Nestle Purina Control System Upgrade

Capstone Design Group

Members: Wesley Orth, Robert Trask, Justin Winters

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Niranjan Venkatraman

Sponsor:

Project Overview:

In an effort to have faster and more efficient controls, Our Senior Design group has taken on the challenge to convert Nestle Purina’s By-Product Dryer to automated controls. The By-Product Dryer system is a crucial structure to the operation of utilizing all ingredients at the Nestle Purina facility here in Flagstaff, but is controlled by a 35 year old, hardwired system. This system is obsolete and does not fit with current control technologies available. Our task was to write a program in Concept that would deliver automated controls to all equipment within our scope. Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) implements the Concept program. The Human-Machine Interface is controlled by a program called iFIX, which we created a screen for. A contractor bid meeting was held and the job was awarded to Sabino Electric for all conduit, wire and PLC installation. Total funds received from Nestle Purina for this project was $25,000.00.

You are invited to attend our presentation at the CEFNS UnderGraduate Research and Design Symposium on April 23rd, 2010 in the DuBois Center Ballroom.

Website last updated: 4/15/2010