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Controls implemented Nature's Way

On a line filling 1- and 2.5-gal containers, a networked modem has already saved more than $10ꯠ by allowing remote troubleshooting by vendors. The network includes seven HMIs and nine PLCs.

Touchscreen interface in the filler room is one of seven on the line.
Touchscreen interface in the filler room is one of seven on the line.

Nature’s Way Purewater, which bottles its own brand of water as well as private label brands, invested in a $4 million production expansion to fill 1- and 2.5-gal jugs of water (see sidebar). The Pittston, PA-based company also took the added step of networking the operation, partly to help protect its lightweight high-density polyethylene jugs from damage. Crompton Sales (Methuen, MA) was the production line and network integrator.

One of the special features of the network is what Crompton’s Scott Mueller calls “an end-run modem”: an external modem located at the end of the cable on the Allen-Bradley Data Highway Plus® network from Rockwell Automation (Milwaukee, WI). Since the modem is on the network, it allows any vendor to access the programmable logic controller of its own machine. That makes this setup unique—modems have been inside packaging machines for years, but rarely are they on a network. This allows the modem to be used as a universal remote troubleshooting aid.

For security reasons, the modem is located in a locked room to which only the plant manager has access. Additionally, the modem is connected to a phone line only when it is needed. Only then will the plant manager provide the vendor’s technician with the password to gain access to the network.

The system was used three times—all by different vendors—near the startup to assist in troubleshooting, all “very successfully,” reports Mueller. He estimates this saved at least $10ꯠ in potential travel and related expenses for service technicians.

Network strategies

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