Case Study: Landrover T5 Exhaust Downpipe Cell

Project Description: Unipart Eberspächer Exhaust Systems needed an integrator who could retro-fit a Traceability System onto their existing Landrover T5 Exhaust Downpipe cell. It was a matter of utmost importance that the system have no detrimental effect on a live cell.

Approach: MCS Control Systems installed upgraded the existing S7 PLCs to handle the additional functionality of the Traceability System. New HMIs were installed that allowed the operator to select the product that they were building and to view leak rates from the twin leak testers in the cell. Bespoke services written in C# were created that processed data from the PLCs and stored the information in an industry standard SQL Server database which was housed in Unipart’s Server room. End of Line ticket printing and exhaust etching were also re-written as part of the retro-fit. MCS Control Systems also created various screens that allowed the user to enquire on all data stored and change various configuration parameters.

Results: The project was successfully completed within a small shutdown window. The Traceability System had no detrimental impact on the functionality of the cell.