Results:

The system now gathers real-time data from remote locations and provides the operations team with the reporting and analytic tools for making data-driven decisions.

Each pumping station can operate automatically as it pumps water into the main canal to supply the substations and agricultural areas in Toshka. If any issues arise, operators can react quickly and efficiently, accessing the Ignition system remotely from any mobile device. The system records events and alarms and stores them historically. The operator can display them either in real time or as analytical data to help with corrective actions.

Additionally, operators can easily monitor all the aspects of the station like production rates, electricity and water consumption, cost per cubic meter of water, as well as compare the performance of equipment, and make predictions based on historical data by combining data from the historian with real-time data.

The Ignition system interacts with the electrical signals and measurements of each station. This interaction extends to medium-voltage distributors and transformers, along with various vital signals and readings of the SCADA agriculture project.

Madkour’s development group has grown from one person at the beginning of the project to a team of ten. Over 4,000 workers were involved in Toshka across all companies, including other organizations working alongside Madkour.

Ignition reduced the costs overall, particularly in manpower. Madkour started the project with four operators working at a single station, and now, one operator can manage 10 stations.

By the end of 2024, Madkour will have reached a total of 167 irrigation stations, 1,811 pivots, and five water-pumping stations over an area of 200,000 acres. Madkour aims to reach 300 irrigation stations and over 3,400 pivots in the next two years with a total cultivated area of approximately 600,000 acres of the Toshka project’s goal of one million acres.

Start Date: August 2021

Deploy Date: March 2022

Project Scope:

Tags: To be extended 800K tags

Screens: 25

Clients: 20

Alarms: Around 150K

Devices used: Around 150 M580 Redundant PLCs - 13 WAGO PFC200 RTUs

Architectures used: Standard

Databases used: 3 MSSQL (HIS, GIS, Reports)

Historical data logged: Around 160K

A medida que más dispositivos interactúan con nuestros sistemas, la ciberseguridad comienza a convertirse en una gran preocupación para todos. Descubra cómo Ignition aborda estas amenazas con cifrado, autenticación, certificados de confianza y más.

Leading South African branded foods and beverages group Clover Industries adopted Ignition by Inductive Automation® to meet crucial system technology requirements. In this panel discussion, Francois and Deon from Clover share their needs, architecture overview, and multi-site implementation approach, including new standards and templates and the coordination of several System Integrator partners. We'll also talk through the valuable lessons learned and challenges overcome during implementation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this conversation with Brian Cooper from INTEG System Integrators, we'll share how Ignition and MQTT transformed the operations of the Oudtshoorn municipality in South Africa. Situated in the Klein Karoo region of the Western Cape, Oudtshoorn is a water-scarce region. Visibility, measurement, and effective control of irrigation systems and borehole levels are crucial, both to reduce waste of available water resources and minimize variability in flow regimes and recharge. Using small and cost-effective Edge devices and standard protocols, MQTT and Ignition by Inductive Automation® solved several challenges. There are lower operating costs, enterprise-wide and real-time visibility, and reduced response times, from five minutes to mere seconds.

Conozca lo que Ignition es capaz de hacer con sus datos históricos. Desde la creación de tendencias sobre la marcha hasta la realización de cálculos complejos en la aplicación, exploramos las capacidades más interesantes del software que puede utilizar en sus aplicaciones.

Parti dal basso, utilizzando asset esistenti e un approccio infinitamente scalabile partendo dalle reali esigenze del cliente. In questa sessione esploreremo come Ignition consente di determinare in anticipo il costo dell'infrastruttura digitale e fornisce gli strumenti ideali per System Integrator, OEM, produttori finali e manager della finanza aziendale.

Grazie alla struttura aperta e distribuita della piattaforma Ignition e di Ignition Edge, è possibile creare architetture estese in grado di migliorare l'efficienza di interi sistemi. Ignition, grazie alla sua infinita scalabilità e alle potenzialità di Ignition Edge, permette di integrare tutti i dispositivi di campo e funge da piattaforma per la realizzazione di reti industriali ad alta efficienza. Le capacità architetturali e la modellazione dei dati attraverso l'utilizzo di DataOps, già a livello di dispositivi Edge, sono elementi che consentono la trasformazione digitale sfruttando appieno le potenzialità del Cloud, della moderna comunicazione e delle tecniche di elaborazione dati.

Project Scope

• Tags: 48,548
• Screens: 10
• Clients: Unlimited
• Alarms: 5,400
• Devices used: Allen-Bradley 5069-L300 series (4) and one 1769-L18ER
• Architectures used: Standard
• Databases used: two Microsoft SQL Server Standard, one Millmaster Software, one Historian
• Historical data logged: 1,654 Tags

Project Overview

This project — automating the hog feed production plant at Smithfield Hog Production’s facility in Milford, Utah — uses Allen-Bradley CompactLogix processors accompanied with Flex and SLC I/O hardware. The computers are based on a virtual environment, having all machines running on a common server connected to thin clients. CPM Beta Raven’s MillMaster is the interface for the consumer to receive product, run recipes, track inventory, and loadout product seamlessly and accurately.

In any manufacturing environment there is a growing desire and need for automation and data logging/tracking. That’s particularly true when making products that require large batch sizes at fast paces with strict ingredient tolerances. The need for protein for humans is constantly growing; therefore, the need for Smithfield to increase production is necessary. We have come a long way from employees adding ingredients by hand and using pushbuttons and relays to control equipment in the facilities. There was a great need to have lot tracking, ingredient deviations, and a more uniform product.

The CPM Beta Raven automation system package has made it possible and simple for individuals to run many processes in tandem, while maintaining accuracy and protecting expensive equipment investments. The Ignition platform has provided several features that streamline the process of developing and troubleshooting customers’ needs for fast results. CPM Beta Raven has made use of making templates and user-defined data types to quickly replicate similar machinery and other such equipment.

 Ignition’s email and text feature allows Smithfield staff to know they will be made aware of events they desire to be notified on. Manufacturing has a constant need to upgrade, change, or remove certain equipment, and with Ignition the company can make changes to any part of the system without interruption of any ongoing processes.

 The Historian tool has become a standard for CPM Beta Raven’s customer base. The company teaches customers to use this feature to track ongoing issues, possible upcoming issues, and to help overall efficiency of the production plant.

 At Smithfield, there are certain products added to the batches that must come with very strict tolerances. This can be handled with a CPM Beta Raven Micro Scale system. CPM Beta Raven provides the turnkey scale indicators, bins, screw augers, weigh hoppers, dust socks, accompanying infrastructure, and automation solution. With these scales, customers can expect ingredient tolerances to be within the scale’s resolution (typically hundredths of a pound). This is a repeatable process. The database keeps track of free fall weights in order to compensate for product that will fall once the screw auger has come to a stop.

Major benefits from the project include the efficiency and response times of the software. The manufacturing business is fast-paced, safety-oriented, and dependent upon the Ignition HMI client to provide real-time data. For the Smithfield facility, it’s important to know the status of the boiler; without it the plant will not produce. This mill now has the comfort of knowing the management will be alerted on their phones in the event the boiler malfunctions. Before the CPM Beta Raven system integration project, the feed mill worked entirely on pushbuttons, relay circuit boards, and physical labor. Now the operators have the capability to focus more on ingredient/product accuracy and production times for the best results. This provides Smithfield the ability to serve more hog farms and therefore provide more protein for humans everywhere.

Learn key user experience/user interface (UX/UI) concepts to improve the interface design of your industrial projects. From the most common design mistakes to avoid, to the newest design methodologies, the team from NV Tecnologías will walk conference-goers through key design principles for HMIs and other interfaces. If you are new to screen design or want a refresher for UX in 2020, this is the perfect session for you.