Wrights Food Group, producers and suppliers of quality wholesome food, is benefitting from Sontay’s sophisticated SonNet wireless sensing technology. The innovative wireless system is improving energy efficiency and reducing costs for the company’s new £6m confectionery site in Crewe and maintaining its reputation for producing exceptional ready meals, desserts, cakes, traditional pasties and pies.

Wrights Food Group’s £20m Crewe bakery complex is capable of producing more than five million savoury products every week and its higher level Grade A BRC accreditation confirms that its quality and technical systems are cutting edge.

Factories producing food and dealing with produce are required to maintain conditions within strict tolerance for compliance with legislation set by the Food Standards Agency. The Crewe bakery required a temperature monitoring system that offered complete flexibility and was able to provide a continuous record of temperatures to demonstrate due diligence to the Food Standards Agency. To answer these needs a Centraline building management system (BMS) based upon the Niagara AX Framework was installed, which incorporates 22 Sontay SonNet wireless sensors. The installation was undertaken by controls specialists, Eclipse Control Engineering from Cheshire.

The sensors were installed across the factory in a number or controlled food production and storage environments. The majority of areas where SonNet sensors have been installed are kept at low temperatures, for example cold stores and freezers, and it was vital they maintained the correct temperature.

“Sontay’s SonNet wireless system was perfect for Wrights because as well as maintaining an accurate temperature, they can cope with the demanding conditions. The integrity of the sensor housing is challenged due to the intense cleaning regime the factory is required to maintain to meet hygiene standards, and with SonNet this is not a problem. Another benefit of SonNet is that we were able to integrate it with other systems to create a hybrid arrangement using a number of open protocol devices from different manufacturers and deliver a solution that met the client’s needs.”
Wayne Murray Director Eclipse

A detailed site survey was conducted prior to installation to prove that the equipment would work correctly making installation quick and easy. Since sensor operation is based on the latest 2.4 GHz licence free radio technology, specifying SonNet sensors eliminated the need for Eclipse to run any structured cabling to the products.

Operationally SonNet can operate using three different receiver options; a 20 or 40 output analogue version, a network radio receiver that offers direct integration with many controllers and an internally mounted option card that can be installed in the Tridium JACE and other similar controllers.  For maximum reliability, operation and battery life, the sensors run a self-healing tree application. This ensures robust ‘fit and forget’ communications with lower installed project costs. The sensors themselves feature a battery lifetime of up to five years and are available in a number of variants, catering for space, immersion, duct and outside air monitoring.

Sontay products and control solutions are designed to help improve building management system performance, reduce energy and maintenance costs and increase occupant comfort levels.