by Gary Mintchell | Oct 16, 2015 | Asset Performance Management, Automation, News, Operations Management, Process Control, Security, Technology, Wireless
This is another long post—and it is a summary—running through many of the new products introduced to the press and analysts durning Emerson Exchange 2015. If any of these whet your appetite, visit the Emerson Process Website for more information.
Another place to catch up on happenings at the conference is Jim Cahill’s Emerson Process Experts blog. He also has been introducing readers to highlighted sessions.
Machinery protection
CSI 6500 ATG protection system, a stand-alone machinery protection solution that allows users to cost-effectively introduce prediction monitoring of critical assets from the same system. Predictive intelligence is a key component to increasing availability and improving the reliability of plant assets.
These multi-functional cards can be easily reconfigured for a wide range of measurements, including the impacting or peak-to-peak data used in Emerson’s unique PeakVue technology. In addition to monitoring the start-up and coastdown of critical turbo machinery for safe operation, users will be able to utilize PeakVue technology to identify the earliest indications of developing faults in gearboxes and bearings.
With the CSI 6500 ATG, it is no longer necessary to return to the control room or open cabinets in the field to view or analyze data. The CSI 6500 ATG can be networked over wired or wireless Ethernet to deliver asset health information to authorized users through a PC or phone application.
To facilitate easy system integration with third party systems, CSI 6500 ATG is the first protection system to include a secure embedded OPC UA server.
Gas ultrasonic flow meter
A new Daniel gas ultrasonic flow meter platform elevates its well-proven British Gas design by providing two meters and transmitters in a single body to help natural gas operators and pipelines improve reliability and efficiency. Designed to maximize capital budgets by permitting two completely independent measurements with the installation of just a single flowmeter, the new 3415 (four-path + one-path) and 3416 (four-path + two-path) gas ultrasonic flow meters combine a four-path fiscal meter with an additional check meter, while the new 3417 (four-path + four-path) meter provides two fiscal meters for full redundancy and equal accuracy within one meter body. This two-in-one redundant design delivers continuous on-line verification of custody transfer measurement integrity, device health and process conditions, and improves fiscal metering confidence while ensuring regulatory compliance.
Both Daniel 3415 and 3416 gas ultrasonic meters measure flow using four horizontal chordal paths in addition to a reflective path dedicated to verification of the primary measurement, enabling improved metering insight, more informed decision making and simplified flow meter verification. For enhanced immunity to pipe wall contamination, the 3416 meter is equipped with an additional vertical reflective path to detect liquid or very thin layers of contamination at the bottom of the meter that otherwise remain completely hidden in a direct-path meter design. This allows reliable monitoring of process changes before they affect measurement, thus reducing calibration frequency and enabling maintenance to be condition-based instead of calendar-based.
Electric actuator control
DCMlink Software, a unified electric actuator control, monitoring and diagnostics platform, will allow, for the first time, Emerson customers to diagnose, configure, and monitor all electric actuators from a central location independent of protocol, actuator or host system. The software extends the useful life of field assets by providing actuator data gathering, condition monitoring, events log and prioritization of actuator alarms in a unified and consistent user interface. Actuator configuration includes custom characterization, as well as the ability to import and export historical configuration profiles.
Whether it is viewing value torque profile, live trending data or actionable alarms straight from the actuator, plant operators will be able to access detailed monitoring and diagnostics data, allowing them to take action before a fault occurs. DCMlink offers advanced control and diagnostics, including torque profile curves, initiating partial stroke test or emergency shut down and alarms in NE-107 format. Current communications support included Modbus, TCP-IP, and Bluetooth.
DeltaV v13
Version 13 (v13) of the DeltaV distributed control system (DCS) new features focus on integration, advanced alarm management, and security with an overarching design that improves ease of use and minimizes the need for specialized expertise.
DeltaV v13 delivers technologies to bring sources together for easy operator access and use. These technologies include an Ethernet I/O card (EIOC) for integrating Ethernet-based subsystems and devices, including a direct interface with smart motor control centers and substations. It improves the factory acceptance testing (FAT) experience by providing enhanced safety instrumented system simulation capabilities and easy-to-use virtualization environment.
The new DeltaV Alarm Mosaic has an intuitive alarm display that enables operators to more quickly identify, analyze, and respond correctly to the root cause of an abnormal process condition. The new release also provides trend display optimizations for better visibility of process changes.
SCADA
OpenEnterprise v3.2 release adds a native interface to the AMS Device Manager asset management software, enabling users to remotely manage and maintain HART and WirelessHART devices in wide-area SCADA networks.
OpenEnterprise v3.2 together with AMS Device Manager allows asset owners to extend the reach of their predictive maintenance capability out to their remote assets, providing a powerful and proactive method of diagnosing potential device problems remotely. This results in reduced trips to the field and helps to avoid unplanned process shutdowns, improving safety, reliability, and profitability.
The native interface of OpenEnterprise v3.2 to AMS Device Manager enables the collection of wired and wireless HART digital device data over low bandwidth wide-area SCADA networks from Emerson ROC, FloBoss, and ControlWave RTUs without adding the additional complexity and expense of external HART multiplexers. Support for AMS Device Manager SNAP-ON applications, OpenEnterprise SCADA server redundancy, multiple deployment options, and data collection for up to 10,000 HART devices ensures flexibility and scalability for a wide range of remote oil and gas applications.
Machinery health in PowerGen
Emerson now offers its power generation and water/wastewater industry customers native machinery health monitoring and protection capability within the Ovation distributed control system.
Ovation Machinery Health Monitor leverages the Ovation platform through a high-performance I/O module dedicated to machinery health functions. Simply install by inserting the module into a spare I/O slot.
With the Ovation Machinery Health Monitor, operators receive alerts from a single set of common plant HMIs and no longer need to manually check machinery functions through a separate system.
The Ovation Machinery Health Monitor also reduces the risk of cyber attack by eliminating links to standalone systems and isolating process information – all of which can help facilities meet NERC CIP and other security regulations.
Silica sensing
Costly damage to turbine blades caused by silica deposition can occur due to a poorly monitored steam purity program. The new Rosemount 2056 Silica Analyzer provides continuous accurate measurements of silica in process streams with a range of 0.5 ppb to 5000 ppb. The 2056’s usability features make it one of the easiest -to-use and high performing analyzers.
Harsh duty pressure sensing
Rosemount 3051S Thermal Range Expander with new UltraTherm 805 oil fill fluid enables pressure measurements by direct-mounting a diaphragm seal system to processes that reach up to 410°C (770°F) without requiring the challenging impulse piping or heat tracing used in traditional connection technology. In applications where ambient temperatures drop below ideal operating conditions, system response time becomes slow, resulting in delayed process pressure readings. Traditionally, this problem is solved by using heat tracing which is costly, maintenance intensive, and difficult to install. By using the new thermal range expander dual fill fluid seal, the Rosemount 3051S can reliably measure pressure at extremely high process and low ambient temperatures.
The Rosemount 3051S Electronic Remote Sensors (ERS) System now has safety certification. The ERS System calculates differential pressure through a digital architecture — and is now suitable for SIL 2 and 3 applications.
Rosemount 3051S High Static Differential Pressure Transmitter provides reliable flow measurement in high pressure applications with capabilities up to 15,000 psi (1034 bar). The transmitter’s SuperModule platform and coplanar design reduce potential leak points by 50 percent compared to traditional designs, ensuring the highest differential pressure measurement accuracy, field reliability and safety.
Corrosion monitoring
The Roxar Corrosion Monitoring system, consisting of wireless-based probes, will provide refineries with flexible, responsive, integrated and highly accurate corrosion monitoring.
Combined with the Emerson’s non-intrusive Field Signature Method (FSM) technology, a non-intrusive system for monitoring internal corrosion at the pipewall, refinery operators will be able to access more comprehensive corrosion information and corrosion rates, leading to improved operator insight and control over assets.
The system will also help identify and track opportunity/high TAN crudes and their corrosive elements. Such crudes are less expensive but more corrosive than others with the new system enabling the maximum amount of such crudes to be blended into the mix without increasing corrosion risk.
Wireless pressure gauge
Emerson Process Management has introduced the industry’s first WirelessHART pressure gauge. The Rosemount Wireless Pressure Gauge enables remote collection of field data.
The Wireless Pressure Gauge eliminates mechanical gauge common weak points by removing the components that inhibit the device from reporting/displaying pressure and providing up to a 10-year life, which reduces maintenance cost and time. The large 4.5-inch gauge face provides easy field visibility.
by Gary Mintchell | Dec 5, 2014 | Data Management, Manufacturing IT, Operations Management, Software
Schneider Electric has released Wonderware SmartGlance 2014 R2 mobile reporting manufacturing software. The updated version includes a host of new features including support for wearable technologies, a modern user interface for any browser, self-serve registration, support for multiple time zones for a global user base and full import and export capabilities for even faster deployment.
“Plant personnel are now mobile so they require immediate access to real-time operations information via their smart phone, tablet or whatever mobile device they carry,” said Saadi Kermani, Wonderware SmartGlance product manager, Schneider Electric. “Wonderware SmartGlance 2014 R2 software delivers highly relevant information coming from industrial data sources to targeted plant workers in the form of personalized charts, reports and alerts. It provides them with the flexibility they need to view and instantly collaborate around real-time plant data on any device so they can make rapid, effective decisions.”
With a small install footprint and no additional hardware requirements, the Wonderware SmartGlance implementation process is fast and simple. MyAlerts, the software’s newest mobile app feature, proactively notifies users of process events so they can stay current with real-time information based on configurable thresholds for tag reports. The software can be used with smart watches to alert mobile and remote field workers, plant supervisors and managers of critical production and process information in a real-time, hands-free manner.
By leveraging the combined power of mobility and Schneider Electric’s cloud-hosted managed services, the software empowers mobile and remote users with the right information at the right time, without disruption or distraction, so they can quickly assign resources and resolve issues. It also features an open interface to connect and push data to mobile devices from virtually any data source, including historians, manufacturing execution systems, enterprise manufacturing intelligence systems or any real-time system of record. It also provides connectors for accessing data from any SQL database and any OPC-HDA-compatible system for better access to third-party data sources and systems. This most recent version also extends connectivity to key Schneider Electric software products, including its Viejo Citect SCADA offering, InStep PRiSM predictive asset analytics software and the InStep eDNA historian.
You might also check out my podcast interview with Kermani.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 30, 2014 | Data Management, News, Operations Management
Peaxy Inc. has announced the general availability of the Peaxy Hyperfiler, its hyper-scale data management system that enables enterprises to access and manage massive amounts of unstructured data without disrupting business operations.
For engineers and researchers who must search for datasets across multiple geographies, platforms and drives, accessing all the data necessary to inform the product lifecycle, from design to predictive maintenance, presents a major challenge. By making all data, regardless of quantity or location, immediately accessible via a consistent data path, companies will be able to dramatically accelerate their highly technical, data-intensive initiatives. These organizations will be able to manage data in a way that allows them to employ advanced analytics that have been promised for years but never truly realized.
“Over the years, we have amassed a very large range of datasets, dispersed over a heterogeneous architecture. Gaining fast, comprehensive access to all of these datasets is critical to our business processes,” said Anup Sharma, Global CIO, General Electric Oil & Gas. “The Hyperfiler aggregates all data in one place flexibly and unobtrusively, improving access and retrieval of key datasets to help drive engineering reuse.”
Using Hyperfiler, engineering teams engaged in technology innovation, risk mitigation, smart services and predictive maintenance will see significant gains in efficiency across the entire design and test cycle, which can encompass data that spans decades.
“Leading-edge research and engineering businesses understand that the key to faster innovation cycles and better productivity requires a rethink of how to store data for easy accessibility,” said Manuel Terranova, president and CEO at Peaxy. “We help these companies turn massive amounts of technical data into a readily findable asset—today, next week, next year or next decade—regardless of IT cycles. The companies we aim to serve initially have longer-term product lifecycles—they want to find and harvest the dataset over the long haul, often significantly more than 50 years.”
Terranova told me in an interview that productivity should not be undersold. An engineer can spend up to 45 minutes to 90 minutes per day searching for information.
Key product features include:
- Scalability to tens of thousands of nodes enabling the creation of an exabyte-scale data infrastructure, in which performance scales in parallel with capacity
- Fully distributed namespace and data space that eliminate data silos to make all data easily accessible and manageable
- Simple, intuitive user interface built for engineers and researchers as well as for IT
- Data tiered in storage classes based on performance, capacity and replication factor
- Automated, policy-based data migration
- Flexible, customizable data management
- Remote, asynchronous replication to facilitate disaster recovery
- Call home remote monitoring Software-based, hardware-agnostic architecture that eliminates proprietary lock-in
- Addition or replacement of hardware resources with no down time
Peaxy is now making Hyperfiler available to the general public after a successful charter customer launch earlier this year. A version of the Hyperfiler that has been successfully beta tested on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Peaxy, Inc. was founded in 2012 by a group of longtime software industry and industrial R&D experts dedicated to solving the problems surrounding the enormous growth in unstructured data.
by Gary Mintchell | Apr 1, 2014 | Automation, Technology
“Gary, what are you hearing about PackML lately,” asked an acquaintance the other day. “I’m getting a lot of requests for it.” My friend is a software integrator working primarily in factory automation and MES.
Developed by a working group of engineers from companies that use packaging machines, companies that design and manufacture packaging machines, and suppliers of machine automation and control, PackML defines the various “states” of a machine and provides a common vocabulary of terms.
Companies that use such machines favored the development of PackML, because it would make user interfaces and machine operations standard. This makes operator training and machine operations easier and better. Nestle and P&G are examples of companies who have pushed hard for the development of the standard.
Thought models help not only the companies who use the machines, it should help the machine builders, too. By structuring not only the programming, but also the design of the machine, machine builders can both satisfy customers, perhaps with a unique capability, but also reduce future design cost and time-to-market.
PackML was developed by an organization composed of technology developers, machine builders and end user companies. The Organization for Machine Automation and Control (OMAC) Packaging Working Group developed the state model borrowing from the ISA88 standard (ISA88.05). The group itself has been quiet for the past few years, but according to my friend, companies are beginning to request it in the machines they procure.
Taking the thought process one step further, companies are beginning to look at their entire manufacturing enterprise by applying the ISA95 model to operations. Once companies understand operations and data movements, then they can begin applying information technology solutions from manufacturing execution systems (MES) suppliers.
If the machines are modeled, and operations are modeled, and data flows are defined, then connections can be made to automatically move real-time data from the machine into MES applications. These applications provide the contextualized information required to adequately manage manufacturing.
Machine builders who provide machines based on the state model that is understandable to their customers and at the same time provide pathways for information flow—such as built-in OPC servers—have a competitive advantage over their peers. Manufacturers who use these standards can benefit from using the information.
Research by LNS Research in collaboration with MESA has revealed that companies who use their MES applications have benefited from many annual performance improvements.
The recent report notes, “The average annual performance improvements listed below are each combinations of several different metrics and KPIs. The results shown are for manufacturers that indicated measuring each of the listed metrics. In some cases, such as in the financials category, up to 10 different variables were included in the calculation. This data shows improvements in those categories based on 2013 compared to 2012.”
Optimum asset performance
Add to the mix that all these standards aid interoperability of systems and data flow. When you can get data flowing from machines and processes into your management systems—MES, CMMS and EAM—then information about the state of the plant is at your fingertips.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 11, 2014 | Uncategorized
Last week many meetings in cold and snowy Chicago. This week is sunny Orlando and my 17th trip to the ARC Forum. Today is the “press conference marathon.” Right now, Tom Kinney of Invensys is speaking. Much more news coming this week.
Tom Kinney, Invensys VP Optimization
This innovative offering has been built from the ground up to emphasize ease of use. It modernizes the graphical user interface while retaining the rigorous and robust calculation engine from the company’s successful Connoisseur APC offering. The new SimSci APC 2014 software is structured around an enhanced, natural workflow that includes full support for model case file development and a connection wizard for faster integration to any distributed control system and programmable logic controller, including the company’s Foxboro I/A Series DCS and its new Foxboro Evo process automation system. The software will be even more tightly integrated in future releases of the Foxboro Evo system as well, providing enhanced simulation capability.
“Advanced process control can result in tremendous improvements in plant efficiency and performance, but it is largely underutilized, in part because some potential users find it too much of a challenge,” said Peter Reynolds, senior consultant with the ARC Advisory Group. “Invensys addresses this issue head on, with new graphical interfaces, intuitive workflows and custom calculation engines. Making optimization easier will empower both seasoned APC users and the next generation of engineers and operators to address a wider range of process conditions and business challenges.”
SimSci APC 2014 software extends the capabilities of traditional APC offerings to garner more control over the process. Director, a powerful new feature, allows the control engineer to build custom calculations or add custom supporting controller functions that augment the user’s experience. Natural workflows speed up model building, configuration and deployment, and additional features make the software suitable for a complete APC project implementation. These advancements help the transitioning workforce more easily build and maintain APC applications, and can cut implementation and commissioning time by up to 50 percent.
“We are excited about our new APC offering, which builds on our market-leading Connoisseur APC software to help our customers enhance quality, increase throughput and reduce energy usage,” said Tom Kinney, vice president of Invensys’ optimization business. “The software was developed with the end user in mind, and it includes several well-thought-out features that help achieve better and more sustainable control of the process. A built-in auto-discovery wizard captures the specific syntax of any DCS for even faster buildup of tag connections; its automated testing feature means faster, more flexible configuration; its new, tablet ready click-and-drag functionality allows users to select the best models from many scenarios, and customizable user-defined functions improve how users can cope with changing process conditions. The end result is that SimSci APC 2014 provides a better, friendlier and more flexible user experience than traditional APC applications, making operators and engineers far more effective and productive.”
