TECHNOLOGY TODAY
The Midleton distillery was opened in 1975 as further expansion of the Jameson and Powers original distilleries. Effectively combining a number of distilleries into one, the Midleton plant is a complex and sophisticated operation. Indeed it is a measure of the complexity of the operations at Midleton that Irish Distillers had begun to find its existing fibre-optic based network too slow and cumbersome to suit its production requirements. Forming the heart of the control system at the Midleton distillery, the fibre-optic SCADA network extends through all the production areas, including the grain intake area, the brewhouse, the fermentation plant, the stillhouse, the boilerhouse, the feeds recovery area, the vathouse, and the wastewater treatment plant.
ABOUT IRISH DISTILLERS
Irish Distillers Group is the name behind some of the world’s best loved Irish Whiskeys, and core to the production of many of these is the Midleton distillery in East Cork. Combining a number of distilleries in one, Midleton is a complex plant that relies on a sophisticated industrial Ethernet control network. But when that network started to become a limiting factor in terms of speed and availability, Irish Distillers turned to GarrettCom Europe for a high performance solution.
THE CHALLENGE
“We had used a fibre-optic star topology to network the various SCADA PCs in the different production area control centres, but although it was state of the art when it went in, the network was quickly becoming a limiting factor,” says Michael Tracey, Engineering Manager at the Midleton distillery. “Even at 100Mbps we were finding the fibre connections too slow, whilst the star topology and the use of unmanaged switches meant that it was difficult to expand the system and diagnose faults.”
Looking for a new solution that would prove faster, simpler to manage and more tolerant of faults to ensure high availability of the network, Michael Tracey turned to GarrettCom Europe, finding the answer in its high speed, industrially hardened, managed Ethernet switches. Designed to meet modern requirements of high performance and increased configuration flexibility, the GarrettCom managed switch range combines gigabit fibre ports with choices of both 100Mb and 10Mb fibre or copper ports, all of which can be mixed and matched within any given switch to best meet the needs of the application. The managed switches are supplied with GarrettCom’s MNS software, which provides a complete range of management services.
THE SOLUTION
The switches supplied by GarrettCom are now used throughout the SCADA network, linking all the production areas on a fibre-optic ring at gigabit speeds using RS-Ring Technology.
“We chose the GarrettCom switches for a number of reasons,” says Michael Tracey. “Perhaps the most important was GarrettCom’s RS-Ring redundancy technology, which provides fast fault recovery in Ethernet LANs, even over the long distances that are typical in a large plant such as the Midleton distillery. Also important were the facts that the switches are both managed products and genuine industrial products. The distillery is an extremely challenging environment for control components, so we needed products that were industrially hardened. In this respect, the GarrettCom switches were ideal. Further, they are managed products, and the supplied software was easy to use and provided a range of security and redundancy features.”
THE RESULTS
These are exciting times at Irish Distillers. Jameson, the world’s leading Irish whiskey brand, has now reached sales of over two million cases – a doubling in the last decade. It is the fastest growing whiskey brand in the world, and one of the fastest growing spirit brands. The growth of the other brands of Irish Distillers in both the domestic and international markets is also impressive.
This continued rapid growth will doubtless place heavy demands on productivity at the Midleton plant. But with its new high speed, high availability network in place, the company can be confident that its control system is in the best shape to deliver.
ABOUT GARRETTCOM
GarrettCom is the leading manufacturer of industrial and carrier-class Ethernet LAN products. GarrettCom offers a comprehensive line of ETSI and NEBS-certified switches and hubs for use in telecommunications, industrial, and automated environments. Software applications, embedded in the company's MNS-6K Ethernet management software, support redundant rings and secure web-based access to local and remote networks. GarrettCom markets its products through a network of resellers, OEMs, system integrators, and distributors worldwide. For more information on GarrettCom and its products, visit www.garrettcom.co.uk
