Customer Overview
A leading coated steel manufacturer in Taiwan, established in 1973 as a Taiwan-Japan joint venture, with headquarters in Kaohsiung. The company specializes in the production of pickled steel coils, cold-rolled steel coils, galvanized steel coils, and aluminized zinc-coated steel coils, which are widely used in construction materials, home appliances, transportation, and IT equipment industries.
Challenges
As the production equipment aged, the production line faced several challenges:
- Event Logging Issues – When sensors experienced signal interference, overheating, or overvoltage, they triggered fault alarms that halted the production line. The existing commercial SCADA system had a cycle time of >50 milliseconds, which resulted in insufficient event logging frequency. This caused critical anomaly data to be missed, and overlapping alarms made it impossible to determine the sequence of events.
- Unplanned Downtime Losses – Due to the inability to identify the root cause of unexpected shutdowns, engineers struggled to resolve issues efficiently, leading to ongoing production losses.
Project Goals
The customer aimed to achieve the following through an equipment upgrade:
- Improve system precision to accurately record the timing and sequence of anomalies.
- Quickly identify root causes of failures to reduce the impact of unplanned downtime.
- Optimize the production line to enhance overall efficiency and capacity.
Solution & Key Highlights
To address these challenges, YATEC conducted an in-depth analysis of the existing production line to identify pain points. Additionally, the upgrade was implemented without halting production, ensuring continuous manufacturing operations and minimizing losses.
YATEC’s upgrade solution included:
- Yaskawa CP218 Ethernet Communication Module – Enables high-speed data acquisition with a precise cycle time of 10 milliseconds.
- IBA Data Acquisition Software – Combined with CP218, this software records every anomaly event without omissions, capturing exact timestamps and event sequences. This allows engineers to quickly pinpoint the root cause and apply targeted solutions.
Results
- Rapid Anomaly Identification – The troubleshooting process was reduced from 2-3 hours to just a few minutes, significantly improving issue resolution efficiency.
- Production Line Optimization – With accurate anomaly analysis, the production line was fine-tuned, leading to a notable improvement in overall efficiency and capacity.
Customer Feedback
Mr. Chiu, the Operations Director, stated:
"YATEC’s system enables precise tracking of anomaly sequences and allows for rapid troubleshooting, reducing wasted time and significantly improving production uptime. Additionally, the system is user-friendly, allowing operators to customize query points without stopping operations, unlike other market solutions that require system downtime for modifications."
"Field operation procedures can now record sample times separately for fast and slow operations, helping to establish standardized and simplified operation modes."