A HISTORY LESSON Yalumba is Australia’s oldest family owned winery, and one of the country’s largest wine exporters. Its Angaston winery was founded in 1849 in South Australia’s famous Barossa Valley. Over time however, the demand for Yalumba wines has grown to exceed the processing capacity of the heritage-listed Angaston facility. This led to the establishment of the Oxford Landing Estate Winery in 2005, which is now the primary producer of Oxford Landing Estate wines and Yalumba’s popular two litre cask wine varieties. MORE THAN ONE SHADE OF GREEN The Oxford Landing site is ‘green’ in more than one sense, with a number of strategies in place to ensure environmentally friendly practices. The refrigeration system is highly efficient, with the option of off-peak loading to reduce both electricity costs and power consumption through maximised compressor efficiency. In addition, the hot return ammonia gas heats the water used for washing tanks throughout the plant, plus Oxford Landing has its own complete wastewater recycling plant. The plant and wastewater facility is running at best practice and recently won an environmental award from the South Australian Wine Industry Association for implementing an innovative cross flow filtration system that minimises waste going to the plant while increasing yield. www.foodtechnology.co.nz 49 stream or ‘pressings’ of extracted product through subsequent processing and storage. After wines are fermented, they are clarified and blended into the final product before filtration and bottling. The control and automation system plays an important role at Oxford Landing, performing sophisticated control of the numerous process streams, while at the same allowing the winemakers to exert their influence and apply their experience to achieve the desired result. The primary user interface for the system is a virtualised server supported by two virtualised clients and six onsite clients. Winemakers and operators use this supervisory-level HMI to specify process streams, crushing speeds and fermentation schedules; plus monitor the operational status of the entire plant. The Angaston site allows maintenance operators to keep a close watch on trends using remote access without having to come to site. This system is integrated with Yalumba’s proprietary ‘wine management system’, which is a non-commercial database of all vintages for the purpose of batch tracking for label integrity. FactoryTalk View SE is a key component of Oxford Landing’s automation system, providing a clear view across entire lines and production processes. From a programming point of view, Integrated Architecture provides a common development environment for all applications utilising the mobility and virtualisation of the FactoryTalk system, which also allows data tags created in one application to be immediately available to all applications across the integrated architecture system. The ability to share data tags considerably reduces the software development time. The whole network was connected in the workshop and programmed at the same time, Ide says. At the heart of the system, more than 10 Allen-Bradley ControlLogix programmable automation controllers (PAC) perform the hybrid functionality required of sequential, process and drives control. This includes overseeing a myriad of drives that control screw feeders, crushers, pumps, presses, agitators and so on; and also encompasses enhanced PID control of temperature. “We have introduced a system for automatic dosing of yeasts for ferments which is also controlled by this system,” said Ide. ControlLogix also controls the advanced refrigeration plant – perhaps the most critical function of all. “The refrigeration plant is our main tool for controlling temperature at all stages of the process,” says Ide. “Three ammonia compressors and a pumping system circulate liquid ammonia through the must chillers, ‘rack and return tanks’, and fermentation vessels as required.” The control system works out the required load and directs which should be the lead compressor and what the optimum settings are, based on how much cooling is needed for the required fermentation rates. “We have also just installed a PowerFlex 755 variable speed drive on the 450kW motor of our lead compressor, increasing efficiency, flexibility and saving energy over the vintage period.” Linking the automation system all together, the Oxford Landing plant utilises a site-wide Ethernet/IP network that connects the SCADA server and clients with each other and the ControlLogix PACs for a seamless flow of information through the plant. In addition, CompactLogix is used as the control system for equipment such as press and cross flow filters, which are networked back to the ControlLogix via Ethernet. FactoryTalk ViewPoint provides visibility remotely via a tablet, which delivers real time and historical trending. “As a result of the success of we’ve had with FactoryTalk View SE integrating all areas of our plant in one platform, we’ve now rolled it out at our Yalumba site in Angaston,” Ide says. At Oxford Landing, the ultimate goal has always been to achieve a continuous production flow through the plant. Ide believes that the Integrated Architecture is key to ensuring that this objective is met and maintained. “It allows us to see trends in real time, and we can backtrack to specific batches as required,” he says. “Troubleshooting is also easy. For example, we can delve right down into the drives remotely, changing programming and configuration, and perform pretty much anything. That’s the advantage of a fully integrated system which has a consistent look and feel across the board. “In addition, we are currently utilising our newly installed FactoryTalk Energy- Metrix system to control the maximum kVA demand and email alarms when we are nearing the limit. We are in the stages of using the integrated system to automatically shut down other non-critical motors to reduce demand when we are approaching the limit,” he says. Yalumba has shown that efficiency leads to quality, and by using automation, efficiency can be increased and quality improved. It is the juxtaposition of high-volume processing technology and winemaking art that is making Yalumba successful, granting it the ability to deliver bottles of red and white that are finding favour, and flavour, the world over. For more information on Rockwell Automation New Zealand: www.rockwellautomation.com
FT-Jul16
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