novolyze[2023, proof of concept]

Production Lines and Cleaning Stations

CIP control is a plant dashboard for cleaning-in-place, which cleans production equipment by circulating fluids through it without taking it apart. The line is down while a cycle runs. Operators run the cycles, and quality managers have to prove afterwards that one ran correctly. It was a proof of concept for a food safety company, built for a grant application. Two people made it, a product owner and me.

An alarm drawn for as long as it lasted

An error happens at one moment and then lasts until an operator fixes it.

A point on a chart says only when it started.

Temperature across the whole cycle, with the phases as bands behind it.

The alarm is a band as long as it lasted.

The tools I compared this with stack one cycle in ten rows. Five lanes, then a chart each for five sensors. So I used one chart for one measurement and put the phases behind the curve. The alarm at half past nine lasted 55 minutes, inside the caustic phase.

Temperature telemetry for one cycle. The cleaning phases are drawn as tinted bands behind the curve, and the alarm is marked on the curve with a band the length of time it lasted.

One cycle, six hours. The alarm at 9:30 fired inside the caustic band.

Lines and cleaning stations in two lists

A line and a cleaning station both get cleaned, so both are rows in one list.

Two lists, and a page of its own under each.

A cleaning station moves between lines, so a line and a station answer different questions.

A plant can have three lines and two cleaning stations. One station is fixed in place and the other moves between lines. So a line needs its own history, and a station needs the history of the lines it served. I had merged them first. The product owner knew the need better than I did.

Both lists use the same card. It shows how long the cycle has run or how long ago it ended, the alarm count, and one status: Cleaning, Released or Hold.

Four production line cards. Two read running since a time with a cleaning status, two read cleaned on a date with released or hold.

Production lines. Two are cleaning now, two carry the result of their last cycle.

CIP control dashboard: a last seven days strip, reports waiting to be signed, and separate lists for production lines, alarms and cleaning stations.

The two lists on one plant dashboard, lines on the left and cleaning stations below the alarms.

Sensor readings sit where they are measured

Operators need fluid states and sensor data while a cycle runs, to follow progress and catch errors.

The layout follows the circuit.

Volumes, conductivity, temperature, pressure and flow are drawn on the equipment that reports them.

Four tanks hold reclaim, water, caustic and acid, each with its volume and its conductivity. Supply and return are stated separately, so the water going out can be compared with what comes back. Operators already see schematics like this in other plant systems. I modernised a format they already know.

Live circuit diagram: four tanks with volumes and conductivity, sensor callouts along the pipes, heat exchanger and pump, and CIP supply and return panels.

Acid at 23,000 litres, with the conductivity read-out at 55%. Return turbidity reads 56%.

What I am not claiming

The grant was not awarded, and I do not know whether the company used the designs afterwards. Nothing here was measured.

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