Sterling Systems & Controls, Inc. has decades of expertise in process control and automation. Control and automation systems of various types are custom-designed and manufactured by Sterling Systems & Controls for a wide range of applications and industries. One example outside of traditional industrial processes is the requirement a customer had for a municipal Well monitoring control system. This Well monitoring control system consisted of three control panels, one control panel having an Allen-Bradley PanelView Compact 600 touchscreen terminal used to monitor and automatically control the water pumps based on water pressure and flow.
The Sterling System & Controls Well monitoring control system monitors room and building temperature via thermocouples with a 4‐20ma interface. Power loss and generator running inputs are also monitored. Outputs are provided to give permissive signals for ingredient/chemical injections. The operator can use the PanelView interface to configure the system to run one or two pumps in Well #2 and Well #3 buildings. The three panels are interconnected via a wireless Ethernet network so all field information is relayed back to the PanelView terminal. Emergency stops and an alarm beacon/horn are provided on each panel. If any of the E‐Stops are pushed they will turn off all outputs but monitoring of input signals will continue.
The main operator interface for this system is a PanelView Compact industrial touchscreen HMI mounted in an enclosure running a process control application custom-designed by Sterling Systems & Controls. The control panel and PanelView HMI provide all control and equipment status information necessary to run the Well monitoring control process. The system consists of three (3) control panels, one in the main building and one each at the two Well buildings. The remote panels at the Well buildings are connected to the main building panel via a radio connection. Antennas and antenna cables are provided by Sterling Systems & Controls, Inc..
The Well control screen displays icons for the pumps used in the Well control system. The status of each pump is indicated on the grayscale screen by shade and outline. If the equipment is running in automatic mode, the circle will be light gray and the box around it will be black. If the equipment is idle in the automatic mode, the circle will be medium gray and the box will be light gray. If it is turned off, the circle will be dark gray and the box around it will be black. If the equipment is faulted, the circle will flash white to dark gray.
Access to the various functions and features of the control system application is controlled by one of four pre-defined security levels. The current security level is displayed in the top right corner of the Main Menu screen.
The system has two logins built-in which have .default user names and passwords. The password can be changed. User names are not case-sensitive, but passwords are case-sensitive. When no one is logged in, the default security account is active.
Controlling Equipment
Tapping the screen on any pump icon will display a Manual/Off/Auto equipment control screen for the selected equipment. When in Manual mode, the equipment output will be immediately energized/activated/turned on. Pumps running in manual mode are not interlocked with other pieces of equipment. That is, it will come on and stay on until it is taken out of Manual mode. When in the Off mode, the equipment output will be immediately de-energized/deactivated/turned off. Equipment in the Off model cannot be turned on
by the control system, however since this is a software feature, do not perform maintenance on equipment without first following proper lockout/tagout procedures. When in Automatic mode, equipment will be started and stopped automatically as required by the control system. In normal operating situations, all equipment should be placed in automatic mode. Use of the Manual/Off/Auto screens is only available when logged in with Maintenance or Supervisory security levels.
Equipment Status
The Equipment Status screens can be used to view not only the current equipment mode and state but also the actual I/O points used to determine the equipment status. These screens can be highly useful for troubleshooting and maintenance situations. I/O points displayed on the screens can be traced back to PLC racks and Terminal Numbers by looking for the I/O point in the drawings provided with the control system. There are also Set All Equipment to Automatic and Set All Equipment to Off buttons on the Equipment Status – Miscellaneous screen that can be used to control the mode of all equipment.
Working With Us
Give us a call today to talk about your business and process objectives and see how Sterling Systems & Controls can provide a custom engineered solution. You can reach us by phone at 1-815-625-0852, toll-free in the USA 1-800-257-7214, or by email at sci@sterlingcontrols.com.