Process & Controls Design
Designing Industrial Automation Controls to Meet the Needs of the Process, Not the Other Way Around
Automation teams are often brought into a project after the equipment design is finalized and the processes are defined. Unfortunately, this timing means that it’s not until PLC programming starts that the system’s lack of necessary instrumentation, hardware, flow paths, or safety devices is discovered. This late in the game discovery ultimately puts projects at risk due to scheduling delays and budget overruns. It can also lead to the decision to use automation as a work around to compensate for gaps in the system design, which is potentially detrimental to your industrial automation controls.
Working with NeoMatrix’s PLC and controls engineers during the initial equipment and process design phase will help protect your investment and get the done right the first time. By providing a controls perspective to your project from the outset and assisting in the identification of any gaps in design, you’ll save you time and money in the long run while eliminating shortcuts and achieving optimal process control.
Early Involvement of PLC and Control Design Services
Once all processes and associated equipment are defined, the control system can be designed with process, safety, and flexibility in mind. In the end, your process control is only as good as your control system allows it to be.
NeoMatrix utilizes our extensive process and control system engineering experience during the equipment and processing engineering phase of projects to ensure that you aren’t stuck with expensive, and sometimes impossible, rework on the equipment. Engaging the following engineering services, you’ll have confidence that your equipment has the instrumentation, process capabilities, and control hardware necessary to meet your business and manufacturing objectives.
- Equipment P&ID Assessment: NeoMatrix has extensive experience assessing P&IDs for proper process flow paths, instrumentation types and locations, pipe sloping, physical constraints, and safety concerns. We’ve helped design everything from 20k liter production bioreactors to benchtop R&D microscale processes.
- Process Engineering: Our team has a diverse background that spans across multiple engineering fields and industries, giving us a range of our process knowledge that’s been applied to design processes across chemical, biological, and physical domains.
- Control System Design: Combining our knowledge of your equipment and process to design the best control system for your needs, we consider your internal standards, physical location of equipment, and safety requirements, to determine the proper controller, IO module distribution (local rack vs remote IO), and user interfaces your system requires.
- Gap Analysis: Identifying all the gaps and limitations in your design, we resolve any issues that would negatively affect your processes, saving you valuable time and money.
- Safety Evaluation: To protect your process, equipment, and people, we evaluate the safety requirements for your system and design solutions. We have experience designing systems using safety relays, safety PLCs, and numerous physical and electrical safety components. Whether your equipment needs to exist in a NEC/NHPA defined hazardous/classified area or meet a specific SIL/PL level, NeoMatrix helps to make it as safe as possible.
Achieving Optimal Process Control Starts with Experience
NeoMatrix has wide-ranging experience in process, equipment, and control system design and we pride ourselves on establishing a partnership throughout the entire process of designing, building, and deploying a new piece of equipment onto your production floor. With NeoMatrix involved from the beginning, you’ll have confidence that your equipment is designed “Right First Time” and will have the instrumentation, process capabilities, and control hardware necessary to satisfy your needs.