ABB Foundry Group

GENESIS Enterprise edition is the HMI/SCADA solution under the hood for ABB’s eMelt product offering. GraphWorX™, AlarmWorX™ and TrendWorX™ are all used in the eMelt application. This is a complete solution deployed on a single node. From GraphWorX, operators can see a graphical representation of what is happening inside the melting furnaces. They are able to control the temperature, view the weight, and see the remaining time left before pouring. AlarmWorX is used for all alarms needing attention during the heating and melting stages. The TrendWorX component allows operators to view real-time trends of the process at all stages. Data tags can be dragged and dropped into a trending area during runtime for real time trending.

The eMelt product is an MMI, SCADA and MES global solution for ABB’s Foundry segment. This quick-to-learn and easy-to-use product based on OPC, is controller (PLC) independent, supports multiple languages and works with different unit systems. The system provides the monitoring and controlling of foundry processes for as many as four furnaces. The product is configured to individual foundry requirements and operations. It can connect to temperature measurement devices, analyzers and spectrometers and offers a variety of operational reports.

The eMelt foundry system, based on GENESIS, was implemented by the ABB Foundry Group. Thermocouples, a type of spectrometer, are connected to the ABB Digital Inter Control Unit (DICO). This DICO then interfaces to GENESIS for operators to monitor and control the melting process. The GENESIS application is also communicating via OPC to a Modicon PLC as well as PLC5 and ControlLogix hardware from Allen Bradley. One of the requirements for this application was to be able to handle connectivity to all the above-mentioned devices from a single Windows-based server.

The entire system for one melting station only contains about 300 I/O points. However, the points can be spread across different controllers. Other vendors and internal solutions were considered for this application. ICONICS was selected due to its ease of use in creating graphics, its small footprint, strong integration with Microsoft products, and open architecture based on OPC. Microsoft Office and Visual Studio are used in conjunction with the system running on Windows, and all application data is logged to a relational database.

ABB was able to get their foundry monitoring and control product (eMelt) to market quickly and cost effectively by partnering with ICONICS.

The eMelt project is key to ABB’s success in foundry applications. The project is a global solution and will be joining ABB’s Industrial IT family.