In conjunction with Siemens, DMC helped develop a brewing template geared towards craft brewers. This solution acts as a migration path from Braumat Compact and brings along several architectural and visual similarities.
The template project utilizes a suite of Siemens tools, including TIA Portal (PLC development), WinCC Professional (HMI development), Openness (PLC code autogeneration), and SiVarc (HMI visualization autogeneration).
The developed template project contains a fully functional sample brewhouse, including a mill, mash cooker, lauter tun, wort kettle, whirlpool, and eight fermenters, as well as full sequence simulation and recipe logic.
Brewing Template Overview Screen
In addition to the template project, DMC developed an Openness application and SiVarc rules to quickly develop and link control modules on both the PLC and HMI.
For the Openness application, users will populate an Excel sheet with the systems, control modules names, device types, comments, and HMI orientations. DMC’s custom Openness application will generate the brewery template, call structure, create top-level system function blocks, create low-level command module function blocks, and create associated instance data blocks. Additionally, the interface for the command modules will be populated based on the brewery template project architecture.
Users will populate an Excel workbook to fill in system names and the devices associated with the system utilizing the SiVarc rules. From there, based on the pre-developed brewery template architecture, the excel document will generate ScreenRules which can be imported into the project and used to create the visualization.
These tools allow DMC to quickly develop and link control modules for any brewing system and lean on previously developed architecture to efficiently and robustly develop a custom brewing solution.
Founders Brewing Implementation
Founders Brewing, based in Grand Rapids, is one of the most prominent breweries in Michigan. DMC was selected for the Founders Brewing implementation due to our extensive work and expertise on the Brewing Template. Founders recently opened a new Detroit brewpub, where DMC worked with Founders to add a custom automation solution for their brewing process. DMC was able to leverage the brewing template to expedite development, and then develop logic for custom additions, such as hot and cold liquor tanks. Using the brewing template as a reference, DMC ensured that the rest of the project followed the project software architecture and Siemens best practices.
Check out this Founder's Brewing video from Siemens highlighting the brewing template.
Project Highlights
Technical Solution
The brewing template served as an excellent starting point for the Founders project. However, as requirements changed, it was critical that the solution was able to be updated to fit these requirements. As the developers of the brewing template, DMC was uniquely positioned to be able to make larger scale architecture changes (without sacrificing programming best practices) in order to deliver a better final solution.
Communication
Communication was a major reason for the success of the project. During the offline development, DMC made sure to maintain an open line of communication in order to quickly adjust as changes were requested. During the commissioning phase, DMC sent daily status updates to ensure all parties were clear on accomplishments and next steps.
Post Commissioning Support
After project completion, Founders made several changes to the program to reflect updates made to the mechanical system. During deployment, the Founders team ran into some issues. DMC set up several web meetings, and assisted in troubleshooting and resolving all issues.
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