Festo’s solution helps achieve a twenty-fold increase in production

A twenty-fold increase in production was the goal of the Croatian car cosmetics company Alfa Car. To achieve this, the entire production cycle, housed in a new production plant, was automated. Festo supplied a complete solution for more than 200 process valves – including project management.

A number of different products including water, alcohol, glycerine, surfactants, oleic and acetic acids, sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide are stored, transported, blended and bottled for the production of car cosmetic products. This requires complex process automation solutions. The Croatian car cosmetics company Alfa Car has taken a big step into the future: while building a new production plant, the entire production cycle was fully automated, from the raw materials to the bottling line for the finished products. One point of focus was the seamless automation of the process valves.

A number of different substances are stored, transported, blended and bottled in the production plant.

Customised complete solution

To address the challenge, the company worked together with the system integrator Arp Lučko and Festo. It would be Festo’s role to project manage the automation of the process valves. To ensure fast integration into the new system and maximum reliability in the future production process, customised complete solutions were supplied that cover the entire range, from the process valve units to the valve terminals. When selecting the necessary components, particular attention had to be paid to the potentially explosive environment.

Reliability counts

The communication between a large number of different automated ball valves and the new plant’s higher-level control system was also decisive for optimum process automation. This requirement was met by a reliable solution with six valve terminals type VTUG with PROFINET bus connection. More than 200 ball valves from different manufacturers can be fully automated in this way. Using a single source for the ball valve solution took the pressure off both Alfa Car and Arp Lučko when it came to designing and installing the new system. The extensive coordination of the various process valve suppliers, which Festo handled as part of its project management brief, also made the project easier.

Automated process valves ensure reliable distribution of the substances in the various process steps.

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