Opto 22 from Martindale Improves ICSystem-6

Managing fuel costs and consumption is essential in the success of today's transportation industry. The cost of fuel is often the most significant expenditure incurred by a fleet or public transportation organization. Controlling this mission-critical asset is essential to the success of any transportation business whether it be a private fleet or public transportation authority.

Integrated Command Systems (ICS) understands the complications of designing, implementing and maintaining a successful fuel and fluids management system. Their expertise with fuel and fluid management dates back to the early 1990's when they successfully engaged in designing, manufacturing and implementing an automated fueling system, for the oldest and 4th largest Transportation Authority in America, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). The MBTA provides transportation for nearly 1,000,000 passengers, fuelling some 1,600 vehicles daily. The result was the ICSystem-6 Fuel and Fluid Management System.

The ICSystem-6 includes functionality to :

• Log fuel and fluid consumption and mileage of each vehicle so that  failures can be predicted and service outages reduced
• Ensure that fuels and fluids go only into the intended vehicles
• Ensure that fuel and fluid deliveries are received in the quantities invoiced by the suppliers
• Ensure that the correct fuel and fluids are dispensed into the vehicles per manufacturers’ requirements
• Reconcile inventory levels with deliveries and usage
• Schedule maintenance at the proper intervals
• Ensure that there is no fuel or fluid leakage into the environment
• Comply with federal, state and local environmental laws and regulations

                                       
The original brain used in the ICSystem-6  was a Western Reserve Controls unit, which could only communicate via RS422 protocol. In the late 90’s ICS worked with Martindale to replace the Western unit with Opto 22’s Snap Pac Ethernet Brain.
The Opto 22 brain uses Ethernet as the communication protocol, which allowed the ICSystem-6 to more easily connect  the controllers and network devices that had previously been difficult to connect. Proprietary communicaton equipment was no longer required, which eliminated the need forspecialized dedicated communication links, and reduced the amount of communication gear necessary.  

With the Opto 22 units installed, the ICSystem-6 has been running 24 hours per day continually for the last 8 years. The improved communication ability has also allowed the system to automatically manage the fuel levels in the 20,000 gallon in-ground tanks for the first time, by integrating the fuel monitoring system with the server which manages the refueling operation.  New fuel deliveries come in 10,000 gallon increments, and the tanks cannot be allowed to fall below a minimum of 2,000 gallons in each tank to keep from damaging the internal pumps. Now the fuel deliveries are automatically allocated between tanks to keep fuel at the required levels.

According to Mark Bruno, Vice President Engineering for ICS, “The Opto 22 brains have not only allowed our system to improve the efficiency of monitoring and managing the MBTA’s fuel system, but they have been extremely reliable. We plan to use Opto 22 products wherever possible in future systems.”

Pinellas County Utilities Automates Solid Waste Recycling

As Pinellas County's Household Chemical & Electronics Recycling volume continued to grow at 30% per year, Joe Fernandez, Solid Waste Program Manager, began looking for ways to improve his recycling operation. Joe realized the paper data collection system was a major limitation, since customers had to wait in line while paper work was done, and it took temporary workers too long to learn the system. Joe's research located Martindale Associates, a manufacturing and waste systems automation company in Massachusetts, and they began discussions on ways to deal with the current limitations. "I needed a way to accommodate 30% annual growth and maintain our data collection by improving efficiencies of our current staff", said Joe.

Laurie Hall, President of Martindale, and Raul Reyes, Martindale's Director of Operations sat down with Joe and listened to his ideas, and together they began to outline an approach to simplify the tracking and analysis of waste operations. Their goals were to improve efficiency, create a menu driven mobile collection unit, enable a more user-friendly customer environment, and make it easier to analyze the sources and types of waste being recycled.

Pinellas County Utilities not only recycles household chemical and electronics waste, but they have also created a SWAP SHOP which allows people in the community to reclaim materials that are useful without additional processing. Another innovation is the implementation of a mobile collection van that goes to various locations within the county, making it easier for people to properly dispose of their hazardous wastes and electronics. According to Joe, "It would have been difficult, if not impossible, to manage these new programs without Martindale's Recycle Tracking System."

"The mobility and ease of capturing data about who is bringing in what, and who is taking what material where, has eliminated hours of time consuming paperwork; yet it allows Joe and his staff to analyze the volume, sources and types of waste quickly to decide how to allocate their resources," says Raul Reyes of Martindale.

Joe estimates the Recycle Tracking System has improved customer throughput over 300%, because the simplified software of the mobile data units allows more people to be processed. Joe's current record is over 240 customers per hour.

"The new system from Martindale has improved our level of service to customers, while allowing us to understand our material flow and optimize our resources," said Joe. "If our recycling effort grows to the level where more resources are needed, we will have the documentation to support our request."