Exchanging production and product data between controller and MES

The Umicore Group is a technology leader in precious metals and covers a broad spectrum extending to automotive exhaust catalysts. Umicore strives to develop, produce and recycle materials in a sustainable way — with the claim: "Materials for a better life." A large part of the Umicore Group's precious metal activities are based at Umicore AG & Co. KG in Hanau.

The manufacturing plants for exhaust catalysts — including coating systems and furnaces — are of considerable size and are located in 14 Umicore plants worldwide. Axel Wienand is responsible for automation across all plants in the Catalysts division worldwide. Since he himself worked for Umicore in South Africa for five years in the 1990s, he has made it his mission to standardize automation and production IT across the plants. Microsoft SQL databases were adopted early on, serving as the foundation for the in-house developed MES solutions. According to the manager, this is a stable and scalable database solution. "At our company, we consistently rely on Microsoft solutions to have a uniform operating system base," he adds. He sees the automatic update supply as a major advantage.

A Microsoft-based platform was also chosen for control tasks. "We opted for the TwinCAT platform from Beckhoff, which runs on powerful industrial PCs from the same manufacturer," says the Manager Automation & Systems, who has been working intensively with automation technology applications for 30 years.

Connecting MES and control environments

"The next step was to connect the MES and control environments," continues A. Wienand. "Previously, we had programmed our own Visual Basic application for this." However, the handling effort proved to be high. "For example, the switch from Windows XP to Windows 7 required considerable adaptation," he recalls. There were also further limitations in deployment. At an exhibition stand at SPS IPC Drives, they then discovered the SQL4automation solution from Inasoft. "For eight years now, we have been equipping all new systems with the Inasoft solution," says the Umicore manager. "The SQL database connection to TwinCAT worked well right from the start. More than 40 systems are now equipped with this solution."

"The Inasoft Connector offers a whole range of advantages," highlights A. Wienand. The query tool makes configuration very simple, and the debugger immediately displays any errors. "We quickly get feedback that the overall system is functioning flawlessly," says the Umicore representative. There are also no issues from a data performance perspective. "The SQL4automation solution handles large data volumes without any problems," says A. Wienand with satisfaction.

Bidirectional data exchange

The machine and product parameters are transferred from the SQL database to the controller. "We manage the master data centrally in the database," says the manager. Machine parameters include machine times, stroke rate and machine cycle time, among others. Product parameters include, for example, barcodes, product names, dimensions and part sizes. Likewise, current production and quality data such as temperature, pressure and weights are fed back into the MES. "Until now, we have always used a 1:1 connection, meaning SQL4automation in the Light version," he continues. For larger systems, the Standard version will now also be deployed, which enables up to ten connections with one tool. "The handling savings justify the investment costs for the purchased software solution," A. Wienand is convinced. "An important role is played by the excellent support from Inasoft. In response to every inquiry, we usually receive a suitable solution within just a few hours."