Separation of Incinerated Waste

Lodestone recently completed a factory wide control system at Tibury Docks. The plant separates incinerated waste into ferrous and no ferrous components, leaving a sustainable source of inert aggregates. The system uses a Mitsubishi Q03 plc controller with multiple I/O. The mimic interface is a 27” monitor and fan less industrial PC which communicates to the plc via a local Ethernet.

There are 27 plant items each with auto stop start, belt slip detection (conveyors only), emergency stops and individual conveyor isolation, motor trip and motor overload detectors. Each of the plant items are monitored and annunciated on a large mimic display to indicate the health of the system. The input to the plant is measured via a belt weigher, the output of which is fed into a PID in the plc controller which varies the speed of the input grizzly.

A single keystroke starts and stops the plant automatically with each item of plant with its own individual timer. Full manual override is available.

This plant was completed in conjunction with RTLC&I Ltd

Tower Bridge Experience

Lodestone recently won a contract to animate a model of  Tower Bridge which had been manufactured by UNIT22 Model Makers. The system utilises a Mitsubishi F1X plc.

The task involves controlling the cars approaching and leaving the bridge, car and pedestrian gates, raising and lowering the bridge and controlling a boat which passes under the bridge.

There are two control modes, the first shows how the bridge was controlled by steam engines and the second, the present electro-hydraulic control. Visitor can push button to their hearts content.