Modern Automation 1,800 Feet Beneath Lake Erie

TEC has worked with Cargill since 1984 — the year founder Rolland Eakins, then a master electrician at the Wichita Cargill Soybean plant, started experimenting with the automated controls that would become this company. After a decade serving Cargill's oilseed division, the salt division called.

What they showed us would put most automation projects in perspective: a working salt mine 1,800 feet beneath Lake Erie, accessed through Cleveland, extending nearly three miles offshore through 400-million-year-old salt. About 200 workers move tens of thousands of tons of deicing salt out of the mine every day.

The challenge

Mines age. Controllers age faster. Cargill needed automation that could match the pace of a site producing millions of tons of salt a year — without disrupting the operation that kept Cleveland's roads clear every winter.

What we did

• Modernized control system platforms across mining and processing equipment, replacing aging hardware with current-generation Allen-Bradley ControlLogix.
• Standardized HMI and SCADA design so operators move between areas without re-learning the screens.
• Integrated process data into AVEVA PI historian infrastructure to give Cargill site-by-site visibility on production, downtime, and equipment health.
• Built the relationships and on-site presence that turned one project into a multi-decade engagement.

The outcome

Today TEC services the majority of Cargill's salt sites. The pattern repeats: assess, modernize, support, and stay. No two plants are the same — which is exactly why the work doesn't end at startup.