As an example, we have chosen the production infrastructure of the company ASML, one of the largest chip machine producers in the world with a turnover exceeding 3.5 billion Euros and almost 7000 employees.
Building automation at the headquarters in Holland was, in the past, achieved with a purely configurable system from the local market leader. Automation technology from different manufacturers and generations of devices were in operation within industrial equipment and installations. As a result, the factory was divided by its automation technology.
A single ASML machine costs around 20 million Euros. Before it can be used to produce structures measuring 32 nanometres, months of running-in are required in testing and calibration spaces.
The first phase of the project comprised the automation, within a new building, of 28 testing and calibration spaces designed as clean-rooms.
The contract to implement this automation was awarded to the company GTI. With 7500 employees, GTI is a large engineering company that forms part of the French SUEZ Group.
In the present project, both ASML and GTI used Saia®PCD technology for the first time. Since ASML had very complex and critical process requirements, their decision only came after a lengthy selection and testing procedure.
Saia®DDC-Suite was used to implement the heating, air-conditioning, ventilation and electrical facilities. It was very helpful to have an automatically integrated log function and easy access from the production management system to all data (current and historic) from machines running for tests and calibration over many months.
Operation of the entire automation technology is via web browser.
To integrate the actual machine controllers (Siemens® S7) and additional groups (e.g. carrier refrigerating machines), the customer programmed the necessary communications drivers and management routines in text form and then packed them into graphical Saia®Fupla FBoxes. In this form, they were then simply added to the standard Saia®DDC-Suite as a project-specific extension. No other software tool for infrastructure automation can do this.
Key technical device data for the first construction phase,
commissioned in June 2008:
– 89 Saia®PCD3.M5540
– 9 000 I/O points
– 89 Flash 4 MB PCD7.R550M04
– 28 Saia®PCD Web-Panel MB PCD7.D457STCF
Despite the complexity of the project and the integrator’s lack of familiarity with Saia®PCD technology, the project went very well. Saia®DCC Suite was a substantial prerequisite for the success of the project.
We are now looking forward to the second construction phase. This is already underway and comprises 28 more test and calibration rooms. Phases 3 and 4 are at the planning stage and awaiting approval.