Lesosibirsky LDK No. 1 JSC (Lesosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk) is one of the biggest Russian producers of timber, fiberboard (MDF), finished wood and furniture made of Angarsk pine. In 2011, under the modernization program the company put a new sorting line of dry lumber produced by Swedish company «ALMAB» into commercial operation.
In the first months of line’s operation technologists of enterprise had a lot of questions related to the operation of the line’s control system. In particular, from time to time control system "was hanging" for unknown reasons, deleting all current information about the pockets state, which led to lengthy downtime associated with the need to release pockets to continue the work. Besides no signal was processed from the humidity meter installed on the line, etc. The above shortcomings failed to achieve the required performance of the line. To solve these problems and make the necessary changes in the control system the company's management applied to the company Hekotek, which advised to use the services of AVTOMATIKA-VEKTOR specialists, who have extensive experience in the construction and modernization of such systems. In autumn 2011, our specialists inspected electrical equipment and automation of lumber sorting line and formulated additional tasks to be performed by the control system.
The hardware part of the system is based on the remote I/O module ET 200M manufactured by Siemens. Modules of distributed periphery are controlled via the Profibus-DP network with the help of a PC with the WinLC software package, emulating a programmable logic controller Simatic S7.On/off of actuators drivers is also made via the network Profibus-DP by means of interface converters for SEW-Evrodrive frequency converters and Profibus-DP/AS1 interface converters for starters and control the valves in the pockets. For I/O of operating system settings the operator panel is equipped with panel with touch screen. Control system is connected to the automatic measurement system and FINSCAN lumber quality system. This system with the help of video cameras receives images of each board, processes them and sends to the control system the result in terms of the size (thickness, width, length) and the sort given to the board, also it gives the signal for trimming.
Data on the board are transferred to the system using the Ethernet via a special protocol. To sort boards with unacceptable humidity the line is equipped with contactless humidity meter produced by Broohuis Micro-Electronics. Board’s humidity is determined at one point along the length of the board.
To achieve the objectives, our specialists proposed to make minimal changes to the hardware of a control system, improve the technological software and install the upper level software on PCs of "top" sorting operator’s and stacking machine operator's working places. In the short time the specification for modernization was developed and approved and the contract was signed. In strict accordance with the schedule the equipment has been purchased and the software prepared. In March 2012 the modernization of the control system was made directly on sorting line, the personnel training on working with the updated software and maintenance staff training on diagnostics and troubleshooting were carried out. After modernization the line’s performance was significantly improved (up to 1200 m3 of lumber per day), downtime was reduced, the operation of the equipment was facilitated. The engineers of our company once again demonstrated theirs professionalism, ability to solve complex problems in the shortest possible time in accordance with the requirements of the Customer.