data logging pilot plant
April 2001

------------------------Monitor-------------------------
The Newsletter for PC-Based Data Acquisition and Control
Issue 33         www.windmill.co.uk          April 2001
--------------------ISSN 1472-0221----------------------

Hello, and welcome to Issue 33 of Monitor. This month we 
bring news of how Windmill's customisable drivers helped 
upgrade a pilot chemical plant, and how you can evaluate 
the software for free.

We only send this newsletter to people who have 
subscribed - should you wish to cancel your free 
subscription please visit 
https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html

CONTENTS
========
* Windmill News: Windmill's Flexibility Aids Data
  Logging from Pilot Plant
* Exhibitions

________________________________________________________

Windmill News: Windmill's Flexibility Aids Data Logging 
from Pilot Plant
________________________________________________________

Until recently, a pilot plant for the manufacture of 
water treatment chemicals used an old DOS program to 
control its data loggers. The plant's Program Manager 
wanted to upgrade the software but feared he would have 
to write the program himself, as he could not find a 
flexible product that would accept custom-made drivers. 
Then he discovered Windmill software.

  "The Windmill software was a great find for me. 
  The free download was used to evaluate application 
  of the software to my datacq hardware. I then 
  purchased a license for three installations." 
  Jeff Castor, Program Manager, Hercules Pilot Plant

Most of the water treatment chemicals manufactured by 
the plant are polymers, made by typical batch 
polymerisation processes (solution, emulsion and 
dispersion polymerisations). The plant consists of six 
reaction systems. It employs seven Molytek 2702 loggers, 
connected via an RS232 link to a PC by means of a code 
activated switch. The Windmill software suite could 
easily read and control the Molytek loggers through its 
serial driver. The suite also included a software Logger 
application to store and time-stamp many channels of 
different types of data. Process data logged from the 
plant by Windmill include: reactor temperature, reactor 
jacket temperatures (supply and return), reactor jacket 
flowrate, reactor pressure, overhead temperatures 
(vapour, distillate, condenser coolant) and various 
weights, reagent flows and process analytical instrument 
readings.

Readings taken by Windmill are passed to various data 
processing tools for analysis and reporting, including 
Excel, RS/1 and TK!Solver.

The Molytek 2702 was a state of the art logger in the 
1980s. It is built of standard mechanical and electronic 
components and so, can, in theory, be maintained 
indefinitely. For that reason a lot of 2702s are still 
around. They make a good, reliable, hardware front end 
to a low speed data acquisition system.

If you would like to evaluate the Windmill software  
our subscribers can download the free Windmill 4.3 suite 
and ComDebug program.

________________________________________________________

Exhibitions and Conferences
________________________________________________________

Every other month we list exhibitions and conferences 
related to data acquisition and control.

23-28 April
Hannover Fair 2001
International fair featuring, amongst other things, 
factory automation, industrial software, microtechnology 
and automation. Over 7000 companies from over 60 
countries are exhibiting. A day ticket costs 20 Euros.
http://www.hannovermesse.de/

2-3 May
Instrumentation North
The Royal Armoury, Leeds, UK
For automation, data acquisition, sensors, signal 
conditioning, and so on.
http://www.instrumentation.co.uk/

8-10 May
Sensor 2001 and Test 2001
Nuremberg, Germany
Two exhibitions running side-by-side. Sensors 2001 is 
said to be the world's biggest fair for sensors, 
processing electronics, system solutions and related 
services. It covers diverse engineering branches, from 
consumer industry to automation technologies and the 
automobile industry. Test 2001 features measuring, 
materials testing, quality assurance and automotive 
techniques. Both exhibitions offer lectures and 
experiments.
http://www.sensor2001.com/indexe.html
http://www.sensorfairs.de/test/indexe.html

17-20 May
Instrumentation and Control Expo
Nehru Centre, Mumbai, India
Provides an insight to the various technologies and 
applications available globally.
http://www.india-tech.com/

5-7 June
Sensors Expo Spring
Rosemont Convention Center, Chicago, IL
Among their offerings are solid basics courses to ground 
you in fundamentals and the latest news on the hottest 
technologies.
http://www.sensorsmag.com/expo/spring01/foratten.shtml

5-8 June
ICAM Asia 2001
Singapore Expo
International trade fair for industrial control, 
automation and measurement.

3-6 July 
Control & Instrumentation China 2001 
http://www.psc2001.com/

________________________________________________________

Next Month in Monitor
________________________________________________________

Many of you use Excel to analyse your data, and so next 
month we're starting a series of "Excel Corners", 
featuring hints, tips and macro examples. Hope you find
it useful.
________________________________________________________

* Copyright Windmill Software Ltd
* Reprinting permitted with this notice included
* For more articles see https://www.windmill.co.uk

We are happy for you to copy and distribute this 
newsletter, and use extracts from it on your own web site 
or publication, providing the above notice is 
included and a link back to our website is in place.

An archive of previous issues is at 
https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html
and an index of articles at 
https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html

Windmill Software Ltd, PO Box 58, North District Office,
Manchester, M8 8QR, UK
Telephone: +44 (0)161 834 6688
Facsimile: +44 (0)161 833 2190
E-mail: monitor@windmillsoft.com

https://www.windmill.co.uk/

https://www.windmillsoft.com/



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