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The Vecs 9000 Framework is designed to aid customers in selecting compatible components. Although it can be integrated to work with most industrial components, by re-using common industry components we can create a more economical solution, with a quicker turn around and test time. 

The Vecs 9000 Framework can be used to upgrade existing control systems, either in part or as a complete solution.

All components in the Vecs 9000 Framework are designed, built and documented to ISO 9001:2000 standards. 

Using a standard Framework reduces the amount of custom design work that has to be carried out for each project and allows reuse of common components and test cycles.

The Vecs 9000 numbering system is designed to facilitate communications between Orbital Energy and the customer with regards to the various component parts of the complete control system and to ensure that all aspects of the control system are covered. So multiple Monitor HMI's would be labeled Vecs 9210, 9211 and 9212 to differentiate between them.

The heart of the Vecs 9000 Framework is the Allan-Bradley ControlLogix 5500 series PLC unit. This reliable unit has proven itself in many environments and provides an easily maintainable foundation for the whole control system. Replacement components are easily available from many different vendors, which combined with the quick connect wiring greatly reduces downtime in event of a module failure. For reliability critical systems the ControlLogix family is available with a number of different redundancy levels from redundant power supplies right up to fully duplicated PLCs. 

The ControlLogix platform is programmed with RSLogix 5000 ladder logic which, in keeping with Orbital Energy's policy on openness,  is available for review and fault finding. 

To read more about the Allan Bradley ControlLogix range of PLC's, please click here

In order to control the engine we need to provide some sort of interface between the control system and the operator. Originally this interface consisted of gauges and switches mounted on physical panels. For various safety critical configurations (such as nuclear power stations) these panels are still required and Orbital Energy manufactures them using high quality components either to new designs or to replicate existing layouts to maintain conformity. 

For most systems a far more economical solution is to use a computer as the Human Machine Interface (HMI). These HMI's run on custom built computers, tailored to fit the operating environment. Orbital Energy provides Vecs 9000 solutions based on Allan Bradley's RSView and Microsoft's Visual Studio suite. HMI's can be set as either control panels (Vecs 9200 components) where the operator has varying degrees of control over the gas turbine, or as monitor only stations (Vecs 9210 components). Communications between the HMI and PLC are usually transported on cat-5 Ethernet cable, so can be located remotely from the power station. Although it is possible to transport this data over a network shared with other systems (such as an office network), we would advise against it as the potential for data collisions might degrade the performance of the HMI. If the PLC data does need to be accessed from another network we can bridge the two networks and provide Data Analysis computers/software which will retrieve the data for analysis purposes. If a company wishes to automate this data interface then a programming API is available to for the customer's programmers to access and manipulate the data.

Although the control PLC does provide a very high degree of protection for the engine, for many larger power units it is advisable to have hardwired protection for vibration and speed which bypass the main plc and can trip the engine at the first sign of failure. Both Bently Nevada and Vibrometer provide excellent solutions which can easily be integrated into the Vecs 9000 framework. 

To read more about the Vibro-Meter protection system, please click here

To read more about the Bently Nevada Protection system, please click here