Upgrade for brewery's control system
July 1st 2006 Brewery process engineers and project management specialist, FMA Process Engineering, has been selected as the supplier for the re-engineering of Carib Breweries' brewhouse, fermentation, yeast propagation and bright beer filtration cellar control system at the company's Trinidad plant.
The brewery has been progressively expanded and developed and now provides some 16 brands, of which Carib and Stag lager are the dominant labels.
In 1987, a new, self-contained facility comprising a single-stream 400hl brewhouse with combined fermentation/conditioning conicals and bright beer filtration cellar was commissioned. This has been followed by three new 3500hl dual purpose vessels and a new yeast propagation and storage facility.
FMA was initially contracted to undertake a design study and produce a detailed User Requirement Document for the project. This relationship has now progressed to the implementation phase where Siemens S7 plcs and iFIX SCADA have been jointly selected by Carib and FMA to deliver a modern, flexible control solution. A comprehensive management reporting facility will be provided using SQL with webbased reporting features.
Production downtime will be achieved via off-site simulation and the installation of distributed I/O and associated field wiring to enable pre-commissioning to be completed before shutdowns are started.
In the brewing industry, FMA's experience covers a wide range of production issues, covering mechanical, electrical and control systems design and supply. This has ranged from initial plant design and feasibility studies to final commissioning, operator training, production support and plant performance testing.
Projects undertaken are normally of a full turnkey nature, with the company taking responsibility for system performance and commercial accountability for the finished product.
Where appropriate, FMA's role can encompass overseas labour requirements and management of the sub-contractor base. More articles from FMA Process Engineering Ltd: | 
