The customer had more than an old-controls problem.
The first coater was running poorly. Recurring "ghost faults" were difficult to trace, and the people responsible for the line did not have a reliable way to work through them.
This was a machine with a turret unwind, turret rewind and flying splices. Replacing a controller was only one part of the job. The controls and drives had to work together as a complete production line.
I rebuilt the controls around the machine.
I replaced the PLC-5 control system with Allen-Bradley ControlLogix and Maple Systems operator interfaces. The work included rebuilding the drive-control architecture and moving drive-control programming into ControlLogix, along with maintenance screens, troubleshooting information and recipe functionality.
The point was not simply to put newer hardware in the cabinet. It was to make the line run better and give the people supporting it useful information when something was wrong.
The handover mattered as much as the hardware.
I worked with the operators, trained maintenance personnel and local support resources, and included remote-support capability. The customer needed people who understood the updated system and could work with it after commissioning.
A controls upgrade should not leave the plant with a different black box. It should make the machine easier to understand.
The first line led to the second.
Machine speed and product quality improved. The first modernization was successful enough that the customer had me repeat the approach on a second coater.
That repeat project is an important part of the story: the customer had already seen the work in production before choosing to do it again.
What this job says about the work
A successful upgrade improves the line and the plant's ability to support it.