Abstract : This paper briefly describes the design of attaching a remote monitoring system to a filter rod forming machine, one of the main tobacco machinery units. It also briefly introduces basic knowledge about fiber filter rod forming machines and focuses on how to implement and design the remote monitoring function for the machine. Keywords : Filter rod forming machine, Remote monitoring system, PLC In recent years, with the continuous development of cigarette production—especially the continuous improvement of automation and information management in cigarette factories—major Chinese cigarette manufacturers have been placing higher performance demands on their production equipment, such as data acquisition , expert systems, and remote monitoring functions. The realization of these functions will not only bring various conveniences to tobacco factory users, but also has urgent and practical significance for improving the technical level of design enterprises. Against this backdrop, it is particularly important to upgrade the existing filter rod forming units, transforming them from units with only single-machine control capabilities into new units with network communication capabilities, remote monitoring capabilities, and remote control functionality. I. Unit Introduction 1.1 Unit Composition of the ZL22D Fiber Filter Rod Forming Unit The ZL22D fiber filter rod forming unit is independently designed and manufactured by Shanghai Tobacco Machinery Co., Ltd. It is a filter rod forming unit with advanced world-class technology at the end of the 20th century, possessing relatively high production capacity and high reliability. It is an automatic filter rod production line integrating fiber tow opening, forming, and tray loading, with a design capacity of 400m/min (or 4000 pieces/min). The ZL22D unit consists of a YL12D opening and gluing machine, a YL22D filter rod forming machine, and a YJ35 filter rod tray loading machine. The YL12D type opening and gluing machine unfolds, loosens, eliminates curling, and reassembles the cellulose acetate tow, then coats the evenly unfolded tow with a plasticizer (common plasticizers include triacetin); the YL22D type filter rod forming machine wraps the treated cellulose acetate tow with filter paper, shapes and cuts it according to specified requirements, and transports it to the tray loading machine via a smoke separator to complete the entire production process from tow to filter rod; the YJ35 filter rod tray loading machine loads the filter rods that have completed the forming process onto trays. 1.2 Process Flow of ZL22D Fiber Filter Rod Forming Unit The process flow of the ZL22D fiber filter rod forming unit is briefly described in Figure 2. It generally consists of eight steps: material preparation, fiber tow opening, application of plasticizer, winding and forming, cutting, boxing, storage and curing, and packaging. 1.3 Electrical Control and Transmission System of ZL22D Fiber Filter Rod Forming Unit The electrical control and transmission system of the ZL22D fiber filter rod forming unit adopts a servo system from Lenze, a touch screen control panel from Digital, and a PLC from Siemens, controlled via MPI and DP communication respectively. Its basic block diagram is shown in Figure 3. II. Scheme Design and Implementation 2.1 Theoretical Design Since the original system's electrical control unit was a Siemens S7-300 PLC, it is still used as the controller of the unit's electrical control system. Therefore, its data acquisition and remote monitoring system uses the matching S7-300 series network communication (CP343 module) for data extraction and transmission. While this design utilizes industrial Ethernet for shallow TCP/IP communication, it offers advantages such as data universality and ease of use. Although this results in relatively lower network transmission efficiency, this drawback is entirely compensated for by the other advantages of fiber optic networks. However, unlike in other countries, many Chinese companies do not have large-scale copper communication networks for their local area networks (LANs), instead using fiber optic networks as the backbone for each LAN. Therefore, the design does not use network communication modules like the CP340, but rather the CP343 series. However, using the CP343 series network modules, which rely on fixed IP addresses, requires the user company to have its own independent VPN (Virtual Private Network). But because such network systems are often expensive, only a few cigarette factories in China have configured such networks with fixed IP addresses, while most cigarette factories use WANs without fixed IP addresses. This limits the applicability of the CP343 module to remote monitoring within a company's LAN, preventing remote monitoring over a WAN. Therefore, other methods must be used for remote monitoring over a WAN. Meanwhile, the development of the Internet in recent years has shown diversity, with the number of industrial system buses alone increasing from 6 to 22. This diversity means that the final form of the network backbone is not yet determined. For example, the development of high-speed and ultra-high-speed networks such as 3G and 3T networks is very likely to replace the current backbone network composed of ordinary optical fibers. Based on various considerations, using ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) instead of optical fiber networks, which is based on the telephone communication network IDN, is clearly a more practical and feasible way to achieve wide area network (WAN) remote communication. 2.2 Specific Solution 2.2.1 Remote Monitoring of LAN Using CP343-IT Module Without making large-scale adjustments to the original central control system of the unit, this design adds an S7-300 CP343-IT as a communication station. This communication module communicates with the CPU through the S7-300 rear connector. It uses SMATIC Manager software to set a fixed IP address and communicates with the user's company's LAN through a TCP/IP communication port. The software used in the design is STEP7 V5.4 and SMATIC NET 6.4; the main hardware used is S7-300 CPU315-2DP and S7-300 CP343-IT. 2.2.2 Using INSPEC as the host computer configuration software: In this design, since the host computer is an industrial panel PC—TPC1261H—manufactured by Advantech, after comparison and analysis, the INSPEC general configuration software from Beijing Jiusiyi Technology Co., Ltd. was adopted. Considering factors such as stable system operation, the adoption of "hard real-time response," and prevention of computer viruses, the design did not use the Windows® 2000 Professional operating system, but instead installed the Windows XP embedded operating system. At the same time, the differences between hardware and software dongles were compared, and the software dongle was embedded in the operating system. Furthermore, considering potential data exchange issues related to user data acquisition, the small relational database software Microsoft® Access was used as the storage and access platform for unit production parameters, while the large relational database SQL Server was used as the storage and access platform for unit status information and production information. The software used in the design is Windows XP embedded, INSPEC2007, Microsoft® Access, and Microsoft® SQL Server2005; the main hardware used is Advantech TPC1261H. 2.2.3 Remote Monitoring Method for Wide Area Networks Using TS Adapter II Module Remote communication across wide area networks utilizes the telephone IDN network. In this design, the S7-300 CPU315-2DP is used as the remote station, with its MPI communication port for communication with the TS Adapter II, and its Profibus-DP communication port for communication with other devices (such as servo systems). The PC/PG communicates with the TS Adapter II via an external modem. The software used in the design is STEP7 V5.4 and Teleservice V5.2; the hardware used is the S7-300 CPU315-2DP, TS adapter II, and an external modem. IV. Conclusion The new control system comprehensively improves the overall performance of the fiber filter rod forming unit, and the control functions are perfected and enhanced. The original unit, which was controlled by the S7-300 PLC system and lacked network communication and remote monitoring capabilities, was upgraded to a new type of unit with remote monitoring capabilities. This greatly improved the competitiveness of the ZL22D fiber filter rod forming unit and it is bound to become the mainstream model of domestic units. References [1] Huang Shuwu and Yang Yiping, eds., Computer Network Engineering Tutorial, Tsinghua University Press [2] Hu Shousong, ed., Automatic Control Principles (3rd Edition), National Defense Industry Press [3] SIEMENS SIMATIC STEP7 Programming Manual, Siemens (China) Co., Ltd. [4] SIEMENS SIMATIC NET Manual, Siemens (China) Co., Ltd. [5] SIEMENS SIMATIC TS Adapter II Manual, Siemens (China) Co., Ltd. [6] EasyControl INSPEC General Configuration Software User Manual, Beijing Jiusiyi Technology Co., Ltd.