Feeding 8 billion hungry mouths with all the calories and nutrients they need on a daily basis is no easy task. To be able to meet the growing demand for food around the world, agricultural companies are increasingly investing in cutting-edge technology to improve the performance of their processes and reduce crop losses. Following this pattern, an agricultural company located in province of British Columbia, Canada, searched Nexto CLPs Xpress the technology necessary to automate a fertilizer distribution line and guarantee a complete supply of nutrients to your plantation.
In this project, Softac Systems, a partner company of Altus in Canada, developed a new solution control for the diesel engine of the pressurization pump used in the flexible line responsible for the correct distribution of fertilizers in the field. Using the technology of Nexto coolant temperature, increase in outlet pressure or critical error in peripheral sensors.
The designed architecture has a PLC XP340 as the main part. The equipment monitors variables linked to different process sensors, including fuel level, input pressure, output pressure and flow, volume pulse counter (from the flow meter) and engine shutdown. In the application developed, the Nexto Xpress PLC communicates directly with the engine through the J1939 communication protocol and uses discrete control to activate the hydraulic valves, hydraulic pump and primer pump.
Via WebServer support embedded in the XP340 controller, the process operator can access the supervision system remotely using a tablet, laptop or smartphone. To keep information about the operation updated and available for consultation by business management, the applied solution also sends system data to a remote server via MQTT. This combination of IoT features and traditional market standards, such as support for CANopen and MODBUS TCP protocols, makes Nexto Xpress controllers truly all-in-one products and allows them to be used in different Industry 4.0 applications.
With advanced programming features, such as flexibility and simplicity, and due to the various connectivity options available, the Nexto Xpress PLC allows integration between different automation products in a simple and user-friendly way. The applied solution allowed the customer to remotely control a pump drive motor, eliminating the need to have a person on site responsible for control. The new architecture also increased the level of control over the operation by adding a complete sequence of diagnostics regarding the status of the engine and the process.
