Living with Simatic PCS 7

Qenos, Australia

Ten years ago, Qenos implemented its first Simatic PCS 7 system. Fully satisfied with the system, Qenos chose to work with Siemens again in migrating the installed PCS 7 Version 5 system to the new Version 7.

Qenos, one of Australia’s largest plastics and rubber companies, manufactures raw materials for numerous household, consumer, and industrial products. The company’s manufacturing plants in Sydney and Melbourne produce olefins, polyethylene products (HDPE, LDPE, and LLDPE), and a diverse range of specialty polymers. In 1999, Qenos implemented a new Simatic PCS 7 system in its resins plant in Altona, Victoria, and was also the first company in Australia to install a redundant PCS 7 system. Qenos was extremely satisfied with its new system, and nine years on, the adaptability of the integrated Simatic PCS 7 process control system has enabled a successful new upgrade to be applied, boosting productivity and quality.

Qenos manufactures raw materials for numerous household, consumer, and industrial products (Photos: Qenos)

Upgrading the system

When Qenos decided to update the original PCS 7 Version 5 system, which was the first in Australia at the time of installation, Siemens worked together with Qenos to produce a comprehensive migration plan. This ensured a seamless upgrade and made it easy to align the plant’s customizations on the original PCS 7 with the new system functionality.

Geoff Scott, process / applications engineer at Qenos, commented, “I was surprised to see how easily the two systems migrated together. With the right mix of people and proper planning, we were able to implement the whole upgrade on time and within budget, with hardly any impact on the plant or business.”

Changes to the Altona resins plant included the optimization of existing networks, upgrading server racks, combining control rooms, and installing Siemens 547B Industrial PCs using Web server / client architecture. Existing hardware such as the PCS 7 controller and I / O modules could be fully re-used; only the central unit’s extended memory, loaded with the newest firmware, was changed.

Simatic PCS 7 in the control room provides Qenos all-round process control functionality: control, supervision, and diagnostics

Immediate and positive return on investment

The return on investment for this upgrade was visible for Qenos within a short period: a reduction in downtime; increased capacity; and reduced training, maintenance, and software costs. Craig Moore, plant engineer at Qenos’s resins plant, was directly involved in the original implementation back in 1999, as well as subsequent plant expansions. “We are more than satisfied with PCS 7; it has delivered on every aspect and the entire plant has benefited at all levels,” he said. “Furthermore, the members of the Siemens team really impressed us with their exceptional service and support, but above all else, their expertise and genuine interest in our business objectives made Siemens a perfect partner to work with.”