New Plant Control Network

billysmithde2

Member
B
Join Date
Jan 2008
Location
boston
Posts
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I have a great opportunity - we are building a new plant and moving out of our leased facility. I can recommend what our new network will look like in the plant, and I ask any of you if you would kindly share any nuggets of knowledge in designing/building a control network from the ground up.

Currently, we have mostly islands of automation, though we are moving to more central control / data historian type setups. I want to put a system in place that meets the following needs:

1. Meets our current needs, and will scale easily in the future for whatever may come
2. I am able to publish a list of specifications for equipment builders / designers so that systems that come will ready to connect to the plant network
3. I would like a central data server for all manufacturing operations with trending / historian, etc. We are evaluating various software proposals (AB Factory Talk, Wonderware, Inductive Automation, etc.).
4. The current plan is to support Ethernet/IP and Modbus/TCP, and require ethernet on all new systems. I also would like to limit the number of PCs on the plant floor: hard to manage with updates and security, lease vs buy, reliability, etc.

Any thoughts on other things I should do in our new plant? What tips and tricks have you learned along the way that you would do or not do if you had to build a new plant control network?
 
Based on my own experience working in a plant that has a terrible network design, if it is feasable and affordable, put an ethernet drop on every column. This will make you're like so much easier when adding machinery or even just a place to plug in when troubleshooting.
 
Two networks, one for the business, one for controls.

Install a "core" switch in a data center where your server is located. Run gigabit fiber to switches in the plant. Install switches as needed. Set up Vlans for your various needs.

For data collection and trending I recommend OSIsoft's PI historian. Can be costly.
 
+1

Sounds like a solid plan! It shouldn't be expensive to install sufficient Ethernet drops at the new facility. Make sure that you plan for future possibilities such as separating plant versus office networks.

Christoff84 said:
Based on my own experience working in a plant that has a terrible network design, if it is feasable and affordable, put an ethernet drop on every column. This will make you're like so much easier when adding machinery or even just a place to plug in when troubleshooting.
Click to expand...
 
also depending on the size of your plant try and place any data switches in central locations so that you can use them to reach every location in the plant remembering the 300' limit on cat5. You also want to avoid rooms that are significantly warmer than room temperature as communication speeds is reduced for every degree above 20' celcius I believe it works out to 10' loss of effective communication per degree above 20. Least thats what several manuals I've read have pointed out though I've never seen any evidence of that
 
Last edited:
Fiber isn't that expensive these days, either. Much more expensive to realize that you need to run new drops on a production system later.
 
Christoff84 said:
Based on my own experience working in a plant that has a terrible network design, if it is feasable and affordable, put an ethernet drop on every column. This will make you're like so much easier when adding machinery or even just a place to plug in when troubleshooting.
Click to expand...

For the cost I would drop 4 cables to every coloumn, 2 for machines 2 for "office". You dont need to have them terminated, as long as they are available in a patch panel. Every place you want 1 point put at least 2. brilliant if you get a cable fault!
 
Also develop a labelling system that will indicate what location the cables will run to ie a floor number as part of the number
 
Review the ISA standard S95 revision 2. This should be the goal that you use for a new network architecture.
 
Instead of installing a network cable(s) on every column I would install a secure wireless network. I have gone out into the plant and just used a wireless ethernet connection to troubleshoot plcs. Of coarse you will want to hardwire the actual machines in most cases.
 
What do you use wireless for at your facility?

ahackwor said:
Instead of installing a network cable(s) on every column I would install a secure wireless network. I have gone out into the plant and just used a wireless ethernet connection to troubleshoot plcs. Of coarse you will want to hardwire the actual machines in most cases.
Click to expand...

A few more tips:
1. Consider running STP (shielded) depending on where it's running, conduit, environment, etc.
2. I would run Cat 5e if not Cat 6 for future - not much more in bulk than Cat 5.
3. Think about if you have an application for PoE (power over Ethernet) - this comes into play more with your switch selection. The main uses would probably be cameras on the plant side and VoIP phones on the office side. Don't run the VoIP phones on the plant network unless you know what you're doing.
 
Some ideas

I have made some set up and here are some ideas from the plants I have made:

Make a “factory net” on the plant – fiber cable in ring connection between the server room and all the main distributing cabinets. Make the following fiber pairs from the server room to each of the main distributing cabinets:
1. Office net
2. Production net – PLC / SCADA
3. VoIP – Voice IP / telephone
4. Spare
5. Spare
Now you have a net from the factory to the server room with high uptime due to the ring connection.The backbone is gigabit so you can have lot of traffic and data collection.

Have a SCADA “factory server” there is local and is sending data to the server room. In this way the data collection is active also if the factory net is down or an error in the server room.
Have a “line” or “production” PLC for data collection of data from a production with several PLC systems. This PLC is making the data collection / distribution from the SCADA, so the SCADA only have one partner to talk with. All the line calculations is also made in this PLC.

Have wireless net for service / maintenance, so you don’t have to connect by cable for service access to the systems. You will also have the opportunity to use terminal server for the SCADA system, for use at service.

I have some drawings of the setup and I you want some send me a PM.
 
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surferb said:
What do you use wireless for at your facility?



- the operators use handheld scanners (this is managed by IT).
- we have a couple fork trucks with small panelviews on them, ethernet to access point (on truck) to wireless.
- it's nice for multiple people to be able to bring their laptop to a conference room and have access to the network.
- a few people have wireless I/P phones.
Click to expand...
 
Very cool. Do you get EM interference problems?

ahackwor said:
- the operators use handheld scanners (this is managed by IT).
- we have a couple fork trucks with small panelviews on them, ethernet to access point (on truck) to wireless.
- it's nice for multiple people to be able to bring their laptop to a conference room and have access to the network.
- a few people have wireless I/P phones.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for all the responses - I plan to incorporate some of these items in our design. I have a strong feeling about moving away from PCs due to the various issues - anyone have comments on that? My proposal is to have HMI/PLCs control everything as much as possible and pull as many PCs off the floor as possible. Of course, this isn't always possible, but where I can I want to.
 

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