Stepwise Migration: How to Replace a Process Control System

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“The advantage is that we can mirror the actual system structure directly in the control and HMI technology, which helps us implement the stepwise migration perfectly from a hardware perspective,” explains Schätzle. He further says that another argument in favor of a single source solution is the lack of problems with interfaces and communication.

Aprol provides flexibility through openness

For Cht, the selected integrator would need to be willing and able to accommodate specific requirements and react flexibly to additional changes throughout the course of the project. The contract went to Erler.

The migration process went smoothly, as managing director Alois Erler confirms, “Aprol is very open compared to other process control systems, which allows us to react very flexibly to customer requirements even when a project is already underway. We were also very pleased with how easy it was to link up to the existing legacy system. That went astoundingly well.”

23,000 X20 I/Os installed

The first migration was completed in late 2011 on an immensely complex pilot station with around 360 digital and 20 analog I/O channels, and since then a new production station has been migrated nearly every week. To date, 72 systems at the Dusslingen plant and 11 production lines in Oyten had been migrated to Aprol and the old process control system retired. 54 HMI panels from B&R’s Power Panel series and 91 X20 controllers were installed. The two plants combined have around 23,000 digital and analog X20 I/Os.

Various operator terminals

connected via VNC were installed for shift supervisors and to provide links to office applications. Each system includes two runtime servers, one engineering server and a VNC server secured by a disaster recovery system. The redundant Linux-based production network communicates with Windows devices on the corporate network via a clearly defined interface.

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