lockheed added man-machine interface software to monitor metal processing systems . . .

By MITCHELL B. TAYLOR

t is difficult to comprehend the size and complexity of the metal preparation and coating systems

required to handle entire missile and space-shuttle payload-size compo- nents at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company in Sunnyvale, California. The sheer magnitude of the opera- tions at Lockheed’s Building 071 is impressive. This 83,000-sq-ft facil- ity is used for cleaning, painting, conversion coating and anodizing àlu- minum, titanium, magnesium and stainless-steel products.

The 3,.500-sq-ft paint booth ac- commodates entire space vehicles up to 95-ft long by 24-ft wide. The 67 process and rinse tanks installed next door to the painting facility contain nearly 400,000 gal of various chemi- cals for processing components up to eight by 16-ft.

These facilities are surrounded by

FISH-EYE VIEW of the mester paint booth where entire missiles are painted.

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an array of support services and equip- ment that includes electrical utili- ties, water supply, heating, ventila- tion, air conditioning, emission abate- ment and solvent-handling systems.

The addition of a man-machine interface (MMI) program developed using the InTouch application gen- eration software by Wonderware Soft- ware Development Corp., Irvine, California, helps manage the plant. It provides visibility into the operation of two Texas Instruments 565 pro- grammable logic controllers (PLC) that handle al1 data acquisition and control functions for the facility.

The MM1 replaced another system that ran the plant effectively, but pro- vided only rudimentary graphic screens for understanding what was going on in the controller ladder logic. Also, it was not capable of managing the many critical, interrelated processes.

Large in Scope and Complexity. The Lockheed facility is the largest of its kind west of the Mississippi. Its

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Managing Finishing at Lockheed. . .

KEN FORSTER, Lotkheed engineer, works ot an operator control panel.

Phase 1 building has an unloading area with a lo-ton bridge crane, a class 300,000 prep room for painting operations, three immense paint booths and an oven room for drying. In addition, there is a class 100,000 preclean room for wipe-down opera- tions and a class 100,000 precision clean room for spray-cleaning metal components prior to painting.

Al1 chemical processing activities are conducted in the Phase II area. The 67 tanks range in size from 2,000 to 11,000 gal. The largest tanks are used for conversion coating and an- odizing aluminum and magnesium.

A 2.5-million-gal pit below the processing tanks serves as secondary

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containment for al1 process and rinse tanks. Al1 caustic processing tanks are equipped with independent con- tainment to segregate them from acid containment tanks.

Components move through the fa- cility on a one-ton overhead mono- rail system that has seven hoists.

Utility systems on the north side of Building 07 1 provide support for the painting and chemical processes. This equipment includes 330F medium- temperature water-heating and stor- age facilities for heating tank con- tents; water chillers for cooling tanks to 46F and feeding air conditioning equipment; and ventilation systems that provide normal air flow, emis- sion abatement flow and emergency breathing air system support. In ad- dition, two powerful diesel genera-

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tors provide backup power in the case of a utility failure.

The “South Porch” facility houses electrical and other equipment for anodizing operations. An 8,000-amp rectifier supports the aluminum an- odizing tank, and a lO,OOO-amp rec- tifier supplies current to the Dow 17 magnesium anodizing tank. In addi- tion, this area also contains a large array of emission-abatement and waste-recovery equipment.

There are ll process exhaust scrub- bers that handle exhaust from the push-pu11 ventilation system that moves across the top of the process tanks. A large carbon adsorption unit handles emissions from the vapor degreaser. The waste stream gener- ated from the rinse tanks is segre- gated into chrome- and non-chrome- bearing rinse water to maximize safety. These wastes are collected and neutralized before they are trans- ferred from the facility for treatment. In addition, chrome waste is collected and recycled in an ion exchange sys- tem that provides 12 microhm qual- ity water for processing operatfons.

Al1 of this equipment and system support is coordinated in a control room in the Phase II area. This area houses the PLCs, the InTouch data acquisition and monitoring systems and documentation and archiva1 files. This is the nerve center that commu- nicates constantly with al1 equipment, providing automated support to op- erations. In addition, it monitors al1 pits, sumps and containment areas for accidental spillage. If an alarm is issued, the Lockheed Fire Depart- ment responds, and works with the

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Maintenance Office to coordinate response.

The new MM1 is critica1 to al1 of these activities, providing visibility and access into the workings of this enormous operation. Almost every part produced by Lockheed passes through the facility for chemical cleaning, anodizing, painting and marking or stenciling. And every part must be finished to mil spec require- ments, within plus or minus one pct of spec.

New Control Front-End. The InTouch MM1 program was devel- oped in-house under the direction of Kenneth Forster, a control systems engineer for Lockheed. It took less than four months to develop more than 350 graphic screens that were used to monitor al1 operations. These include primary screens for each sub- system, each with multiple subscreens that are used to zoom in on increas- ingly detailed data.

Al1 subsystem screens share a com- mon tool bar along the bottom for initiating functions related to that screen or returning to previous screens. Mr. Forster and his control engineers can access the data screens to specify set points and monitor ac- tual parameters versus alarm limits. Operators on the factory floor have a 128-tag, run-time version of the pro- gram that uses touch screens. Opera- tor activities are limited to running the control programs and acknowl- edging alarms that occur; they can- not change the programs themselves.

The MM1 program is large. Mr. Forster presently has 3,500 tag names in the control data base, and he esti-

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Managing Finishing at Lockheed. . .

mates that when al1 process systems are finally on line, the entire system will consist of about 4,500 tag names.

The system is a Windows-based, object-oriented application genera- tor that can be used with virtually any automatic process control or su- pervisory monitoring application. Users can create on the display screen representation for the physical de- vices (gages, meters, knobs, switches) used to control equipment. Sophisti- cated applications can be created quickly and easily. Users can con- nect to other Windows applications and configure systems without con- cerns about peripherals, networks and touch screens.

throughout the Lockheed PC network. The use of DDE also permits data sharing with other Windows applica- tions, such as the Excel spreadsheet program that Mr. Forster uses for launching macros, managing data and preparing reports, and the word pro- cessor program used for presorting data to management and various en- vironmental agencies.

The graphics toolbox in the program contains standard elements, such as real time and historical trend, alarm display, text string formats and three- dimensional buttons that can be in- serted easily in any window screen. Once drawn, objects are stored in a library forre-use in other screen appli- cations. Objects from other software programs are also easily imported, al- lowing users to generate more ‘com- plex graphics. Or users can scan in existing images from programs such as AutoCAD. Al1 graphic objects are then linked to the PLC signals so that they can be animated or colored to indicate variable conditions.

“This system has allowed us to centralize monitoring and data ac- quisition functions for al1 of our op- erations,” Mr. Forster said. “From anywhere in the system, 1 can click and view analog screens, discrete screens, alarm screens, real-time data trends and historical data trends for the entire plant. We have instant ac- cess into any of our processes and subsystems.”

The general overview screens for the facilities were based on factory blueprints developed using the AutoCAD program. The drawings were simply imported into the sys- tem, edited, animated and linked to appropriate PLC data sources. To create the subset screens, Mr. Forster had specific equipment to be shown photographed. He then drew them in the system.

Development and run time pack- ages are tightly integrated, which al- lows Mr. Forster to develop and modify applications quickly and eas- ily. InTouch uses Dynamic Data Ex- change (DDE) to acquire data from the PLCs. The software is used to extend this data-sharing capability

As an example, the chromium re- duction ion exchange system for recy- cling chromium was designed to fol- low an AutoCAD picture of the equip- ment. The animation and color links set up show al1 components in bright color that corresponds to the actual equipment. The chemical adsorption tanks that remove the chromium from the water actually go gradually from deep blue to white on the screen to

70 PRODUCTS FINISHING JULY, 1994

ZOOM SCREEN of the ion exthange system that allows operators to easily see what ir going on during operation.

indicate the normal time between re- generations. Operators can te11 when they need to regenerate the tanks, even before the alarm goes off.

The same type of animation, color and data links are provided for the 67 process tanks. Another overview screen provides operators with an instant look at the status of the entire floor, and touching any on-screen tank replica instantly zooms in on the tank for a closer look. “A lot of these links are hidden, so they do not make the over- view too cluttered, but just by touching the appropriate tank, an operator can

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see al1 he needs to know, like low or high fluid levels, ionized water status, al1 the analog data associated with the tank, hardware status and any alar-m conditions,” Mr. Forster added. “Most of the activities we monitor here are run automatically by the PLC, but with this system we can go in and override that in manual mode to forte tasks if we need to.”

Mr. Forster also has been able to provide new capabilities for the in- house fire department. “This system lets us maintain lists of any hazard- ous chemical in use. We show those in yellow, so if they get a call, they can simply touch the bulls-eye asso- ciated with a tank and it will pop up data on what is in the tank. “

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Managing Finishing at Lockheed. . .

The MM1 is especially important commented. “It is also easy to config- in monitoring environmentally sensi- ure. It is fun to draw the screens and is tive systems, such as the degreasing simple to specify the links to the PLC system, which uses 1 ,l ,l -trichloro- signals for animation, color and data ethylene. “Many of our processes use aspects. It is easily updated, too. potentially hazardous chemicals, so Even the networking hardware is off- it is extremelv criti- the-shelf. One of

I

cal that we monitor these control sys-

“The best thing about this system the future growth is that is uses off-the-shelf paths for this sys-

tems.” Mr. Forster tem is linking it exnlained. “We software and hardware.” with our nlant- ha;e to be particu- larly careful to maintain the histori- cal data records in the system for verification of our process handling to local environmental agencies.

In addition to on-line data provided on operator screens, Mr. Forster and his group also provide historical data summaries and trending in the system’s charts, both on-screen and in disk files. This lets them monitor the run times for lead/lag equipment to better apportion equipment wear between primary and backup systems and better manage maintenance cycles. The same records and on-line data help in diagnosing equipment failures so that when a repair techni- cian is dispatched to handle a prob- lem, he can take appropriate tools and repair parts with him. The same data records also provide extremely de- tailed usage records for electric, wa- ter, natural gas, as well as data on the wastewater pumped out of the plant. The system also provides alarm his- tories and trend charts so patterns can be identified and dealt with.

Off-the-Shelf Simplicity. “The best thing about this system is that is uses off-the-shelf software and hardware. Nothing is proprietary,” Mr. Forster

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wide netwafrk.” The system also includes operator

procedure manual on the MM1 hard disk, linked directly to the InTouch alarm screens. “Now, when an alarm is indicated, the operator acknowl- edges it and uses the procedure manual to determine the appropriate response,” he said.

“We expect to expand this system because it is so easy and inexpensive to do,” Mr. Forster added. “We paid for the entire system based just on the cost of supporting our old system. Now that it is up and running, we know that there is no way to quantify how much it is Worth to us. There is no way to qualify the value of having information when- ever you need it. PF

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JULY, 1994