Innovation System relies on Unipi Patron controllers to manage central heating plants and air handling systems. Thanks to the PLC with open software, a central platform for efficient control and monitoring of production facilities has been created, boosting energy efficiency.
The Italian company Innovation System S.r.l. specializes in designing and developing hardware and software for the control, management, and monitoring of technological systems. It focuses primarily on system integration, IoT, energy efficiency, machine learning, and Big Data.
Challenge
The customer sought a freely programmable controller to replace an old system with an unsupported protocol. It was essential for the PLC to be compatible with the customer’s software platform, OnSystem.
Solution
Unipi controllers are based on the open Linux operating system, for which Unipi also provides an application programming interface (API) that offers direct access to the controller's inputs, outputs, and communication interfaces. The API allows for quick and easy hardware integration into the customer's software or third-party solutions, making it an ideal option for software developers. Unipi's technical support is always helpful and responsive to the customer.
The Unipi Patron unit meets the requirements by providing the customer with centralized management of all central heating plants and air handling units across various locations from a single IoT platform. One primary user has access to all data, while other users have visibility into specific projects within their scope of responsibility. Thanks to centralized management, it is possible to supervise, control, and automate plants (factories with their warehouses).
The following devices are connected to the Unipi Patron unit:
- Modbus I/O expansion boards
- Actuators
- Temperature probes
- Boilers
- Pumps
The utilized software includes the customer's MQTT gateway, VPN and Codesys SoftPLC.
“Unipi allows us a supply of state-of-the-art IoT devices, perfectly in line with our needs. These devices are characterized by high flexibility and adaptability, integrating into workflows allowing us to optimize processes and ensuring high efficiency. Unipi stands out for its valuable technical support, always ready to respond to our team's needs with expertise and professionalism.“ – Simone Zanon; Software Developer, Innovation System
Next steps
The customer wants to gradually redesign all temperature and HVAC control in the production plants using this system.
Where to go next?
