Joalah Designs LLC

Joalah Designs LLC is knowledgeable about and experienced with a broad range of industrial control products from PLCs and HMIs through to Databases and Reporting systems. This is combined with a deep understanding of several programming systems and languages used in different platforms from Windows to iOS. The result is a skill set that can suggest, designs and implement solutions all the way from the factory floor to the CEOs desk.

These skill have been applied across a variety of industries including metals, paper, materials handling, municipal water and high speed manufacturing. And have been performed on four continents covering customers speaking three different languages.

A PLC is the engine that drives the customers industrial business and Joalah Designs LLC has experience in over a dozen types of PLCs from different vendors. In addition we have programmed them in every major PLC language (Ladder, SFC, FBD, ST and IL) both from scratch and by integrating new functionality into existing systems. This experience has been gained through designing, commissioning, monitoring and fault finding various examples of these PLCs, both remotely and on-site.

While the PLC may control an industrial process, it is only through the HMI that operators can see and interact with that core functionality. Joalah Designs LLC has designed and built HMI systems and displays from all the major vendors in installations that have ranged from simple single screens controlling a local function through to 250 screen systems that controlled an entire production line. This has included every HMI aspect from building tag databases, drawing graphics, employing screens and ensuring that the HMI can interface with other systems in the process.

In production process it is only through the analysis of historical data that you can monitor and tune long term trends, and these days that data is typically stored in a database, either SQL or Data Historian. Joalah Designs LLC has experience in several different database systems, from installing and designing suitable table architectures through to writing complex SQL queries needed to extract the desired data.

The world of industrial process is much more than the classical vendor supplied PLC and HMI solutions, and Joalah Designs LLC has the ability to provide solutions with non-traditional platforms. These solutions span from Windows desktop applications through to mobile and web based platforms.

While the functional result of an engineering project is an integrated collection of hardware and software, that is not the be all and end all of a project. Joalah Designs LLC knows that even before a line of code can be written or hardware selected, that the user requirements needed to be fully understood and translated into a design specification that can be successfully implemented. And that at the end of a project all the systems need to be documented and the all the users trained. Thus Joalah Designs LLC will analyze, document and train as required in order to bring a project to the best end point.

Not everyone is happy about visiting country where they don’t speak the language, but in a global economy sometimes that is what it takes to get the job done. Joalah Designs LLC has experience in working in multiple locations across the world and with disparate cultures and languages, and is happy to travel to where the work is.

A custom, multi-screen HMI that interfaces to the client's turnkey industrial process (controlled by an AB Micrologix PLC), and sold to their end user as an integral part of that process. The HMI consists of a suite of 3 Windows desktop applications that utilize C#, WPF and SQLite, and is designed to be installed and used by non-technical customers. The internal architecture features database driven configuration, multi- threaded processes and fault tolerant PLC communications. The C# code is structured to allow for easy maintenance and future expansion of the industrial process. The system was delivered with a complete user manual that documented all aspects of the HMI's installation and operation.

Mexml, a command line analysis tool that detects common programing errors in GE-IP Machine Edition (ME) PLC programs as well as exploring and documenting the code and I/O of existing programs. This product was conceived, designed and constructed by me in order to address an observed deficiency in the GE-IP ME toolset. It delivers code metrics and functionality that are not available in the ME program. The program is built with C# and makes extensive use of XML and ZIP file processing in order to scan and perform static analysis of an ME PLC program. Delivered as a Windows install file, the Mexml system includes a sample PLC project that demonstrates its functionality, as well as a complete user
manual that covers installation, program options and tips on how best to use it. Mexml is being marketed by Joalah Designs LLC as a commercial product.

Deploying the GE-IP Proficy Change Management tool, version control of GE-IP and Allen-Bradley PLCs, and CIMPLICITY HMIs was set up for several clients. This system allowed the clients to authorize only select people to modify the PLC and HMI systems, and also to track changes and approve edits before they are deployed to the field, as well as ensuring every system was backed up.

Onsite commissioning of Container Port cranes that utilized GE-IP PLCs, Pilz Safety PLCs, CIMPLICITY HMI's and SQL databases. The tasks performed included validating PLC I/O, testing and debugging of crane, HMI, camera, network and safety functionality, calibration of various sensors and general operation of the overall system.

Re-writing the PLC code for a Container Port crane that was being retrofitted with a new GE-IP PLC, network and motor drives, but retaining the same physical I/O and mechanical configuration. The code for the PLC was updated from a decades old, outdated style to the client's current code architecture and function libraries, while still retaining 100% compatibility with the existing I/O. The resultant code was tested in simulation and shown to behave as expected.

Developed a semi-auto control strategy for a Stacker/Reclaimer that controlled the machine in 3 dimensions and guided its path across a fixed size matériel field in an optimum manner, while maintaining compatibility with the machine's manual controls. The Stacker/Reclaimer used a GE-IP PLC and the code included complex math, conversions between Polar and Cartesian coordinate systems and had to accommodate the geometry of both the machine and the materiel field. A user interface was developed in GE-IP Proficy View in order to both configure, control and monitor the operation of the semi-auto mode. The system was extensively tested under simulation, and was commissioned on-site as is.

Designed and built a reporting system for a municipal water supply company. Using data recorded from a CIMPLICTY HMI System, Crystal Reports was used to generate multiple reports (in PDF format) that satisfied the regulatory reporting requirements of the company. The report generation system was deployed multiple, remote locations and included fault tolerant communications strategies to ensure that critical data would not be lost.

Developed an Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) monitoring system for a high volume manufacturer. This system recorded raw manufacturing data from multiple GE-IP PLCs via a CIMPLICTY HMI and saved it to an SQL database. Stored procedures in the database calculated production statistics such as OEE, Mean Time to Failure (MTTF), and Mean Time to Repair (MTTR). The calculated data was presented to operations staff via a GE-IP Real Time Information Portal display which allowed for the custom selection of many different reporting aspects, such as period, production line or shift.

Developed a Cognex camera targeted computer vision product that comprised: A C# based windows service, an SQL database and an ASP.Net website. Sampled images and pass/fail designations from the camera are inserted into the database. The website shows pass/fail metrics in both summary and trend formats, as well as displaying selected images. The system accumulates data from multiple cameras, supports custom processing through a “plug-in” system, and processes images in under 40ms. This system was sold as a commercial product by my client.

Developed two flow-measurement programs (NotchFlow and BucketFlow) that aid in estimating the flow of a water source through non-traditional means, and are designed for use in impoverished nations. NotchFlow calculates flow based on the measured height of water over a V-notch weir while BucketFlow uses a timed flow into a known container size. In both cases the flow is directly related to WHO health recommendations for water consumption on a per capita basis. Both programs are written in Objective-C for the iOS platform, and are available for free in Apple's AppStore.

Converted several CTC/Interact HMI systems for a client into a fully integrated Wonderware ArchestrA based InTouch HMI solution. As the CTC HMI was no longer vendor supported, this required developing solutions to decompile the CTC/Interact screens in order to fully identify the on-screen displays and animations. The data obtained from this allowed the ArchestrA solution to be designed, built, validated, and installed with a guaranteed 100% functional compatibility with the old system.

Developed a CIMPLICITY HMI system that monitored the humidity of to 400 compartments in the USS Missouri as a part of that ships conversion to a floating museum. The display featured a drill down style access through a 3D like representation of the ship ship in order to reach the a localized display for each humidity sensor. Over-Humidity alarm data was represented by colored animations at the ship, section and compartment level. In order to handle the data from 400 sensors in a standardized and reliable manner, a windows desktop application was written to directly (and automatically) build the graphics primitives for all 400 sensors points. These primitives were then dropped into the HMI edit screens as required, and were always guaranteed to reflect the entries in the HMI point database.