CIP Station Modernisation – Xinje TG HMI Panel

CIP station modernisation in a dairy plant – a project to replace a damaged Siemens HMI panel with a Xinje TG series panel, carried out by Automation Dariusz Kulik. The CIP station modernisation (Clean In Place – automatic system washing) involved recreating the existing process visualisation on the new panel without any changes to the PLC controller or plant infrastructure. The project demonstrated that dairy CIP station modernisation with a Xinje TG panel is a cost-effective and rapid alternative to expensive original Siemens hardware replacement.

CIP Station Modernisation – The Challenge

The CIP (Clean In Place) station is a critical component of the dairy production line, responsible for the automated cleaning of process installations. Failure of the Siemens HMI panel at the CIP station halted the cleaning cycle and risked microbiological contamination of the installation. Replacement with an original Siemens panel involved high costs and lengthy delivery times. The client chose CIP station modernisation using a Xinje TG panel as an economical and rapidly available alternative.

Xinje TG Panel as a Siemens Replacement – Technical Solution

The Xinje TG series HMI panel used in the dairy CIP station modernisation offers a colour touchscreen, a wide range of communication protocols (Modbus RTU/TCP, PROFIBUS, Ethernet) and an intuitive TGpro programming environment. The CIP station modernisation covered: full recreation of existing CIP process washing screens (temperature, flow, phases), retention of all alarms and data history, and reprogramming of communication with the existing Siemens S7 PLC. The Xinje TG panel has operated in the dairy industrial environment without issues since commissioning.

Results of the CIP Station Modernisation with Xinje Panel

The dairy CIP station modernisation using the Xinje TG panel delivered: approximately 70% cost savings compared to the original Siemens panel price, project completion in under one week from order, full functionality and identical visualisation appearance, and no operator retraining required for the CIP station. This CIP station modernisation is an example of the effective use of Xinje panels as replacements for more expensive HMI platforms.

Project Details

The customer had a Siemens panel that was damaged, and replacing it would have been very costly. He decided to use a Xinje TG series panel as a solution. The upgrade involved creating an identical visualisation from the damaged panel and running it on the Xinje panel.

CIP technological washing station

Main features of the solution:

• replacement of the Siemens operator panel with Xinje,
• maintaining full functionality of the target visualisation while increasing its readability thanks to the use of a larger screen,
• modernisation of the station with additional types of washing,
• communication with the S7-300 controller via Ethernet protocol.

Schematic diagram of the car wash modernisation

Modernisation

The visualisation on the Xinje operator panel was transferred from the Siemens OP177a panel to the TG 765-ET series panel, with Ethernet protocol support. Communication between the panel and the S7-300 controller was established via the PROFINet protocol. The full functionality of the washing station was recreated on the Xinje panel, and in the next stage, an additional washing programme was added at the customer’s request.

Siemens panel at the washing station

Thanks to scripts written in C on the Xinje panel, it was possible to reproduce advanced visualisation from the Siemens panel. In addition, these scripts allowed for the addition of an extra washing programme without the need to modify the programme in the S7-300 PLC controller. The settings for the extra washing programme are stored in the panel’s memory registers, and the extra programme is based on the existing one, replacing the parameters stored in the controller’s memory.

TG Xinje panel at the washing station