The production monitoring system was launched at the Dzerzhinsk chemical plant "Okapol" with the grant support of the Nizhny Novgorod Scientific and Educational Center (REC). The company produces functionalized polymers for industry using its own technologies.
The company is a participant of the Nizhny Novgorod REC and with its idea of modernization of production at the end of 2022 won the competition of scientific and technological projects. In total, 20 scientific and technological projects fought for the right to receive support from the state.
"An independent examination of the projects was carried out. Their relevance, innovativeness and competitiveness were evaluated. Twelve winning projects were approved by the competition commission chaired by Deputy Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region Andrey Sanosyan. Now they are being implemented at Nizhny Novgorod enterprises under the control of the REC.
The Dzerzhinsk company has already received the first results," said Timur Khalitov, Director of the Nizhny Novgorod REC, adviser to the Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod Region on investments and innovations.
The Okapol plant won the grant competition with the project "Development of a system for monitoring the innovative process of production of functionalized polymers". The Alterozoom-IoT software and hardware complex, developed by Drugm together with Lobachevsky National Research University for the enterprise, allows replacing products that were previously supplied only by foreign companies (Yokogawa, Simens, Cisco and others).
The system, which includes many sensors connected to a computer, is designed to track the operation of the conveyor. From all the nodes of the production line, information about the chemical processes taking place at this second flows into the program. The collected data in
in a form convenient for the operator, they are displayed on the screen and stored in the computer memory.
"This project is an example of how, with the support of the REC, we are moving towards import substitution of all elements of production. It is small and medium-sized enterprises of low-tonnage chemistry that now have to replace a lot of products that previously had no Russian roots. Now is the right time to create your own," said Alexey Umnov, one of the developers of the complex, head of the Laboratory of Physical Foundations and Wireless Communication Technologies of the Radiophysics Faculty of the Lobachevsky University.
Prior to the introduction of the automatic monitoring system, the operation of the polymer production conveyor at the plant was controlled manually. Every half hour
the operator on duty recorded the readings of all instruments in a log. The automatic monitoring system makes it possible to eliminate the human factor, as a result, minimize the percentage of defects and increase labor productivity.
"Import substitution in Russia needs, first of all, technological. The question is how to "marry" research teams that speak their own language and industrialists who speak their own.
Here, the REC site, of course, shows its importance by acting as a coordinator of this interaction," said Dmitry Ogorodtsev, General Director of the Okapol plant.
The authors of the project have patented the hardware and software complex, and in the future it is planned to replicate the experience of its implementation at other small-tonnage chemical enterprises in Russia. There are also plans to export the development to other countries.
