For DelaControl, a fast-growing company in the industrial heart of Bristol in the southwest of England, turnkey solution isn’t just another buzzword. It’s the founding principle of the company, and one which guides its notable rise within the canning industry and beyond.

The brainchild of two highly experienced Design Control Systems’ engineers, DelaControl was founded in 2017 with a mission to design, build and deploy control systems worldwide. After years of experience taking them across the world, working on projects from control system installations within the canning industry to control system design on large maritime defence projects, the founders spotted an opportunity. They decided to form an organisation which eliminates the need for a patch-work of organisations across control system design and installation, bringing design, build, testing and installation under one roof. 

Since its foundation, DelaControl has gone from strength to strength, and the recent acquisition of a new premises has allowed larger-scale projects to commence. Several multi-national organisations are now valued customers, and it’s easy to see why.

Starting with design, DelaControl boasts a highly qualified and experienced design team, able to offer the full spectrum of electrical design from schematics through to comprehensive field cable schedules. Prior experience on large UK defence and nuclear projects has equipped the senior leadership team with the credentials and experience to instil robust design philosophies in everything they do.

The user-centric approach

The company aims to further its design capabilities by drastically improving install times for can washers and ovens. This ambition is rooted in a core principle of the organisation: putting the end user first by using a comprehensive, holistic knowledge of the process to minimise risk and maximise efficiency.

This user-centric approach is central to its testing philosophy; something that DelaControl considers to be the jewel in its crown. The company takes a very simple approach to this: work with OEMs to supply control systems that are fully tested before they leave the workshop, using top quality test equipment and like-for-like field equipment.

In a recently completed project, the company supplied control systems for a line of can washers and ovens to a flagship plant, operated by a large multi-national organisation. With an in-depth understanding of the line, commissioning and plant ecosystem, experts at DelaControl were able to identify the most critical elements of the supplied systems and test with identical motors, encoders and field equipment while in-situ at its headquarters. This effectively commissioned the system before it arrived on site. 

Minimising risk for the canning industry

The founders realised that the canning industry has grown to accept a level of risk which need not be accepted. This comprehensive approach to testing is having a drastic impact on the risk profiles of highly complex projects; using this method, commissioning time scales can be greatly reduced, and end users can start production on, or ahead of, time. Ever heard of the phrase ‘everyone’s a winner’?

Moving to the workshop, DelaControl has a multi-disciplinary team, staffed by skilled technicians who are experienced in all aspects of panel fitting, wiring and testing. The facilities are operated in accordance with quality standard ISO 9001:2015, inspiring confidence that the system will stand the test of time. The team are also globally mobile, and have extensive experience installing and commissioning systems in plants across the world.

A fantastic example of the turnkey solutions DelaControl offers can be taken from a recent project, delivering large multi-bay panels for a significant multi-national organisation. As well as design and build, which took place in the Bristol headquarters, the team generated the software, and deployed to site for a number of days to commission the line until production had started. 

Why is this important? On-site, first-hand experience gives DelaControl’s people a recognition of critical failure points especially in new canning plants and helps them to develop special relationships with OEM engineering teams and product end users. This product and industry knowledge can be gathered in no other way and contributes to a culture of continuous improvement at the organisation.

Learned on-site knowledge is continually fed into ongoing projects, allowing for designs that account for known issues and testing that targets previous areas of failure or complication. After all, testing is an infinite process of comparing the invisible to the ambiguous in order to avoid the unthinkable happening to the anonymous.

Another strand of DelaControl’s comprehensive capabilities is software provision. Regardless of the complexity of the control process or the platform required, the organisation can supply software specifically designed to complement and support the hardware. This is critical to keeping things running smoothly. 

Keeping pace with surging demand within supply constraints

In a world experiencing burgeoning demand within existing supply constraints, DelaControl is the organisation with an answer. The software team can design and build user-friendly software that improves operator efficiency and safety, and reduces downtime. The organisation’s HMI/SCADA capabilities enable data collection and reporting, process and system visualisation and fault handling and machine maintenance. While companies are increasingly looking towards digital twins and predictive maintenance programmes as part of Industry 4.0, DelaControl is perfectly placed to bring your organisation firmly into the present, with clear objectives on how to improve its future.

Recent successes and contract wins have allowed the company to start thinking deeply about its future, and how it can continue to be a responsible local employer. As well as a dedicated Business Manager studying Business Administration and Improvement as part of a degree apprenticeship programme, the company has employed a local person through the UK government’s Kickstart Scheme. This scheme has provided access to a bank of local individuals who are hungry for opportunities, subsequently training them to become highly skilled engineering professionals. This approach to recruitment has cultivated a strong and dedicated team.

To complete DelaControl’s comprehensive offering to industry, supplementary services such as contract commissioning, design substantiation and technical documentation provision are available.

It’s rare that an organisation can claim true turnkey capability, but by championing a vision to change the ethos of control systems solutions and build a sustainable multi-disciplinary organisation, DelaControl has built an exciting proposition.