The importance of high-quality and reliable automation is often underestimated in system planning. However, it has a decisive influence on functionality and data quality. For test plants and production systems, reliable continuous operation is only possible with suitable automation. This reduces maintenance costs in the long term, reduces safety risks and ensures reliable and reproducible measurement data.
AP-Miniplant offers you industrially proven and customisable hard- and software systems for your process.
Our automation – simply designed, reliably programmed
Most of our plants are equipped with an automation system consisting of a hardware control (PLC) and a PC-based operating and monitoring system. This ensures maximum process stability and intrinsic safety.
All systems come with a well-documented circuit diagram and reliable wiring, which is a key prerequisite for a successful automation project. We create all circuit diagrams with EPLAN® and wire both control cabinets and the systems directly on site. Of course, we check the entire wiring in accordance with current norms and our internal standards.
Depending on the complexity of the plant, we offer the following hardware and software for our systems:
- Simple systems: For simple systems, single controllers and data recorders in combination with robust controllers offer a particularly cost-effective solution.
- Standard automation : For systems with a typical level of automation, we use Siemens controllers of the S7/1500 series. They are equipped with a Profinet connection and a Windows PC with the Simatic WinCC SCADA system.
- Industry 4.0-ready automation: Here we also use Siemens S7/1500 industrial controllers and the new web-based WinCC Unified operating and monitoring system.
With this highly scalable system, you can choose between the PC and industrial panel platforms. Operation in hazardous areas is also possible via suitable panels. - Highly modular automation (under development): Flexibly integrable modular systems with MTP software interface for easy integration into suitable (POL-capable) process control systems.
- Customer-specific: We can install customer-specific systems. In this case, the automation is carried out by third-party suppliers commissioned by us or by the customer himself.
Programming is carried out using our function library, which has been tried and tested over many years. You receive a tested and parameterized automation system so that you can put your system into operation immediately.
Program control is PC-based by default in combination with the SimaticWinCC industrial operating program. The user interface is visually oriented to the system flow diagram so that process parameters can be changed intuitively and quickly. Critical process states are avoided by defined safety conditions and alarm limits.
The Simatic HMI user interface offers a wide range of options for displaying measured values and trends. AP-Miniplant compiles preconfigured trend windows with sensibly combined measured variables for each system, which you can expand with user-defined windows at any time.
Select individual curves, observe the development of your process live or analyze historical measurement data. This allows you to quickly identify undesirable operating states and trends. With the zoom function and the option to superimpose curves, you can easily recognize correlations in your data.
The integrated statistics function offers additional evaluation options and allows you to calculate a wide range of key figures. The trend window data can be exported directly to a CSV file and is therefore available in other programs.
AP-Miniplant has also developed an export tool for exporting all data for a specific time period. This is supplied with every system and makes it possible to export all or part of the data for a specific time period to a spreadsheet file.
We offer a flexible and intuitive recipe system for our plants. Take your process management to the next level by planning individual processes and defining event-controlled recipes.
In our system, data input is Spreadsheet-based. The input mask, which is adapted to the system, makes it easy to create complex flowcharts. Critical entries are already intercepted during recipe creation.
The processes themselves are executed autonomously in the control system and are based on the parameter sets stored in table rows. This ensures reliable implementation of defined steps and also allows process parameters to be adjusted during operation. With our flexible system, you can create an almost unlimited number of recipes and steps without being tied to fixed sequences. The simple adaptation without programming knowledge not only offers maximum flexibility, but also a high level of operating convenience and reproducible results.
By activating data recording in the recipe control, the measurement data is automatically exported during defined time steps so that the results of your tests are immediately available in the required form.
