REAL Controls provides turnkey automation and control systems for industrial, commercial and research applications. Each project starts with identifying the client’s wants and needs for the new system. Then we develop the design documents including wiring schematics, panel layout drawings and a bill-of-material. These documents are provided to our clients for review and approval.

Once the design has been approved, we purchase the new hardware and fabricate the electrical panels to house the control hardware. As the panels are being built, we develop sample HMI screens for our clients. This gives our clients a chance for hands-on interaction with the system before any significant amount of code is written.

Once the hardware and software has been finished we go to the customer’s site for installation and commissioning. Once the system is working properly, we provide training on the use and operation of the new system.

At the end of the project we provide complete documentation for the project including as-built drawings and the source code for any software that we’ve developed. Our clients always have the option to come back to us for future system changes but they also have the option to give the documentation to another control system integrator if they so choose.

Our automation and control system capabilities include the following:

  • Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC’s) including Allen Bradley, Siemens and Automation Direct brands.
  • Human-Machine-Interfaces (HMI’s) which includes all major brands, PC based systems and conventional switch and indicator light systems. Each HMI is customized to the specific needs of our clients.
  • Data Acquisition systems for both low data collection rates and very high speed rates. We’ve done systems approaching one-million data samples-per-second acquisition rates.
  • Custom PC based systems that we develop with National Instruments LabVIEW software.
  • Real Time and Floating Point Gate Array (FPGA) systems including the high speed cRIO systems from National Instruments Corporation.
  • Conventional, hard-wired relay logic systems because sometimes a PLC is overkill.
  • Third party equipment integration for clients who want to interface their serial or Ethernet based test equipment into the control system.

Chiller Control

Chilled water is used to cool large electrical power generators.  Loss of water flow could cause a catastrophic failure of the generators. The system operates on a 24 hour-per-day basis. Relying on a human operator to react to a failure was too costly so an automated control system was developed to monitor critical parameters within the system and react when a problem was identified. Various pressure, temperatures and flow rates are monitored continuously. Water temperature and flow rates are regulated to compensate for varying generator loads. Standby pumps and control valves are used to attempt to correct equipment issues. Alarms alert the operator when a problem does occur.

MW Grinder

The MW grinder automatically controls three axes of motion of the grinding process as well as the pressure applied by the grinding wheel. This allows the operator to easily grind a variety of shapes such as the cylinder being processed here.

Sealant Machine

This machine applies a sealant to small threaded parts. It includes a curing oven for the sealant and a material handling system to move the through the process. Sensors confirm that the parts are in place and ready for sealant to be applied thereby minimizing material waste. At the end of the process, the parts are loaded into boxes ready for shipment.

Strength Test System

INRTEK manufactures, installs and provides analytical services for strength testing machines that are used to assess job applicant’s ability to perform work activity that involves heavy lifting or strenuous activity. REAL Controls developed a LabVIEW application that includes a configurable test sequence development module, a machine calibration module, a client database module and a step-by-step test sequence module. The software communicates to a programmable logic controller to control the machine and it uses a high speed data acquisition card to acquire data during a test. The operator of the system simply follows the detailed directions provided on the screen for each step of the test sequence. The data is acquired and presented to the operator in real time as the test is performed. At the completion of the test the data is automatically transmitted to INRTEK’s headquarters via the Internet for final analysis.

Surface Grinder

Several of these surface grinding machines have been converted from manual control to automatic control. Once the equipment operator interactively sets the boundaries of the slab, the machine autonomously finish grinds the entire slab. One operator can now run up to three machines at the same time. Prior to the upgrade each machine required its own operator.