Control Panel Upgrades Remove Bottleneck in Production

Initially, Lee Contracting was asked to simply troubleshoot and make minor modifications. Further investigation required Lee's expertise in controls engineering and PLC programming.

DEPARTMENT INVOLVED

• Controls Engineering

SCOPE OF WORK:

Webb Chemical, a company serving the chemical distribution industry for nearly 60 years, reached out to Lee Contracting to request an upgrade to their current controls panel and system. Initially, Lee Contracting was asked to simply troubleshoot and make minor modifications.

The Lee team discovered several digital outputs had failed, a result of improper sizing by the OEM, which prevented Lee’s ability to make the necessary system changes.

Lee Contracting’s Controls Engineering Team examined the existing system, diagnosed the issue, and suggested a solution that would increase load capacity and help to prevent future failures.

As a result, the engineers replaced existing damaged digital modules with new modules, installed interface relays on digital outputs and cleaned up the PLC logic.

This provided a few solutions:

• Eliminated system “work arounds” and “software jumpers”
• Increased load capacity to digital outputs
• Improved functionality and ease of troubleshooting in the future

With Lee’s history and knowledge in controls engineering and PLC programming, the customer was able to remove the bottleneck in their production process.