Decentralised automation

Your food or pharmaceutical production processes must be efficient, safe and hygienic. To ensure the processing of valuable raw materials without residues and cross-contamination, to ensure constant product quality and not to risk downtime, digital process monitoring is essential. The easiest way to achieve this is with decentralised automation solutions that can control intelligent components locally and react quickly. To ensure that such a valve technology of short distances fits optimally into your existing machine or system concepts, we advise you objectively and have solution-neutral offers ready for you. In the process, we reduce everything you can do without to a minimum: complexity, risk and engineering effort. We will be more than happy to advise you!

Control your plant decentrally - for more productivity and safety

The same applies to the production of pharmaceutical products and foodstuffs: In order to produce end products of consistently high quality, the production plant must precisely control and regulate all media at all times. Fast-switching, intelligent process valves are essential for this. They are part of an overall concept that we design and implement specifically for you as part of an objective consultation. This results in individually planned decentralised automation solutions that ensure that the infrastructure and valve control of your systems do exactly what they are supposed to and can be continuously monitored using numerous parameters.

More productive thanks to intelligent control heads from Bürkert

Decentralised automation with Bürkert means: Locally controlled process valves ensure your plant functions efficiently. The intelligence is embedded in the control heads – a concept with many advantages. The control head type 8681 can also be used universally, making it easy to automate process valves from different manufacturers with this solution.

When should you go for a decentralised automation solution?

When you need clear, flexible pneumatic control.
When you value transparent processes and fast commissioning.
When you need real-time information on the spot for critical processes.
When you want to ensure safe, monitorable production of pharmaceutical products or foodstuffs.

Challenges with traditional concepts

Discrete wiring leads to high expenditure. Using the example of a filling machine for food or pharmaceutical products, the challenges become visible: Different types of devices are needed for this process, e.g. actuators, flowmeters, pressure and temperature sensors. Each device has a cable connection to a discrete port of an IO module in the control cabinet. In this example, customers use devices with 4-20 mA interfaces and binary input and outputs. This means that the number of functions is limited - as is the bandwidth and consequently the amount of diagnostic data.

Wiring the machine takes a lot of time in the analogue variant, as the consumer devices such as sensors or control heads exchange their signals via numerous strands in one cable, which quickly makes installation confusing and time-consuming.

Grafische Darstellung eines Ausschnitts aus einer Anlage mit Rohren, Ventilen, Leitungsstrang; Detaildarstellung mit aufgeschnitten gezeigten mehradrigen Kabeln

To connect a device, this solution requires all 12 strands in the cable to be connected correctly. This can easily cause cable breaks, which are often difficult to find. The error potential is high, and troubleshooting is usually extremely time-consuming. This also applies overall to the installation and start-up.

Grafische Darstellung eines Details einer Anlage mit Ventilen, Leitungen sowie einem Monteur

A lot of cables and IO cards also means: large space requirements. Control cabinets and cable racks must be correspondingly large and require a lot of installation space. It is also unfavourable that, due to the large number of cables, abrupt changes in voltage can cause cross-talk from one cable to another cable laid in parallel, which disrupts the process and impairs its repeatability.

Grafische Darstellung eines Ausschnitts aus einer Anlage mit Rohren, Ventilen, zwei Leitungssträngen und zwei Schaltschränken; detaillierte Ansicht eines Schaltschranks mit Verkabelung

Greater safety, less effort through intelligent networking

Huge effort to connect? No, there’s a better way: Our communication engineers have developed an alternative solution. It reduces the number of cables to four, and at the same time only one type of IO-Link master serves all devices. All relevant data are available digitally - and significantly more parameters can be read out than in conventional solutions. This enables permanent diagnostics to ensure system availability at all times. In addition, integrated S2 redundancy increases the availability of the system - pure reliability. As all push-in connectors are replaced by M12 connections, the assembly process of electrical devices is very fast, safe and simple. The conversion from analogue to digital devices also eliminates the need for recalibration after a certain operating time.

Standardised cables in different lengths with M12 push-in connectors can be connected directly without time-consuming start-up - and thus without additional electrician costs - as coding in the plug prevents incorrect wiring. This makes installation much easier, faster and cheaper.

Grafische Darstellung von Ventilen mit Kabeln in unterschiedlicher Länge und M12-Steckverbindern

Our optimised concepts reduce the complexity in machine and plant design. In this way, errors during the integration of distributed or decentralised automation units can be prevented directly at the installation site - both during start-up and during subsequent maintenance. The large number of available digital analysis parameters also ensures continuous, reliable system monitoring.

Grafische Darstellung eines Details einer Anlage mit Ventilen, Leitungen, PC und Monitor sowie einem Monteur

Space-saving machines and systems can be developed with clearly structured automation solutions. If you have connected 60 IO-Link devices as in our example, you only need one compact control cabinet instead of two.

Grafische Darstellung einer Anlage mit Ventilen, Leitungssträngen und kompaktem Schaltschrank

Trouble-free communication reduces downtime and costs. Bürkert's solutions are designed as a loop in which the PLC can communicate clockwise and counterclockwise so that a line interruption is not a problem. Production continues safely, even if a cable breaks or an interface module fails.

Zweifache grafische Darstellung einer Ringleitung mit SPS und vier Abzweigungen; Darstellung der Signalrichtung über Pfeile; Ringleitung einmal geschlossen, einmal unterbrochen, Symbol Achtungschild

We listen to you carefully and analyse what you want to achieve with your application. For a customised solution, we combine intelligent concepts and various industrial protocols as required. If there is a more efficient, easier to install and future-proof alternative solution for your application, we can present it to you objectively and consider the pros and cons together.

Grafik mit drei Symbolelementen, die in einem Kreis mit Verbindungspfeilen angeordnet sind: Gruppe mit zwei Köpfen und Sprechblasen, Diagramm absteigend mit Lupe, Diagramm aufsteigend mit Pfeil

Installation in 60 minutes instead of seven hours

An example from the bottling sector illustrates the differences in installation effort. A filling machine needs various components, for example actuators, flowmeters, pressure sensors and temperature sensors, which contribute to the desired production result in a coordinated manner.
In the calculation example, we assume that 32 control heads are required. A control head with three position feedbacks, external proximity switch, power supply and three valve outputs has twelve wires on each side of the cable in the discrete design. For start-up and analogue displacement measurement, a qualified electrician must install 768 wire-end ferrules on 32 control heads and also connect all cables to the unit connections and in the control cabinet. This is an all-day task that takes about seven working hours.
If, on the other hand, a Bürkert solution with two M12 connectors per device is used, the installation time is reduced to a single hour - which means a time saving of six hours.

Decentralised automation in a practical check

Numerous Bürkert customers already rely on individually controlled process valves with intelligent control heads. The following user stories provide ideas on how to produce more productively with decentralised automation.

Duits & Lauret

Duits & Lauret is a Dutch speciality beer brewery near Utrecht.
Find out how Bürkert's experience in automation contributes to product quality and productivity.

Close to the process with distributed automation

Are you looking to automate your plant with a close-to-process and secure method? Bürkert provides the support you need thanks to its perfectly matched and compact solutions. Discover just how easy it is to combine our wide range of components and integrate valve islands, control cabinets and process valves into a complete automation system.

Do you want to know how much untapped savings potential lies in your plant? Contact us – together we will find out.

Flyer Process control - Decentral automation

Decentral plant control for high-level quality and productivity

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