 Chepetsk Mechanical Factory (Glazov, Udmurtiya, Russia) is the biggest Russian manufacturer of pipes from zirconium alloys for fuel elements of nuclear reactors. The main requirement for nuclear fuel element materials is the purity. In order to provide the needed quality, the unique production of reactor-purity zirconium by electrolysis of melted salts has been established at Chepetsk Mechanical Factory. The electrolysis process requires strict monitoring of the technological process, which can be ensured only by means of a modern control system.
The zirconium electrolysis control system has been developed by the engineers from Chepetsk Mechanical Factory using PC-based controllers by Octagon Systems (USA), industrial PCs by Advantech and the integrated SCADA and SOFTLOGIC-system TRACE MODE by AdAstra Research Group. It is interesting, that TRACE MODE has been used both on operator PC (SCADA/HMI) and in controllers (SOFTLOGIC). The development of the whole project has been carried out within a single development system according to the through programming technology.
As a results of implementation of the control system:
- melt temperature fluctuations have been reduced by 5 times;
- electrolyte chemical composition fluctuations have been reduced by 3 times;
- argon consumption has been reduced by 1.5 - 2 times;
With the control system costs in the amount of 2. 43 million US dollars, the process parameter stabilization has allowed to gain the total economy for 1999-2003 in the amount of 2.5 million US dollars. The actual payback period for a control system of each electrolyzer series has been equal to 1 - 1.5 years. An important role in reaching a high control system effectiveness has been played by control algorithms developed by specialists from Chepetsk Mechanical Factory and implemented in SCADA TRACE MODE software.
The SCADA & SOFTLOGIC TRACE MODE based control system has shown a high reliability. The system availability factor and the use factor have been equal to 0.984 and 0.978 respectively.
The experience gained during the use of the zirconium electrolysis control system based on the integrated SCADA/HMI and Softlogic software TRACE MODE has once again proved the effectiveness and reliability of PC-based control system.
Based on the article by V.P. Baklanov et al. "Experience of development of a control and monitoring system for the process of electrolytic production of zirconium using a Trace Mode development package. Industrial control systems and controllers, 6, 2004, p. 13-15. |
AdAstrA Research Group has released a new SCADA TRACE MODE runtime module, TRACE MODE Data Center, providing remote access to real-time control system information using web-browser via Internet/Intranet or wireless networks (GSM, GPRS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth).
New free of charge drivers for TOSHIBA TOSVERT series frequency converters are added to the TRACE MODE SCADA/HMI software and published at the AdAstra Web site for download:
On January 30, 2007, a new release of the integrated SCADA-system TRACE MODE 6.05 has been made available, both in Professional and Standard editions. 
The Krasnodar heat and power plant launched an automated control system for the 2nd power unit that was developed using SCADA TRACE MODE system and the RK-131/300M controllers.
AdAstrA Research Group, Ltd made available an external driver for Micro TRACE MODE 6 industrial controller programming system. This driver is designed to connect WinCon 8000 controller to sensors and flowmeters using a popular HART protocol. 
Like any software each TRACE MODE version has its life cycle and, after passing it, each version becomes “old”. TRACE MODE 5 is an old version. Its development was stopped in 2004.
AdAstrA Research Group announces the release of the long awaited product - TRACE MODE 6 OPC server. The new product provides access to the real time data of any servers and PLCs programmed in TRACE MODE and T-Factory.
Elna Company, the AdAstra's authorized system integrator, has developed a new serial project: the process control system for low-capacity gas-turbine power plants up to 12 MW.