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| Alcan Specialty Sheet Singen relies on Manufacturing Execution Systems from Simatic IT | | Just in Sequence | Increasing the productivity, improving the process safety and stricter demands on the documentation were the driving forces behind the integration of aluminum bar stores, new bar cutter and bar transport into the fine order planning system of Alcan Specialty Sheet in Singen. The highly modern operating data management based on Simatic IT acquires and supplies all the information for the process control. At the same time, a continuous process and product documentation is created by the acquired and generated data.
With annual sales of approximately 684 million Euro and 1,800 employees, Alcan Singen GmbH is one of the largest companies in the global Alcan Inc group. The favorable properties of aluminum have been used there by the development of new technologies and applications since 1912. Since then this site has influenced not only the German but also the world aluminum market with numerous innovative products.
Today Alcan Singen develops, produces and sells rollings, pressings, composite materials, components and systems of lightweight aluminum.
The Alcan Specialty Sheet rolling mill is the world market leader in the field of high-gloss surfaces for the lighting and cosmetics industry and for special surfaces with decorative applications. Product quality, on-time delivery and a high degree of flexibility are the important properties on which Alcan Specialty Sheet was able to build up a long partnership with its customers.
All the necessary processes are totally integrated at the production site - from the secondary aluminum production (Recycling Performance Center), the casting of rolling bars, the integrated hot and cold rolling concept which allows short throughput times in the production process to the production of bands and sheets.
The raw material for all rollings are cast aluminum bars weighing up to 12 tons the casting skin of which must be removed before rolling. The replacement of the old mills by a high highly modern system was the opportunity to connect the bar transport process sequence with a Simatic IT online-based MES system to the customer's fine order planning system.
Pre-heating furnaces beat the rhythm
The pre-heating furnaces contain rows of 42 rolling bars each of which is assigned to fixed order. A cold bar must be pushed in when a pre-heated bar is removed for rolling. This process triggers all preceding process steps: removal of a bar from the outside store, stacker transport to the mill, milling of the bar, intermediate storage in a high-rack store, withdrawal and transport to the loading area in front of one of the three pre-heating furnaces. A fine order planning module determines the order sequence for 36 production hours in advance. These process steps were initiated by order lists and program data on paper before the MES was introduced. Safety stocks in production, manual synchronization of the process steps and a considerable effort for reports on paper were the results.
The introduction of a consistent control concept with MES decisively improved this situation. Material and machine parameters are generated in the SAP system based on the specified order sequence. These are transferred to the Data Integration Service (DIS) Server. It organizes the import of the order and material master data from SAP to Simatic IT.
From the order to the furnace
The order data are managed in the Production Modeler (PM) for the further process. The Production Order Manager (POM) starts the physical work process by arranging for the bar transport from the outside store to the transfer station in front of the mill. The storage location in the outside stores is saved in Simatic IT. The stacker receives its transport order for outside transport automatically from a radio terminal. The bar is identified and verified by a camera which communicates with Simatic IT via a PLC interface. If the data match the production order, the milling parameters in the order are transferred to the mill and the bar's ID number is entered in the mill's order list. After milling, the process and quality data and the inspected dimensions are reported to the Material Manager. When all the necessary quality features have been achieved, the mill transfers the bar automatically to the high rack. If one of the three furnace control rooms requests a milled bar, Simatic IT determines the storage location and initiates the withdrawal process. The bar is transferred to the monorail transport system which then transports it automatically to the furnace specified by Simatic IT.
During the entire process, the data transport between the controllers and Simatic IT takes place via Real Time Data Service (RTDS). The so-called Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) is also determined and recorded continuously. The entire process is visualized by Simatic WinCC.
Partner with a common goal
Successful handling of the task on site was the responsibility of S&K Anlagentechnik GmbH. Its tasks included the organization of the process control system and the control technology for the high rack and transport system, the integration into the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) level, the definition of the interfaces as well as the coordination of those involved in the process and the creation of the specification as a conclusive result. S&K as a Simatic IT specialist partner was supported directly by Siemens as much as necessary in the configuration of the task in Simatic IT and the selection of the necessary functions and components. The hardware was provided by Alcan completely according to S&K's specifications and parts lists.
The order was placed in June 2005 as greenfield project. The hot planning phase lasted from November 2005 to May 2006. The project was implemented parallel to ongoing operation from May 2006 to August 2006. Then the time came: Trial operation became single-shift operation. Operation was extended to three shifts in just four weeks. Many thousands of bars have been milled since.
The result points the way to the future. The work processes for rollings can be divided into about 30 process sequences at the Singen factory. The first of these has already been fully automated by the implemented project. Automation of further process sequences is to follow. The convincing overall concept of Simatic-IT prompted Alcan Singen Specialty Sheet to place the follow-up order for the total MES "linking raw material to end product" with S&K.
Ideas 3 / 2007 | |
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