Batch Control
Systems

Improve production efficiency and flexibility, increase ROI and meet regulatory demands.

To be able to perform well at global level, manufacturers must be aware of their constantly changing business environment and work faster, more efficiently and more consistently. They must be able to react quickly to market demands, with flexible manufacturing facilities. Manufacturers are also experiencing increased regulatory requirements to ensure product quality, and full traceability of the manufacturing process. Every aspect of production must be perfectly recorded and documented, from raw inputs, to final product.

The ISA S88 standard helps accomplish these aims, providing a standardized approach for multi-path, multi-batch production. S88 embodies a methodology for defining the physical plant equipment, as well as the processes that operate on it. This is an object oriented approach, which maximizes repeatability of the plant control as well as the production process. Typical batch applications include mixing, blending and reacting of products such as dairy products, beverages, and personal products. Batch processes are classified by the number of products they can make and the structure of the plant.

Automated Batch Control Systems can provide a key competitive advantage for manufacturers. The systems enable the manufacturer to flexibly achieve the required production versatility while collecting production records needed to maintain regulatory compliance.

The control of batch processes demands a specific knowledge of process automation. A lot of experience in this area is necessary to implement an application successfully.

ZI-ARGUS has served customers on batch control projects in many different industries and processes. Our project size ranges from simple single-path batch control systems to large scale systems with many thousands of I/O. We use proven methods and implement batch applications in accordance with the ISA S88 Standard for Batch Control. Therefore, you can ensure that the systems are well disciplined and full featured.

System Objectives

• Maximize the use of plant assets
• Visualize complex recipe structures in graphical format
• Automatically record all key actions
• Support S88 standards

System Description

A typical Batch Control System consists of the following components

• Field devices, as sensors, actuators and instrumentation that provide the Batch Control Systems with information  and allow it to control the production process.
• Batch Controller that receives the signals from the field devices and processes them according to predefined sequences  to control actuators like, pumps, valves and motors.
• Human Machine Interface that allows interaction with the operators in the plant to monitor the status of  the Batch Control Systems, to issue commands and to modify parameters.
• Batch Application that visualizes and develop recipes, and records results.

System Benefits

• Decrease in recipe changeover times
• Decrease human errors 
• Reduction of manpower required
• Increase flexibility
• Faster and more precise operation
• Increase of productivity
• Improve product consistency and quality
• Accelerate time to market
• Maximize Return On Investment (ROI)