New production control for ready-mixed mortar plants

The Wietersdorfer Group operates numerous ready-mixed mortar plants at different locations. In order to maintain and develop their strong market position, constant investments are necessary.
At the beginning of 2012, the plants in Wietersdorf and Peggau will be equipped with the next generation of production control technology from Rudolf Berthold Ges. m.b.H.

Dispatch processing has been successfully implemented by Rudolf Berthold Ges. m.b.H thanks to the VAS Dispatch Control Automation System since 1995.

Through the planned production control system, the plant will have one dedicated partner for all matters regarding plant-related control systems.

The task

The ready-mix mortar plants in Weitersdorf and Peggau produce high-quality building materials in differing mixtures and qualities.
Warehousing, receipt administration, weighing and mixing, as well as the recording of all relevant production data are the primary tasks of the new production control system.

Optimal visualisation of production for consistent and secure operation is a further aim of the project.

In addition, the plant in Peggau is to be expanded by a further 4 ready-mix silos which will also be integrated into the control system.

The weighing-indicators of weighing bins for dosing will also be upgraded and integrated – each plant consists of 6 of such scales:

• 2 scales for large-scale materials (e.g. sand) up to 3 tons
• 2 scales for small-scale materials up to 20 kg
• 1 set of scales for volumetric sizes up to 500kg
• 1 for liquid weights up to 20kg
• 2 manual addition points with touch screen control

as well as a mixer, which can be operated with or without agitator.

Emptying of the mixer takes place by means of an interim bin, which can supply the storage silo, the packing machine or the loading station for such trucks directly.

Start-up for both plants is planned to take place at the beginning of 2012.

The maximum provided time for reconstruction of the Peggau plant is one week. Therefore optimum preparation and planning is essential before start-up.

Failsafe

Particular attention will be paid to failsafe operation during the planning and implementation of the project: during the season in summer, these plants are in operation 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.

For this reason, the control system will be operated as a fully-redundant system and the software will run redundantly on 2 servers at the logistic control station through sharing with Hot Standby.
This will ensure uninterrupted operation.

A further guarantee of trouble-free operation is the transfer of maintenance work to Rudolf Berthold Ges.m.b.H through:

• Guaranteed spare part storage
• Guaranteed reaction times in the case of disturbances
• Hotline support

Production data will be sent directly to the ERP system at the company headquarters in Klagenfurt. The current data interfaces are therefore no longer necessary as Oracle databases will be implemented at both the production plants and the headquarters to enable direct data transfer in the future.

A special high security solution, which guarantees global security for data access through authorised personnel, will be implemented for the security of data transfer.

For the Wietersdorfer Group, this investment means an important step towards economic stability through guaranteed failsafe and operational security with enhanced user friendliness.

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