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Supreme Pet Foods launched its small animal range of pet foods in 1991 and currently manufactures food and treats for a range of 7 different animals from Rabbits to Rats. Supreme cares for the well being of these animals by formulating mixes that ensure all products are appropriate, nutritionally sound and palatable to individual breeds.
To keep up with product demand Suffolk Automation were called in to design, manufacture and install an automatic PLC system to replace an existing and outdated weighing and mixing system. The increased automation of the production area brought many advantages by shortening down time, allowing automatic shut down and start up of plant and improved use of space within the facility. Following installation in 2001 production increased from 4 tons per hour to over 9 tons of mix per hour.
Suffolk Automation used a Mitsubishi A series PLC for this project, interlocking to existing control panels was achieved by using CCLink remote I/O modules. Overall control was via Intellution iFix SCADA, this was used for machine control, graphics, alarm handling, recipes and product usage, all recipes and product usage data were stored in Microsoft Access Database format.
A new electrical sub station was also designed and installed to cope with additional load capacity and outdated equipment. Much of the existing wiring was replaced at the same time ensuring stability and efficiency for many years ahead.
“Supreme have gained market share and are now the UK’s leading manufacturer of small animal feed, exporting to many countries throughout the world. We rely on high volume throughput for profitability our investment in automated control systems prepared us to meet increased demand whilst maintaining our competitive edge”.
“Suffolk Automation understood our requirement from day one and provided solutions that have improved our capacity, reliability and flexibility. Our choice of contractor has been justified many times over”. |
