Regulflex

Presentation:

Regulflex is a modular teaching line for soft drink production designed for studying control processes and associated instrumentation.

This innovative concept for teaching process control, instrumentation, and regulation is based on the use of a real process (soft drink production) that allows practical work to be carried out in a realistic setting.

Students work on different parts of the manufacturing process.

The modular systems allow each module to operate independently (standalone mode) or interconnected with each other (process mode).

These systems allow for the implementation of simple on/off (O/O) control with or without hysteresis using P, PI, PID algorithms and/or complex control such as split range, mixed, cascade, proportional, adaptive, etc.) by regulating physical quantities such as LEVEL, FLOW, PRESSURE, TEMPERATURE and other associated quantities.

Technical solutions:

Level measurements (ultrasonic, capacitive, hydrostatic)

Flow measurements (paddle wheel, vortex, rotameter, ultrasonic, thermal mass)

Pressure measurements (relative, differential)

Temperature measurements (PT100, PT1000, J thermocouple, K thermocouple, displays/transmitters)

Various measurements (Brix degree, density, dissolved CO2)

Valves (control valves with analog positioner, solenoid valves, thermal mass flow controller for Air/CO2)

Pumps (volumetric dosing pump, volumetric vane pump)

Converters (frequency converters, current/current, current/voltage)

Storage (stainless steel tanks at atmospheric and pressurized conditions)

Process components (plate heat exchanger, static mixer)

Industrial refrigeration (condensing units, expansion valves, filter driers, pressure switches, thermostats)

Communication & Fieldbus (Ethernet, Profibus, Hart)

Process control (regulator, PLC, DCS)

Calibration tools (calibrators (mA / mV / Thermocouple / RTD), decade box, precision pressure gauge with pump)

Educational activities:

Study (measure the controlled variable, condition the signal, transmit the information, identify a stable/integrating system in BO/BF, act on a valve according to the direction of action/CV/characteristics)

Design (IT and electrical diagrams, simple/feed forward control loops, programming a controller, PLC, or SNCC)

Control (production, process control, monitoring, alarm management, supervision on Ethernet network)

Maintain (calibration control and on-site testing, actuator checks, diagnostics, prevention, improvements, etc.)

Key strengths:

Modularity of operational components: one system is sufficient to start working, various system configurations are possible with different design contexts (cold water production, dosing, carbonation, and pressurized storage)

Modularity of control components (3 types of control: industrial regulator, PLC, and SNCC).

The chosen manufacturing process offers a number of advantages:

• Fun approach (making a soft drink)
• Presence of the main physical quantities (level, flow rate, pressure, temperature)
• Easy implementation and contextualization (water, air, and possibly coloring, syrup, CO2)
• Includes simple (TOR, P, PI, PID, etc.) and complex (cascade, ratio, split range, etc.) controls

Robustness of operational parts incorporating industrial components (stainless steel piping)

Possibility of having up to 12 students working simultaneously

Regulflex systems and modules:

Régulflex1 Buffer tank (Level:Flow): Level control (non-pressurized storage), flow and instrumentation

Régulflex2 Dosing (Flow/Ratio): Flow control for liquids (dosing), ratio and instrumentation

Regulflex3 Refrigeration (Flow/Temperature): Temperature control (cooling), flow and instrumentation

Regulflex4 Carbonation (Flow/Pressure): Flow control for gases (carbonation with CO2 gas), pressure and instrumentation

Régulflex5 Storage Tank (Pressure/Level): Pressure control (Pressure storage), level and instrumentation

Communicating Industrial Controller Module: Module for studying industrial PID controllers

PLC module with PID: Module for studying regulation (PID) using Programmable Logic Controllers

DCS module: Module for studying Digital Control Systems (DCS)

Supervision: Process supervision via operator console

Calibration: Calibration devices for sensors (current loop, pressure, temperature, etc.)