HMI Project

Ore Bridge

Raw materials for the iron making process are transported in specialized vessels within the Great Lakes. An ore bridge is used to unload the raw materials from the ship to storage stockpiles.

The existing proprietary ore bridge control system software was provided by the ore bridge manufacturer and was very difficult to change and maintain. Company staff could not make adjustments to this existing software to suit their current needs and there was little documentation on how the software was created. JNE Automation dissected the existing software which monitored and controlled over 1000 HMI tags within the ore bridge PLC program. The screens and functionality of the proprietary software were duplicated in RSView32 which was user friendly and which provided better maintainability. JNE Automation tested and commissioned the new software to function on the existing DH+ network on schedule and on budget. Currently, the software is successfully being used for the unloading of the ore carriers.

JNE Automation was responsible for:

• HMI programming (using RSView32)
• Network configuration (using RSLinx)
• Testing of the software
• Training the operators with the new system interface
• System commissioning