A Company Well Connected
Our Automated Controls division, HF Controls, was contracted to deliver a major control systems upgrade for a leading fuel distribution company across two of its northern fuel depots, located in Inverness and Aberdeen. These high-throughput facilities receive fuel from oil tanker vessels, store it within large on-site tanks, and distribute it via fuel trucks to petrol stations across the region, making reliability and uptime absolutely critical.
HF Controls engineers extracted the original Mitsubishi PLC software and completely rewrote the program using Siemens TIA Portal, deploying it onto new Siemens S7-1500 PLCs. Prior to any site installation, a full Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) was carried out at our workshop. Using simulation PLCs and a dedicated test rig, the team rigorously tested and validated all control logic to ensure correct operation and eliminate risk before deployment in a live environment.
Our automated controls division, HF Controls were contracted to work on the control systems for a leading Fuel Distribution Company and two of their Northern sites in Inverness and Aberdeen. The fuel depots, which normally take fuel from oil tanker ships, store it in their onsite storage tanks and then fill fuel trucks for distribution to petrol stations, required significant upgrades. Their existing system was dependant on an obsolete, discontinued Mitsubishi PLC and this needed to be upgraded.
The client required the PLC to be upgraded to a new, modern PLC that can be supported with readily available spares and technical support if needed to help future proof the system.
Our HF Controls team took the old Mitsubishi software and rewrote it in Siemens TIA portal to be uploaded into brand new S7-1500 Siemens PLC. An FAT (factory acceptance test) was carried out in our workshop using simulation PLC’s and our test rig to test and prove all software logic was operating correctly before installing within the live fuel depot.
After the Factory Acceptance Test was complete, site gave a 2-day outage to allow our install and commissioning engineers to remove the existing PLC, wire and terminate the new PLC, and commission the system. This was done over a weekend to avoid any disruptions to the supply chain.
Project Challenges: The Fuel Depots located in Inverness and Aberdeen are both live, busy hubs of activity. Our Controls team had to ensure that the switch of PLC systems ran smoothly to ensure that there was no unforeseen operational downtime for these vital fuel depots.
Any issue that would delay or halt existing fuelling operations would lead to major disruption further down the supply chain, so it was important that our system upgrade work was successful straight out of the box. Our skilled engineers managed to complete the successful installation first time and the new systems were successfully fitted, tested and signed off without a hitch.
At HF, our Automated Controls Division can produce Control Panel Solutions ranging from Single Motor Panels to Automated Plant and Production Line Control Panels.
Whether your business requires one off bespoke electrical control panels or the production of multiple units, our Automated Controls Facility can produce solutions ideally suited for a diverse range of industrial sectors from Telecommunication businesses all the way to operations in the Transportation and Agriculture sector.
Our Control Panel Services cover:
As part of the HF Group, we can offer our clients an unsurpassed level of genuinely in-house capabilities. With senior-level hands-on management from initial planning to final handover and the opportunity to tap into a wide range of services, all backed by a team of consultants with a skills base and command of technologies which are second to none.
To find out more about the work that we do in Automated Controls, please contact our Glasgow head office today. With branches in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Belfast and Aberdeen, we operate nationwide in everything from Manned 24 hour call out services to the latest in 5G telecommunication services.
From technical insights to our latest project updates, stay connected with everything going on at HF.
100 Albert Drive
Glasgow, G41 2SJ
0800 783 9480
