Responsible for 15% of all cargo transported in the United States in 2021, the waterway mode is an important logistics resource in the country and has constantly invested in technological modernization. Recently, All American Marine, a major naval shipyard responsible for building catamarans and ships in Washington region, found in Altus the necessary technology to modernize the automation system of its fleet of boats and develop the first hydrogen-powered catamaran in North America and the first in the worldto operate on a commercial basis.
Desenvolvido pela Bluefin Marine, nosso integrador de sistemas na América do Norte ligado aos nossos parceiros da Beijer Electronics, o projeto previa a atualização de múltiplos processos em diferentes partes dos barcos. O principal objetivo do sistema modernizado é automatizar os procedimentos de partida e parada de bombas e exaustores a bordo da embarcação. Porém, a aplicação também é responsável por monitorar diferentes variáveis de operação através de pontos digitais e analógicos instalados ao longo do barco, coletando dados sobre o estado do veículo.
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Robustness and high performance with Nexto Xpress PLCs
Para garantir que essas atividades sejam realizadas conforme o esperado, é essencial observar alguns indicadores, incluindo temperatura interna, níveis de porão e tanque, resfriamento de células de hidrogênio, backup, desligamento, status e monitoramento do sistema. Com alta velocidade e elevado índice deconfiabilidade, including the controladores programáveis Nexto Xpress foram a solução escolhida para compor o sistema de controle e garantir a operacionalidade desses processos.
To increase their robustness, Nexto Xpress products also undergo tropicalization, an isolation process that each printed circuit board goes through before assembling the product, essential for equipment installed on vessels.
Furthermore, all PLCs in the Xpress family comply with Det Norske Veritas safety standards, possessing DNV certification. The equipment in the series is certified in the Type Approval category, which makes it completely ready to be used in marine applications, such as control systems on yachts, cruise vessels, cargo ships and oil and gas platforms.
Click here and check Altus' registration on the DNV website.
High connectivity architecture
A arquitetura aplicada conta com cinco XP315, um dos CLP IoT Ready da Altus, e uma IHM de 15” da Série X2. Quatro dos controladores estão em gabinetes isolados em Centros de Controles de Motores, localizados adjacentes à sala da célula de combustível e em cada casco. Eles controlam os drivers responsáveis pelo acionamento das bombas e exaustores de bordo através de uma rede CANopen. Os controladores também coletam dados dos sensores e dispositivos que monitoram as variáveis do sistema.
The fifth PLC, like the HMI, is located on the bridge. Both the controllers in the CCM cabinets and the Xpress on the command bridge are connected to the X2 HMI via an Ethernet network and communicate with it using the OPC UA protocol.
Versatility and high communication capacity with Nexto Xpress
Its unique concept of compact design with high density of I/O pointsallowed the customer to include a controller in each MCC cabinet to control auxiliary loads, eliminating a large number of conductors from the machine room to the bridge, which resulted in a significant cost reduction for the project's automation budget.
Dave Bechtel, co-owner of Bluefin Marine, comments that the communication power of Nexto Xpress was one of the differentiators that led to the choice of the PLC as the control solution for the application. “The diversity of communication interfaces and protocols available in the product is very interesting, it makes it possible to communicate with different smart devices”, says Dave.
Another benefit of using Altus IoT ready PLCs are savings related to development costs. Because it has built-in analog interfaces, the solution requires low engineering investment for configuration, resulting in a high-performance application with improved economics.
