More recipes.
Fewer spreadsheets.
One system.
Complete ABB Freelance distributed control systems for food, beverage, medical device and pharmaceutical producers who have outgrown PLCs. Designed for batch control, recipe management and electronic records, and built in our own panel shop.
Still keeping the vat log by hand?
Plenty of good plants do. It works until an auditor, a customer or a recall asks what happened to one lot, and the answer is in somebody's handwriting.
Illustration
- Batch
- Vat 3 · recipe version on record
- Ingredient lots
- captured at each addition
- Cook profile
- setpoints and readings, time-stamped
- Operator actions
- who, what, when
- Clean status
- CIP cycle and its values, linked
- Finding a lot
- a report, not a search
Systems we design and build
Complete Freelance DCS
Controllers, operator stations, batch and recipes, history and panels, tested before it ships.
Freelance DCS systemsSystems for OEM skids
Repeatable controls for process-equipment builders, documented for the plant's integrator.
OEM skid systemsControl-system migrations
Off obsolete PLCs, HMIs or a legacy DCS, in stages that fit agreed shutdown windows.
MigrationsPlant integration
Separate machines, each with its own controller, coordinated into one plant.
Plant integrationIs a DCS right for your plant?
Most food and beverage plants start with PLCs, and for a single machine or a simple line that's the right choice. A DCS starts to pay off when the process, not the machine, becomes the hard part.
- Recipes keep multiplying, and setpoints are edited by hand.
- Batch records live in binders or spreadsheets, and assembling them takes days.
- Process units have to cooperate: receiving, cooking, CIP and utilities.
- Your controls are ageing, often just as an expansion is planned.
- Regulation is tightening: FSMA, customer audits, 21 CFR Part 11.
If two or more sound familiar, it is worth comparing a coordinated DCS with an expanded PLC architecture, including engineering, licensing, maintenance and lifecycle costs.
Industries
The knowledge behind it
Standards and design choices explained in plain language, for plant managers, QA leads and engineers.