The JOURNAL

The JOURNAL

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Wireless Wonder

Bacardi’s Puerto Rico distiller cuts hardwiring work and costs by networking to remote buildings and the master control room via wireless modems.

By Sam Amaral, Electronic Systems Technology, Inc., and Roberto Acosta, Engineer, Accurate Solutions & Design

Bacardi’s Cataño, Puerto Rico facility is the world’s largest distillery, with some buildings separated by up to three kilometers, so using traditional hardwired networking proved to be difficult and costly. To solve this problem, Bacardi selected a state-of-the-art SCADA system to monitor activities in otherwise remote locations.

Bacardi selected a state-of-the-art SCADA system to monitor activities in remote locations, including this plant in Puerto Rico.

At the Cataño distillery, Bacardi’s automation control system was limited by its inability to interconnect and share data between various buildings. The distance separating the different buildings was detrimental to a hardwired network. With the critical information being monitored throughout the distilling process, a dependable and reliable system is vital.

Bacardi personnel teamed with Accurate Solutions & Design engineers to investigate all the available options on the market. They needed hardware that can meet today’s demands with the flexibility to meet future needs. After considering all the options, they selected a SCADA system using ESTeem wireless modems.

The ESTeem 192C modem was chosen due to its affordability, secure packet burst transmissions and a data rate of 19,200 bps while maintaining a data accuracy of greater than one part in 100 million. The modems offer cost-effective operation because they can operate as a master, remote or repeater node.

Better Control and Monitoring

ESTeem worked with Accurate Solutions & Design engineers to design a tailor-made wireless network for the Puerto Rico distillery. A radio analysis of the site was conducted and found that five deployed ESTeem radio modems would be needed to establish reliable communications and provide full coverage for a common network.

This site diagram for Bacardi’s Puerto Rico distillery illustrates how an ESTeem 192C wireless modem is interfaced with an Allen-Bradley MicroLogix PLC. The central computer continuously polls data from the remote PLCs, and that data is transmitted via the wireless modem to a central computer at the master site.

At each remote building, an ESTeem 192C is interfaced with an Allen-Bradley® MicroLogixTM programmable logic controller (PLC) from Rockwell Automation. Using Rockwell Software® RSLinx®, the central computer continuously polls data from the remote PLCs. Site data from each building is collected and transmitted via the wireless modem to a central computer at the master site. The information obtained is then displayed in a human-machine interface (HMI) created using Wonderware.

If communication is lost to any of the remote nodes, an alarm is activated that alerts the operator and provides details of the location of the communication loss. Using this configuration, the entire system functions as one network, using the radio modems to interconnect.

Bacardi Puerto Rico has successfully implemented wireless technology to network the remote buildings and the master control room. The wireless modems allow communication links to otherwise inaccessible areas while eliminating the constraints of hardwiring costs and time-to-implement.

For more information, visit www.rockwellautomation.com/go/p-est.