From Serial Systems to Ethernet
Automation advanced Varland’s business objectives for decades, but as time marched on, the limitations of legacy hardware became evident.
“Every barrel on our automatic plating lines has an RFID [radio frequency identification] tag, and our hoists use serial RFID readers to help us track jobs through production. Each SNAP-LCM4 controller supports a maximum of four serial ports. At least one of those ports had to be reserved for I/O, so we are limited to a maximum of three RFID readers per controller," explains Toby.
The limited number of serial ports necessitated daisy-chaining dozens of I/O racks on individual serial communication ports and in some cases expanding the architecture to add additional processors. This setup led to increased communication latency, potential data collisions, and complicated troubleshooting, ultimately hindering system performance and reliability.
In contrast, Toby notes that a single GRV-CSERI-4 serial module on Opto 22’s latest groov EPIC system supports 4 serial ports, and a single EPIC processor can support up to 4 of those modules, equating to 16 individual serial connections on one controller. "Hooking up RFID readers to serial modules on EPIC allows us to condense to a single processor per plating line.”
And while serial communications still have their place in Varland’s process, Toby knows that Ethernet, not serial communication, is the future of industrial automation.
“We could theoretically keep running SNAP-LCM4 processors,” Toby asserts. “Most of our systems have been running reliably for many, many years. But these newer [groov] products just have so much more capability in every aspect, from installation to programming to operator experience, that they do a great job of getting out of the way and making it easier for our staff to do their jobs.”
Varland Plating's groov EPIC equipment
I/O Upgrade—A Piecemeal Approach
A common pain point in upgrading control systems is replacing and rewiring I/O. With several thousand digital and analog I/O points running key systems at Varland Plating, Toby says “rip and replace” is not a viable upgrade path. Shutting down the entire operation is simply not an option, so he explains that they’ve “put a lot of thought into the upgrade path.” Varland engineers decided to upgrade I/O systems one rack at a time.
“Of course LCM4 processors running FactoryFloor software from the 1990s can’t directly address I/O registers on a brand new groov EPIC I/O rack,” Toby notes. But a clever workaround enabled Varland to avoid a costly downtime situation. Taking advantage of Opto 22’s “scratch pad”—a temporary memory storage area for data exchange between controllers and I/O processors—Varland is able to map EPIC’s I/O channels to internal memory registers their legacy SNAP-LCM4 controllers can access.
Open communication between legacy and new equipment enables them to maintain the existing program on legacy hardware while developing a new one in parallel.
"So the control logic on the LCM4 doesn't change. We can start developing a new solution on the groov EPIC, For testing, I can flip a switch, do some testing, and then flip back to the old program,” Toby confirms.
Varland Plating's dashboard of visualized data in Grafana via Opto 22's REST API
Identifying Insights
With critical process variables now available in a modern, Ethernet communication interface, Varland faced their next challenge: limited visibility and no long-term trend analysis.
A savvy use of free resources helped Toby advance Varland’s understanding of their processes with some software development—specifically, a homegrown data historian. Using Opto 22’s open-source friendly REST API, Varland deployed a suite of PHP™ command-line scripts that retrieve I/O and critical data values and log them into an InfluxDB® time series database. The data is then visualized and contextualized using Grafana®, an open-source monitoring platform.
Varland Plating's plant kilowatt-hour data visualized in Grafana via Opto 22's REST API
But Digital Transformation is Never Done
Varland’s homegrown data historian was a step forward, but scaling homemade data collection scripts is challenging. As the system grows, maintaining continuity poses a risk, especially if the original developer becomes unavailable. They needed a scalable platform with professional support and documentation to ensure long-term reliability in SCADA.
It’s a good thing Toby understands that digital transformation is an ongoing process because, in 2023, it took another turn.
"Through
groov EPIC, we learned about [Inductive Automation®’s] Ignition®, and we feel we can leverage the software to accomplish a lot of SCADA goals that we haven’t yet hit,” Toby notes.
“We started with an Ignition Edge® license on one of our
groov EPICs, and I liked it enough that we bought a full Ignition® license that we now run on an Apple® Mac Studio® server. InfluxDB and Grafana worked really well for long-term storage and trend analysis,” Toby says, but, “Ignition allows us to remove the pain point of custom data collection and allows us to use Ignition Historian as a passthrough to get data into InfluxDB more reliably and with significantly less work.”
Impactful Results
When asked about the impacts of their
groov EPIC and Ignition upgrade, Toby explains, “Getting data into a historian platform where we can be flexible about how we access and study that data has given us new insights into our processes. We've reduced downtime, improved our operator experience, and freed our operators to focus on parts and quality. No one doubts the impact, although it's hard to measure."
When customers tour their facility, they are impressed by Varland's tight control over their processes.
“When customers see those screens, they realize we aren’t dependent on vendors to update our systems. We do it all ourselves and have full control over our automated systems.”
Varland Plating's waterflow data visualized in Grafana via Opto 22's REST API
Next Steps and Final Thoughts
Varland’s digital transformation journey has been just that—a journey. And that’s how it’s supposed to be. Digital transformation is never complete. To use a car analogy: it’s not just about driving from point A to point B, but about continuously enhancing the vehicle itself.
Varland’s future plans include
groov EPIC upgrades for several more automated lines, a full migration to Ignition for HMI and SCADA, and exploration of CODESYS® for IEC 61131-3 compliant PLC programming languages—but there’s still a long way to go.
All of these upgrades certainly require a great deal of effort on the part of Varland Plating’s engineers and technicians, but Toby explains the value of working with a trusted partner in automation.
“It’s hard to quantify the value of the relationship you can have with Opto 22, " he says, "whether that's a simple thing like factory-manned
OptoForums, or calling on the phone and speaking with a tech support person who is a knowledgeable, high-level employee."
Toby concludes, “Other automation companies tell you it’s time for an upgrade, while Opto 22 helps us troubleshoot 30-year-old control systems.”
About Varland Plating
Since 1946, Varland Plating, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, has specialized in providing high quality, precision barrel plated finishes to their customers. With their high quality plating finishes, quick turn-around times, around-the-clock service, knowledge, and reliability, they are able to solve even the most demanding and challenging plating problems.
For more information, please visit:
https://varland.com
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