Manufacturing Execution Software(MES) for a Hot Dip Galvanizing Line
The Hot Dip Galvanizing Line is a plant used for coating steel strip with zinc to increase its resistance to corrosion.It is an economically important product.
These plants are manufactured to various levels of sophistication and complexity, depending on strip thickness range, strip width and line speed. For a typical plant layout, visit this link.
Conceptually, a Line comprises the following sections:
A pre-cleaning section.
A cleaning section.
The galvanizing pot, with an air-knife to control the zinc thickness on the strip.
A post-galvanizing surface treatment to "passivate" the galvanized strip- i.e. enhance its corrosion resistance under certain conditions.
Other processes may be optionally installed.
The rest of the equipment is to manage the strip as it moves through the line.
Galvanizing Line Management
Operating parameters, more than a dozen in number, must be continuously monitored to ensure:
The maintenance of quality.
Cost reduction.
Enhanced zinc pot life.
All the operating parameters can drift, pointing to a lack of control in a specific area. Monitoring of parameters, and acting as per the report are extremely important operational considerations.
The software
I developed a Java application using an embedded Derby relational database (freely downloadable) to warehouse the production reports from our Galvanizing Lines #1 and #2.
On double-clicking the application icon the user screen opens, with all buttons except the "LogIn" button disabled.The screen announces that the database is closed: one has to log in to open.
Figure 1.
The next image is that of a typical production report filled up for one coil, ready to be clicked into the embedded database.
Figure 2.
The consumption report, which is filled out once a shift, or once a day( depending on management practice) is shown as the next screen:
Figure 3.
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