We have just commissioned an oil alert system at Exol Lubricants in Darlaston.
The site were experiencing problems with loading tankers of oil into their storage facility, if a driver or operator accidentally operated two pneumatic valves instead of the one pneumatic valve needed, the whole tank of oil would be contaminated at a cost to the business of several thousands pounds.
There are 39 tanks in total; they needed a system that alerted the operator if any two of the 39 valves were open. A sounder and flashing strobe would alert of the problem and the second valve could be isolated before the batch was destroyed.
We designed a program for an OMRON C200 PLC that would allow this to monitored and alert the operator. The PLC was housed in a control panel with indication and control near to the tanks.
The system detected a valve being open via a series of 39 pressure switches installed in the valve actuation pipework; this gave us 39 inputs for the plc to monitor. When the alarm was activated an immediate output operated the warning devices.
The company have the option of operating a solenoid to shut the system down after 15 seconds if the operator fails to shut the second valve down.
Such is the success we have received an enquiry to carry out a similar system on the main tanks at the site.
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