Reverse Osmosis: Application in Zero liquid discharge

1.Introduction

In water-short areas, wastewater reclamation has emerged as a practical option. Water shortage has emerged as a major issue as the world’s population grows and natural water supplies get depleted. It has been forecasted that the global demand for freshwater will exceed the supply by 40% by 2030.

It is expected that water scarcity will increase from about one-third to nearly half of the global urban population in 2050. Recovery and recycling of wastewater have become a growing trend in the past decade due to rising water demand. Most of the cost-effective water purification has been made possible via membrane treatment. Reverse Osmosis membranes have been demonstrated to significantly reduce total dissolved solids, organic pollutants, viruses, bacteria, heavy metals, and other dissolved contaminants.

Wastewater reuse, not only reduces the quantity and environmental threat of discharged wastewater, but it also alleviates the impact on ecosystems generated by freshwater withdrawal. Wastewater is no longer regarded as pure waste that may harm the environment if recycled, but rather as an additional resource that can be used to achieve water sustainability.

2. What is Reverse Osmosis?

Reverse osmosis (RO) is a membrane-based separation method that uses difference in the permeability of the water’s constituents. The membranes are made of a synthetic substance that is semipermeable; some constituents pass through it very easily, while others pass through it less readily.

To remove a constituent from water, water is forced across the surface of a membrane, resulting in product separation, which is why reverse osmosis (RO) is the best of all membrane filtration methods.

Schematic diagram of the Reverse osmosis process

 

The RO technique is utilized to remove dissolved solids because traditional municipal treatment methods are unable to do so. In chemical and environmental engineering, RO is increasingly employed as a separation process to eliminate organics and organic contaminants from wastewater. 

  1. Application of Reverse osmosis

 The use of reverse osmosis in wastewater treatment is limited by the high running costs caused by membrane contamination. In the case of industrial wastewater, RO has been employed in industries where it is possible to increase process efficiency by recovering valuable components that can be recycled in the manufacturing process.

An RO plant for industrial usage has the following goals:

  • 50% desalination of seawater and brackish water
  • 40% ultrapure water production for the electronic, pharmaceutical, and energy production industries and
  • 10% decontamination systems for urban and industrial water.

 

Some common applications of RO system include the following:

 (a) Desalination of the sea and brackish water.

 (b) Generation of high-purity water for pharmaceuticals.

 (c) Generation of ultrapure fresh water for microelectronics.

 (d) Generation of processed water for beverages (beer, bottled water, fruit juices, etc.);

 (e) Processing of dairy products.

 (f) Waste treatment for the recovery of process materials such as metals for metal finishing industries and dyes used in the manufacture of textiles.

 (g) Water reclamation of municipal and industrial wastewater.

  1. How does Reverse Osmosis work?

In Reverse osmosis, cellophane-like membranes separate pure water from polluted water. When pressure is applied to the concentrated side of the membrane, purified water is forced into the dilute side, and the rejected impurities from the concentrated side being washed away in the rejected water.

 

Permeate (or product) water is desalinated water that has been demineralized or deionized. The reject (or concentrate) stream is the water stream that contains the concentrated pollutants that did not pass through the RO membrane.

Salts and other contaminants are not allowed to pass through the semi-permeable membrane as the feed water enters the RO membrane under pressure (enough pressure to overcome osmotic pressure), and they are discharged through the reject stream (also known as the concentrate or brine stream), which goes to the drain or, in some cases, can be fed back into the feed water supply to be recycled through the RO system to save water.

Permeate or product water is the water that passes through the RO membrane and typically has 95% to 99% of the dissolved salts removed from it.

4.1. Stages of RO systems

 

Every RO system includes different types of filtrations. There are many filtration stages in a RO system. In addition to the RO membrane, every reverse osmosis water system also includes a sediment filter and a carbon filter. Depending on whether the filters are used before or after the membrane, the filters are referred to as prefilters or post-filters.

Each type of system contains one or more of the following filters:

      • Sediment filterfilters out particles such as dirt, dust, and rust
      • Carbon filterReduces the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), chlorine, and other pollutants in water that give it an unpleasant taste or odor.
      • Semi-permeable membraneup to 98% of the total dissolved solids.

 

4.2. Technical Requirements of a RO System

Several fundamental technical prerequisites for a RO system include:

      • Feed water needs to be prefiltered and pH adjusted. After prefiltration, the feed water’s TDS and suspended particles should be kept under the specified ranges.
      • The microbiological quality of feed and product water should be monitored. If microbiological quality levels are exceeded, the system should be cleaned.
      • Before disinfection, every system component needs to be mechanically cleaned. To ensure that chemicals used in disinfection are eliminated from the system, the proper tests should be run.
      • It is best to avoid using filters or ion exchangers downstream of RO units.
      • The chemical and microbiological quality of water should be evaluated at predetermined intervals during a production cycle.
      • The RO system should be constructed for continuous flow without traps, dead ends, and pipe sections that may gather stagnant water. Installation of in-line conductivity sensors at strategic locations is necessary for ongoing water quality monitoring. The equipment should be qualified, and the RO system should be validated periodically, as well as operated and maintained according to the manufacturer’s instructions so that it can consistently produce water with acceptable quality.

 

5. What contaminants will Reverse Osmosis remove from water?

Reverse osmosis may remove up to 99%+ of dissolved salts (ions), particles, colloids, organics, bacteria, and pyrogens from the feed water.

  • However, the RO system cannot remove 100% of bacteria and viruses.

Contaminants are rejected by a RO membrane based on their size and charge. A properly operating RO system will generally reject any contamination with a molecular weight greater than 200. (For comparison a water molecule has a MW of 18). Similarly, the higher the contaminant’s ionic charge, the less probable it is to flow through the RO membrane.

6. ZLD combined with RO

RO is a technique for cleansing contaminated water using a membrane and a pressure unit. Furthermore, RO generates a large amount of liquid discharge, i.e. saline water. The Zero Liquid discharge system is used to limit discharge into streams and create a self-sustaining system with zero effluents.

 

 

Zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) is a water treatment technique that purifies and recycles all wastewater, resulting in zero discharge at the end of the treatment cycle. It is a cutting-edge wastewater treatment technique that combines ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, evaporation/crystallization.

ZLD eliminates any liquid waste from exiting the plant or facility perimeter, with most of the water recovered for reuse. ZLD eliminates the danger of pollution associated with wastewater discharge and maximizes water usage efficiency, achieving a balance between freshwater resource exploitation and aquatic environment protection.

In order to increase energy and cost savings, reverse osmosis (Ro) has been added into ZLD systems. However, while RO is far more energy efficient than thermal evaporation.

Reverse osmosis for ZLD/MLD is constantly evolving, and the most efficient plants now have two concentration stages. The filtered wastewater is first forced through semi-permeable membranes at pressures of up to 80 bar, which reduces the water content by 40 to 50%. The liquid is forced through membranes at ultra-high pressures of up to 120 bar during the second step of the process, which reduces the water content by an additional 30 to 40%. It means that by the time the concentrate enters the brine concentrator following the two-stage reverse osmosis process, the water content has been decreased by up to 60%.

 

  1. Conclusion

RO is the best and most efficient desalination technique available today. The goal is to use RO to recover as much water from evaporation as feasible. Evaporation and Crystallisation is the most basic type of ZLD system, aiming for 90% water recovery and 100% crystallisation.

RO is currently the best and most energy efficient desalination method available. The goal is therefore to recover as much water as possible before evaporation using RO. As RO recovery rises, the cost of ZLD decreases.

Since water supplies are increasingly scarce, reuse options are growing in popularity. In this perspective, zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) is a new strategy for reducing waste, recovering resources, treating toxic industrial waste streams, and helping minimize water quality consequences in receiving water streams.

Although ZLD systems can reduce water contamination and increase water supply, their industrial-scale applications are limited due to their high cost and high energy consumption. Membrane-based technologies are an appealing future solution for industrial wastewater reclamation in ZLD systems.

8. Reference :

Butter Manufacturing Equipment

  1. Introduction

Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is semi-solid at cold room temperature. Butter can taste different, ranSalt, and yellow to white solid. Butter manufacturing involves types of equipment like – Pasteurizer, Separator, Butter Continuous Making Machine, Butter Storage Tank, Butter Balance Tank, Butter Churn, Butter Trolley, etc.

The below table depicts the composition of Butter

  1. Principle of Butter Making

The process of butter making is principally an inversion of the fat-in water type emulsion of cream to the water-in fat type of emulsion in butter. Butter systems are different types.

 

  • Traditional batch Method – Churning from 25-35% milkfat cream.
  • Continuous floatation – Churning from 30-50% milk-fat cream
  • Concentration process – Plastic cream of 82% milk-fat is separated from 35%

milkfat cream at 55°C and this oil-in-water emulsion is inverted to water-in

oil emulsion butter with no further draining of buttermilk.

 

  1. Requirement of Hygienic Equipment

Materials of construction. Materials used for the construction of a food processing plant must full fill certain specific requirements for Surface roughness. Cleaning is defined as the removal of product residues and foreign material. It is required for hygienic, technical.

 

  • All equipment should be non-corrosive, made from food-grade materials that do not impart any toxic substance to food.
  • No equipment and containers made up of iron or galvanized iron are to be used in food handling, preparation, and storage.
  • Equipment to be suitably designed and placed to permit ease.
  • A food establishment shall be located away from environmental pollution and industrial activities that produce obnoxious odor, fumes, smoke, chemical or biological emissions, and pollutants that may pause the threat of contaminating food.
  • The surroundings shall be clean, free from infestation of pests, wastes- solid or liquid
  • Manufacturing premises should not have direct access to any residential premises/area

 

  1. Process Flow Sheet

                                                                   

 

  1. Butter Manufacturing Process equipment

5.1. Raw Milk Silo Tank

Stainless Steel Tanks are used for storing the milk at 4 Deg. C for long durations. The tank provided insulation in the outer jacket. The milk inlet should be non-foaming type at the top.

5.2. Centrifugal Pump for Transfer Milk

A Centrifugal pump is a mechanical device. Design to move fluid using the transfer rotational energy from one to more driven rotors. The pump transfers liquid form is called a centrifugal pump.

5.3. Milk Pasteurizer

Milk pasteurization is the process of heating the milk to a pre-determined temperature for a specified period without re-contamination during the process. Heating milk to 71.7°C for 15 seconds to kill Coxiella. The milk to between 72°C to 74°C for 15 to 20 seconds.

 

5.4. Cream Separator

Cream Separator Machine for separating and removing cream from milk. Its centrifugal operation process is two-phase since skim milk and milk with no butterfat cream.

5.5. Cream Balance Tank

The cream Balance tank keeps the product at a constant level above the pump inlet. The balance used some product storage.

5.6. Cream Chiller

A cream Chiller is a mechanical device for chilling the product. Before further processing or storage to prevent microbial growth. The cream is chilled to around 4ᵒc chiller using a plate.

5.7. Cream Pasteurizer

The cream pasteurizer in Heating and Cooling arrangement for cream pasteurizer. Pasteurized cream has comparatively more shelf life due to a reduction in microbial load. Pasteurizer internal components like – Steam control valves, Manual valves, Electrical panel, PLC-based system, Holding tube, etc.

5.8. Cream Storage Tank

Cream storage tank used for the Pasteurizer Cream 4℃ temperature for a butter churn. These tanks often have conical bottoms are cooled using a dimple jacket & are completely insulated.

5.9. Butter Churn

A device used to convert cream into butter. This is done through a mechanical process is called butter churn. The pole is inserted through the lid of the churn, or via a crank used to turn a rotating device inside the churn. Butter Churn rotator shaft with the electrical motor gearbox.

5.10. Butter Trolley

Butter Trolleys are used for the transportation of butter from one section to the other section is called butter trolleys.

5.11. Continuous Butter Making Machine

Butter Continuous making machine is a new technology. CBM machine proper mixing of cream and convert to butter. Cream storage tank to flow via a balance tank and is fed using a positive displacement pump to the rear of the primary churning section. Fill the butter continuous making machine. The residence time for cream in the section is only 1- 2 min very short time.

 

5.12. Butter Cutting Machine

Butter cutting Butter block cutting M/C is designed to cut butter blocks into small pieces before homogenizing, re-packaging processes.

5.13. Butter Packing Machine

The butter wrapping machine is designed for filling and wrapping butter etc. into Al. foil, parchment paper, or ecocline (with memory).

5.14. Butter Cold Room

Butter cold room temperature required – 18 Degree. for storage till intended use or dispatch. During dispatch, it is still kept at -20 to – 18 Deg. C

  1. P & I Diagram for Butter Manufacturing Equipment

    1. Reference

       

       

Control System in Food Industry

  1. Introduction:

A control system manages, commands directs, or regulates the behavior of other devices or systems using control loops. It can range from a single home heating controller using a thermostat controlling a domestic boiler to large industrial control systems which are used for controlling processes or machines.

It is one fully integrated system that provides the synchronization of all applications and devices involved in the manufacturing process. This allows for the successful merging of information flow from the distributed control system (DCS) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems so that it is available in one interface in real-time. And one of the best means of unifying these communications is by using a single industrial software system.

In the food industry control system is a means of computerizing best practices within a food & beverage factory, restaurant, or catering operations. It gives managers a better idea of the flow of food processing as food processors are becoming increasingly aware of the power of data-driven insights to optimize their use of raw materials, enhance food quality and safety, and guarantee traceability and support for continuous improvement.

It also helps industry owners to introduce the same financial rigor to dining establishments or catering companies that make manufacturing operations more effective. At the sharp end, it provides the food industry with a more structured way of planning operation, considering nutritional and financial considerations.

  1. Objective:

The main objective to implement control system in the food industry is to improve the economics of the process by achieving the following objectives:

  • Reduce variation in the product quality, achieve more consistent production and maximize yield,
  • Ensure process and product safety,
  • Reduce manpower and enhance operator productivity,
  • Reduce waste and
  • Optimize energy efficiency

The Control system becomes essential nowadays as both consumers and regulatory bodies demand complete transparency and the highest food quality. They want to understand every step of a product’s journey: where all its ingredients came from, how it was made, its nutritional value, and if it was ethically sourced. Therefore, it’s essential to have a digital control system that records & provides feedback on every step of a product’s journey.

  1. Types Of Control Systems:

There are two common classes of control action: manual control (open loop) and automatic control (closed-loop).

3.1. Manual control: This type of operation depends on the skill of individual operators in knowing when and how much adjustment to make. Therefore, manual control may be used in those applications where changes in the manipulated parameter cause the process to change slowly and by a small amount. This is possible in plants where there are few processing steps with infrequent process upsets and the operator has sufficient time to correct before the process parameter overshoots acceptable tolerance. Otherwise, this approach can prove to be very costly in terms of labor, product inconsistencies, and product loss.

3.2. Automatic Control: In automatic control, the process parameters measured by various sensors and instrumentation may be controlled by using control loops. A typical control loop consists of three basic component

  • Sensor: the sensor senses or measures process parameters and generate a feedback output acceptable to the controller.
  • Controller: the controller compares the measurement signal with the set value and produces a control signal to counteract any difference between the two signals.
  • System: Finally, the system receives the control signal produced by the controller and adjusts or alters the process by bringing the measured process property to return to the set point.

It is best to consider the controllability of a process at the early stage, rather than attempt to design a control system after the process plant has been developed to minimize the loss of resources.

It is well known that the food production processes are strongly non-linear, time-invariant, and often unstable. Automation of food production must handle these properties properly and employ them actively. It is a necessary step for generating the desired food structures, for inactivating and avoiding harmful chemical reactions which can lead to a substantial decrease in food quality.

The provision of the world population with food represents one of the most important future challenges for science and technology. In this context, many different objectives arise. In many countries of the world, the most urgent task is to satisfy the original nutritive minimum requirements. On the other hand, food has further functions in industrialized nations as the settlement of a special enjoyment or the promotion of health.

Any discussion regarding the automation of food production must distinguish the original production and the further treatment from the goal of preparing food for consumption, preservation, or refinement. For example, the original production of fish and sea animals take place predominantly in the oceans, those of fruit and vegetable in agricultural production centers. The automation in food production farms or centers differs fundamentally from such automation in factories. Nowadays to reach a larger market we need to ensure the safety and freshness of these items but with the manual process it takes a long time to sort and arrange the product and deliver them in time but with the help of control system or automated system these tasks complete with utmost efficiency & transparency.

  1. Importance of control systems in the food industry:
  • To maximize the benefit and for proper execution, we need digital control systems which save the organizations from costly failures in manufacturing.
  • As the demand increases day by day, food manufacturers have increasingly adopted computer-based systems for process control. This is primarily due to data accessibility y, application flexibility, and low cost provided by microprocessor technology to ensure adequate reliability.
  • Control system validation also ensures the proper operation of equipment under normal and abnormal conditions. Validation helps to assure product safety as well as the safety of manpower working in the factory.
  1. Guidelines and standards:

To ensure the correct action some guidelines & standards should be followed for the computer-controlled systems:

The FDA Perspective: DA defines validation as “the establishment of documented evidence, which provides a high degree of assurance that a specific process will consistently produce a product meeting its predetermined specifications and quality attributes” (FDA, 1987a). FDA promotes the concept of control system validation as a part of process validation within the food industry and has established some inspectional guidelines. which states that all food needs to be produced in such a way as to make sure that it has not been “prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby it may have become contaminated with filth, or whereby it may have been rendered injurious to health.”

  1. Technology used:

Nowadays “big data” approach to the whole food supply chain (from farm to fork), would improve production efficiency and security and enable a new level of traceability in short, one of the most important lessons of the industrial revolution – the digital one – is that data is not a by-product, it is real added value and should be considered as the automation unique selling point. To cope with the extremely complex and variable scenario, a significant step-change in reducing food processing costs while increasing food quality and security is urgently needed. In this context, systematic use of automated & control systems with fully integrated digitized process control would facilitate a major advancement in food manufacturing efficiency, delivering significantly reduced production costs whilst lowering energy requirements and food waste.

  1. Reference:
  • “Feedback and control systems” – JJ Di Steffano, AR Stubberud, IJ Williams. Schaums outline series, McGraw-Hill 1967
  • https://circuitglobe.com/difference-between-open-loop-and-closed-loop-system.html
  • Process Control in Food Processing Article by Keshavan Niranjan, Araya Ahromrit and Ahok S. Khare
  • Food Technology Article by SASHA V. ILYUKHIN, TIMOTHY A. HALEY, JOHN W. LARKIN Stanbury, P. F., Whitaker, A., Hall, S. J. 1995, Principles of Fermentation Technology
  • food manufacture 4.0 – automation and robotics at the service of food manufacturing article written by Andrea Paoli, Head of Food Manufacturing, Robotics and Automation at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing, University of Lincoln
  • https://www.dataforth.com/introduction-to-pid-control.aspx
  • https://blog.bitsathy.ac.in/importance-of-instrumentation-engineer

Preventive Maintenance of Equipment

  1. What is Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance is a routine maintenance done for every piece of equipment which can either reduces the downtimes or can cause unexpected breakdowns of equipment. In food processing and manufacturing industry, there are equipment sand machines running continuously, and hence the preventive maintenance plays an important role in such industries. Apart from process equipments, some major items such as electrical equipment like transformers, motors and other heady utility equipments fall under the periodic preventive maintenance chart.

  1. What does Preventive Maintenance Include and its Need?

Preventive maintenance includes some checkpoints for every piece of equipment. These checkpoints are related to quality, safety, and productivity. For this, we must maintain a Maintenance checklist for every single Equipment as per their PM schedule. There are different types of equipment like process and core electrical equipment so there are Checklist as per different time periods like a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly check.

Preventive Maintenance has the following benefits like:

  • Reduces the unexpected breakdowns.
  • Improves the reliability of the process equipment’s.
  • Makes the smooth operation of the system.
  • Improves the efficiency and life of the process equipment’s.
  • Saves running cost of equipment’s.
  1. Types Of Preventive Maintenance

There are two types of PM

  1. Time Based Maintenance
  2. Conditional Based Maintenance

In Time based maintenance there is some schedules for every equipment maintenance as per standards for Example Transformer, it has different parts, and they have different schedule to maintain like Silica gel breather is part of transformer it should be check on daily basis so like that there is another parts which has different schedules. In Time Based Maintenance Cleaning, Lubrication, inspection and Tightening (CLIT) has to be perform on equipment so this helps to run machine in smooth manner.

The Conditional based Maintenance (CBM) is done for some critical equipment’s for that we have to monitor our critical machines and such machines that we can stop without affecting the process. For such machines we must do CBM.

For this we must make daily Look Listen feel (LLF) schedule for the critical process equipment’s. According to that if there is any abnormality found then plan maintenance for that equipment.

The goal of condition-based maintenance is to continuously monitor Equipment’s to spot impending failure, so maintenance can be proactively scheduled before the failure occurs. The basic idea of Conditional based maintenance is by use of real time monitoring we can get problems or abnormalities before breakdown occurs, so this causes our maintenance team will get enough lead time to repair and this also helps in reducing the future downtimes occurring because of such abnormalities.

  1. Suggested PM checklist for Electrical equipment’s
  • Transformer

 

    • Weekly Visual Inspection of Transformer

 

    • Quarterly Inspection of Transformer

    •       Yearly Inspection of Transformer    

  • Motor

 

Weekly maintenance schedule for Motors

 

  1. Conclusion

In Order to reduce the future downtimes, breakdowns and make system or process more effective preventive maintenance is required in process industries. also, it improves availability of the equipment. This will help to improves the productivity, quality, safety in process industries.

  1. References

 

 

Cold Room Designing and Installation

  1. Introduction

PUF Panel are made of Polyurethane which is usually between two metal sheets. PUF panels are widely used in steel structures in the present day due to their various advantages.

Made as per required (thick in mm) and composite PUF sand the wall panels between Pre-Painted Galvanized Iron Sheet. PU foam of density as per your required of (40±2 kg/m3) as insulation. Pre-Painted Galvanized Iron Sheet shall have minimum coating of 4–5-micron epoxy primer and 25-micron polyester topcoat on the finish surface & 7–8-micron primer alkyl base on reverse.

History of PUF Panel – Polyurethane chemistry was first studied byte German chemist, Friedrich Bayer in 1937. From In 1940, the first polyurethane produced. These compounds gave millefleurs that could be used as an adequate alternative to rubber. When stretchable garments. Polyisocyanates became commercially available in 1952.

Chemistry Of PUF Panel – Polyurethanes, also known polycarbamate’s, belong to a larger class of compounds called polymers. Polyurethanes are characterized by carbamate groups (-NHCO2). A variety of raw materials are used to produce polyurethanes. These include monomers prepolymers

  1. Types of PUF Panel 
  • Single Groove: These are suitable for general purpose and application in buildings and shelters.
  • Double Groove: These are suitable for cold room and cold chamber applications, as groves helps in retaining the inside temperature via less heat transfer.

   

 

 

Single Groove                                                                                                                     Double Groove

 

  1. Production step for PUF Panel

3.1. De – Coiling System

Decoiling System is to feed the colour steel sheet (PPGI: Pre-Painted Galvanized Iron) to the sandwich panel production line continuously.

3.2. Roll Forming System

Rolling Forming System also spelled roll-forming is a type of rolling involving the continuous bending of a long strip of sheet metal.

3.3. Polyurethane Foaming System

Polyurethane Foaming System Polyurethane foams (often referred to as urethane foams) are prepared by the reaction of a Polyisocyanates with a polyol.

3.4. Double Belt Conveyor System

Double Belt Conveyor System transport system for the highly flexible inter linking of different production areas.

3.5. Cutting System

The cutting system is a machine that is used for separating materials. There by a variety of materials, such as aluminium, tin, wood, ceramics or plastics etc.

3.6. Cooling System

The cooling system is designed to load the panels in vertical position inside a conveyor system that allow an efficient heat dispersion.

3.7. Stacking System

Stacking system is to stack the cooled sandwich panels automatically with input quantity by operator. It can be manufactured as a vacuum pad type or a mechanical lifter type.

3.8. Wrapping System

The wrapping system as a last process in sandwich panel production line, it is necessary to prevent pollution on panel surface, rust at cut surface.

  1. Design Data of Cold Storage Room

4.1. Major component in cold storage room.

    1. Puf Panel – Polyutherane Foam Puf Panel
    2. Insulation Door: Can be sliding, swing or any type
    3. Refrigeration System – Indoor + Outdoor Unit.
    4. Electrical Panel to Control Refrigeration System
      • 7℃ to 25℃ (60 mm)
      • 0℃ to 7℃ (80 mm)
      • -15℃ to 0℃ (100 mm)
      • -30℃ to -15℃ (120 mm)
      • -40℃ to -30℃ (150 mm)

4.2. How the calculate refrigeration Capacity (Heat Load) of Storage Cold Room?.

To calculate the heat load first, following details shall be required

      1. Storage application or blast freezing application
      2. Room Size – Required Size (L x W x H)
      3. Required Room temperature
      4. H required for the product. (Relative Humidity)
      5. Product – Like, Milk and Milk Product, fruits, Vegetables, Meats Etc
      6. Product Quantity – Required total Quantity
      7. Puf Panel Thickness
      8. Ambient Temperature
      9. Daily Loading Quantity
      10. Product Incoming Temperature
      11. Pull Down Time (If Any)
      12. No of People working in the cold room.
      13. People working for how many hours in the cold room.

 

  1. Types of Cold Storage Room

5.1. Bulk Cold Storage Room

These stores are generally used for storing a single commodity that operates on a seasonal basis for example, stores for potatoes, apples, chillies, etc

5.2. Multi-Purpose Cold Storage Room

These are designed to store various commodities and products used throughout year and include different types of meat like lamb and chicken.

5.3. Frozen Food Storage Room

These food stores are design with processing and freezing facilities, optional for food items such as fish, meat, poultry, dairy products and processed food and vegetables. They are typically store around a temperature of -18C, most frozen food products are stored between 0 to minus 30ºF.

5.4. Mini Units / Walk-in Cold Storage Room

These are located at distribution centres. Walk-in cold stores can be utilised for multiple applications in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food and beverages, dairy & other industries for all They have a temperature range of -18 C to -22 C.

  1. Installation of Cold Storage Room

6.1. Bottom C – Channel

C – Channel used for Bottom & roof panel consist of top trapezoidal sheet with light profile. It has easy to fit male and female panel are joint supported by in built C – Channel.

6.2. Wall Panel

PUF insulation panel for the used cold rooms. So not heat losses. Suitable for diverse application. Puf panel consists of a rigid core between two metal sheet structural boards.

6.3. L – Angle for Corner

L – Angle Corner are used for Both panels are supported. Angles are used in various construction. Angles are most commonly used steel.

6.4. Roof / ceiling Panel

Ceiling Puf panel are used for roof. Puf panel insulation between two metal sheets.

6.5. Silicon

Silicon sealant for leakproof construction and for strong bonding. And not losses for heat.

6.6. Evaporator Unit / Indoor Unit.

The evaporator coil is the component in your AC system that absorbs the heat from the air inside your home.

6.7. Condensate Unit / Outdoor Unit.

Condensate unit mean outdoor unit for the used cold room. This generates refrigeration media.

6.8. Indoor & Outdoor Unit Interconnection for Copper Pipe.

Indoor and outdoor unit interconnection copper pipe used for the refrigeration system media.

6.9. Electrical Panel with Cabling & Wiring

Electrical panel used for the control the indoor and outdoor unit and interconnection cables and wiring used the for electrical current pass for both units.

 

    1. Reference

       

Food Auditor- In Food Manufacturing Facility

  1. Introduction

An Auditor is a professional who understands standards & principles of auditing a food safety, HACCP based system and train client employees on food safety. Internal audits can be useful for the business to assess whether or not it is meeting regulatory requirements and ensure complying to all the SOP or guidelines.

There are three levels of food safety auditors recommended in the audit system. The Associate Food Safety Auditor, the Food Safety Auditor, and the Senior Food Safety Auditor. The basic difference between these levels is the amount of audit and industry experience required for each. All levels must be able to demonstrate appropriate competencies in auditing and food safety program development.

The role of the auditor:-

  • is to carry off audits in food industry,
  • to assess the requirements of the of the food safety standards and to report the outcomes of the audits and assessments to the enforcement agency.
  • obtain certifications to certain food safety and quality standards.
  • asses the condition of the premises and products.
  • confirm legal compliance.
  • maintain confidentiality of food safety audit.
  1. Requirement

Nowadays, the interest of the consumers on food quality and safety has triggered and that inculcated to develop a variety of food safety and quality standards in public and private food sectors. These standards have both advantages and disadvantages that varies on different factors for these reason skills of the auditor is used.

In food industry auditors are required to check and follow the legal procedures, certification procedures and certification requirements. And auditor posses’ good knowledge on assessment procedures and asses the relevant documents that helps to identify minor mistakes that will help to avoid mistakes next time. Auditor asses the competence of the organization to provide products, processes, or services in its certified scope. Auditor will have the good communication on the required languages that will help to guide the production and maintenance workers. They have the technical knowledge of the specific activities for which certification is sought and where the relevant procedures are and their potential for failure.

  1. Responsibility

The auditor’s job is to conduct food safety programme audits and assessments, as well as to assess business compliance with food safety programme requirements and the Food Safety Standards, and then to submit the results of the audits and assessments to the enforcement agency. When a food business’s food safety programme fails to produce safe food, the enforcement agency is responsible for implementing appropriate enforcement measures.

For an audit to be successful, the auditor/audit team must have a thorough understanding of the audit process as well as the necessary skills and experience as auditors. The training and experience of a food safety auditor must be considered when evaluating their competency. As a result, successful completion of accredited training would be considered sufficient. Auditors will need to present documentation of audits conducted to meet the applicable audit experience requirements. This could include a log of audits completed, which has been validated by food firms.

Some of the responsibilities of food auditor are as follows:

  • To develop a food safety programme for the food industry.
  • To check in place food safety programme
  • To check food processing techniques, handling practices, and support programs.
  • To check, observe and identifying the hazards that are expected to occur, and establish appropriate methods of control. This includes validating existing control methods and when there is no adequate control method in place, they establish an appropriate method.
  • Establishing the procedures for applying the precautionary action. Typically, this includes review of processes, materials and or food handling procedures. It may require revision of factory procedures and documentation such as specifications, approved supplier programs and operating procedures.
  • To describe the supervising requirements for food safety hazard. It includes explanation of the method or technique to be followed. Procedures selected followed would typically be specific in the form of a standard operating procedure or work training
  • The corrective actions are described of the acceptable limits or requirements are not up to the mark. When the corrective actions are applied the person assessing the corrective action should record the information.
  • The documentation related to the design and the maintenance of food safety program should be developed. It includes tables, support program requirements, data analysis report, corrective action reports, verification reports and hazard analysis .this will be on the nature of the business.
  • Developing a plan for frequent review of the safety program. The review plan must meet food safety legislation/regulations to certify that the food safety program is up to date and satisfactory. Any change that could affect food safety should trigger a review and validation prior to change being introduced. The plan should provide review by an authorized food safety auditor at the regulated frequency
  • Establishing action required if the results of verification that indicate the program requirements that the original program was inadequate
  1. Imapct on Food Industry

It has been seen, the sudden changes in food industry during this pandemic that drastically effected different sectors in food industry things.  The sites that provide product & services to the food industry have faced sudden declines in demand, while other sites providing product and services to retailers have never been busier.  Each of these situations create a disturbance in the food industry, creating audits as an important part for the food safety chain.

Rapid increase in production, industry must recruit and train new and temporary employees. Audits in the food industry are mandatory to ensure the new recruits are following the food safety programs and to know the effect of safety on finished food products. When the production increases that can lead to not giving priority to pre-requisite programs such as sanitation and preventive maintenance. Because of the reduced time allocated for both the programs can lead to improper sanitation and preventive maintenance that could be the result of microbiological and foreign contamination risks. By conducting food safety audits and implementation of food safety programs risks can be minimized and the recalls averted.  Food audits can help to identify areas where the programs may need additional attention that helps to recognize weakness that can be prevented from becoming big.

  1. References: 

 

Material Warehouse Planning Introduction Types and Components

  1. What are Warehouse and Warehousing?

A warehouse is a place where the goods and products are stored before they are distributed, sold, or used. The act of repositioning materials is called warehousing. Modern warehouse and distribution systems are highly complex, and in which, must meet a variety of requirements concerning time. The modern warehouse system is highly efficient, and the efficient operation of such systems is a continuous challenge for anyone in charge. It consists of advanced computer-based control technologies that provide the necessary control and management systems (Warehouse Management Systems, WMS)

  1. Type of Warehousing

There are many types of warehousing

  • Racking System
  • Mobile Shelving System
  • Multi-tier Racking
  • Ground Pallet’s Arrangements System
  • Racking System

A racking system warehouse is the storage solution for stacking material in a horizontal row with multiple levels. Now a day, the racking system is one of the most popular ways of warehousing. In this case, the benefit is storage of maximum number of materials in minimum required area. Another advantage being minimum wastage of horizontal area. The utilization factor of storage is 90-95%. The pallets flow is from one side to another second side. With the use of the stacker or forklifts, infeed of materials on a pallet is done for multi rack arrangement and some drives are available in the racking for pulling the pallets to the out-feed direction for taking out pallets. The system is based on the FIFO principle.

The FIFO holds first in first out, which is an inventory control system- which depends on the fact of – Material coming IN first shall be OUT of warehouse first. Though the cost implication of the racking system warehouse is of course higher that the traditional ways of material storage.

  • Mobile shelving System

The mobile shelving system is used for lightweight materials warehousing like-books storage in libraries, Grocery storage for shops and malls, etc. Mobile shelving uses storage cabinets or racks mounted to carriages on wheels that slide across a floor track to eliminate fixed aisles, to avoid wastage of space, providing more filing capacity within the same footprint.

Mobile shelving systems have multi rows that move along floor rails until compacted into a smaller-size area, giving much more space to store extra items. During non-use, all the rows can be collated by mechanism, like rotating wheel, pressing the button, etc. How it works? So, rotating wheel mechanism is linked for compressing and collate all rows. When rotated the wheel and the rows compress until the compact.

  • Multi-Tier Racking System

The multi-tier racking system is designed for warehouses with limited floor areas, but available height is used for manual storage solutions that maximize warehouse space. They offer an optimum use of height by creating different levels of manual loading aisles at heights accessible by stairs.

  • Ground Pallet’s Arrangements System

It is a material handling storage system designed to store materials on pallets. The ground pallets arrangements system is commonly used in all the warehouses. This system requires more space or area for storage as compared to the racking or shelving system. Thought this arrangement is very cheapest when compared to above two system. The utilization factor is 65-75% of the total warehouse area, other free space is used for material movements and aisles.

In this type of arrangement, we don’t achieve the storage goal and this is one of the most traditional known method of warehousing. 

  1. Planning & Designing of Warehouse

Internal factors for consideration

  • Access to Materials –Easy access to materials, as there should not be any interruptions to material access, like-pallets, partition, and other barriers etc.
  • Material movements – Materials movements should be easy.
  • Aisle Factor Consideration – Sufficient space for aisle for man and material movement. The aisle factor varies as per warehousing, and it is generally 1000-1800mm
  • Evacuation & Safety plans – An evacuation plan and safety signage should be there for any emergency exits. While warehouse planning all fire safety measures and all the safety equipment should be considered like – Fire extinguishers, sprinkler systems, etc.

External factors for consideration

  • Size & Configuration of the site – The warehouse size should be sufficient for storage and Arrangements.
  • Site access – Site access should be easy for trucks and vehicles loading & unloading.
  • Financial Consideration – It is always necessary to evaluate financial impact.
  • Building Arrangements – Types and size of the building like – RCC, PEB Shed, or any other.
  1. Advantages of Warehousing
  • Increase productivity – Increasing the productivity by having the materials space near the production area.
  • Increase the inventory of products – Warehouse space increases the inventory space in the production line thus helping in the uninterrupted production.
  • Simple process for material handling – Warehouse facilitates access to material in the production area.
  • No wastage & damage – During transportation from the longer route can always increase the threat of product damage, mishandling. And warehouse helps solve the problem.
  1. Reference

Deep Learning in Agri-Food Systems

1. Introduction

Deep Learning (DL) is a subset of Machine Learning, a subset of Artificial Intelligence. Deep Learning employs a variety of neural network (NN) architectures and algorithms for pattern recognition and data analysis. This soft computing technique is bringing revolutions in data science, as it can be used to analyze vast volumes of data in all possible forms viz. text, audio, 2D/3D image, and videos into meaningful insights. Recently, the agri-food industry has also benefited mainly from the development in this field. In food processing units, deep Learning is being implemented in machine vision systems for inspecting inline processes, quality of raw materials, and finished goods.

At the farm level, deep learning technology has been successfully applied in autonomous robotic systems tasked with picking agro-commodities with desired characteristics. Deep learning is also being used to monitor vegetation using low-altitude aerial systems coupled with a wide variety of sensors for data collection. This technique is favorable over other AI tools as it is versatile with the type of input data and its performance is directly proportional to the amount of data fed. The nature of data sourced from agro, and biological systems is complex as it can vary from continuous spectral information to spatial RGB images or a combination of both. Thus, deep neural network architectures such as the artificial and convolutional NN is the preferred tool for agricultural data analysis.

Modern-day food industries are required to follow several stringent food safety laws to avoid legal consequences due to negligence in hygiene and quality. A single case of the presence of foreign materials can tarnish the producer’s reliability amongst its consumers.

The consumption of even minimally processed foods is expected to rise manifolds in the coming years as the population is expected to rise by up to three billion in the coming three decades. Food businesses, therefore, have a great opportunity to capture this growth, if they can avoid negative publicity meanwhile, due to the lack of robust methods and quality control techniques. Thus, quality evaluation of the food materials in the whole food value chain is given the highest priority by the producers. Even though in the long run, as per Philip Crosby, maintaining a set of quality standards in the facility is beneficial to eliminate costs of operation due to rework and recall, but elaborate analysis of complex biological systems coupled with high volume in a modern-day unit is an elaborate, labor-intensive, and high resource-consuming task. To solve this issue, deep learning is a tested, reliable, and cost-effective method to automate this cumbersome ritual. In this article, DL architectures are introduced along with a few case studies in agri-food systems.

2. Artificial Neural Network

 

The artificial neural network (ANN) architecture is the simplest model for DL. It is a computational system composed of the systematic interconnection of many simple processing neurons operating in parallel whose function is determined by network structure, connection strengths, and the processing performed at the neurons . They are designed to mimic the human brain’s nervous system, to compute sophisticated computations for a specific task. The ANN architecture comprises several layers – an input layer where the data are provided, hidden layers where classification tasks are done, and the output layer predict the output. For an ANN to predict future data, it must be trained first, further which it becomes able to predict similar patterns. The basic information processing unit of an ANN is the neuron. An artificial neuron receives inputs (xi) from many such neurons through input links having weight (wi), finds a weighted sum (yin = Σwixi) to get a single input quantity (yin), and computes an output (y) using an activation function (f()) The output is then transmitted to many other neurons through the output links. ANNs are applied in pattern recognition, function approximation, prediction/forecasting, optimization, and control.

3. Convolutional Neural Network

CNN is a specialized type of NN designed to be applied in computer vision tasks like image classification and object detection. Convolutional layers are the fundamental building blocks of CNNs. This layer performs an operation called a ‘convolution’. A convolution is a linear operation that involves the multiplication of a set of weights with the input. In the CNN architecture, convolutional layers and pooling layers are responsible for extracting hidden characteristics out of image pixels while the fully connected layer is responsible for classification.

4. Application in the Agri-Food Systems

Several researchers have implemented these algorithms to solve crucial problems in the food industry such as defects classification, shelf-life prediction, dietary assessment, food grading/sorting,  inspection, etc. The process of development and the forms of models that would yield from DL implementation in the agri-food system is not significantly different from those for other systems. However, the information and knowledge fed to the system as input data will help to characterize the individual systems and their features. Thus, the tools available for DL implementation in any platform remain valid for the analysis of agri-food systems . One of the most common issues plants face nowadays is the quality assurance of raw materials. Raw materials like fruits and vegetables often have a non-visible defect in their surface, but due to improper storage conditions, may get affected by internal pest infestation and pathological disorders. For instance, plantains with preexisting internal damage conditions when stored at optimum conditions (2% O2 and 5 – 10% CO2 at 10°C, 90% RH) will bypass a trained and experienced eye. This, however, won’t be an issue if there were a machine vision system in place. During the installation of the system, it would be trained with a comprehensive image dataset of thousands of hyperspectral images using a suitable NN architecture that yields optimum performance metrics. Hyperspectral images are 3-dimensional images that provide both spectral and spatial information. Many properties of fresh food – like Brix, dry-matter, internal damage, firmness – are not visible . These specialized camera systems can help in identifying these properties non-destructively and making an informed decision using a suitable DL model to correlate the spectral data with internal quality parameters, which even a trained master sorter may not be capable of.

4.1. Deep Learning in Quality Control

Quality control is a costly process, but a critical step in the food industry. Traditional techniques are time-consuming and hence machine vision systems are being installed for better performance. In recent times, several industries, as well as academic units, have investigated the performance of models suitable for specialized tasks. For instance, Liu et al. developed a 91.1% accurate DL model to monitor the quality of cucumbers in a pickle processing line.

Similarly, Vasumathi et al.  employed a 98.17% accurate DL technique to sort pomegranate fruits into normal and abnormal based on the color, number of fruit spots, and shape of it. Adulteration of food is also a major cause of concern in maintaining food safety. Al-Sarayreh et al. developed a model to detect lamb meat adulteration with pork, beef, and fat. They studied the deep spectral-spatial features in hyperspectral images of the sample and reported an overall accuracy of 94.4% invariant of the status of the meat. Quality assessment of nuts like Almonds is a very tedious laboratory process that involves wet laboratory techniques using Soxhlet apparatus, which can take up to 12 hours.

To find a reliable alternative, Han et al. developed a quick and non-invasive method for quality estimation of nuts which are categorized by peroxide values (a quality indicator) using hyperspectral imaging with DL classification. They reported accuracy of 93.48%. In recent times, due to progress in computing powers and the development of imaging hardware, more studies are being carried out to develop better models for solving problems of the agri-food industry.

4.2. Deep Learning in Cleaning processing equipment

Cleaning processing equipment requires a lot of time and resources, including water. To address this problem, research engineers at the University of Nottingham have developed a system that uses DL to reduce cleaning time and resources by 20 – 40%. The system, which they call Self-Optimizing CIP, uses ultrasonic sensing and optical fluorescence imaging to measure food residue and microbial debris in a piece of equipment and then optimize the cleaning process.

4.3. Deep Learning in Farming

Post-harvest loss is a major concern amongst farmers. The major causes are infestations and infections, lack of nutrition in the soil, spoilage due to improper storage conditions, and premature/postmature harvesting. Due to the bulk handling of agro-commodities, defects can spread throughout the entire lot if there’s no constant monitoring for indications. In this regard, Deep learning shows great potential in mitigating these issues. For instance, Behera et al. [10] developed a 100% accurate non-destructive method to classify papaya fruit on its maturity status. They trained the network using only 300 images categorized into three classes of maturity.

Identifying diseases in the plants is important in preventing them from further spreading. Park et al. [11] developed a model for strawberry leaves to classify healthy, powdery mildew and gray mold rot fruit with 92% accuracy. These models can be integrated into autonomous vehicles for picking fruits with desired characteristics. Thanks to deep learning and other supporting techniques such as chemometrics, it is now possible to engineer devices that can automatically sort and grade potatoes in terms of size for different applications, apples in levels of sweetness, plantains in levels of resistant starch content, etc.

5. Challenges in implementation

As opposed to the popular belief from science fiction literature, achieving general artificial intelligence is still a long journey. Till then, it is important to develop specialized models for completing specialized tasks. Even though a fully functional model does not require any special assistance while in operation, the initial setup cost is significantly high. In terms of the complexity of the overall deep learning-enabled system in the industry, model selection is the most important step in this process. The first challenge is to collect relevant and un-skewed data. Data that is specialized for the process but also generalized enough to avoid overfitting. The second challenge is to choose a NN architecture that will yield acceptable and sensible results. These challenges can be addressed using techniques such as hyperparameter tuning, regularization, increasing the dataset, and transfer learning.

6. References

    • V. Fausett, Fundamentals of neural networks: architectures, algorithms, and applications. Pearson Education India, 2006.
    • O’Shea, K. and Nash, R., 2015. An introduction to convolutional neural networks, arXiv preprint arXiv; pp.1511.08458.
    • Begum, Ninja, and Manuj Kumar Hazarika. “Artificial Intelligence in Agri-Food Systems—An Introduction.” Internet of Things and Analytics for Agriculture, Volume 3. Springer, Singapore, 2022. 45-63.
    • Wageningen Food and Biobased research – Computer Vision and Robotics for the agri-food industry.
    • Liu, Y. He, H. Cen, and R. Lu, “Deep feature representation with stacked sparse auto-encoder and convolutional neural network for hyperspectral imaging-based detection of cucumber defects,” Transactions of the ASABE, vol. 61, no. 2, p. 425-436, 2018.
    • Vasumathi and M. Kamarasan, “An effective pomegranate fruit classification based on CNN-LSTM deep learning models,” Indian Journal of Science and Technology, vol. 14, no. 16, pp. 1310-1319, 2021
    • Al-Sarayreh, M. M Reis, W. Qi Yan, and R. Klette, “Detection of red-meat adulteration by deep spectral-spatial features in hyperspectral images,” Journal of Imaging, vol. 4, no. 5, p. 63, 2018
    • Han, Z. Liu, K. Khoshelham, and S. H. Bai, “Quality estimation of nuts using deep learning classification of hyperspectral imagery,” Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 180, p. 105868, 2021.
    • Escrig, Josep, et al. “Monitoring the cleaning of food fouling in pipes using ultrasonic measurements and machine learning.” Food Control 116 (2020): 107309.
    • K. Behera, A. K. Rath, and P. K. Sethy, “Maturity status classification of papaya fruits based on machine learning and transfer learning approach,” Information Processing in Agriculture, 2020.
    • Park, E. JeeSook, and S.-H. Kim, “Crops disease diagnosing using image-based deep learning mechanisms,” in 2018 International Conference on Computing and Network Communications (CoCoNet). IEEE, 2018, pp. 23-26.

Effective Workplace Cleaning

Cleaning at workplace is an important part. It helps control or eliminate workplace Danger. In clean or organise workplace employee feel happy, healthy or does work with dedication. It has a direct effect on employee’s work. Its leave a good impression on Client also, visiting for meetings.

Cleaning just not only about cleanliness, but it also includes keeping work area neat and clean, floor free of slip and maintaining hall and removing all the waste material. This requires paying attention on important detail such as the layout of the workplace, the adequacy of storage facilities and good housekeeping which is also a basic part of danger, incident, and fair prevention.

Effective cleaning is not only for one time or occasionally it’s Included in daily task for everyone on personal. The practice extends from office to industrial workplace, including factories, warehouse, and manufacturing plants that have its own special difficulties or challenges like hazardous materials, combustible dust. Cleaning should have management, commitment so worker realize its importance. 

  • Purpose of workplace cleaning

                   

  • Housekeeping improve productivity because all employee or workers work in fresh mood or stay safe or healthy and help prevent injuries and moral or decrease the illness of workers.
  • It can help make a good impression on visitors, Safety consultant for the workers’ compensation.
  • Every worker should play a role in clean, even if that means keeping his or her own workplace clean.
  • If the Goods place on the right place, then it will not take too much tome to finding them. If any item or goods is out of stock, then we can order on time.

Poor Housekeeping like tripping over loose objects here and there on floors, stairs and platforms, being hit by falling object, misplace material looking disorderly, In factory equipment in poor condition, these can be cause of a variety of incidents.

For avoiding these hazards, it must maintain order throughout a workday. It’s not a single person responsibility It’s a teamwork.

  • How we can do workplace cleaning:

 a. Avoid slips, trips, and falls

  • Report to all and clean-up spills and leaks
  • Keep exits clean of objects.
  • For help with blind sport installing mirrors or warning.
  • Replace as quick as much worn, ripped and damage flooring.
  • Install anti-slip floor and use mats, platform mats

b. Dust Control and Pest Control

  • Vacuuming method or Use Sweeping and water wash for cleaning
  • Blow-Down using compressed air for unreachable or unsafe area.
  • Clean wall, ceiling machinery and other place regularly.
  • Use pest control spray fog every week or month.
  • Don’t throw waste who produce mosquito or other type of pest.

 c. Tracking materials Avoid

  • Work area mats should be clean which help prevent the spread of hazardous.
  • Use different mop for different type of dirt, like for cleaning oil, dust, water.

d. Material Store Properly.

  • Storage should not have an accumulation of material that present hazards, fire, or pests.
  • Maintain manufacturing floor, maintenance area, storage, or warehouse, or that area which create problem with storage.
  • Unused equipment or material stored out of the workers reach or avoid workplace as a storage.

e. Safety falling objects

  • Place all object in proper manner for avowing to falling on employee or workers
  • Keep all big box or object on lower shelves and keel all equipment away from desk or table.
  • Keep clean or empty the area where workers walking regularly.

f. Use and inspect personal protective tool

  • Wear safety summons like safety gloves which is protected by broken glass or other harmful waist, safety clothe and shoes when work with electric equipment or Glass when doing dust’s work.
  • Regular inspect for clean and fix tool, remove as soon as possible if find any damage on work area 

g. Determine Frequency

  • All workers should take participate, at least keeping own workplace clean.
  • If anyone seen anything which create any problem, then informed
  • In the end of shift everyone needs to check or remove unnecessary material from workplace.

 


h. Eliminate Fire Hazards

  • Keep materials in the workplace which is needed for job. Unneeded material moved in relative storage.
  • Quick burning or flammable material put on designated area away from ignition source.
  • Don’t go close in contaminating cloths with flammable liquids.
  • Keep free passageways and fire door for emergency.
  • Don’t store any item on stairwells.
  • If any issue is coming in electrical area, put warning or fix them on priority.

 

  • How we can plane on Workplace

 

  • Use dustbin near Desk and throw Different waste in different Dustbin.
  • Clean desk daily, check all electric equipment on daily basis.
  • If working in Factory, then clean all took or equipment after use.
  • Check all machine before and after use. It reduces the incident.
  • Remove unused material or item instantly, it creates more space.
  • Inform Immediately If notice anything wrong with electrical equipment.

 

  • Reference

Programmable Logic Controller

PLC is an industrial grade computer used in automation industry to make system reliable through logic. It was invented by General motor, in America and Dick Morley was considered father of PLC. Dick Morley has identified the problem in industry that before PLC there is hardware wiring and this hardware nature made it difficult for design engineer to find troubleshooting and system is also not reliable. Now a days PLC is used in every automation industry and there are so many Industry providing automation digital solution like Schneider electric, Allen Bradley, Siemens industries and so on.

Working of PLC

PLC works in program of scan cycle where it read executes it program repeatedly and there is ladder logic and scan cycle consist of 3 steps.

  1. Read input
  2. Execute the program
  3. Write output

It follows the sequence of instruction and works in real time that is millisecond and in milliseconds for the processor to evaluate all the instruction and update all the output according to instruction.

Component of PLC

 They have three components, and these are: processor, power supply input/output section                               

  • Processor

It is brain of system of plc system, is a solid state device designed to perform a wide variety of production, machine tool and processor control function. Conventionally electromechanical device, relays and their associated wiring formerly performed these function. It operates in 5volt supply and supplied by power supply. Once the ladder diagram program is entered into processor, it remains until changed by the user with one of programming devices and program unaltered through power failure.

  • Power supply

It work is to convert line voltage into 24 dc voltage to provide internal circuitry. Basically, it is combination of transformer, rectifier and capacitor. In some cases, it also provides an isolated VDC supply to power dc input circuits, switches and indicators. There are so type power supply found in PLC like DC/DC converter power supply, Frequency converter plc power supply, Linear plc power supply and Switching plc power supply.

  • PLC Input/Output

Electrical noise like spike in power lines or load kick back would have series impact on PLC internal circuits this is where input/output portion play a very important role. The I/O both protect CPU from electrical noise. The I/O section is where status signal is filtered to remove noise level and CPU decision are made and put into operation. The PLC inputs provide their status to a storage area within the CPU AND outputs are driven from similar stored status in the CPU. Real world devices like push buttons, limit switches and sensor are connected through input modules in the PLC. These modules detect a change in state of input signal and provide a stored image to input element in ladder logic. The input element simulates action of relay contact within PLC. In turn, output element are energized which produces desired output signal to drive load such as motor controller, contactors, via output modules in the I/O.

  • PLC Programming

PLC are simply to program. They use a relay ladder language that is similar to magnetic relay circuitry. Engineers, and electrician can learn to program the PLC without extensive training or experience. There are numerous advantages in using PLC versus a relay or solid electronics. In a PLC, changes can be accomplished quickly and inmost cases, without hardware modification to the controller.

Advantages

The advantages one gets with PLC are-

  1. Less wiring.
  2. Easier and make faster response in real time.
  3. It make trouble shooting easier and reducing downtime.
  4. High reliable and flexible.
  5. Low power consumption.
  6. Capable of handling complex logic.

Conclusion

PLC applications are typically customized system. It is low compared to cost specific custom- built control design. It requires less maintenance due to absence of moving parts, thus making things they work better. Overall, PLC appear to be an excellent solution for many different problems.

References 

  1. https://www.unitronicsplc.com/what-is-plc-programmable-logic-controller/?__cf_chl_managed_tk__=pmd_fcc46ff256a5f8fc95b6a9ac40d67fed824816f5-1626427881-0-gqNtZGzNAuKjcnBszQgO
  2. https://www.galco.com/comp/prod/plc.htm#:~:text=Programmable%20Logic%20Controllers%20have%20three,(I%2FO)%20section.&text=The%20processor%2C%20or%20the%20brain,%2C%20and%20process%2Dcontrol%20functions.