Control System World

SNC-Lavalin (TSX: SNC) is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a 10-year contract to operate and maintain the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC) project located in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The estimated value of this contract is $135 million.

With a mandate to conduct high-calibre research in energy economics, policy, technology, and the environment, the KAPSARC project consists of three major components: a 65,000 m2 research and office complex, a residential community that will accommodate approximately 1,000 residents, and a utility zone to serve them. This zone consists of a central utility plant with a 5-MW photovoltaic array, water storage tanks, a chilled water plant, a site operations and maintenance building, and transportation operations.

SNC-Lavalin will provide integrated facility and community management services to the project.

“We are delighted by the opportunity to be involved in such a state-of-the-art facility,” said Charlie Rate, Executive Vice-President, SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. “We continue to solidify our footprint in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a key market for our business.”

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces that it will release ROTAMASS LR, the world´s smallest dual bent tube Coriolis mass flowmeter, on August 15.

The new ROTAMASS LR employs a proven dual bent tube and self-draining design and represents a significant addition to Yokogawa´s ROTAMASS Low Flow Line product family for gas and liquid flow measurement.

Designed to measure both liquids and gases, the effective turndown of the ROTAMASS LR is no less than 2,000:1 for liquids and 5,000:1 for gases, and the mass flow measurement range spans from 10.5 g/h up to 40 kg/h, achieving a measurement accuracy of ±0.15% of reading for liquids and ±0.5% for gases.

Product Features

1. Dual bent tube design with perfect balance for robust performance

2. Unique inline temperature sensor for reliable measurement

3. Robust stainless steel housing

4. Insulation and heating jacket options

For further details click 'Yokogawa Releases ROTAMASS LR - smallest dual bent tube Coriolis mass flowmeter'

Case Study by Advantech: Today’s society continues to face severe water pollution and scarcity problems. Even emerging countries generate more than a billion tons of wastewater every year and the amount is expected to grow due to rapid urbanization and industrialization. Fortunately, many governments have stepped up their efforts to improve the regulatory framework for modern wastewater management and with the assistance of Advantech’s solutions Waste Water Treatment Plants they can leverage their existing networks, hardware, and software. By introducing remote control and fiber optic communication as well as integrating management systems and reducing management costs, they can bring water treatment plants into the 21st century.

Wastewater is composed of water and some dissolved or suspended solid matter, and therefore needs to undergo a multi-stage treatment process to clean it before it’s discharged or reused. The process involves numerous phases, including: screening, pumping, aerating, sludge and scum removal, the killing of bacteria and the removal of waste water residuals. In response to such a complex procedure, the wastewater treatment plant often covers a very large area and has several buildings in which to install various for sewage sludge treatment facilities. Sometimes, these can be many kilometers apart: causing difficulties with continuously monitoring the equipment’s status. Meanwhile, a wide variety and a large amount of equipment with poor interoperability also caused maintenance problems. Because of these issues, the plant planned to upgrade its system using fiber optic communication and a remote monitoring solution to enhance the level of system automation.

For further details click 'Case Study: Remote and Centralized Monitoring System for Waste Water Treatment'

The HI 1756-nDF Dispenser/Filler modules can be used in a variety of material-flow applications where speed, repeatability and accuracy are paramount to the overall process.

Hardy’s HI 1756-nDF is available as a single slot, single channel (HI 1756-1DF) or dual channel (HI 1756-2DF) Dispenser/Filler module that mounts into an Allen-Bradley® ControlLogix® Chassis. Whether filling or dispensing solids, liquids or gases, the HI 1756-nDF automates the entire process by monitoring, controlling, tuning and maintaining the dispense/fill operation.

With two integrated solid state DC or AC relays per channel, Hardy’s HI 1756-nDF places processing power and complete control right where you need it – at the process, making it a true DCS device.

The module can be inserted and removed under power without disruption of any other modules in the system (racks). This makes it possible to replace a failed module while keeping the rest of the system running. Status indicators are provided on the front of the module for fault status. A status block will provide information to the processor for alarming and troubleshooting (IT).

'HI 1756-nDF ControlLogix Dispenser/Filler Module'

Advantech introduces the UNO-4683, a new IEC 61850-3 and IEEE 1613 certified substation computer, and four new domain plug-in I/O modules (UNOP-1514C, UNOP-1618D, UNOP-1628D and UNOP-1624D) specifically designed for the UNO-4673A and UNO-4683 which are slotted in to the three configurable I/O expansion slots of the UNO-4673A/4683.

The fanless UNO-4683 with Intel® Core™ i7 processor and compact 2U rackmount form factor, dual power input {AC (100 ~ 240 VAC) and DC (106 ~ 250 VDC)}, and advanced computing technology delivers robustness and reliability. Certified with IEC 61850-3 and IEEE 1613 standards, the UNO-4683 is able to communicate with different devices across substations and also comes with a wide range of communication interfaces and flexible expansion capabilities, including six Ethernet ports with LAN redundant teaming functionality, six USB ports, and two RS-232/422/485 isolated serial ports. Three configurable domain I/O expansion slots are also open for users to select the UNOP I/O modules to meet their application needs.

UNOP modules are also compliant with the IEC 61850-3 and IEEE 1613 standards; the UNOP-1624D is a 4-port isolated RS-232/422/485 card with IRIG B support, whilst the UNOP-1514C comes with 4-port Fiber Optic LAN support. There are also two 8-port RS-232/422/485 I/O modules: the UNO-1618D without port-to-port isolation and the UNO-1628D with port-to-port isolation.

Austin, Texas, August 14, 2012 – The Fieldbus Foundation today announced that Fieldbus Inc. (www.fieldbusinc.com) has qualified under its FOUNDATION Development Services Provider (DSP) program. A solutions provider for fieldbus technology applications, product development, standard and custom function blocks, consulting, training and many other products and services,. Fieldbus Inc. joins other qualified service providers in the program, which helps automation vendors get started with FOUNDATION product development by making it faster and easier to bring fieldbus equipment to market.

The Fieldbus Foundation launched the FOUNDATION DSP program to assist automation equipment suppliers preparing to design and manufacture products employing FOUNDATION fieldbus technology. The DSP program is intended to provide access to qualified development services providers with the know-how to make fieldbus solutions a reality. Qualified DSP participants have been evaluated to ensure they have the tools, training and experience necessary to support a wide range of FOUNDATION fieldbus development projects. Services that can be qualified in the FOUNDATION DSP program include H1 and High Speed Ethernet (HSE) fieldbus device development services, as well as host system services.

Fieldbus Foundation Manager-Fieldbus Products, Stephen Mitschke, commented, "The FOUNDATION fieldbus technology market continues to grow, and Fieldbus Foundation members look to participate in it. Sometimes, organizations can be intimidated by fieldbus device development when they are faced with little experience or knowledge of digital bus technology. Add in limited resources and they may prefer to outsource a portion of the development process. The FOUNDATION DSP solution can help by streamlining product R&D and ensuring a strong ROI."

Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA (2 August 2012)—The International Society of Automation (ISA) announced today that an ISA standard, ANSI/ISA-62382-2012 (IEC 62382 Modified), Automation Systems in the Process Industry—Electrical and Instrumentation Loop Check, has been approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and is now available.

This standard defines procedures and specifications for loop checks, which comprise the activities between the completion of the loop construction (including installation and point-to-point checks) and the start-up of cold commissioning. It is applicable to the construction of new plants and to expansion/retrofits (i.e. revamping) of E&I (electrical & instrument) installations in existing plants (including PLC, DCS, panel-mounted and field instrumentation).

The standard is a US-modified adoption by the ISA105 standards committee of IEC 62382 Edition 1. While the content is largely the same as IEC 62382, this adoption includes such changes as:

• The addition of both the increasing and decreasing directions to tests in order to identify any hysteresis issues.
• The addition of a category of “standard loops” for completeness.
• The replacement of various input/output check forms with a single loop check form that can be used for all loops, including indicating and control. This significantly reduces the number of check forms needed and at the same time reinforces the “loop” concept in the loop check activity.
• Expanded examples of loop checks. Specific loop checks must be established by the user depending on the specific hardware/software to be verified on the project.

NEWS RELEASE – Aug. 13, 2012 – National Instruments announces 3-D vision capabilities in LabVIEW with the new NI Vision Development Module 2012. Engineers can develop a 3-D stereo vision system using any two cameras and can perform advanced inspection and control that uses depth information from 3-D vision technology. They can also use LabVIEW with third-party hardware and software tools for 3-D vision and combine 3-D images with other algorithms, such as pattern matching or object tracking, to profile stationary or moving objects.

Product Features

- High-precision 3-D image acquisition using new stereo vision and calibration algorithms in the Vision Development Module

- Compatibility with third-party 3-D cameras, such as SICK Ranger cameras that use laser triangulation technology

- Seamless integration of additional 3-D processing and analysis libraries, such as the AQSENSE SAL3D library, in the same graphical programming environment

'NI Announces 3-D Vision in LabVIEW for Seamless Hardware and Software Integration'