Building Products Automation for Kilns, Dryers and OEM Machines

We program continuous thermal plant from the P&ID and a short conversation rather than a long functional specification, then document the control philosophy as we build it. For kilns and dryers that means stabilising the loops that govern product quality: temperature and pressure profiles along the kiln, combustion and burner control, fan and damper duty, and the transfer sequences that move green and fired product without blockage or damage.

For OEM machine builders, PLC code and HMIs are structured so one machine design can be configured for each customer rather than rewritten. Recipes hold the product parameters, the HMI is built around how operators set up and run the machine, and the logic is tested in the builder's workshop before shipping. For JC Smale, that approach let the controls keep pace with a brick texturing machine whose mechanical design was still changing, with commissioning support at the workshop and the end-customer site.

Legacy kiln and machine controls are migrated in stages, with existing logic reviewed and carried across rather than guessed at, I/O verified against the field and commissioning planned with fallback paths so production risk stays controlled.

Production, utility and condition data is collected from kilns, dryers and high-duty equipment so energy use, downtime and wear are visible. At Austral Bricks, a certificate-secured MQTT implementation gave the site a validated reference for broader condition monitoring rollout.