Canterbury Clay Bricks

Canterbury Clay Bricks

Location:   Darfield
Project:     Tracking systems for brick kiln firing and process tracking
Project:      Design of a control package to automate and track-and-trace pallet loads of bricks through a kiln firing process, and automatically load and unload the cars through the kiln, including on weekends when the plant is unmanned 

The control structure for this project needed to be very advanced due to the continuous production of the bricks on moving cars through the kiln. Each car of bricks needed to be tracked and traced, and the process regulated so the firing curves are applied to the burners at specific points in the firing. 

A recipe system was developed to store sequences for various production runs. RealTime information is accessed through an HMI station to enable the client to evaluate and adjust the firing process, including automatic paging in the event of an alarm. 

"The automation of this plant has produced a major increase in production and plant profitability. The service is always pretty good - they are always obliging when they come up to sort things out." 

Boyes, General Manager, Canterbury Clay Brick Ltd.