Control System World

SFC Excellence Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of The Siam Chemicals Public Company (SCC), was found in 1975 and has registered capital of 70 million baht. SFC Excellence is exceptionally well-known for its manufacturing products and considered to be one of the largest importers of base oil and lube oil manufacturing (toll blenders) in Thailand. SFC Excellence is able to produce the best quality of lubricants for automotive and machineries in industrial usage with a total capacity of 10 million liters per month.

SFC Excellence has been certified ISO9001 since 2003 and ISO/TS16949 since 2008 for its own manufacture of lubrication oil. SFC Excellence is responsible to produce many types of OEM oil brands from the UK, Germany, Japan, including Thailand etc. SFC Excellence provides itself with a research laboratory performing a variety of scientific research and quality control.

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Rockwell Automation and OSIsoft have reached an agreement with BHP Billiton, the world’s largest diversified mining company, for the installation of an enterprise historian, a production intelligence platform, at the company’s iron ore operations in Australia. Design is underway with installation to be completed by the end of 2016. The enterprise historian will use FactoryTalk Historian Site Edition (SE) software from Rockwell Automation and the PI System from OSIsoft. The combination will provide BHP Billiton with visibility of real-time and historical production data across the company’s integrated supply chain of mines, rail and port facilities.

Operators will also gain access to reporting and trending tools that provide insight into performance parameters. The information can be used to identify opportunities to reduce variability, lower costs and improve productivity in operations and across the supply chain.

“An enterprise historian solution takes data and turns it into information,” said Ryan Cahalane, director of Software Product Management, Rockwell Automation. “Many producers are working on how to best leverage an intelligent automation infrastructure and the big data it produces. This is being outlined in smart manufacturing, Industry 4.0 and other global, manufacturing-modernization initiatives. The BHP Billiton enterprisewide effort to standardize iron ore data collection, storage and visualization will be a major step toward smarter production because it creates one version of the truth,” Cahalane explained.

“The company will be able to use this solution to compare disparate assets and operations. This is the type of information that can be transformed into operating knowledge and wisdom,” Cahalane concluded.

Brett Higgins, OSIsoft vice president of Asia Pacific, added, “The Rockwell Automation and OSIsoft combination brings together the best of industrial and enterprise data management. Our solution seamlessly leverages the company’s existing investments at a plant and enterprise level, and pulls in new information from mobile assets. With the quantity of data coming from BHP Billiton iron ore operations, an enterprise historian solution is the only way to easily put it to use.”

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces that Yokogawa India, a wholly owned subsidiary, will launch production on March 28 of a principal Yokogawa field instrument product line, the DPharp EJA-E series differential pressure/pressure transmitters.

The decision to launch production in India comes in response to a rising demand for control devices in this market, which has been driven in part by Indian government policies that seek to foster stable growth in the mid-to-long term through the promotion of projects for the construction of oil, petrochemical, and power plants and other types of industrial infrastructure. The launch of production in India will allow Yokogawa to better meet the needs of its Indian customers by, for example, speeding up product delivery and providing customized solutions.

To start, three DPharp EJA-E series products that are in particularly strong demand will be produced in India, and other products may be added at a later date. Already one of the largest suppliers of differential pressure/pressure transmitters in India, Yokogawa aims to capitalize on the high growth in this market to expand the scale of its business. In India, the company is targeting the annual production of 100,000 units by fiscal year 2020.

Differential pressure/pressure transmitters measure pressure, flow rate, and liquid level, and play an important role in the oil, petrochemical, chemical, iron and steel, power, and other industries in processes that involve the handling of liquids, vapors, and gases. Globally, some 300 billion yen worth of these products are sold each year, making this the largest segment in the field instrument market*. In addition to our production in Japan of core components and finished differential pressure/pressure transmitters for the global market, we have been producing these transmitters in China, the United States, Bahrain, Singapore, and Brazil. Following our launch of differential pressure/pressure transmitter production in India, we have a plan to introduce production of these products in Russia, Germany, and Saudi Arabia.
* Based on a March 2016 Yokogawa survey

Kepware Technologies, a software development company acquired by PTC in January 2016, today announced that it has recently won a series of prestigious industry awards for the advances achieved by its flagship product, KEPServerEX®. The awards signify Kepware’s ongoing commitment to developing the most robust and reliable off-the-shelf software platform for industrial connectivity on the market.

Editors and readers of leading industry publications selected Kepware as the winner for the following awards that recognize the most innovative process automation products and suppliers in the industry:

• Breakthrough Product of the Year, Processing Magazine
• First Team Honoree for the Leadership in Automation Award, Automation World
• Readers’ Choice Award winner for OPC Connectivity, Control Global
• Engineers’ Choice Award winner, Control Engineering

Certified by third-party organizations and endorsed by system integrators, OEMs, and end users, KEPServerEX is the industry’s leading connectivity platform that leverages OPC and IT-centric communication protocols to provide applications with a single source of industrial automation data. The platform design allows users to connect, manage, monitor, and control diverse automation devices and software applications through one intuitive user interface.

“We are humbled to be recognized by our peers for the quality of our products,” said Tony Paine, Platform President, Kepware. “Over the past year, we’ve strived to find a balance between meeting the needs of our existing customer base and evolving KEPServerEX to be a critical component of new industrial IoT solutions. These awards serve as proof that we're finding this balance. Our customers can expect Kepware to deliver the same focus and commitment to innovation in the year to come.”

Siemens is currently launching Scalance XC-100, a new line of compact switches. Users can establish electrical and optical line and star structures for machine-level networking in the Simatic environment. The switches are characterized by their high number of ports and interfaces, a rugged housing, an extended temperature range of -40 to +70° C as well as approval for hazardous areas (ATEX Zone 2, IECEx). This makes them suitable for deployment in a wide range of environments where conditions may sometimes be harsh, such as in series machine construction, shipbuilding, transportation, and in the oil and gas industry. For example, users can integrate communication modules of a series machine with a data rate of up to 100 Mbit/s into a production network.

The Scalance XC-100 devices are available in different versions with up to 24 RJ45 ports and two ST/BFOCs. This means there are variants with different types of ports for a range of applications and areas of deployment. All of the devices in this product line are equipped with a redundant power supply, which enables reliable operation even if one power supply system fails. The rugged housing and the sleeves combined with the FastConnect connectors and cables ensure stable RJ45 connections in environments in which equipment has to endure shock and vibration.

The integrated "Broadcast Storm Protection" function maintains switch functionality even in the event of heightened broadcast load.

Thanks to their design, the Industrial Ethernet switches can be mounted on the wall, on a 35-mm DIN rail or on a Simatic S7-1500 rail. Handling is much easier for users if switches are installed at the same height as the Simatic S7-1500. Clearly arranged diagnostic LEDs and a signaling contact enable precise determination of the state of the equipment as well as fast and reliable diagnostic evaluations.
Besides being approved for Ex zones, the switches are also approved for various applications in shipbuilding as well as in the onshore and offshore fields. The product line also includes the Scalance XC108 switch, which has additional E1 approval for use in public transportation vehicles.

A five-year warranty applies to the new Scalance XC-100, as for all Scalance products.

The new Anybus .NET gateways enable real-time data from industrial machinery to be presented to .NET-based IT applications. This means that .NET programmers can get data directly from a PLC system on the other side of “the edge” to be used in applications for statistics, analysis or maintenance. The first .NET gateways are available for PROFIBUS and PROFINET.

A quick and easy way to realize IIoT:
The basic prerequisite for Industrial IoT is that industrial applications are able to communicate with IT systems. However, the operational technology (OT) on the factory floor uses fieldbus and industrial Ethernet networks, which are designed for real-time communication by default separated from the IT-infrastructure.

The Anybus .NET gateways address this situation by acting as translators which send and receive data between PROFIBUS- or PROFINET-networks and IT platforms using .NET as a framework.

The communication is set up in a couple of minutes and the .NET gateways are therefore a very fast way to realize IIoT.

The result is that IT systems get unprecedented access to real-time data from the factory floor which enables predictive maintenance, KPI-follow-up, machine analytics, data mining, big data processing, production statistics and much more – without interfering with the industrial processes.

The solution can be used for a wide range of use cases, from simple transfer of KPI values, advanced messages with structured data types, or ultra-fast transfer of I/O data for “big data.”

How it works:
In addition to connecting the data from the industrial processes to the IT-systems, the .NET gateways make the data understandable on the IT-side. The information exchange between the Operational Technology (OT) side and the Information Technology (IT) side is defined in a spreadsheet template which defines how the data is mapped, tagged and presented to IT-applications.

The spreadsheet is uploaded to the HMS code generator which automatically creates a customized high level C# API (events and Post methods) that is easy to integrate directly into a .NET application. It also generates a customized GSDML file for the PLC.

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Siemens has opened its "Cyber Security Operation Center" (CSOC) for the protection of industrial facilities, with a joint location in Lisbon and Munich and one in Milford (Ohio) in the USA. Siemens industrial security specialists based at these sites monitor industrial facilities all around the world for cyber threats, warn companies in the event of security incidents and coordinate proactive countermeasures. These protective measures are part of Siemens' extensive Plant Security Services with which the enterprise supports companies in the manufacturing and processing industry in encountering constantly changing security threats and increasing plant availability.

The increased networking of industrial infrastructures ("Internet of Things", "Industrie 4.0") calls for appropriate protective action for the automation environment. This is where the Siemens Plant Security Services enter the picture: these services range from Security Assessments and the installation of protective measures, such as firewalls and virus protection (Security Implementation), through to the continuous surveillance of plants with the Managed Security Services, which is now offered by the CSOCs themselves. If the Siemens experts detect an increased risk, they give the customer an early warning, issue recommendations for proactive countermeasures and coordinate their implementation. The countermeasures are based on the criticality of the incident and the likely impact on the customer's business. They include modifying firewall rules or providing updates for closing gaps in security. In addition, Siemens provides forensic analyses of security incidents. Companies are then in a position to prepare reports that comply with international standards such as ISO 27002 or IEC 62443. And that is not all – companies also receive a transparent view of their plants' security status. Siemens' Plant Security Services use products from the company's collaboration partner, Intel Security. These include: McAfee VirusScan, McAfee Application Control, McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) as well as McAfee Enterprise Security Manager with Security Information and Event Management.

Technip Angola Engenharia Limitada, a joint venture between Technip and Sonangol, has been awarded by Total E&P Angola a three-year engineering services contract. This contract covers services for the existing Girassol, Pazflor, Dalia and CLOV floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) units and associated subsea field development. These FPSOs are located in Block 17, offshore Angola.

The scope of work can comprise engineering, technical assistance, management, supervision and coordination, as well as procurement-related activities. Technip Angola Engenharia Limitada will carry out the contract, which is scheduled for completion at the end of 2018.

Hallvard Hasselknippe, President Subsea of Technip, commented: “We have been entrusted by Total E&P Angola to deliver quality engineering services. It is the result of our sustainable presence in Angola with skilled engineering resources and comprehensive knowledge of our client’s technical referential and working methods. This contract reinforces our activity in Africa, an area with good dynamics. It also fits into our strategy to engage with our clients at early stages of their projects and build on long-lasting successful relationships.”