In an increasingly fast and dynamic market, it is essential that companies of all sizes promote digital transformation and adaptation actions in order to maintain their competitiveness and high productivity. As a reference in the development and production of equipment for industrial automation in Brazil, Altus has the capacity to provide technology to promote the digitalization of processes in companies from the most different segments. In order to begin a transformation at its production unit in Brazil, YPF turned to Nexto Series programmable controllers the technology necessary to adapt your processes to the demands of connectivity, security and high productivity from Indústria 4.0.
Altus products were used in the modernization of YPF Química, a production unit. oils and lubricants from YPF Brasil, in Diadema, São Paulo. Leader in exploration and production of hydrocarbons in Argentina and one of the most important brands in Latin America, the company has been present in the Brazilian market for 25 years and has a production capacity of up to 47 thousand tons per year. By promoting a digital transformation using Altus product technology, the company gained more performance and production capacity, and also added an extra layer of operational safety and environmental to its processes.
Control and supervision solution with Altus products
Our products are present in practically the entire production line of the company, being responsible for controlling everything from pre-overflow systems, pressure control for pump blocking and operational blocking, through to the preparation of product recipes and safety in the production and packaging line, up to the line cleaning system (PIG). The implemented architecture is based on a NX3005 control unit, Nexto line CPU with high processing speed and large data storage capacity, integrated power supply and embedded WebServer. The PLC acts as the center of the control and supervision solution, processing data collected from field instruments and interacting with local and remote supervision resources.
The developed solution has two control networks: one operating in MODBUS RTU and the other in MODBUS TCP, both controlled by a bus composed of the NX3005 CPU and I/O modules of different models, in addition to a expanded bus with more input and output cards. This composition is responsible for data collection, activation and adjustment of field instruments, such as analog and digital sensors, floats, pneumatic valves, relays , inverters and soft-starters, pressure transmitters and flow meters.
The NX3005 PLC from the Nexto Series of programmable controllers has several advanced features, high performance and flexible architecture, which allows its use in simple or large automation systems. Its compact and robust structure, combined with high processing speed, which exceeds 1,000 Boolean instructions every 6 microseconds, and large data storage capacity, makes the CPU a Great choice for the most demanding control and automation applications. The unit also supports WebServer, which allows the creation of application supervision and monitoring screens without the need to use a SCADA system.
In the webinar Embedded Web Server in CLP, taught by one of our product specialists, we talk about the differences between the resource, operation terminals and SCADA software, we address its importance for automation projects, in addition to demonstrating how to create supervision and monitoring screens with the solution. Click on the banner below to access the material.
In addition to the Nexto buses, the architecture also has a energy multimeter from the Energy Series, responsible for monitoring consumption and the quality of electrical energy of the operation. For local supervision and insertion of recipes, the solution has a HMI P2102NK, 10” touchscreen graphic terminal with P2 Series Ethernet. Remote supervision is the responsibility of SCADA/HMI BluePlant, solution for supervision, control and data acquisition from Altus. Click here to learn in detail about the features available in our supervisory software.
Are you interested in finding out more details about any of these products? Fill out the form at the end of this article to request contact from our Commercial team. One of our experts will get in touch to talk about our solutions and demonstrate how Altus technology can contribute to the performance and safety of your operation.
The benefits of using Altus technology
Carmelo Leão, Automation Technician who participates in the digital transformation process at YPF Brasil's Diadema factory points out that the main benefits that the company realized after implementing the solution were an important increase in quality of the product manufactured and greater control in terms of environmental safety. “We chose to use Altus products in this project because it is a consolidated company, with 40 years in the market, and also due to our policy of prioritizing the national industry”. The control and supervision solution applied allowed the optimization of the plant's production processes and added greater security to the unit in general.
In addition to providing the technology for YPF’s digital transformation, Altus contributed engineering expertise through its specialists, who were integral in automating the plant’s production machinery.
Discover the Nexto family of modular PLCs
The Nexto PLC is an advanced automation system capable of controlling in a distributedand redundantmanner complex industrial processes, machines and high-performance production lines. Modern and high speed, the Nexto Series uses cutting-edge technology to provide reliability and connectivity, contributing to increased productivity in your business.
Preemptive and multitasking, the operating system of Nexto CPUs allows sophisticated applications. With powerful RISC PowerPC and ARM 32 and 64-bit processors, the family's PLCs can perform complex arithmetic calculations and advanced control functions, more than 145 thousand Boolean instructions or more than 500 PID loops per millisecond. The series uses the MasterTool IEC XE programming software, a system based on the CODESYS platform and free for applications with up to 320 I/O points.
We recently launched a new version of the software, with new features and support for more communication protocols. Click on the banner below and check out the latest news:
The latest model in the family is the NX3008, the new CPU in the Nexto Series, a global product with advanced software features and cybersecurity capable of dynamically integrating the IT and TA areas of an industry. Created to meet the demands of an increasingly connected industry, the NX3008 CPU has a wide variety of communication interfaces capable of connecting the equipment to the most different systems and machines on the market. The new Nexto Series control device has 03 Ethernet Gigabit ports, 02 of which support the PROFINET Controller communication protocol, which allows the controller to be used in a network with MRP ring architecture. You can see an example of the application of the resource in this article written by our colleague Leonardo Carvalho Antônio dos Santos.
For applications that cannot be stopped, the Nexto family features redundant CPUs and hot-swappable modules, features that virtually eliminate the need to stop the system for maintenance. The series also has the capacity to expand I/O modules without stopping the system and automatic addressing of modules in the racks.
Through integrated ports on the CPUs and communication interfaces, the Series offers hardware and software support for the following fieldbus protocols:
Want to know more about Nexto Series PLCs? Fill out the form below to be contacted by our Sales team.
