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Extronics News
Extronics wireless network chosen by Evonik Degussa Seal Sands to improve efficiency
Extronics, a leading supplier and manufacturer of intrinsically safe and explosion proof electrical and electronic equipment, announces that its wireless network for hazardous environments has been chosen by Evonik Degussa Seal Sands to improve overall efficiency in its Seal Sands, UK based plant. Evonik Degussa Seal Sands required a robust and cost effective measure to calculate the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) of their critical plant equipment in "real time". By installing Extronics' intrinsically safe WLAN Evonik Degussa Seal Sands has extended quick, efficient assessment of OEE into the extreme environments and zone 1 hazardous areas found in its plant.
As part of their continuous improvement initiative Evonik Degussa Seal Sands has developed a software package to measure and improve the OEE of critical equipment. OEE is the framework for measuring how effectively a process is producing product in the time it is planned to run, by breaking it down into three constituent components (availability, performance and quality). OEE helps measure and highlight areas with the greatest potential for Improvement, and provides a standardised method of monitoring progress. The software developed in-house at Evonik Degussa Seal Sands by Paul Shields (IT Manager) allows process operators in the production plants to log faults and other critical information relating to the production equipment by doing this the operator obtains instant feedback on how his equipment is performing and can then take action to improve for the future. Extronics was tasked to provide an economical and scaleable system for the plant operatives to input the OEE data in many locations on the reactor floors of four production buildings.
Initially Evonik Degussa Seal Sands wanted to install several fixed LAN ethernet connection points. However the cost of installing this type of LAN infrastructure in a zone 1 hazardous area and the future scalability made little commercial sense. Extronics recommended its Meru powered iWAP101 802.11a/b/g WLAN Access Points which are centrally managed and controlled using a single channel architecture, thereby providing the most robust and stable WLAN for heavy metal environments. With a WLAN installed portable PC terminals and PDA's with barcode scanners or RFID readers can be used to gather data or active WiFi RFID tags can be used to track assets and people. It also allows for future applications without further infrastructure costs.
"In a multi-purpose, multi-product batch plant such as ours, being able to measure and improve the overall effectiveness of our equipment is vital", said Chris Steel, Continuous Improvement Manager at Evonik Degussa Seal Sands. "However, rather than just spending time measuring our OEE we are now able to involve our people and concentrate our efforts on improving specific areas identified by the analysis tool, thanks to Extronics' equipment."