Automation and Controls
PLC, HMI, and SCADA Integration for Beverage and Food Plants
PLC HMI integration is where controls projects succeed or quietly fail: tags, screens, and alarms have to tell one coherent story, the discipline ISA-101 exists to enforce. Code that passes in the panel shop can still fall apart on the floor. Operators work around the screens instead of through them, alarms turn into noise, and nobody can say what “accepted” actually means. Solon builds controls outward from the process being controlled, then proves the system with written acceptance criteria before you sign for it.
PLC HMI Integration Approach
Scope of work
What a Controls Package Should Contain
Automation work is not finished when the program compiles. It is finished when a trained operator can run the plant through it on a bad day. These are the deliverables Solon produces, and what each one is for.
Control narrative
Sequences, states, permissives, interlocks, and fault handling written down in plain language before anyone writes code. It is the document that keeps the logic tied to the real process, and the reference you use when the integrator and the brewer disagree.
IO list and panel design
Tag structure, device schedule, instrument ranges, network topology, and panel layout. Getting this right on paper is what removes the field changes, the surprise conduit runs, and the startup arguments about what a signal was supposed to mean.
HMI and alarm design
Screens organized around the tasks an operator actually performs, with setpoints where they are needed and trends that answer the next question. Alarms are prioritized and rationalized so the ones that matter are not buried under the ones that do not.
SCADA, historian, and reporting
Supervisory screens, data paths, retention, batch and utility reporting, and clear rules for remote access. The point is to turn signals into something a production meeting can use.
FAT, SAT, and commissioning
Written test scripts and acceptance criteria, run in the panel shop and again in your plant, with a punch list that closes. Commissioning becomes measurable instead of improvised.
Operator training and handoff
Training on the system as built, not the system as drawn, plus the documentation set your team keeps: narrative, IO list, screen map, alarm list, and backups of the final program.
Instrumentation and architecture
How Solon Specifies the Hardware Layer
Screens are the visible part of a controls project. What determines whether it holds up is the layer underneath: what you measure, how the signal gets to the controller, and what the controller is allowed to move.
Instrumentation that matches the process
Turbidity, temperature, pressure, level, flow, and conductivity instruments selected for the actual range and duty of the application, sanitary where the product contacts them, and specified with the calibration and verification method you will use later.
Digital device networks
IO-Link and industrial Ethernet architectures that carry device data and diagnostics rather than just a raw signal, so a drifting sensor can be identified from the control room instead of found during a failed batch.
Final control elements
Actuated butterfly and seat valves, solenoid banks, pumps, and drives sized and fail-state selected on purpose. A valve that defaults closed on a loss of air or power is a design decision, not an accident.
Controller and panel selection
Compact PLC and integrated HMI platforms for single-system automation, scaling to full PLC and SCADA architectures for plant-wide control, with panel design, enclosure ratings, and power distribution documented for the electrician who has to build it.
Past performance
Controls Work Solon Has Delivered
Every item below is work Solon performed directly, from panel and program through startup and operator handoff.
Idle Brewing — San Antonio, Texas
Serving as production project manager for Pouring with Heart, Solon sourced, managed, and installed the production equipment and delivered the operator interface shown above: live system temperature and pressure, and independent temperature readback and setpoint control for three fermentation vessels and a brite tank, with the brewery’s own branding on the screen.
FMN Brewery — international
Process flow design and equipment specification across a cross-border supply chain, then PLC design, programming, and commissioning, local control stations, operator training, and the regulatory coordination the import and installation required.
Old Gregg Brewing — Austin, Texas
Facility planning and equipment selection through glycol and hot liquor system design, PLC controls, commissioning, and startup, taking the project from business planning and permitting to a first commercial batch.
Balanced Rock Brewery
Acting as the owner’s technical representative through construction: design management, coordination between the MEP and controls trades, integration of glycol, hot water, compressed air, and drains, then startup sequencing, punch list, and production-readiness verification.
Augusta Vin
Cellar cooling system design and installation for a working winery, including the temperature control and instrumentation the cellar depends on through harvest.
Stay Put Brewing — Austin, Texas
Engineering and architectural consulting alongside the owner’s engineers, architect, project managers, and construction team, including advising the rigging crews and installing equipment-specific cooling systems by hand.
Related work
Where Automation Fits With the Rest of the Project
Controls problems are often symptoms. If any of the following sounds closer to your situation, start there instead.
Automation strategy and architecture
Start here if the decision in front of you is owner-side: what to automate first, how the architecture should be laid out, what to require of an integrator, and what the automation is supposed to return.
Process engineering
Start here if the controls symptoms trace back to flow, utility sizing, sanitation, or the order equipment operates in. No amount of programming fixes a line that was never balanced.
Project management and commissioning
Start here if the work needs field coordination, trade sequencing, acceptance testing, and someone accountable for a startup date.
Common Automation Questions
Can Solon help before the integrator writes any code?
That is the best time to involve us. Control narratives, IO lists, screen layouts, alarm priorities, data requirements, and acceptance criteria are inexpensive to settle on paper and expensive to renegotiate during a rushed commissioning. Owners who define these first get a shorter startup and a smaller change-order list.
Can you take over a controls project that is already in trouble?
Yes. Solon has stepped in as the owner’s technical representative mid-construction, reconciled what was designed against what was installed, coordinated the controls and MEP trades, and driven the punch list to a verified production start.
What if the problem turns out not to be automation?
Then we say so. Controls symptoms regularly trace back to process sequence, equipment selection, sanitation design, utility sizing, operator training, or project management gaps, and Solon covers those disciplines as well rather than programming around the real cause.
Do you work on existing systems or only new builds?
Both. Retrofits, additions, alarm cleanups, HMI redesigns, historian and reporting work, and program documentation on systems that were never handed over properly are all routine.
Will our team own the program and documentation when you leave?
Yes. Handoff includes the final program backup, control narrative, IO list, screen map, alarm list, and test records. You should never be locked out of your own plant by the people who automated it.
Bring the Control Problem Into a Practical Scope
Send the system, the equipment, the signals you have, the screens you are stuck with, and the startup date you are working against. Solon will help separate what has to be engineered from what only has to be decided.