MAVERICK Technologies Wins Plant Expansion Project for Ethanol Manufacturer

Columbia, Ill., April 20, 2008 — MAVERICK Technologies announced today its recent contract to implement new technologies and provide systems integration for a major expansion project at an ethanol manufacturing plant.

The project objectives included increased productivity and streamlining the entire production process. MAVERICK had to integrate the new equipment into the existing operation without interrupting the plant’s production.

The client required changes and upgrades to ten existing programmable logic controllers (PLCs), plus the implementation of five new PLCs — two of which were programmed by MAVERICK. MAVERICK also added more than 3,500 new input / output points and configured, programmed and commissioned 20 new variable speed drives. All variable speed drives and remote input / output points utilized ControlNet communication, and the controllers connected to the human-machine interface (HMI) via Ethernet.

The facility previously had an extensive HMI base consisting of GE Fanuc Proficy iFIX with three SCADA servers and 15 clients, and Rockwell Software RSView SE with two SCADA servers and seven clients. The expansion included the addition of 30 new HMI screens and the updating of 30 others to reflect the process changes. All of these HMI changes were split between iFIX and RSView SE. Plus, five more clients were added to increase operator efficiency and to incorporate new equipment. MAVERICK maintained all HMI software and upgraded the RSView SE without affecting production.

The MAVERICK engineering team coordinated with the client’s engineers to review process documentation, thereby eliminating process interruptions. The team also interfaced with offshore labor for manual code generation, yielding a significant cost savings for the client, and utilized the client’s programming standards in order to provide a uniform product that can be easily altered at a later date as additional needs arise. Finally, MAVERICK provided extensive pre-startup simulation testing and customer acceptance testing, resulting in a smooth startup.

Following the completion of the plant-wide expansion, the client was able to increase ethanol output, increase efficiency and provide benchmark data on new technology that were later implemented at other facilities, giving the client a competitive advantage.

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