In 2016, a large steel manufacturer in Hamilton, Ontario needed to upgrade its Human Machine Interface (HMI) at the primary water treatment plant for the company’s iron and steel making operations. The obsolete Windows 2000 based HMI, running on an aged PC hardware platform, had reached its end-of-life and required replacement before potential catastrophic failure could occur.

This was the first time JNE Automation was to undertake a project of this nature. The system upgrade was to be achieved by implementing an OPC server solution along with a modern HMI platform. An OPC refers to an OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) for process control.

The existing distributed control system (DCS) operator stations were replaced with Rockwell FactoryTalkView operator screens. New RoviSys OPC servers were supplied to connect to the ABB-Bailey CIU to communicate with the ABB-Bailey DCS processors and the new FactoryTalkView HMI’s. The new system implemented thin client technology along with server virtualization to provide a highly compatible and easily supported platform that is also better prepared for future compatibility with other systems.

JNE Automation provided design support to create the HMI Templates as well as the HMI screens, database, alarm, and historical trending replacement. The HMI templates were designed to be similar to Rockwell PAX faceplates to allow future migration of the Bailey hardware to Rockwell to be simpler, since the look and feel of the control would be almost transparent to the operators.

Once site acceptance testing was completed, JNE also provided maintenance training to personnel. The implementation of the new system allowed the client to avoid potential catastrophic failure, continue its operations, and be better equipped for system upgrades in the future.