Achievements

Manufacturing bituminous binders

Based on its background with Topkapi (over thirty licenses implemented), WAROUDE immediately understood Topkapi’s assets in this type of process.

A bituminous emulsion is a mix of two non miscible constituents: asphalt and water. Both can form a stable and homogenous mix by adding surface active agents (acid or amine emulsifiers). The manufacturing recipe is made of a sub-recipe, the aqueous phase, and one or two products, the black bituminous phase, and if applicable the black fluxing phase (fluxing oil is added to soften the asphalt).

The recipes are prepared using a dedicated diagram, accessible only to persons authorized to create/modify/delete them. It allows to create and select the different components in the aqueous phase sub-recipe (6 products maximum), their storage source (tank) and percentage in the final mix, as well as that of the black bituminous phase and the black fluxing phase. Once created, the recipes are made available to the operator (there are currently more than fifty), who can then select the one matching the orders to be processed. Once this selection made and validated, the parameters are sent to the controller, with the quantity to produce and the destination tank to store the finished product.

At this point, WAROUDE preferred developing a graphic interface customized to create and manage recipes, rather than using the one supplied in standard. ‘The interface was simplified as much as possible to show only the parameters required by the operator’ indicates Xavier Viné, from WAROUDE’s automation engineering office. ‘This is made possible as this implementation remains rather simple‘. Indeed, it is created without a script and specific external development, merely by configuring Topkapi’s interface, by calling upon basic functions of the recipe module: create, delete, select/search, validate, …

A general diagram allows monitoring the manufacturing cycle, and a report is generated by Topkapi upon batch completion (average time 1 hour): it includes the main specifications of the product and its manufacturing cycle (quantity requested, quantity produced, average emulsion temperature, faults, …). To ensure global monitoring of the installations over time, Topkapi’s Summaries module generates operating reports, notably for monitoring motor running time. Hence, this allows supplying indicators to ensure preventive maintenance.

The flexible use of this tool hence allows to create binder recipes easily, based on the formulas supplied by C3L’s clients or adapt the formulas to the aggregates used and conditions of application.

The application was first deployed when C3L’s plant in Castres was renovated in 2008. As the results were fully satisfactory, it will be implemented later in the Cahors site.

As in many various uses, here Topkapi is perfectly adapted to supervising industrial processes while meeting demanding requirements, without having to call upon developments costly to produce and maintain.