Executive Summary
Asahi Carbon Company Ltd. (ACA) is a major carbon black producer. Founded in Niigata, Japan in 1951, ACA is strong in the R&D of unique new technologies as well as in manufacturing, sales, and market promotion. The company has plants in Japan and other countries, and sells its products worldwide.
Carbon black is a carbon substance and is used as a pigment and reinforcing agent in rubber and resin products. This protects these materials from erosion and ultraviolet rays, and gives them strength and elasticity. Carbon black is mainly utilized in rubber products such as tires, for which its specifications vary depending on the application (airplane, passenger car, racing car, etc.). Other applications include rubber hoses and vibration proof materials as well as batteries, inks, and other items that require particular conductivity or coloring characteristics.
ACA has long been a user of Yokogawa's CENTUM distributed control system (DCS), starting with CENTUM XL and migrating to CENTUM CS 3000. At the request of ACA, Yokogawa successfully installed its Exaquantum plant information management system (PIMS) package on the top of this DCS.
Process overview
The Challenges and the Solutions
To analyze the performance of its production equipment and identify countermeasures for any problems that occur, ACA wished to install a data historian that was capable of collecting process data over long periods of time. An additional need was the ability for the sales department to monitor production data over the company's computer network. Specifically, these requirements were:
- Storage of production information (parameters, data) acquired over long periods, and the easy viewing and confirmation of this historical data
- Monitoring of operation status and analysis of production data not only from the DCS, but also from PCs on the company network
- Seamless integration of the DCS with other systems
To meet these requirements, ACA decided to install an Exaquantum PIMS package on the top of the existing DCS. One package was installed for the carbon black process in August 2005 and another was installed at the utility boiler plant in October 2010. Redundant OPC servers and a fault tolerant Exaquantum server were also installed to prevent plant shutdowns.
System configuration
Improve quality and yield through proactive maintenance of plant assets
By using the Exaquantum historian to review and analyze process data collected over long periods of time, ACA is able to track the heat exchange efficiency between gas and air and predict when an asset might fail. It can carry out proactive maintenance, improving both product quality and yield.
Remote monitoring
With Exaquantum clients in its sales office, ACA is able to monitor all the data from its production operations around the world. The information displayed on the clients is updated frequently, and can be customized to display various kinds of trend data. This ensures that engineers at the Japan headquarters can stay constantly apprised of the status of production operations and provide online technical support wherever it is required.
Shared information access for quick problem solving
Using Exaquantum, production supervisory personnel and operators can have shared access to the latest production data from the DCS at all times. This ensures that the right person can have all the information necessary to make the right decision. Past and current production data can be easily compared, allowing problems to be solved quickly.
Automated daily reports
Data from Exaquantum and ACA's main computer system can be easily combined for daily reporting purposes. Automation of this function reduces the workload 90%. When Exaquantum is used together with Excel and VBA, the extraction and analysis of process data is greatly facilitated.
Exaquantum monitoring display
Customized trend display
Customer Satisfaction
"Exaquantum allows us to accumulate production data and use this for reporting and analysis. We have continual access to all necessary data. This allows us here at ACA to analyze what went wrong when a problem occurs. We can also share process and production data with any other department at any time. Exaquantum also saves us a lot of time by generating reports, making our work more efficient. Exaquantum is a very important package at our plant. Everyone at ACA really appreciates the reliability of Yokogawa's systems and packages."
Mr. Matsuda and Mr.Tamaki of the IT Management Section
Industrieën
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Chemie
Chemische fabrieken zijn afhankelijk van continu- en batch-productieprocessen die elk verschillende eisen stellen aan een besturingssysteem. Een continu proces vereist een robuust en stabiel besturingssysteem dat niet faalt en de productielijn doet stilvallen. Bij een batchproces ligt de nadruk ligt op een besturingssysteem dat een grote flexibiliteit biedt bij het aanpassen van o.a. formules en procedures. Beide soorten systemen moeten worden beheerd naar aanleiding van de productiegeschiedenis rond de kwaliteit van het product, en in staat zijn om niet-routinematige werkzaamheden uit te voeren. Met een uitgebreide productportfolio, ervaren systeemingenieurs en wereldwijde verkoop- en servicenetwerk heeft Yokogawa een oplossing voor elk fabrieksproces.
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Specialistisch en fijn chemisch
Yokogawa bedient al lange tijd klanten in de speciaal- en fijn chemie. Met een toonaangevende batchoplossing die de beste betrouwbaarheid en flexibiliteit in zijn klasse biedt, alsmede industrie-experts die de complexe eisen begrijpen die bij het ontwerpen van een batchoplossing komen kijken, kunt u er zeker van zijn dat u in samenwerking met Yokogawa een systeem krijgt waarmee u in de toekomst producten kunt produceren die voldoen aan de behoeften van uw klanten, terwijl de veiligheid en de naleving van de regelgeving gewaarborgd blijven.
Gerelateerde producten & oplossingen
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Plant Information Management System (Exaquantum)
Exaquantum can acquire data from all facets of a process and transform that data into easily usable, high-value, widely distributed information.
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Gedistribueerd besturingssysteem (DCS)
De DCS maakt automatisering en controle van industriële processen en verbeterde bedrijfsprestaties mogelijk. Meer dan 10.000 fabrieken vertrouwen op Yokogawa DCS om hun productiedoelen te bereiken.