Working for a major brewery in the Netherlands has brought us into many aspects of the brewing industry. Suppliers of brewing equipment such as Krohne in Germany also use our communication products widely. Our projects have included water treatment, brew houses, bottling lines and packaging systems.Data transfer from and to the business information systems is used to track batches from the brew process through to the consumer outlets.

Four large scale brewing DCS systems have been installed and programmed. For lower volume production a combination of PLC/SCADA technologies is applied using Fieldbus, local area network and wide area network communications.

A recent experimental project involved testing a SoftPLC for flow control connected to Internet. Management of the process could take place from any PC with an Internet connection and security access.

ATS Training also completed a project to improve the knowledge of all maintenance engineers working in the brewery. This training program was part of a wider goal to significantly improve efficiency at two brewery locations.

Batch systems combined with PLC/SCADA software are typically applied in modern brewery applications with connectivity to ERP systems. ATS engineers are frequently involved in this type of project in the brewery and other batch type applications.