Ignition Solves 11 Key Problems

Project Overview

The client had the following problems:

• SCADA systems for Extraction, Crushing and Refinery in stand-alone system and in different versions of IAS Wonderware version 3.0.
• This system’s version only runs on Windows XP SP2. No higher version is supported, that´s why the operating system or hardware can't be upgraded.
• Because the hardware can’t be upgraded, it is frequently broken and this increases downtime.
• Serious problems with the consistency and coherence of historical data in each sector.
• Historical data wasn’t centralized (stand-alone).
• They didn’t have backup procedure information so the broken hard disk of any machine implied the loss of all the data saved.
• The system maintenance was impractical because for every modification in one machine, it had to be repeating in every machine in the plant.
• Real-time and laboratory data weren’t integrated in the SCADA system, so the plant operators had to have two applications opened to operate.
• There wasn’t any chance that other people in the plant could see the SCADA system in machines that weren’t in the plant (limited clients only to the plant machines).
• There wasn’t any related information with the user’s critical operations of the control system.
• There weren’t any reports or statistics of alarms or equipment failures.

Ignition uses a Standard Single Site architecture with the following modules: Vision, SQL Bridge, Reporting, Historian and Web Browser, and a server machine with an architecture based on RAID 1 hard disks and one database, MySQL Server.

With this architecture, historical and real-time data were centralized in a single database and in a single system. This allowed a protected protocol of information that was unique and fast. It also allows high coherence and consistency of the stored data.

Using the “infinite clients” Ignition feature we could create new clients without spending any additional money. This task was impossible with IAS (Wonderware).

Having only one system with the SCADA, historical data, alarms and reports integrated in a single gateway, the maintenance schedule decreased drastically.

Because Ignition runs on any of the new operating systems, to change the old hardware and to upgrade the operating systems is no longer a problem. This is an advantage over other software in the market because it can run without any trouble in the plant machines, laboratory, supervisor and administration office, which have different operating system versions.

Thanks to the Ignition implementations, now the plant operator has all the information and control that he/she needs in only one easy-access and high-reliability system. Also, laboratory, supervision and management personnel have access to historical and real-time production data, production quality, historical users’ operations, and a high quantity of reports that make the decision-making process easier than before.

When our client saw the performance reliability that Ignition gave, it decided to migrate all of its data system to the Ignition application and even to add more features to the system. As the system grew up, we could see the stability and reliability that Ignition gave to the entire process. Using the Template, UDTs and Indirection tags allowed us to modify and to add new features in a rapid and simple way. Having a complete centralized system in only one server reduced notably the development hours, maintenance and costs. This allowed us to make remote assistance with zero-downtime. Our client now has a system with practically zero fail rates, data centralization, alarms and alarms history with a high availability, and consistency to its history and real-time data.