Blueprint for installation and commissioning

Drawings are critical for commissioning of an installation. Overall, the drawings of an automation system put everyone on the same page.

Equipment drawings show controls engineers that programmers use I/O to understand how to program. Electricians use drawings to know how to wire. Commissioning engineers use drawings to know how to validate a circuit.

There are also power drawings and construction drawings and conduit schedules and network drawings. This is included in bid packages and construction drawings.

What should a construction package include?

• general arrangement (GA) drawings—overall machine footprint, clearances, access zones, maintenance envelopes, anchor locations and baseplate details and utility entry points for power, air, water and drains
• mechanical installation drawings—assembly details, mounting hardware specifications, weldments, brackets, guards and structural supports, torque specs and alignment tolerances, pneumatic/hydraulic schematics
• electrical drawings—one line diagrams, panel layouts, I/O schematics, cable routing plans, conduit schedules, grounding and bonding requirements
• network architecture—IP addressing plan, VLANs or segmented networks, switch configurations, device naming conventions and cybersecurity requirements for firewalls and access control
• programmable logic controller (PLC) and controls documentation—I/O list with tag names, device descriptions, safety circuits for F devices, ProfiSafe and CIP Safety, sensor/actuator specifications, control philosophy or sequence of operations (SOO)
• safety documentation—risk assessment, guarding layouts, safety circuit validation plan, lockout/tagout points, required safety distances for light curtains and scanners
• utility requirements—electrical load, air consumption and quality, water flow/pressure, vacuum specs and heat rejection
• bill of materials (BOM)—all components, spare parts list, vendor documentation and certifications, such as  UL and CE
• installation instructions and standards—step-by-step installation sequence, torque values, alignment procedures, applicable standards such as NFPA 79, NEC, ISO and IEC, quality checks and inspection points.

However, they are not the be-all and end-all. If drawings are incomplete, then infrastructure and ancillary functions for a machine are not well-depicted. The purpose of a construction drawing package is to show what is being built and how it should be installed. The drawings also should reference demarcations for installation that require interface with current systems and new systems.

What is being built?

Equipment drawings show what the integrator is delivering to be installed and what can be expected. This should match up to the purpose of the cabinet or machine. It should be correlated to inputs and outputs to that box. Internal demarcations should be marked to indicate what the customer is responsible to interface with. When looking at this for construction, this includes power, disconnects and any other ancillary sources needed to run the cabinet or equipment. This includes power, air, water and network interfaces. A commissioning engineer should know the cabinet takes “x” full-load Amps (FLAs) and should be able to correlate those FLAs to the power interface.

How to install the equipment

Installation drawings should depict tray and conduit routes, interfaces and network devices. It should include terminations and cable schedules. It should not be a concept of a plan. Installation drawings should match bid drawings for equipment. Many times, they do not.

Pre-commissioning activity requires corresponding conductor installations prior to install. Project planning requires doing this ahead of time if you expect success.

This also includes placement of equipment on the floor and making sure there is space to accommodate. Otherwise, equipment will interfere, or there will not be room for fork trucks or space for material to load and unload.

What is the interface between old and new systems?

The only way to understand the interface between old and new systems is comparing old drawings to new drawings if this is a system update. If it is a new machine being added, then it is a matter of seeing which utilities and ancillary sources are required for the machine and accommodating needs for installation.

What are the criteria to meet?

Installation criteria must be defined based on inputs and outputs to the system. This includes power, water, air and networks. Infrastructure requirements may be needed. Fireproofing may be needed. Trays may require structural upgrades.

Get your subscription to Control Design’s daily newsletter.

These are the types of questions that beg for installation reviews and not just handing over drawings for bid or relying on internal engineers to look at drawings. How much these criteria are defined and how well they’re analyzed will determine commissioning success. Physical, mechanical, electrical and safety interfaces are required.

Where is the equipment being installed? Measurements for clearances, electrical feeds, network feeds, structural obstructions to work around and fire-retardation systems are some of the things that can be part of installing a control system or a machine.

Another example is networking. As systems become more dependent on networks, the network infrastructure and IT involvement must be preplanned. Ethernet standards require 300 ft. Thus, pre-installation planning requires validating that construction and equipment drawings meet project requirements for installation.

IT is only one customer that uses install drawings. Mechanically, install drawings are used to make sure there are not interferences. Safety uses it for validation of walkways and handrails and egress.

Drawings have many purposes. They get everyone involved in a project on the same page. Drawings also include bills of materials. Without a good set of drawings, installation and commissioning will fail. This means having a complete drawing package to include installation, demarcations, network and equipment drawings. The equipment drawings and installation drawings are inputs to a commissioning plan and commissioning should result in mark-ups of the drawings.

Drawings should be a living document and in a constant cycle of validation. Each time a drawing is revised for the state of the project, it should be updated and reviewed. This means initial design, pre-installation, installation or equipment manufacturing, post-installation or as-built and then as-commissioned. Final drawings should be solidified after install, and a working copy left on the plant floor.

In general, the reasoning behind construction and installation drawings is to make sure that all involved disciplines in the machine building and installation arena arrive at the same place. This means that mechanical, electrical, controls, safety, IT/OT and operations must converge on one target: successfully commissioning the machine.

A good drawing package will have fewer field changes, beget faster debugging and reduce risks of failure. Knowing what the expectation is, then there should be a predictable startup and accountability for what was designed, what is installed and what must be tested.

Drawings should be an input to the commissioning test plan. This checklist is paramount for a successful commissioning of a machine, whether brownfield or greenfield.