You achieve important energy and profitability goals – and help your company succeed – when you automate facility and equipment processes. Expect improved operating efficiency and ease of use, ample cost and energy savings, and enhanced environmental comfort for your employees.
To learn more about your automation options, please click any link or scroll through the following content.
Improve your manufacturing and plant efficiency plus reduce energy and maintenance costs with programmable logic controllers (PLC’s). PLC’s are digital computers which automate and control your processes and equipment. They also monitor and respond to an almost limitless amount of real-time information data to determine the optimal sequence of electrical flow to be used.
4E helps you maximize your process and machine efficiency with precise PLC selection, programming and networking. We make your processes and machinery do what they must to achieve your strategic goals. Here’s how:
- Install & Optimize New Equipment Get new equipment online, commissioned and operating at peak performance as soon as possible. 4E staff works closely with you to achieve these goals, reduce your stress and keep your business strategy on track.
- Refurbish &/or Reconfigure Existing Equipment Instead of investing in expensive new equipment, save money by refurbishing and modernizing your existing equipment to better than new condition.
Whether you want to improve performance or need existing equipment to perform a new task, 4E replaces and updates failing or outmoded electronics and mechanical wear items plus optimizes equipment performance for maximum efficiency. - Service & Repair Existing Equipment Unless you maintain staff expert in the field of PLC’s, servicing and repairing your own equipment can be a daunting task. 4E performs these tasks every day. By supplementing your maintenance staff, we ensure your equipment receives swift, cost-efficient service and repair so you keep your operation on track.
- Human Machine Interface Depending on your needs, 4E customizes innovative, state-of-the-art interface solutions that minimize training and maximize productivity. In turn you can expect an enhanced bottom line with the energy and labor savings achieved.
- Peer-to-Peer Communication (P2P) PLC’s can be designed to interface with a human operator, but their ability to use P2P communication with other PLC units in your system allows them to respond with digital speed to process immense amounts of real-time data and situations within a complex system.
Put PLC’s to work at your operation; contact us today to learn more.
Improve operation efficiency and performance plus save time and money using a flexible, logical, user-friendly Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system.
SCADA is a computer system which gathers and analyzes real time information. From your base operation, SCADA allows your facility operator to monitor and control plant and equipment processes distributed across various remote sites. Here’s how a 4E custom designed SCADA system benefits your operation:
- Reduces labor required to maintain and inspect each site, collect and log data, and make adjustments.
- Troubleshoots problems and makes immediate adjustments before issues become costly.
- Frees up personnel time to implement other important tasks and strategies.
- Lengthens equipment life.
- Integrates different equipment brands or vintage systems for added efficiency.
- Facilitates regulatory compliance with customized, automated report generation.
To learn how SCADA systems can benefit your facility, contact us today. Want to know more about SCADA? Click here now.
More about SCADA Systems:
SCADA systems monitor and control plants and equipment in industries such as municipal water and waste control; energy, oil and gas refining; nuclear power and telecommunications. SCADA systems constantly gather information to confirm all is well and alert the base operation when problems arise. For example, if a municipal water line valve malfunction occurs the SCADA system:
- Alerts the facility operator located at the base operation.
- Analyzes the problem to determine if it’s critical.
- Displays the information in a logical, organized fashion so the facility operator can solve the issue online or send a field technician.
SCADA can monitor simple systems (e.g., the environmental conditions of a small pump station) or complex ones such as city transportation systems or river dam systems.
Variable frequency drives help you conserve energy, reduce operating expense, reduce waste and noise, prolong equipment longevity and enhance staff comfort within your industrial, commercial or professional office environment.
4E installs and services standalone or networked VFD’s to help you:
- Meet energy conservation and cost savings goals.
- Maintain optimized facility or individual equipment set points under changing load conditions.
- Fine tune and provide continuous precision speed and torque control of devices and equipment.
- Interface with direct digital control systems and variable air volume systems to optimize automated HVAC cooling and heating systems.
For less complicated systems, 4E installs VFD’s that do not require any controller interface including: fume hoods, paint booths, conveyer belts and machine equipment rooms.
4E helps you evaluate, select and implement VFD strategies which best serve your energy and cost savings goals. Contact us now to learn how VFD’s help your business thrive.
Keep your operation on track and fix facility, SCADA and equipment malfunctions and breakdowns when you rely on 4E to serve your maintenance and urgent repair needs. Within hours or minutes our professional field technicians and engineers arrive at your doorstep, and work smart and fast to get you back in action.
4E supports many OEMs including:
- Siemens
- ABB Group
- Allen-Bradley
- Square D
- Yaskawa America
- SCADA
- Johnson Controls (Certified Technician)
Conserve energy, reduce operating expense, prolong equipment longevity and enhance staff comfort with automated heating, cooling and lighting direct digital control (DDC) systems for your building or plant. With a custom-designed and networked programmable control system, 4E helps you optimize your HVAC and lighting efficiency requirements.
Here is what a DDC system can do for you:
- Ensures you meet your energy conservation and cost savings goals with detailed energy management reports.
- Logs your building’s operating characteristics to identify performance enhancing trends.
- Provides comprehensive alarm management in event of a mechanical system malfunction.
- Eliminates the need to manually change clocks for holidays and schedule changes.
- Maintains your building’s optimized set points under changing load conditions.
System Controls You Should Consider Automating
- Packaged units
- Built-up systems
- Variable air volume (VAV) systems
- Chiller & boiler plants
- Clean rooms, control and maintain temperature, humidity, particulates and static pressure
You have many options for achieving your energy and cost savings goals. 4E helps you evaluate, select and implement the strategies that best serve your needs; contact us today to get started.
Learn about more automated routines available to you and click this link.
4E Energy & Cost Saving DDC Strategies:
Some of the popular automation routines 4E implements include:
Demand Limiting Routine — During peak demand periods utilities often charge significantly higher prices for electricity. By reviewing your facility usage, controllable equipment, energy consumption trends and utility bills, 4E helps you evaluate potential energy cost savings achievable by implementing customized, automated demand limiting routines which let you shed predetermined energy loads during peak demand periods.
Automated Temperature Control Routines — To conserve energy and reduce your energy bills, your building and temperature environment can be optimized and automated throughout the day. For example, the “occupancy mode” provides a comfortable daytime temperature climate while the “night setback mode” allows the building temperature to rise or fall depending on the outside climate.
The “optimal start mode” (i.e., “morning warm-up”) brings your building to set point just in time for occupancy. The optimal start mode factors in outdoor conditions and historical experience to ensure your optimal space set point is reached.
Economizer Routine — By automating and optimizing the mix of fresh outside air and internal “return” air at the air handling units, a significant mechanical heating or cooling reduction can be achieved. As a result, your energy consumption and energy bills drop dramatically.
Lighting Control Routine Options — Automated lighting options help you conserve energy and cut costs while preserving employee comfort and job efficiency. Your many lighting options include:
- Occupancy sensors to extend the useful chronological life of lamps through reduced daily burn hours.
- Automatic daylight dimming which uses light sensors to measure the amount of illumination in a space and maintain your desired level of illumination. Daylight dimming and task lighting is especially effective for corridors and spaces adjacent to windows.
- Time scheduling - automatic switching at fixed hours of the day – works well with large open spaces. To save more energy, lights can be turned on manually at the beginning of the day and turned off automatically after close of business.
Besides helping you select appropriate lighting controls for your building or plant, 4E ensures you maximize and maintain energy savings and cost reductions with accurate commissioning and calibration of lighting controls.
Energy Efficiency Survey — Your company can save thousands of dollars each year by incorporating energy efficient HVAC, lighting, electrical and mechanical systems into your daily operation.
With 4E’s customized energy efficiency survey you learn practical ways to cut back on energy consumption and utility costs. Plus you receive recommended upgrades that can produce a net benefit to your bottom line. Examples of cost and energy saving methods and upgrades include:
- Automating building environment controls
- Incorporating DDCs, PLCs and VFDs into your building systems and equipment
- Changing to lower energy-use lighting fixtures
- Using photocells which turn on only when required in darkness
4E clients typically save tens of thousands of dollars each year when they hire us and put our energy survey recommendations into action. Find out how and contact us today.
