Platform for the food and beverage industry
The production site of Dutch Farm Frites in Lommel has four operational units and is thus immediately the largest of the group. Operational unit 3 is responsible for the production of frozen fries of the highest quality, intended for fast food chains, among others.
To meet Farm Frites' expansion plans, the line was completely overhauled. The capacity was doubled in the process. "The existing line was completely rebuilt and expanded except for a few process steps," indicates Sven Cardinaels, E&I project leader at Farm Frites. "For example, there is a new drying tunnel in which fans circulate conditioned outside air above a long conveyor belt. Those fans are controlled with Siemens Sinamics G120 frequency controllers. Heat from the baking oven is recovered there, and the temperature is controlled by humidity. These interventions provide significant energy savings."
At the end of the process, the pre-fried fries are successively cooled and frozen. A mechanical sorter with frequency-controlled vibratory motors ejects the fries that were broken, deformed, or stuck together in the preceding steps. The final, frozen products are automatically discharged to the cold store in various packages.
The equipment to apply coating was added to the line in a bypass arrangement, which precedes frying. The French fries are immersed in a paste that then partially drips off. Air knives allow some of the coating to be recovered.
"Coating is an extra layer we can use to add color or flavor to our fries," explains Sven Cardinaels, E&I project manager at Farm Frites. "This allows us to guarantee optimal quality. It also ensures that the fries stay crisp longer. That way we can avoid throwing them away."
For the electrical engineering and automation, Farm Frites called on permanent partner Heveco from Genk. They not only took care of the electrical work, but also took care of the board construction and software programming for the PLCs. Bart Huygen, co-owner of Heveco, explains: "We chose one central Simatic S7-1517F controller, which can control the entire line - and thus also the coating applicator - both process-wise and in terms of safety. On a number of machines we also carried out safety modifications."
Bart and his team installed 175 Siemens Sinamics G120 frequency controllers on the production line. "Because of that standardization and the integration of the Sinamics G120 into TIA Portal we make the work of Farm Frites' technical department a lot lighter. Technicians and operators become familiar with the components more quickly, and the management of spare parts is a lot simpler. In turn, the modular concept of these drives - with separate power and control sections - adds to the ease of maintenance."
To make this massive project as quickly as possible up and running get the job done, Bart's team had to get the job done especially during short production downtimes. "That required a lot of creativity and flexibility," Bart points out. "An important asset for us was the integration of the two main PLCs, the HMIs and the frequency controls in the TIA Portal. That ensured that the commissioning could proceed particularly smoothly."
In addition, of course, (food) safety had to be taken into account. Cabling, decentralized boards, distribution boxes and electronic components were concealed as much as possible. This was made possible, among other things, by the "safety integrated" concept, in which the safety functions were fully integrated into the controller. This also ensures a perfectly harmonized link to the Simatic controllers via PROFIsafe. The result? Shorter commissioning and lower costs due to less wiring and efficient engineering. The safety concept also allows the various drives to be easily placed in safety groups and ensures improved diagnostics.
With a view to later expansion, the technical room used modular Simatic ET 200SP I/O islands for the decentralized periphery. The future of everyone's favorite delicacy seems hereby assured.
