For more than 200 years, Bunge has been an undisputed leader in the food, agribusiness and ingredients industries. The company employs about 23,000 people in 40 countries; in 2018, to mark its bicentennial, Bunge inaugurated its new soybean crushing plant in Porto Corsini, in the province of Ravenna. BBM had previously worked with this important reality for upgrades on the strip lines. The reliability and rapidity of BBM’s interventions meant that, for a PLC change operation, the choice fell to us once again.
In 2020, Bunge contacted us to carry out an inspection on a Siemens S5 PLC, with the intention of replacing it with a more up-to-date one. The part needed for the modification was unobtainable; therefore, at first the customer had opted for the installation of a standard PC which, although it guaranteed the operation of the blowing machine in question, could not ensure the availability of a replacement. A considerable problem, considering that in the Porto Corsini plant production is active 24/7. In agreement with the customer, our specialized technicians decided to change the existing PLC with a Siemens S7.
The modification includes the insertion of a Siemens touch HMI panel and the possibility to remote the panel for tele-assistance, both locally and on another PC, ensuring instant interchangeability. In addition, the machinery has been equipped with an external portable PC Service, where our technicians can connect and make any modification with the help of the physical person in the field by the customer.
With the new system, we are able to predict any adjustments or trouble shooting at the electrical level and intervene immediately. In addition, there is the possibility to make changes to the machine’s data collection and to implement customized pages with a specific data collection requested by the customer.
The result is an up-to-date and fully managed machine; now, also thanks to the advent of Industry 4.0, it is possible to exchange data or view production in real time. If the old machinery could not manage some components not directly connected to the PLC, such as temperature measurement, the new communication standard allows it, allowing an easy future substitution. The program, implemented from scratch by BBM Service, has already been tested on several machines in Italy and abroad.
