ICONICS Case Studies Customer Success Story: International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL)

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	Customer Success Story: International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) ICONICS

Customer Success Story: International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL)

ICONICS

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Applicable Industries	Education Life Sciences
Applicable Functions	Discrete Manufacturing Facility Management
Use Cases	Building Automation & Control Condition Monitoring Process Control & Optimization
Services	Software Design & Engineering Services System Integration
Challenge	The International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) in Braga, Portugal, required a comprehensive, state-of-the-art HMI/SCADA system to handle its building management. The complex is divided into a hotel for resident researchers and the main building, where clean rooms, laboratories, high accuracy areas and administrative offices are located. The application involved deploying an ICONICS integrated Building Management System, paying special attention to the clean room and high accuracy and laboratory areas, as well as to the critical process systems. Critical areas such as clean rooms and high accuracy labs don’t allow any downtime for the HVAC system, because most of the experiments carried out in these zones are expensive and take a long time. Should any failure occur while an experiment is being carried out, it would have to be started from the beginning, implying additional and unacceptable costs. On the other hand, the HVAC system for these areas was designed to work 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. In addition to the temperature, humidity and pressure data monitoring and collection for the certification of the clean rooms, it was an additional challenge to control the temperature in the high accuracy rooms with a required accuracy of ±0.1ºC. Read More
About Customer	The International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), located in Braga, Portugal, is an intergovernmental organization created to foster interdisciplinary research in nanotechnology and nanoscience. Aiming to become a vital part of Europe’s scientific area, INL provides a high-tech research environment addressing major challenges in nanomedicine, nanotechnology applied to environmental and food control nanoelectronics, as well as nanomachines and molecular manipulation at nanoscale. With a total area of 28,000 square meters, the INL will house more than 200 top level scientists and about 100 PhD students, besides the laboratory support and administrative personnel. Main outstanding spaces of the building included a clean room space with a total area of 1,050 sq. meters, 11 high accuracy rooms, 23 wet laboratories, 23 dry laboratories, and 6 biology laboratories. Read More
Solution	The INL, working with Cofely GDF Suez (España), selected the ICONICS GENESIS32™ HMI/SCADA software suite for their new Building Management System integration project. The Building Management System was designed to control and monitor the following systems: HVAC, Hot Water Production, Chilled Water Production, Low Temperature Chilled Water Production, Process Chilled Water, Ultrapure Water, Vacuum, Compressed Air, Acid Waste Neutralization, Flammable/Toxic Gas Detection, Fire Detection and Smoke Exhaust, Electrical Transformer Substations, Natural Gas Detection, and Liquid Leak Detection. There are over 14,000 total I/O points in the facility. The control system is based on B&R’s X20 series. The main control tasks are handled by over 100 control cabinets with their respective B&R controllers. Besides the main controllers, over 60 Beckhoff compact PLCs, acting as Modbus TCP slaves, are utilized to control the variable volume boxes located in the conventional areas. B&R (communicating via B&R OPC Server) and Siemens and Omron PLCs (communicating via Kepware OPC Server) were provided by third-party special equipment manufacturers together with their systems and communicate with each other and with the OPC Servers. These are hosted in the same server as the GENESIS32 server via a dedicated Ethernet LAN. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Applicable Industries

Education

Life Sciences

Applicable Functions

Discrete Manufacturing

Facility Management

Use Cases

Building Automation & Control

Condition Monitoring

Process Control & Optimization

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services

System Integration

Challenge

The International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) in Braga, Portugal, required a comprehensive, state-of-the-art HMI/SCADA system to handle its building management. The complex is divided into a hotel for resident researchers and the main building, where clean rooms, laboratories, high accuracy areas and administrative offices are located. The application involved deploying an ICONICS integrated Building Management System, paying special attention to the clean room and high accuracy and laboratory areas, as well as to the critical process systems. Critical areas such as clean rooms and high accuracy labs don’t allow any downtime for the HVAC system, because most of the experiments carried out in these zones are expensive and take a long time. Should any failure occur while an experiment is being carried out, it would have to be started from the beginning, implying additional and unacceptable costs. On the other hand, the HVAC system for these areas was designed to work 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. In addition to the temperature, humidity and pressure data monitoring and collection for the certification of the clean rooms, it was an additional challenge to control the temperature in the high accuracy rooms with a required accuracy of ±0.1ºC.

About Customer

The International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL), located in Braga, Portugal, is an intergovernmental organization created to foster interdisciplinary research in nanotechnology and nanoscience. Aiming to become a vital part of Europe’s scientific area, INL provides a high-tech research environment addressing major challenges in nanomedicine, nanotechnology applied to environmental and food control nanoelectronics, as well as nanomachines and molecular manipulation at nanoscale. With a total area of 28,000 square meters, the INL will house more than 200 top level scientists and about 100 PhD students, besides the laboratory support and administrative personnel. Main outstanding spaces of the building included a clean room space with a total area of 1,050 sq. meters, 11 high accuracy rooms, 23 wet laboratories, 23 dry laboratories, and 6 biology laboratories.

Solution

The INL, working with Cofely GDF Suez (España), selected the ICONICS GENESIS32™ HMI/SCADA software suite for their new Building Management System integration project. The Building Management System was designed to control and monitor the following systems: HVAC, Hot Water Production, Chilled Water Production, Low Temperature Chilled Water Production, Process Chilled Water, Ultrapure Water, Vacuum, Compressed Air, Acid Waste Neutralization, Flammable/Toxic Gas Detection, Fire Detection and Smoke Exhaust, Electrical Transformer Substations, Natural Gas Detection, and Liquid Leak Detection. There are over 14,000 total I/O points in the facility. The control system is based on B&R’s X20 series. The main control tasks are handled by over 100 control cabinets with their respective B&R controllers. Besides the main controllers, over 60 Beckhoff compact PLCs, acting as Modbus TCP slaves, are utilized to control the variable volume boxes located in the conventional areas. B&R (communicating via B&R OPC Server) and Siemens and Omron PLCs (communicating via Kepware OPC Server) were provided by third-party special equipment manufacturers together with their systems and communicate with each other and with the OPC Servers. These are hosted in the same server as the GENESIS32 server via a dedicated Ethernet LAN.

Impact #1	The system allows operators to control and monitor the entire complex, following a Web-based look that makes navigation straightforward and provides users with a low technical profile and with instant visualization of the parameters of any equipment or space.
Impact #2	More than 700 screens are deployed on the project. In order to provide a friendly designed environment, 3D graphics with animations were developed, making navigation even easier.
Impact #3	An audit trail allows recording of the dates and times of all the operator entries and operator actions that create, modify, or delete any parameters or variables.

Impact #1

The system allows operators to control and monitor the entire complex, following a Web-based look that makes navigation straightforward and provides users with a low technical profile and with instant visualization of the parameters of any equipment or space.

Impact #2

More than 700 screens are deployed on the project. In order to provide a friendly designed environment, 3D graphics with animations were developed, making navigation even easier.

Impact #3

An audit trail allows recording of the dates and times of all the operator entries and operator actions that create, modify, or delete any parameters or variables.

Benefit #1	Reduced development time and therefore the costs by 50 percent.

Benefit #1

Reduced development time and therefore the costs by 50 percent.

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Overview

Customer Success Story: International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL)

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit