Projects - RubberAtkins Heater Controls Package

Tierney Strachan were awarded a contract to supply an electric heater controls and data acquisition package for a specialist rubber mould press to be used to manufacture parts for the aerospace industry.

Top Panel (PLC)
Bottom Panel (Contactors)

Completed Control Panels with
PLC (top) and Contactors (lower)

RubberAtkins contracted Tierney Strachan to undertake:

  • electrical design;
  • materials procurement;
  • panel build;
  • PLC software development;
  • SCADA Application development;
  • Installation & commissioning;

for a package controlling 17 individual single phase heater circuits ranging from 675W to 4.5KW.

An Omron PLC was selected as the workhorse for the controls since this PLC type is already used in most of the existing mould press controls thus keeping spares requirement minimised; and to allow seamless integration into a plant wide SCADA system.

The control requirements were for a profiled ramp function to raise the temperature of the mould over a time period; with both the temperature and periods of the profile being user configurable.

Monitoring and logging was provided for a further 45 thermocouple devices; and monitoring for the currents on the incoming supply phases. The data logging is performed during the mould press run with the results stored to local database file for batch records and qualification traceability for the moulded part.

Site installation of wiring was undertaken by Tierney Strachan to connect the various thermocouple and heater circuits to the top and bottom mould sections.