Plants in the pharmaceutical and food and beverage industries often use skids from different manufacturers. This means that when systems are integrated, environments quickly come into conflict. Among other things, each module has a manufacturer-specific logic, programming, and operation. In addition to transmission protocols, the alarms and notifications generated by the skids must also be properly integrated into the control system. The same applies to the visualization of all the control parameters. In many cases, this results in the mechanical integration of the modules proceeding much more quickly than their integration into the automation technology.

“In the future, it will be even more important for us on the industry side to agree on standards for how machines communicate with one another. This is a key requirement for speedily advancing the implementation of Industrie 4.0.”
Matthias Wiemann, head of Automation and Controls for GEA separators

Engineering modules and automation system “speak” MTP based on TIA Portal
Standardization is the key to open and flexible automation concepts. This is where the module type package (MTP) comes into play. It provides the common “language” for describing the properties of process modules independent of manufacturer and technology. This functional description based on automation markup language (AML) is generated from the module automation engineering data. It makes it possible for any higher-level automation system that “speaks” MTP to accurately control a specific module, whether it’s a centrifuge, granulator, or homogenizer.

At its Oelde site (Westfalia, Germany) and on around 85,000 square meters GEA manufactures state-of-the-art centrifuges – they separate liquids from solids or liquids of different densities.