Control System World

Some network mistakes turn up over and over again—these mistakes cost organizations money, time, and even loyal customers. What these mistakes all have in common is that they mainly reflect a lack of planning. A network that runs smoothly and delivers top performance with minimal downtime takes thought, organization, an awareness of current technology, and a plan.

Read more Article by BlackBox

Honeywell’s UOP has announced that its UOP Oleflex™ process technology has been selected by China’s Longgang Chemical Co. to produce key ingredients for fuels and synthetic rubber.  Honeywell’s UOP C4 Oleflex process will be used to convert refinery-derived isobutane to isobutylene, a valuable petrochemical used in the production of fuels and synthetic rubber. This is UOP’s second C4 Oleflex process license in China. In addition to technology licensing, Honeywell’s UOP will provide basic engineering, catalysts, adsorbents, specialty equipment and engineering for the project.

“As the demand for petrochemicals grows, especially in China, producers are looking for ways to maximize product yields while reducing production costs,” said Pete Piotrowski, senior vice president and general manager of Honeywell’s UOP Process Technology and Equipment business unit. “Honeywell’s UOP technology will help China meet growing demand efficiently and more profitably. This project is yet another milestone for UOP’s Oleflex technology, and we look forward to working with Longgang Chemical.”

Rotork-Hiller, the specialist manufacturer of pneumatic and hydraulic valve actuators for the nuclear industry, has successfully completed the full qualification of a new scotch yoke rotary pneumatic actuator to the latest industry standards.

Performed by an independent test laboratory, the qualification encompasses the requirements of the Westinghouse AP1000 commercial nuclear reactor design and represents another milestone in the Rotork Group’s long established commitment to the nuclear power generation industry.

Qualification involved an arduous programme of testing including thermal ageing, final wear ageing, pressurisation, resonance search, OBE (Operating Basis Earthquake) simulation, SSE (Safe Shutdown Earthquake) simulation and LOCA (Loss of Coolant) simulation – where the actuator is exposed to high temperature, pressure, humidity and radiation. After each test a baseline test was performed to confirm that the actuator’s performance had not degraded below acceptable levels.

Designed for the operation of ball, butterfly and plug valves, the actuators are available with a comprehensive torque range and control solutions to meet customer specifications. The compact and rugged design is suitable for harsh environmental conditions and has been supplied for nuclear power projects in countries including China and the USA.

Rotork-Hiller rotary actuators meet safety critical applications found in the nuclear power industry and are manufactured under a quality assurance programme in compliance with the requirements of 10CFR50 Appendix B, 10CFR21, NQA-1 and ANSI N45.2. The company provides a personalised service throughout all phases of projects to meet the challenges of each customer’s application with state-of-the-art design and engineering, customisation and technical support.

Agilent Technologies Inc. recently introduced the Agilent 7890B gas chromatograph and the 5977A Series mass selective detector. The 7890B GC and 5977A Series GC/MSD deliver new levels of productivity, sensitivity and reliability.

With the addition of these new products, Agilent offers the industry's broadest, most feature-rich portfolio of GC, GC/MS and software available today. Agilent also offers factory-tested, preconfigured solutions to help fast track setup and operation.

"Our customers can be confident that continuing investments in productivity, quality and reliability have always been and continue to be top priorities for Agilent," said Monty Benefiel, Agilent vice president for Gas Phase Systems. "Customers will find significant product improvements, eco-friendly capabilities and lower cost of ownership, along with unsurpassed performance. This is what our customers expect from Agilent, and we delivered."

The Agilent 7890B GC

Based on the industry-leading Agilent GC platform, the 7890B GC is faster, easier to operate and more cost-effective. One key feature isn't new - Agilent's unsurpassed GC reliability, built over decades and more than 250,000 installations. The 7890B GC offers:

• Improved performance specifications with advances in numerous detector modules.

• Lower operating costs and eco-friendly operation with power/gas management and sleep/wake modes.

• Seamless ordering of consumables and parts with an interactive graphical Parts Finder tool and consumables database.

• Easier, faster method development with integrated GC calculators and wizards.

• Better asset and resource management with integrated maintenance tools.

• Improved recovery of active compounds with Agilent's exclusive end-to-end Inert Flow Path deactivation technology.

• Reduced downtime for MS maintenance using the new Fast Vent feature.

More information is available at www.agilent.com/chem/inert.

National Instruments today announced the Tool Qualification Kit for NI TestStand to help meet functional safety standards, such as RTCA DO-178B/C, IEC 62304 and ISO 26262, in numerous industries that need qualified tools to verify safety requirements for electronic systems. The kit, developed by CertTech LLC, an NI Alliance Partner, defines the functional requirements NI TestStand meets, creates a set of tests to demonstrate compliance with the requirements and provides extensive documentation to show compliance in accordance with functional safety standards.

An FAA representative formally reviewed the kit to verify compliance with the DO-178B/C guidelines and concluded: “Findings in the FAA Designated Engineering Representative’s (DER) report confirmed that all objectives of DO-178B Section 12.2, FAA Order 8110.49 Section 9, and DO-330 Annex A have been successfully achieved and in many cases exceeded.”

Rather than developing and maintaining a custom test executive, engineers can use NI TestStand, a ready-to-run COTS test management software solution, to quickly develop automated test and validation systems. The Tool Qualification Kit for NI TestStand, available on the LabVIEW Tools Network, drastically reduces the time it takes to certify each project by introducing a testing methodology that allows engineers to use qualified COTS tools instead of performing a manual qualification on custom tools.

Additional Resources

· Product: http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/211215/

· Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouddl0zml9k&feature=plcp/

· Tutorial: http://www.ni.com/white-paper/13671/en

The Siemens Industry Automation Division has added a host of new functions to Version 8.0 of its Cemat process control system for the cement, mining and related industries. Certain functional details of previous versions, such as the maintenance and service management system, have also been further developed for Cemat V8.0. Innovational highlights are the additional operating modes for plants, device groups and individual units, as well as the monitoring of process values, such as accumulated pressure and flow rates. The user can also now put together curve groups very easily.

Compared to previous versions, one of the innovations of Cemat V8.0 is, for example, that the "Quick Trend" display can be configured directly from the process screen. This makes it much easier to activate curve groups for display and evaluation purposes. The user adds the desired analog value into the graphic display of a plot with a simple mouse click. Previously, the values had to be laboriously determined in the measured value archives.

Cemat V8.0 also offers the operator more operating mode options. In addition to complete groups, he or she can now disconnect individual loads within a group – for example as part of an energy management concept. The variants "No interlocks", "Specific interlocks only" and "Safety interlocks only" can now be easily configured for manual operation. Previously, these special interlocks had to be painstakingly programmed. Without additional programming time, the plant operator now receives the relevant infromation, such as which interlocks are currently active, from the configuration alone. The new additional operating mode "Out of Service" is used for unavailable devices and units which are, for example, undergoing maintenance.

More information is available on the Internet at: www.siemens.com/cemat

Technip has been awarded by Shell U.K. Limited an engineering, procurement, installation and construction contract for the Gannet F Reinstatement project, located in the North Sea, 180 kilometers east of Aberdeen, at a water depth of 95 meters.

The contract concerns the replacement of the Gannet F flowline(1) at the Gannet Alpha Platform and covers the:

• fabrication and pipelay of an 11.8 kilometre pipe-in-pipe,

• installation of a 4.5” gas lift pipeline,

• trenching and installation of an 11.9 kilometer umbilical(2).

Technip’s operating center in Aberdeen, Scotland will execute the contract, which is scheduled to be completed in the second semester of 2013. The Group’s spoolbase in Evanton, Scotland, will fabricate the pipe-in-pipe and DUCO Limited, Technip’s wholly-owned subsidiary in Newcastle, England, will manufacture the umbilical. Technip’s pipelay vessel, Apache II, will be used for the offshore campaign.

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and KH-Automation Projects GmbH, a subsidiary of Koop Holding Group and long term strategic partner of Mitsubishi Electric, announced by mutual agreement that Mitsubishi Electric will acquire 100% share of KH-Automation. This strategic acquisition brings together two partners who have enjoyed a close working relationship over the past 12 years.

The complimentary combination of KH-Automation Projects market leading PMSX®pro Distributed Control System, knowledge in water and power generation applications as well as project management experience with the development power and global market reach of Mitsubishi Electric is expected to create strong growth opportunities for both companies.

Hartmut Puetz, President of Mitsubishi Electric Factory Automation Europe commented "KH-Automation is a respected and well managed company which shows in the success they have enjoyed in the water and power generation markets. The PMSX®pro DCS has totally integrated Mitsubishi Electric's automation throughout its DNA and this combination of KH-Automation's knowhow and our hardware has resulted in a robust and market leading solution."

Manfred Pfaar, Managing Director of KH-Automation Projects added "We are very excited about the future business together with Mitsubishi Electric. We already have a strong working relationship and we expect a closer collaboration will generate many new opportunities."