Control System World

JGC Corporation has announced today that its wholly-owned Saudi Arabian subsidiary, JGC Gulf International Co., Ltd. (JGC Gulf), has been awarded a contract for expansion of ethylene manufacturing facilities for the Rabigh Phase II Project. The contract was awarded by client Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical Company.

The lump-sum turnkey contract calls for the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services associated with an expansion of the ethylene manufacturing facilities in Rabigh, Saudi Arabia. The expanded facilities will have a capacity of 300 thousand tons per year of ethylene, and are scheduled to be completed in 2015.

Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Company, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical, has been operating an integrated refining and petrochemicals complex (the Rabigh I Project) in Rabigh, Saudi Arabia. In parallel, Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical have been conducting a feasibility study for the Rabigh Phase II Project, to expand the original complex. The ethylene manufacturing facility that JGC Gulf will be expanding has a capacity of 1.3 million tons per year, and was constructed by JGC Yokohama and completed in 2008 as a part of the Rabigh I project. The ethylene facility makes up one of the core facilities of the complex, with a vital function as the upstream producer of base chemicals used for synthesis of many other chemical products downstream.

The Rabigh Phase II project is of vital importance to Sumitomo Chemical and Saudi Aramco, and JGC is providing project management services for the feasibility study phase of the project. Therefore, JGC is delighted to have its wholly-owned subsidiary participate in the EPC phase of the project.

A practical guide to the selection, installation and maintenance of equipment complying with the Fieldbus Intrinsically Safe COncept (FISCO) for fieldbus systems in Zone 2 and Division 2 hazardous areas. The document begins with a discussion of the origins of FISCO and follows with a review of the main elements to be considered when assembling FISCO systems. Further sections develop each subject in more detail. The intention is to provide clear guidance to new and experienced fieldbus users.

Click to download the Application Note by MTL

Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) announced today that it has been awarded a contract by Suncor Energy to provide front-end project management and engineering services on the energy company’s MacKay River Phase 2 oil sands project near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. Fluor booked the contract into backlog in the third quarter of 2012 for an undisclosed value.

“This project is an excellent opportunity for Fluor to continue providing our engineering and design expertise on high profile oil sands projects,” said Peter Oosterveer, president of Fluor’s Energy and Chemicals Group. “This region in northern Alberta serves as a significant oil resource for North America and it continues to play a key role in Fluor’s energy business.”

Fluor’s design will include the use of its patent-pending 3rd Generation Modular Execution approach to perform the project. The modules will be fabricated offsite and delivered to the jobsite to increase project safety, quality and improve schedule delivery.

The design will be completed by Fluor’s office in Calgary, Alberta, with support from its offices in the Philippines.

Technip has been awarded by The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) the front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract and cracking furnaces engineering and procurement services for a previously announced new large world-scale ethylene production plant to be located at Dow Texas Operations in Freeport, Texas. The Dow Chemical Company is the largest ethylene-based chemical producer in the world.

The new facility will be based on low-cost ethane feedstock. The products from the new plant will be utilized for Dow’s downstream facilities in the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana. Texas Operations is Dow's largest integrated manufacturing site worldwide and the largest single-company chemical complex in North America.

Technip’s operating center in Claremont, California, will execute this contract. The FEED activities are targeted for completion in mid-2013.

GE Intelligent Platforms today extended its family of high performance, rugged, routing and network security appliances designed for military/aerospace deployment in harsh environments. The RTR2GE and RTR4GE feature two- and four Gigabit Ethernet ports respectively, complementing the 8-port RTR8GE and allowing customers to choose the optimum configuration for a wide range of network topologies.

All three rugged, security-focused network routers feature the comprehensive field-tested Junos® operating system from Juniper Networks®, a recognized leader in providing secure network solutions to the commercial, industrial and military/aerospace markets. The firewall, intrusion prevention and detection, and extensive quality of service (QoS) capabilities of Junos enable secure IPv4/IPv6 connectivity for military vehicles, aircraft and forward operating bases supporting net-centric operations. The RTR2GE, RTR4GE and RTR8GE are integrated in a SWaP-optimized enclosure that meets the demanding environmental requirements of military/aerospace applications.

“A key challenge in today’s network-centric military is ensuring networks are secure and able to fight off cyber threats that can compromise data and communications,” said Rod Rice, General Manager, Military/Aerospace Products at GE Intelligent Platforms. “The military requires similar technology to what is available in the commercial world - but the unique requirements of battlefield networking means that it cannot deploy readily available commercial solutions. The combination of industry-leading commercial networking technology from Juniper Networks with GE knowledge and expertise in building solutions for rugged environments is a perfect solution.”

For details click 'Rugged Routers and Switches'

The International Society of Automation (ISA) today released the dates, locations and Call-for-Papers deadlines for ISA’s Division Symposia taking place between April–September 2013 in various locations across the USA.

ISA Division Symposia offer outstanding learning, personal development, networking and social opportunities. Attendees meet face to face with renowned experts and presenters, and gain the high-value, peer-reviewed technical content needed to stay on the cutting edge.

Below is a chronological listing, along with the pertinent details, of each ISA event scheduled for 2013. For more specific information about ISA Division Symposia and abstract submission, contact Rodney Jones at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Click to find the Details of different Divisions Symposia

To meet machine builders’ needs for flexible micro programmable logic controllers (PLCs) that optimize stand-alone machine performance and cost, Rockwell Automation announces the new Allen-Bradley Micro850 and enhanced Micro830 PLCs. Both micro PLCs feature embedded motion capabilities for up to three axes of motion, allowing them to support a wide range of applications.

“To be profitable, machine builders around the globe demand world-class micro PLCs,” said Co Gia Nguyen, vice president and general manager, Rockwell Automation Asia Pacific Business Center. “But these controllers must meet machine builders’ requirements for economical, just-enough control, while providing additional options and features that enable machine builders to differentiate their machines from the competition. The new Micro850 and enhanced Micro830 controllers balance those needs and help machine builders compete more profitably.”

The Micro850 micro PLC is equipped with the same form factor, plug-in support, instruction/data size and motion capabilities as the 24-pt and 48-pt Micro830 controllers, but with the added capabilities of Ethernet and expansion I/O. The Micro850 controller specifically targets the needs of OEMs and excels at stand-alone machine applications.

The Micro850 controller has an embedded Ethernet port for higher performance connectivity to human-machine interfaces (HMIs). The EtherNet/IP protocol with CIP Symbolic support is used for simplified Allen-Bradley PanelView Component HMI connectivity. Tags created while configuring the HMI screens can easily reference the variable names in the Allen-Bradley Micro800 program.

I/O flexibility in the Micro850 PLC is one of the keys to successfully minimizing the cost of a machine. With support for up to five plug-ins, OEMs can customize the functionality of the controller with additional I/O, special functions, and serial ports without increasing the size of the controller. If more I/O or higher-performance analog I/O is required, the Micro850 controller supports up to four 2085 expansion I/O modules, including high-density digital I/O and high-accuracy analog I/O, for a total of 132 digital I/O points.

For details on these products click 'Micro850 and Enhanced Micro830'

ICONICS, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner of the Year and provider of Web-enabled industrial visualization software for Windows operating systems,has announced the expansion of its HMI/SCADA, Building Automation and Manufacturing Intelligence solutions to include MobileHMI™, a Line of Business Windows Store app for Windows 8.

Users can visualize plant operations from Windows 8 devices with dazzling, fully animated graphics, or respond to alarms and alerts in real time. They can utilize natural multi-touch gestures to swipe through operations and zoom or drill down into areas that need attention most. ICONICS MobileHMI™ allows users to achieve instant, one-touch access to operational conditions of concern or KPIs of interest. The Search charm allows users to explore and identify all available information on topics of interest. With MobileHMI, users are made immediately aware of critical alerts (notifications) that are delivered to mobile devices and displayed on the Start screen via the MobileHMI live tile.

“ICONICS has proven that Windows 8 delivers the responsiveness and robustness needed for critical utility, process and discrete manufacturing applications," said John Richards, senior director of Windows App Marketing for Microsoft Corp. "Plant operators and supervisors no longer need to be tethered to the control room, and corporate executives are now virtually a touch away from real-time operations performance KPIs, independent of their travel schedules."

The ICONICS’ app for Windows 8 fully integrates with and communicates with, ICONICS GENESIS64 HMI/SCADA and Building Automation Servers. This integration enables OPC, OPC-UA, BACnet, SNMP, and Modbus TCP/IP compliance, helping ensure that data from any plant, building, equipment or system is virtually immediately viewable on a Windows 8 device. ICONICS offers a packaged server/app solution that can be plugged on top of almost any plant control network or building automation system network to make it accessible from Windows 8 devices.