Things 'go sweet' at Chelsea Sugar

When it comes to the packaging and distribution of Chelsea Sugar’s large product range, it’s a case of robots, PLCs, scanners, metal detectors and sophisticated, synchronised conveyor systems. All of these integrate into a high-tech automated line, linking five input lines and dropping the correct product onto the appointed pallet at just the right time, reducing breakages and hold-ups.
Wayne Leahy, the electrical project engineer, has been with the firm for many years. In that time he has ensured that the company, which counts many food and beverage manufacturers as its major customers, along with the supermarkets and exports to Japan, Australia and the Pacific Islands, has stayed current with what automation technology can do to improve efficiency and reduce costs. The consolidation of the company’s Glenfield icing sugar and brown sugar facility into the Birkenhead plant allowed for an enhanced packaging line.
“It gave us the chance to move from one-line-with-one-product to one-line-with-three-products. That makes a huge difference to throughput and having the flexibility to meet new orders. But we also recognised we would be moving and integrating some older equipment from Glenfield,” says Leahy.

Help needed from Singer
A year into the project he came to the conclusion that “getting a little help from a friend” (at Singer) was the smart thing to do, to take some of the pressure off the company’s own automation engineer.
Philip Wright, a top systems engineer at Singer Automation – described by Wayne Leahy as “a talented guy” – has a history of consultancy work at the Chelsea Sugar plant. The company’s automation engineer, Bronwyn Theobald, who had been involved in the design, strategy and implementation of the project for approximately a year, reviewed and completed the control role before deciding to move on.
Because Wright was already involved, he knew what was required. He might not have been party to all the strategising and product presentations that inevitably accompany a big upgrade, but he was able to offer the benefit of ‘unencumbered creativity’ on a number of issues.
He knew the environment and other team members, understood the challenges and could deliver the benefits, as any good, outsourced systems engineer should.
A previous upgrade in 2000 meant that Chelsea had a single packaging line with three robots to palletise the bags. Increased throughput and the need to meet the marketing department’s changing packaging needs led to the addition of another robot. At the same time it was decided to upgrade the existing Texas Instruments PLC to a Siemens S7 model.

Chelsea knew what it wanted
Wright says, “Our task was made relatively easy because Chelsea Sugar knew exactly what it wanted to achieve, had done a good deal of the thinking and planning behind that, and set the inspection standards. First-up, Bronwyn and Singer did a straight code conversion and configured the software for the operator panel.
“Later we added more expertise in developing the extra code for the new ABB robot that handles three lanes as opposed to the two attached to the older robots.
“We control the conveyors and deliver products – which we ‘identify’ – to the robot, so that it can get on with stacking and palletising. The bag tracking code tells the operator where every product is at any one time on the line and maintains the correct spacing, so that it goes to the correct lane,” says the Singer man.

ABB best met requirements
The company packages 64 permutations of 40 different products, allocating certain products to a particular robot and using the flexibility of the latest robot, to cover additional customer needs. The three original robots were Kawasakis, but when it came to the tender for the fourth, ABB was adjudged “the best package for meeting our requirements”. Leahy stresses that he remains “very happy with the Kawasakis, which do a very good job.”
“As a team, we were focussed on not only meeting the here-and-now but also on developing a system that can easily cope with future product variations and throughput demands,” Wright emphasises.
The production and packaging process with its wide product mix also faces issues like ensuring that starch is added to the finely milled icing sugar to prevent it turning into a solid mass on the supermarket shelves. Or mixing salt and sugar for the Japanese market. Although these weren’t part of the project, Singer personnel were happy to oblige with the appropriate software.

Pressure on in summer
The company generally operates  24/5, running from 11pm on Sunday to 11pm on Friday. Saturday is set aside for maintenance. Any make-up production is typically done on a Sunday. The festive season and hot summers always put pressure on the beer and soft drink makers which is reflected in a boosted production schedule for Chelsea Sugar.
What about the always-dreaded commissioning process?
“The commissioning, with the FAT completed, really went sweet. After the first weekend start-up it was touch-and-go whether we left it on, but we still felt there were some bugs that needed to be cleaned out. On the second weekend it just purred into life and was left in operation,” says Leahy.
In reviewing the Singer Automation contribution in helping his company achieve their intended result, Leahy says he was “very impressed with the work done” and that the final results “met all our expectations”.
“They aren’t the cheapest by any means. But they deliver the quality and are a known quantity. And that is very important to us,”
he notes.