Based on the experience collected from our more than 70 North American water cannon installations Clyde Bergemann has developed SmartControls™ for SmartCannons, a new generation of intelligent boiler cleaning control systems. It is SmartControls™ that seamlessly and effortlessly connects the various components such as SmartCannons™, SmartSensors™, and Anyspeed™ pumps.  

Why SmartControls for SmartCannons?

• SmartControls allows true intelligent furnace cleaning.
• By analysing the feedback from SmartSensors, the system recognizes which areas have slagged and cleans these areas only.
• It precisely controls the movement of the cleaning device so that the targeted area is cleaned with the proper intensity (eg. Jet Progression Velocity, pressure).
• With this system efficient cleaning is accomplished with minimal impact on tubes. SmartControls automatically adjust SmartCannon operational parameters to ensure cleaning effectiveness as well as tube integrity.
• Open architecture, state of the art standard hardware and software.
• Easy to monitor and trouble shoot for the operators and I&C personnel.
• Remote monitoring by Clyde Bergemann via modem and VPN available.
• SmartClean process uses “Auto Tuning” optimizes the system parameters to optimally balance the cleaning effect and the thermal shock

System Design

SmartControls for SmartCannons consists of the PLC Panel, the SmartSensor Interface Panel with the Data Acquisition System for furnace cleaning and the PC based Human Machine Interface (HMI). The system uses industry standard hardware and software components such as Allen Bradley’s ControlLogix PLC, a Dell or equivalent high end PC with Windows and Wonderware’s Intouch HMI software, a flat panel LCD monitor and the OPC server for HMI to PLC communication using Ethernet protocol. The custom Configurator is a stand-alone, portable software tool that facilitates the definition of the boiler wall geometry and the cleaning zones.

User-friendly and easy to navigate graphic screens on the HMI allow operators to monitor and control the system operation at any time. In the Overview screen the operators are provided current cleanliness status for each of the cleaning zones of the boiler. The System Diagram screen provides key operational parameters not only for each sootblower but also for all auxiliary equipment such as fans, pumps and the valves. Pre-configured shift reports in HTML format are available for display and printing as well as a tool to generate customized data logging reports in Excel format. Real time and historical trending screens are provided for system information and diagnosis. Typical SmartControls Panel for smartCannon.