ABB Freelance DCS
ABB Freelance DCS: design, panels, upgrades and support
Our engineering team is an ABB Freelance DCS integrator. We design and program Freelance systems, build their panels in our own UL 508A shop, upgrade and extend existing installations, and keep supporting them on site long after start-up.
Freelance, briefly
Freelance is ABB's compact distributed control system (DCS). Its controllers, I/O, operator stations and one engineering environment are set up as a single system, so the control logic, the screens and the alarms are configured together.
It suits a process plant that has outgrown a collection of separate machine PLCs. Not every job needs it: the team chooses the architecture that fits, whether that is a PLC, Freelance, or a combination of the two. How design-build works →
What we do on Freelance projects
- System and I/O design. Control architecture and electrical design worked out from the plant's I/O list and drawings, with schematics, terminal maps and a final as-built drawing set.
- Panels from our own UL 508A shop. Freelance AC 800F and AC 700F controllers, and ABB S800 I/O linked over PROFIBUS, in panels built and checked in our Brookfield shop. PLC and HMI control panels, on grossmfg.com →
- Programming and operator screens. Control logic and interlocking, operator displays and trends, data archiving, and the link between the DCS and a plant historian.
- Upgrades and migrations. Staged moves from older Freelance I/O to S800 I/O, software brought up to the current Freelance release under ABB software service contracts, and PLC and SCADA replacements.
- Extensions. New process units and machines added to a running system, reusing the original design and code where they fit.
- Start-up, commissioning and shutdowns. Commissioning on site, and programming support during planned shutdowns, including changes that come out of process hazard analysis (PHA) reviews. Start-up and field service →
- Training and long-term support. Training for plant staff, multi-year Freelance support agreements, regular maintenance visits, same-day help during an outage start-up, and S800 I/O supplied from a plant's own parts list.
Where our Freelance systems run
The Freelance projects in our case studies cover chemical production, a food-cultures producer's freeze dryers and a high-power electrical test facility. We also supply and support the S800 I/O behind an oilseed processor's DCS.
Food, beverage, dairy and life-science plants have their own site, covering batch and recipe control: Freelance DCS for food and beverage → and migrations to Freelance →
Freelance projects
- More than fifteen years of DCS support at a chemical plant: panels, an I/O migration, programming, shutdown support, training and care agreements.
- Freelance DCS control panels for a high-power test facility: a set of panels designed from the customer's I/O list and delivered in stages, with the software brought to the current release.
- Freelance controls for a cultures producer's freeze dryers: one operator station for every dryer, extended dryer by dryer.
Starting a Freelance project
- The system today. The Freelance release, controllers and I/O, or the PLCs and panels you want to move off.
- What has to change. A new process unit, an upgrade, a migration, or support for what already runs.
- Drawings and I/O lists. Whatever exists, even if it is out of date.
- The window. Planned shutdowns, and the date you are working toward.