Brewery saves time and cost with all-in-one PLC and HMI units

Established in 2013, 7th Settlement Brewery is the first community-supported brewery (CSB) in Dover, New Hampshire, USA. The owner, Joshua Henry, needed a control system that could support temperature measurement, off-site monitoring, record-keeping and alarm capabilities in the brewery's three 800-gallon fermenters. In particular, the controller had to manage the circulation pump, transfer pump and 300,000 btu boiler.

Because he could not be on site at all times of the day and night, it was essential that the system could raise alarms and notify Josh by email in the event of any process conditions that required his attention.

Unitronics' Vision1210 and Vision120 units catered to all of this application's requirements and more. From one central location, the Vision series controllers handled the I/O, monitored temperatures, maintained a history of the temperatures, and stored data throughout the entire brewing process. In addition, the controller's RS485 communications greatly reduced wiring across the brewery to the remote PID controllers used on the glycol-chilled fermenters.

Each brewing cycle has multiple functions to manage the two pumps and boiler. The Vision1210's 12inch colour-touch display accommodates this versatile operation well, for 'visually' controlling the necessary local I/O. The smaller Vision120 is primarily used as a Modbus RTU slave across the brewery to control a bank of solid-state relays that open and close the chiller valves.

Having installed the Unitronics control hardware, 7th Settlement Brewery has benefited from a substantially simplified brewing process and, consequently, a shorter brewing time; excellent records of the process are being kept and production costs are being held down. Josh Henry says the Unitronics Vision1210 has "Greatly increased our capabilities and consistency in our brewery! Not only has it simplified our brewing process, it has legitimised our brewery to our customers in our pub!"

Follow the links for more information about the Unitronics Vision1210 and Vision120 all-in-one PLC and HMI units.