Siemens Digital Industries (DI) is supporting chemical manufacturer Lianhetech Seal Sands during a multi-million pound expansion of its plant on Teesside.
The digitalisation is being carried out on an expansion of its existing brownfield site, which will double the sites overall capacity, alongside a planned expansion for digital greenfield site.
The partnership aims to help Lianhetech improve production efficiency, quality and futureproof the plant which employs over 350 people.
Siemens DI technologies being deployed include Siemens SIMATIC PCS 7, a powerful control system, digital process instrumentation and variable speed drives.
Siemens DI worked with Liantech and Actemium Automation to ensure that the right products and industrial network approaches were used for a system incorporating Profinet.
The solution gives Lianhetech greater levels of control over production and availability, and the opportunity for ongoing process improvement as more data is collected around the manufacture of the product – the derived insights can also be fed back to customers.
Eric Bennison, Account Development Manager at Siemens Digital Industries, said: “The collaboration with Siemens Digital Industries has given Lianhetech firm foundations to build a truly digital chemical facility and paves the way for advanced use of data to gain insights and support continuous improvement.”
Lianhetech is taking a modular approach to design and commissioning of the development to achieve its target opening of May 2021. The development at Seal Sands is expected to create 80 jobs.
Julian Lightwing, Operations Director at Lianhetech, said: “For decades the chemical industry has become increasingly reliant on a supply chain from the East – China and India – which has led to a huge decline in UK manufacturing.
“Lianhetech wants to take a global approach and de-risk its supply chain by investing in its operation in the UK and across Europe. The concept is that Lianhetech Seal Sands will be part of the global company and can offer the benefits of the eastern and western environments.
“We currently have four production buildings, the large expansion on the existing site and land we can expand onto. It means we can start from scratch at grass roots level to create a digital enterprise building – and involve Siemens from day one.