Graybec Calc Inc. (Boucherville, Quebec, Canada) is a leading supplier of lime and limestone products for eastern Canada and the northeastern United States. In addition to bulk quicklime, Graybec Calc produces bagged and bulk hydrated lime, limestone aggregates for construction, and pulverized limestone.

The company decided to construct a new lime kiln at its new Bedford, Quebec facility. It needed to install an integrated automated control solution—from I/O points to operator interface stations—but also wanted to keep the solution and applications open for expansion. While Graybec Calc planned to spend nearly $20 million (Canadian) on the project, the company wanted to decrease downtime and installation time.

Graybec commissioned Groupe Cadec Inc. (Bromptonville, Quebec, Canada) to manage and integrate the control project. Groupe Cadec's expertise ranges from data acquisition and distributed control systems, to industrial networks and engineering services. Groupe Cadec's staff contains Microsoft Certified Professionals, able to develop integrated software solutions.

Groupe Cadec's engineering team developed a system using DeviceNet, three Allen Bradley PLC-5/40E processors, five motor control centers, and an RSView32 supervisory and control system from Rockwell Software. Groupe Cadec networked Graybec Calc's 100 + starters to the three Allen-Bradley processors via DeviceNet. Using DeviceNet helped the Groupe Cadec panel team reduce cabinet complexity, wiring time and costs, and also provided important motor status information for startup.

The RSView32 operator interface station communicates to the three A-B processors over an Ethernet network, providing the speed needed to collect production data and monitor alarms for the entire plant. The new system was required to monitor numerous I/O devices and alarms, so integrating RSView32 with programming tools reduced development time. RSView32's option of building reusable objects and templates also helped Groupe Cadec's programming team produce a standard library of templates and preanimated objects. RSView32 is especially effective in applications like Graybec Calc where numerous motors and PID loops require the same presentation of information and controls.

Rockwell Software and Allen-Bradley products integrate easily, so using RSView32 with Allen- Bradley PLC-5/40E processors helped save time and decrease installation complexity.

RSView32 gave operators an intuitive, uniform supervisory and control operator station for collecting production data and monitoring alarms. Reusable, preanimated objects and templates within RSView32 helped keep development standard, giving operators a consistent look and feel across applications. Openness helps ensure growth of the present solution and the addition of other operator stations will be fast and easy.

Comments? Send e-mail to: mdrakulich@cahners.com

For more information from Rockwell Automation, from Groupe Cadec, visit www.controleng.com/info