Interfaces

The role of the operator has often become that of a supervisor. The monitoring room is typically located at the middle of the line.

Operator monitors the line

One operator in the sawline monitoring room can control feeding, sawline and by-product management. The operator interface consists of switches, buttons, indicator lights and numeric and graphic interfaces on computer displays.

Operaators duties include:

1. The operator selects from the automation software which recipe or driving mode to use in the situation in question.
2. After this, the operator acknowledges the instructions received from another system or enters the main parameters according to which the automation software controls the line.
3. The operator monitors the line from the monitoring room or by the side of the line. The line is monitored by direct visual observation of the process, through cameras and the automation interface.

Graphic interface and  buttons

Graphic interfaces visualise how the automation system controls the process.

Through the graphic interfaces, the operator can observe the process, adjust the line’s parameters and take any necessary control measures.

There are usually several interface displays around the line to facilitate troubleshooting and to make adjustments or servicing easier. The displays may be protected devices with a touchscreen or keyboard.

However, buttons will never be phased out of sawmills because some of the functions will always have to be operable with gloves on.

Stoppage and fault reporting

The automation system has been programmed to generate various alarms received from the machinery or raised as a result of calculations by the automation system.

Some of the alarms will lead to an automatic stoppage of the line so that restarting requires the operator to verify that the problem has been cleared and the process can carry on.

Some of the alarms indicate that a section of the process is not working properly or is out of use, but this does not necessarily ean that the line cannot be started.

The alarms are archived into a log where they can be viewed later. This can be helpful in locating existing faults and problems and to prevent them occurring again.

At the same time, the system gathers data on the line’s running time, utilisation rate and efficiency. These data can be used to generate different reports, and they can be transferred to higher systems.