Industrial Automation & Control Systems
As an OEM and integrator, CTX Automation has designed machinery and control systems for plant and factory automation since 1992. Our field experiences provide the necessary knowledge to serve a variety of industries and applications.
Our focus includes supplying our customers with process control and instrumentation solutions utilizing PLCs, Drives, and HMI systems.
Automation Services
Comprehensive automation solutions from design through installation, testing, and ongoing support.
Plant Floor & Factory Automation
Machinery and control systems for the whole line, engineered and built in one shop.
Process Integration
New equipment, legacy machines and third-party systems on one network and one set of screens.
PLC & HMI Program Development
Recipe-driven sequences, interlocks and operator screens, written for easy expansion.
Legacy System Upgrades
Current hardware and screens with the proven logic preserved and verified. Learn more
CAD – 2D & 3D Drawing and Planning
P&IDs, electrical schematics, panel layouts and equipment layouts your plant keeps.
Project Management
One point of contact from proposal through commissioning, with phased cutovers planned around production.
On-site Installation, Testing and Training
Factory acceptance testing in our Houston shop, site acceptance testing, and operator training on your floor.
On-site and Remote Support
Long-term support from the people who built the system, on site or through secure remote access.
CTX Automation is an OEM and integrator. The engineers who draw the P&ID are down the hall from the panel shop that builds it and the field crew that commissions it.
Areas of Expertise
Deep knowledge across multiple automation disciplines, from solids transfer to cloud-based data solutions.
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Pneumatic
- Dense phase and lean phase recovery of fluidized materials
- Use of pneumatic driven vacuum producers, motor powered cyclones and air pressure vessels
- Medias include powders and granular products (abrasive and non-abrasive)
- Recovery/recycling and separation of particle size
- Controlled transfer rate of material in a process
Mechanical
- Dense phase recovery of heavy material
- Use of augers, belt conveyors and bucket elevators
- Medias include abrasives, shot, metallic and non-metallic
- Recovery/recycling and separation through screening, sieving and air wash
Abrasive Reclaim and Dust Collection
- Screw conveyors and bucket elevators under the catch box
- Two-stage classification: rotary tumble screen and air wash
- Cyclone reclaim with storage hoppers mounted above the blast machine for gravity refill
- Reverse-pulse cartridge dust collectors with HEPA exhaust options
- Steel grit, aluminum oxide, garnet and walnut shell media
Applications
- Media recovery and/or metering for surface preparation
- Inventory and dispensing of materials in chemical process areas
- Weigh-vessel batching and vacuum injection skids for catalyst and powders. Learn more
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Pneumatic
- Pressure tanks (2 quart to 60 gallon capacity)
- Diaphragm and piston pumps for fast distribution
Mechanical
- Gear pumps for precise distribution
- Electric piston pumps for high pressure distribution
- Peristaltic pumps for highest precision distribution
Applications
- Batch mixing processes
- Precise coating of parts (spray booths and coating lines)
- Precise coating of internal diameter tubes (pipe, stators, risers, etc.)
- Inventory and dispensing of materials in hazardous areas
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Pneumatic
- Piston cylinders for lifting and clamping
- 90deg actuators for valve manipulation
Mechanical
- Motor starters for 1PH and 3PH motors
- Variable frequency drives for 3PH inductive motors
- Servo drives for pulse and servo motors
Technology
- Limit switching with use of physical contacts, inductive sensing switches and photoelectric switches
- Linear position feedback using incremental and absolute encoders
- Vertical position feedback using incremental and absolute encoders
- PID loop attenuation and drive speed control
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Design
- Custom designed to customers' needs
- Control panels and process instrumentation to meet area classifications
- Touch-screen or push button controls
- Detailed process and electrical drawings
- Systems optimized with intuitive operator interface
Programming and Integration
- Programming designed for easy system expansion
- Turnkey field installation
- Communication with other control systems
- Optional remote and cloud connectivity
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Physical
- Position – limit switches
- Level – probes and float valves
- Weight – load cell and strain gauge
- Pressure – pneumatic and fluid measurement
- Flow – gear and paddle gauges
- Temperature – probe, thermocouple and thermowell measurement
- Surface treatment – surface profile and coating thickness
Touchless
- Position – inductive, photoelectric and laser
- Level – radar and ultrasonic sensing
- Flow – Coriolis and ultrasonic sensing
- Temperature – infrared transmitting
- Environmental – atmospheric dew point, temperature and relative humidity
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Logging and Reporting
- Motor and process timers for life information
- Process instrumentation values
- Preventative maintenance reporting
- Warnings and alarms
Batch and Process Control
- Siemens SIMATIC BRAUMAT and SISTAR batch control systems: recipe management, batch records and ISA-88 batch control
- Ignition and WinCC SCADA with integrated historian and trending
- Timestamped event logs, lot-number tracking and per-batch records
Siemens Insights Hub – Cloud-based IoT Solutions
- Data visualization and remote dashboards
- Units and metrics
- Built to be scaled easily and deployed quickly
- Months of real inventory history from an installed system. See the record
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Integrated at the PLC
- Weigh modules inside the controller, not a standalone indicator
- Tank, hopper, reactor and platform scales on load cells
- Scale selection, weigh summing, calibration, filtering and alarm limits done in-house
- Load-cell channel watchdog that flags a compromised channel on the HMI
Batching
- Recipes meter by actual weight with PLC-enforced tolerances
- Multiple hoppers and augers dosing simultaneously onto one live scale with per-feeder trim
- Loss-in-weight feeding
Bagging and Pack-Off
- Bag and drum fill stations metering to target weight on live scales
- Check-weighing, per-bag and per-lot records, bag dump stations and dust control
- Batch weights, totals and per-container records that come with the control system. Learn more
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Handling
- Kickers, racks, entry and exit tables
- Chain and roller conveyors with proximity feedback
- Hourglass-wheel entry drives and powered rotation wheels with auto-centering
- Lifts and leveling with encoder feedback for a custom centerline per part
- Pipe insertion boxes and cabinets on linear tracks for pipe-end blasting
Tracking
- Every joint logged by work order, serial number and length at the entry conveyor
- Recipe for that joint drives rotation, travel, flow and cure at each station
- Inspection holds flag a joint without stopping the line
- Finished record shows what every joint received. Learn more
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Networks
- PROFINET as the plant-floor backbone; PROFIBUS where it exists
- IO-Link for smart sensors with parameter data
- Modbus RTU and TCP with protocol gateways for third-party equipment
- Managed Ethernet switches and secure remote-access hardware
Platforms
- Siemens standard: S7-1200 and S7-1500, WinCC and WinCC Unified, SINAMICS drives, BRAUMAT and SISTAR
- Rockwell systems supported in-house; complete Rockwell-to-Siemens conversions of logic, I/O and screens
- Standard, commercially available hardware with documentation the customer owns. Learn more
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Hazardous Locations
- NEMA 4 control panels rated for Class 1 Division 2 with Z-purge
- Purged remote panels with secure remote access
- Explosion-rated drives and equipment for paint and dry booths
Process Protection
- Overfill protection: continuous level plus an independent high-high switch, automatic venting on high pressure
- Runaway-motion protection from slipped brakes or missed limit switches, enforced by position feedback
- Instrument-health watchdogs that identify a faulted load-cell channel
Machine Safety
- Safety light curtains with PLC programming, 360-degree coverage on traveling-cabinet systems
- 24 VDC shunt-trip E-stop circuits on panel disconnects
- Dual-skin enclosures that avoid confined-space permits
What did your tank hold at 3 a.m. four months ago?
Most plants can tell you what a tank holds right now. Very few can tell you what it held four months ago, and that is the number that reconciles receiving, forecasts reorders, and catches drift early. This record came from a system we installed at a Texas blending facility. Nobody typed any of it.
Featured Solutions
Real-world automation challenges solved with engineering expertise and innovative design. See all solutions
Blast and Coat Lines for Stators, Rotors and Tubulars
- Automated I.D. and O.D. blast and coating systems for downhole motor stators, rotors and tubular products. The operator enters the tube dimensions, target film thickness and coating solids, and the PLC computes lance travel, rotation and flow.
- Enclosed process areas, mechanical media reclaim, abrasive-flow monitoring and inspection stations, delivered from a single machine up to a complete turnkey line.
Batch Blending and Chemical Transfer
- A Texas spray-foam chemical plant converted in phases to fully integrated automated control, with the new tank-farm controls installed alongside the legacy system and zero production disruption.
- 200+ automated valves with position feedback, 150+ instruments, 50+ motors on VFDs and 40+ vessels, batching by weight from validated recipes and drumming off 900+ drums a day.
Storage Tank Management and Truck Offloading
- Multi-bay truck offloading with liquid-detection switches on every hose connection, radar level with an independent high-high backstop, automatic venting, and heated tanks with circulation and heat trace.
- Every delivery logged with timestamp, tank, weight and bay. Automatic switchover to a backup tank when a primary runs low, with the lot number written to the batch record.
Plant Historian and Data Monitoring
- Continuous, timestamped recording of inventory, additions and draws, alarms and equipment states, captured from the same instruments that run the plant. The trend shown is 111 days of real hourly data from an installed system.
- Usage reporting, reorder forecasting and early warning of drift fall straight out of the record. WinCC, Ignition, BRAUMAT and SISTAR batch control, and Siemens Insights Hub where remote visibility is wanted.
Legacy Control System Upgrades
- A mixed-brand drive panel with tangled wiring and no parts path, rebuilt around current Siemens SINAMICS drives and S7 control with the plant's proven logic preserved and verified.
- S7-200 to S7-1200 conversions, Comfort panel to WinCC Unified migrations, position feedback retrofitted onto existing rigs, and complete Rockwell-to-Siemens conversions of logic, I/O and screens.
PID Speed Control: Winch Systems and the PDS
- A company specializing in tall and difficult-to-access structures needed to blast and coat the inside of a stack over 350 feet tall without an operator inside. Our PID-controlled winch holds the tool speed through changing hose weight and wind.
- The same discipline is packaged in the Clemtex Portable Drive System, a cart-and-track drive that retracts an I.D. coating lance at a speed the PLC computes from tube dimensions, target film thickness and measured flow.
Gravimetric Solids Batching and Vacuum Injection Skids
- A single weigh vessel on load cells serves multiple material lines, drawing each in under vacuum, confirming the batch by weight, then dense-phase conveying it to the process. A fault on one line locks out that line only.
- For a refinery services contractor: a one-button vacuum and injection skid for catalyst handling, with a NEMA 4 panel purged for Class 1 Division 2 and reverse-pulse dust collection.
Same panel. Twenty years newer.
A drive panel that had outlived its parts path, rebuilt around current Siemens drives and control with the wiring and I/O organized for serviceability. The plant's proven logic stayed exactly as it was.
How we upgrade without rewriting your logicStandard platforms. No black boxes.
Everything we build rides on commercially available hardware with documentation the customer owns.
We standardize on Siemens
Current-generation hardware your plant can buy, stock and staff for.
Rockwell systems supported
We support existing Allen-Bradley systems in-house and perform complete Rockwell-to-Siemens conversions: logic, I/O and HMI screens, with the existing system as the specification.
CTX Automation is a certified Siemens Solution Partner for Industry. Our engineers are trained and certified on the Siemens automation platform we standardize on. More on connectivity and platforms
Equipment We Build
Alongside custom systems, a few things we have built often enough to name.
PDS Portable Drive System
A cart-and-track drive for I.D. coating lances with PID speed control built in. Enter the tube and the target film thickness; the PLC computes and holds the retraction speed.
About the PDSCLEMFLOW Fluid Control
Closed-loop coating delivery for spray rigs and I.D. coating lines: a flow transmitter reads actual delivery and the controller trims the pump to hold it.
Coating systemsCTX Tubular Spray Guns
Internal-diameter spray guns designed and refined in-house for the coatings and geometries that off-the-shelf guns struggle with.
Blast and coat linesCustom Blast Cabinets
Flip-top cabinets for crane loading, pipe-end cabinets on linear tracks, traveling cabinets for rotor OD blasting, and turntable work areas.
Pipe handlingSeventy Years on Plant Floors
CTX Automation is the controls division of Clemtex, an OEM and integrator with its own panel shop, engineers, programmers and field crews.
Clemtex
Blasting and finishing equipment for petrochemical, pipeline, marine and offshore, and steel fabrication customers. Three Texas locations: Houston, Corpus Christi and Dallas.
CTX Automation
The controls division: machinery and control systems for plant and factory automation, from design through commissioning and long-term support.
OEM and integrator
P&ID and electrical design, panel fabrication, programming, installation, commissioning and training, all in-house. A certified Siemens Solution Partner for Industry.
Industries we serve
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Contact Information
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CTX Automation
A Division of Clemtex
248 McCarty St
Houston, TX 77029