Patti Engineering Completes Automation Project at Inman Mills Plant

Patti Engineering Inc. has announced the successful completion of an automation project at the Inman Mills plant in Inman, S.C., which manufactures a wide variety of yarns and fabrics. This is the sixth textile manufacturing facility Patti Engineering has modernized with custom-designed automation technology.

Inman Mills purchased a pre-owned Autoflow system (conveyors, motors and control panels), including an obsolete electrical-control system. Inman hired Patti Engineering to design and install a state-of-the-art electrical-control system.

The latest PC hardware, Phoenix Contact’s Steeplechase Visual Logic Controller (VLC) and Iconics Graphical User Interface (GUI) software were used to build a fully integrated electrical-control system. In addition to the design and installation, Patti Engineering provided training to Inman’s maintenance personnel, operators and management team for optimal utilization of the new system to maximize production.

“Implementing cost-effective electrical-control system solutions in textile manufacturing facilities has been a growing niche for Patti Engineering, fueled by word-of-mouth referrals,” explained Sam Hoff, president of Patti Engineering. “It was a pleasure to work with Inman Mills. We were impressed with their commitment to implementation of the best automation technology.”

Patti Engineering has worked with other textile manufacturers to retrofit their existing equipment with new and more advanced electrical-control systems. Retrofits cost just pennies on the dollar compared to replacing inefficient equipment, allowing manufacturers to double the life of the system, adding an additional 15 to 20 years of run time with high reliability and a significant boost to productivity and accuracy.

Patti Engineering’s solutions include additional features not available with the original machine control. New software programs are written for better support and debug. Configurations and logging databases are incorporated to provide a better history of events to improve debug. Enhanced functionality and management capabilities are also added to run the systems more efficiently.

For more information, visit www.PattiEng.com.