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Major Italian winemaker picks Movicon SCADA to streamline production processes

What does it take to become a world-class wine producer? Sure, excellent grapes are important but they only go so far without the advanced automation and process control solutions needed to maximise productivity and meet consumer demands. Which is exactly why a leading Italian winemaker invested in Progea’s Movicon SCADA to streamline its production lines.

Cantine Riunite & Civ Cooperative

Located in Emilia Romagna, one of the most fertile areas in Italy for winemaking, the Cantine Riunite & Civ Cooperative produces and distributes its variety of Lambrusco and other sparkling wines worldwide with a registered designation of origin.

The winery has been constantly building its business since 1950 and has become the most profitable wine producer in the country, with over 4,300 hectares under vine and 130 million of bottles sold worldwide annually.

A key ingredient in this recipe for success was the adoption of state-of-the-art technologies to improve its production lines and the quality of its drinks. To ensure its three bottling lines would run seamlessly, Cantine Riunite & Civ needed a high level of automation and supervision.

As a result, an essential technological advance consisted in developing a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system to manage and control their processes and equipment rooms.

Progea’s Movicon SCADA software

After some research, Gianluca Torelli, Automation Specialist at Cantine Riunite, chose Progea’s Movicon SCADA software. Gianluca said: “When I tried Movicon, I found it intuitive and easy to use. Functions like the Trends, Charts and Schedulers significantly speeded up my work”.

These features are provided by captivating graphics, intelligent Editors and integrated auto-configurators. In addition, insights on the machine and process performance are offered via the widely used Microsoft Windows OS.

According to Paul Hurst of Products4Automation (P4A), the UK representative for Movicon, the SCADA software is also highly flexible. Paul said: “The combination of its ease of use, with its flexibility, providing a modular and fully scalable solution makes it a really attractive solution for SME drinks manufacturers and bottling operations in particular.

“Investment doesn’t need to be huge and it allows users to customise the system, implement it in stages and benefit from a SCADA that can adapt to a growing business.”

Production and maintenance monitoring

The platform for Cantine Riunite & Civ winery was designed to monitor and supervise two key aspects: production and maintenance. Therefore, the system was built by connecting one Movicon Server to two Clients, focused on plant productivity and equipment function respectively. In addition, a Web Client provides easy access data on both activities.

The SCADA system promotes efficient production by providing real-time and historical information on the different bottling stages and on the machinery on the line. Each function is described in a specific, detailed page. For example, the section dedicated to filling shows the number of bottles that have been filled, the ones remaining, the broken or damaged ones, as well as the speed of the machine.

The screen information provided concerns both real-time and historical data on all batches. In addition, relevant process parameters, such as temperatures and machine throughput time, can be modified in order to improve the efficiency and the quality of the end product.

Grape Vine

Comprehensive diagnostics and data

The maintenance supervisory solution controls the different plant systems, including internal and external cooling, central water supply, heating, purification, ventilation as well as lighting in the wine cellar.

The Client provides comprehensive diagnostics combined with alarm and message management. In addition, dedicated pages that combine ‘Real-time’, ‘Trend’ and ‘Historical Trend’ show relevant data and analytics on alarm occurrences, acknowledgements and resets.

In this way it is possible to minimise downtime as well as determine probable causes of equipment malfunctioning. Also, it is possible to visualise periods of equipment inactivity, calculate averages and manage any required maintenance.

For more information visit www.products4automation.co.uk.

Company Profile

Progea
Progea

The Progea group, with HQ in Modena, have been producing SCADA/HMI platforms for industrial SUPERVISION for over 25 years with a constant increase in yearly turnover and profits. They have gained a stronghold on the international market with exponential growth worldwide. Today, the Progea group has a Team of 40 employees operating throughout their Italian offices in Modena, Milano and Padova, and branches in Germany, USA and Switzerland where their international distribution is coordinated.

Progea also has personnel operating throughout a sales and distribution network of agencies and distributors at home and abroad. Progea’s insight to regulate its growth has paid off in the last three years by investing many of its resources in marketing without abandoning its commitment to Research and Development which lies at the roots of their philosophy.

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