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Company Profile

Established in 1945, Pioneer Metal Finishing offers many custom finishing solutions to make products perform at the highest levels.
They are experts in providing specialized finishes to improve the performance for their customers’ specific component parts. Their specialty finishes include: corrosion resistance, wear resistance, adhesive and bonding strength, aesthetic cosmetic enhancement.

Situation

Pioneer Metal Finishing needed to replace their existing, non-functioning temperature control system. At each tank, the operator needed to be able to adjust setpoints for each tank. They also were interested in adding visualization of measured value, hi/low temperature alarms and a 24-hour trend chart. They wanted to ensure the control system had a web publishing tool for visualization from a PC or cellphone over the plant network.

Challenges prior to project completion:

The current temperature controls platform was obsolete and parts were no longer available. No expandability as additional zones
were added. No central alarm visualization to alert if the process was out of control.

Benefits upon completion: 

• Industry 4.0 compatible
  • All 80 zones of control can be seen on any computer on the network
  • Alarm notification
  • 24-hour trending of the temperature
• Tighter process control
• Lower scrap rate due to process variations
• Easier to troubleshoot

Results

Benefits One

The new temperature control solution improved product quality which helped lower scrap rate and ultimately delivered higher value to their customers.

Benefits Two

Improved documentation

• Accurate schematics
• Complete parts list with a recommended spare parts list

Benefits Three

Sure Controls was able to provide an innovative, turn-key solution with off the shelf hardware. Complete with:

• Upfront design with weekly communications through the process.
• Panel build
• Field commissioning
• Debug field wiring with I/O check
• Functional test
• Tuning of each control loop
• Employee training

“One of the main reasons we decided to work with Sure Controls was because they are highly responsive. If there’s questions, they are right there to answer them. They’re local and the whole group is a great group to work with.”

– Mark Clauss, Project Control Manager, Pioneer Metal Finishing