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Brewery gains flexibility, reduces downtime with gateway

Remote I/O-to-Ethernet gateway enables easy replacement of 27-year-old PLCs for a Wales brewery upgrading its yeast-handling control process.

Brains Brewery upgraded of its yeast-handling control process to a Rockwell Automation CompactLogix system and Ethernet connectivity. Source: Prosoft Technology
Brains Brewery upgraded of its yeast-handling control process to a Rockwell Automation CompactLogix system and Ethernet connectivity. Source: Prosoft Technology

One of the prominent beers in Great Britain is SA, manufactured by Brains Brewery in Cardiff, Wales. SA recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, and the company decided it was time to upgrade its overall yeast-handling control process. The brewery had been making beer for more than 130 years, and had been controlling its yeast-handling process with Rockwell Automation PLC2 controllers for the last 27 of those years.

Given how important yeast is to beer, Brains postponed the upgrade until after the busy Christmas season and sought every way possible to minimize the downtime needed for the upgrade.

Brains Brewery wanted to upgrade to Rockwell Automation CompactLogix controllers. Mike Cooper of IAC Engineering proposed using ProSoft Technology’s Remote I/O to Ethernet (AN-X2-DHRIO) gateway to allow the CompactLogix system to communicate with six racks of 1771 Remote I/O over Ethernet. Cooper had met ProSoft Technology Regional Sales Manager Myles Heinekey at a Rockwell Automation event in Birmingham, England and knew the gateway was a way the old 1771 I/O racks could be retained.

“The commissioning time was reduced massively because the existing Remote I/O cards and wiring could be retained,” Cooper says. “Only the processor and software needed to be added and commissioned, not the field wiring.”

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