A Plastic Film company purchased a used Alpine 5-Layer blown film extrusion line. Unfortunately, when the system was installed (after lengthy delays), the main PLC (Siemens S-545) was no longer operational. Although WBA could connect to the PLC, the memory fault could not cleared, and it could not be programmed.
WBA upgraded the S-545 to a Siemens S7-1500. The system was originally programmed with the following:
- S7-1500 main processor
- Six S7-300 blocks on profibus for control of the 5 extruders and die
- One Wago IO block on profibus for control of the secondary nip roller
- Communication to a Siemens S-5 plc which controlled the take-off system
- Five Siemens Simoreg DC drives (on profibus) for extruders
- Three Siemens Simovert AC drives (on profibus) for take-off and nip rolls
Later the upgrade was expanded to include removing the S-5 plc in the take-off system and replacing with an ET-200 block on profibus (incorporating the logic into the S7-1500) and replacing the Wago IO block with an ET-200 block.
System had a Wonderware operator screen that interfaced to Alpine system and Foremost Plastic Pellet feed system. WBA upgraded this system to the latest version of Wonderware and a Windows-10 pc.
In addition to the upgrade of the extrusion line, WBA assisted with startup of the PLC-5 based plastic pellet delivery system the feeds pellets to the extruders.
