DART Automation
top of the line control that guarantees perfect batches
Built from products in Automation
DART accomplishes that goal especially easily because its software, UDI, is immediately understandable, enabling Recipe creation to be done by almost anyone on your staff.
An informed decision to choose automation is based on understanding three key points.
1. Infrastructure: Adding electronically controlled devices
DART interacts with your vessels by sending and receiving both digital and analog signals to turn motors at the right speed, to toggle valves, to read and control temperature. The diagram below shows plans for upgrading to DART-readiness. Since the Prop and the Sweep were already controlled by VFDs which were addressable by the DART, this upgrade needed just electronic valves and an RTD transmitter.
2. Method: Modify your standard manufacturing procedure
With the changeover to automation, comes the responsibility for adjustment to different types of tasks. Operating a DART is different experience from what existed before in the factory. For one thing, your operators have more time available since their principal duty is adding material at the right time rather than manually attending to each task. For another, though running the UDI program is quickly learned, operating a DART with up to four separate tanks running simultaneously on one PC, requires establishment of a house-protocol to assure optimum performance. Predictably, ANA can equip your DART with multiple PCs if your protocol demands multiple operators who might interfere with one another.
UDI Recipes are structured with a consistent style, one that makes the status of every tank readable at a glance. This at-a-glance understanding instills in your staff a feeling of control over the batch. They will find getting used to the new standard operating procedure straightforward and even inspirational.
3. Validation: DART will need to be validated for operation
Validation is proof by repetitive demonstration that all actions necessary for following the intent of the recipe are
–Qualitatively shown
–Quantitatively correct
–Reliably, dependably repeatable
As part of the ANA installation, DART validation will be demonstrated to the highest degree achievable. Because its continuous stream of measurement data verifies the state of the system at every moment, DART is a total information system, meaning that an audit of what happened to a batch during manufacture is complete. Every parameter, every step, every action and every consequence is continuously known.