To improve its production processes, a factory must have a well-equipped control room. To achieve this, IBITEK offers you Knürr’s proven equipment for designing your new control room or renovating your existing one.

In this article, the IBITEK Group provides recommendations for optimal control rooms in the industrial sector and introduces Knürr solutions.

Control of production processes in the plant

In the industrial environment, several elements make centralized control centers necessary. These include the wide variety of data to be processed in addition to the diversity of equipment, production variables and software systems.

The control room, an essential installation in an industrial environment

The installation of a dedicated control room offers many benefits to a manufacturing plant.
It provides the ability to view and analyze information critical to the efficient operation of the plant, making decision making faster and more relevant.
Providing a safe and comfortable environment for the room operators through an optimized control room is also of paramount importance.

With the control room, you can connect, collect and view data from the plant’s equipment.

It also allows for easy identification of bottlenecks and failure points that cause the most downtime. Installing a control room in the plant is of great importance, as it allows you to display alarms in real time and program automated actions for them if necessary.

You can also separate the production floor from the cold zone.

Three Knürr control room product lines

In terms of control room installations, Knürr Control Room Infrastructure® solutions are used by many customers.
The Knürr brand, an official partner of IBITEK Group, offers three product lines:

• Dacobas® Advanced,
• Elicon® VC-E,
• Ergocon®.

The Dacobas® Advanced product line is a modular and ergonomic workstation solution with high-quality materials such as aluminum die-cast profiles.
The Elicon® VC-E product line offers optimal solutions for individual or ergonomic workstation design in video surveillance, engineering, electronics lab, etc.
With the Ergocon® range, get an H24 control room that allows for the best possible ergonomics, with multidimensional adjustment options on several axes: table height, monitor height and viewing distance. Each user can have their own customized settings.

Important criteria in the manufacture of a factory control room

An optimal control room must take into account several considerations when designing it.

Ergonomics of factory control room furniture

Most industrial plant control rooms require extensive technical furniture and equipment.
A large work area is also required to optimize workflow, with sufficient space for monitoring and control devices.
Because space management is critical, it should be determined in advance and during manufacturing whether to concentrate everything in one room or use multiple spaces for different aspects of control, including:

• production management
• machine monitoring
• crisis management areas

If the control room has a video wall, the distance between the screens and the operators must be calculated for better visibility.
In addition to that, the most suitable display technology must be determined (LED, LCD, Cubes…).

Consideration of the risks associated with your activity

There are many hazards in the industrial field such as poor air quality, chemical exposure, humidity, high or low temperatures.
Depending on the plant in which you work, various measures can be taken to ensure the safety of your control room. For example, the installation of sensors, chemical filters, gas alarms or explosion protection may be necessary.

Factory control rooms: what are the adapted design solutions?

Discover with IBITEK Group, the solutions adapted to your control room.
Elevate the control room for a good visibility of the operators
Setting up a control room on an elevated structure is a good idea. It allows operators to have a better view of the entire plant and the production teams. This solution is suitable for airports, police stations, etc…

Elevated and combined with large windows, it offers a clear view of the entire plant. Similarly, an elevated control room provides a controlled, soundproof, air-conditioned environment, isolated from the high temperature and noise of the plant.

Visualize data with video walls

The video wall is an indispensable tool for operators and production managers.
It provides them with important information that they can view on a single display surface.
In a high-risk environment, technologies such as IP, KVM and AV help to send and control the content of the video wall display to a monitor in another room.
The goal is to guarantee the continuity of the information. This can be very interesting in case of an incident that could compromise the control tool.
Is your project at the design or implementation stage?

Do not hesitate to contact one of the Ibitek Group consultants to discuss the feasibility of your project.

As an official Knürr partner, the IBITEK Group offers you customized solutions in compliance with European standards.