Control systems upgrade makes new beer recipes possible

Molson Coors’ Burton-on-Trent brewery has completely upgraded its control systems and standardised the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems it uses.

The Burton brewery had been operating both iFIX and Setcim SCADA systems, but with the assistance of liquid processing systems integration expert FMA Process Engineering, it has 'reverse engineered' everything into its iFIX system.

As well as supporting the brewery's operational controls and making maintenance easier, the move has also helped simplify the introduction of new processes and recipes.

FMA converted about 200 pages of computer commands, controlling areas such as bright beer tanks, filtration lines, yeast propagation and the main routing station to the packaging facilities.

FMA also converted programmable logic controls (PLCs) from Allen Bradley 5250 units to its ControlLogix PLCs.