Control System World

Exida is very pleased to partner with Qingdao Moses in China , a high-tech enterprise that specializes in providing products and service of industrial automation process control system integration, DCS maintenance and operation, industry network information security protection as well as industrial data acquisition and transmission. Qingdao Moses in China is a member of both China Industrial Software Promotion Association (CISPA) and Subcommittee 4 on Industrial Control System Information Security of National Technical Committee124 on Industrial Process Measurement and Control of Standardization Administration of China (SAC/TC124/SC4), owner of ISO9001 certification.

With complimentary areas of expertise, networks and services offering, both companies will benefit from this agreement.

Qingdao Moses operates a sound management system, owns powerful technical staff, equips with advanced manufacturing and testing equipment and has passed the supervision and audit for successive years. Qingdao Moses provide products and service in fields of petrochemical, pipelines, metallurgy and papermaking from thirty provinces and autonomous regions of the country and receive high appraisal from the customers. Though Qingdao Moses have gained honor of the Automation in Petroleum and Chemical Industry Technology Award, the 2012 annual China Information Security Innovation Award and Excellent Solution Award, there still a long way to go.

Beijer Electronics is proud to present T7BR, a rugged 7 inch operator panel designed for operation in extreme environments. The new model is tested and certified to withstand wind, snow and rain, working on heavy duty motors in remote locations, or in a steamy offshore engine room.

The T7BR rugged operator panel adds strength to Beijer Electronics’ rugged range that also includes the 15 inch T15BR. Both HMIs are certified by major classification societies for hazardous environments (UL, IECEx, ATEX) as well as to many marine standards (ABS, DNV, GL, LR, KR) for use on vessels and offshore installations. The rugged HMI panels are designed for an operating temperature of -30°C to 70°C and conform to NEMA 4X, IP66 and UL 50E Type 4X sealing specifications. The T7BR and T15BR are available in both Beijer iX and Panel PC (WES7) configurations.

Beijer’s iX HMI software empowers machine builders and end users with unique tools to communicate. It combines top-class vector graphics and smarter functions that provide intuitive operation on the spot. Not to mention the almost limitless connectivity to other equipment through the extensive list of drivers.

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South Korea’s petrochemical company is located in the town of Yeosu. The plant started from 350,000 tons of ethylene per year production and expanded to 1,000,000 tons per year now. There are twelve naphtha cracking furnaces in this plant. The naphtha used as the feedstock for this plant is fed to a pyrolysis (steam cracking) furnace, where it is combined with steam and heated to 980 to 1,080° C. Within this temperature range, the feedstock molecules "crack" to produce ethylene as well as methane, hydrogen, ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene, toluene, xylene, and other co-products. After the pyrolysis reaction is quenched, the rest of the plant separates the desired products into streams that meet the various product specifications. The process steps include distillation, compression, process gas drying, hydrogenation (of acetylenes), and heat transfer.

All of the processes at this ethylene plant are controlled by a Yokogawa CENTUM CS 3000 production control system that was engineered, installed, and commissioned by Yokogawa Korea. To further enhance operations at this plant, Yokogawa Korea introduced the Exapilot operation efficiency improvement package in 2006.

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Rockwell Automation has introduced its new Allen‑Bradley MobileView tethered operator interface. The mobile terminal gives plant and industrial personnel the freedom to take a machine’s human-machine interface (HMI) with them to make real-time adjustments to out-of-view applications.

The MobileView tethered operator interface is ideal for maintenance tasks, machine setup or calibration activities, and other HMI applications that require the operator to see the machine. The inclusion of a hardwired e-stop button and three-position enabling switch also supports applications that require local safety functionality.

“Between making an adjustment on the terminal and viewing the results on the machine, fixed operator terminals can require a lot of back and forth for personnel, for certain applications,” said Matt Hansen, senior product manager at Rockwell Automation. “The MobileView tethered operator interface puts the terminal in the operator’s hands to increase productivity and safety. Tasks are made more efficient and machines are set up faster.”

The MobileView tethered operator interface complements the Allen-Bradley PanelView graphic terminals, giving manufacturers and industrial operators a range of fixed and mobile terminals for different applications. It also uses the FactoryTalk View Machine Edition (ME) HMI software from Rockwell Automation, allowing users to develop and re-use their software applications across the MobileView and PanelView platforms.

Three cable-length options, ranging from 16.4 feet to 49.2 feet, offer flexibility for different machines and production lines. The MobileView tethered operator interface also uses a 10-inch display with resistive touch screen, 2 GB internal SD card for application storage, and USB 2.0 port for high-speed data transfer. Software assignable functions are available as an option with either a hardwired momentary illuminated pushbutton or three-position key switch.

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Rockwell Automation is now accepting nominations for its third annual Manufacturing Safety Excellence Awards.  The awards celebrate the world’s safest manufacturing companies – those that make workplace safety a core business value by building a comprehensive program based on three key pillars: a strong safety culture, well-executed compliance procedures, and effective use of current safeguarding and automation technology.

“The 2014 winners – Corning Environmental Technologies and Bevcorp – were selected because their commitment to safety stretches beyond compliance to help achieve business goals,” said Mark Eitzman, safety market development manager at Rockwell Automation. “For them, keeping workers safe is the top priority. But safety also improves operational efficiency and company profitability, so it’s viewed as a barometer of company success rather than a costly obligation.”

The awards are open to manufacturers, machine builders (OEMs) or system integrators, as long as they demonstrate a true commitment to safety across the three key pillars of culture, compliance and technology. Nominations are due Sept. 14, 2015.

“Winning the award in 2014 demonstrated our team’s dedication to continually improving machine safety,” said Chris Pascarella, president of Bevcorp. “As an OEM, our customers often come to us focused on efficiency and compliance. By partnering with them and designing safety into our machines from the start, we help improve their productivity and raise the bar on machine safety in the OEM community.”

The awards also recognize companies that successfully integrate safety practices between the engineering and environmental health and safety (EHS) departments. This helps enable the kind of collaboration that dramatically reduces injury rates while also improving plant productivity.

Past winners include General Motors, Procter & Gamble and the PepsiCo divisions of Walkers Crisps and Pepsi Flavors.

To nominate a company, complete the entry form and email it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with “Safety Excellence Awards Nomination” in the subject line

The 61st Annual ISA International Instrumentation Symposium (IIS), jointly developed with the Machinery Failure Prevention Technology (MFPT) Society, was held last week at the Westin Hotel in Huntsville, Alabama, USA. The event is jointly sponsored by ISA’s Aerospace Industries, Test Measurement and Process Measurement and Controls Divisions, and is recognized globally as a forum for discussion of new and innovative instrumentation techniques, developments, and applications.

200 attendees, 90 industry experts and 18 exhibitor companies enjoyed more than 120 technical paper presentations, keynote addresses, panel discussions, networking receptions, a cutting-edge exhibit, technical tours, tutorials and an ISA training course on industrial wireless technology. The theme of the conference was “Technology Evolution: Sensors to Systems for Failure Prevention.

“The 61st IIS Symposium provided a remarkable opportunity for ISA Divisions and authors to expand their professional networks and learn about innovative instrumentation techniques. Few forums offer this level of variety of topics and focus on current and pressing problems in industrial instrumentation. This was the instrumentation, prognostics, health management and automation event to attend in 2015 as leaders from ISA joined forces with MFPT to bring attendees seven tracks on health management and engineering,” said IIS General Chair Kash Behdinan, PhD., PMP.

Technical sessions, developed by ISA and MFPT, focused on key instrumentation challenges and developments across multiple industries. Topics covered included diagnostics, health management practices, control system instrumentation, communications and networks, process measurement and control applications, cybersecurity, signal analysis, condition based maintenance, process safety, test and measurement, failure analysis and prevention, fault detection and more. Tutorials covered key challenges and hot topics such as systems engineering, envelope analysis, generating business case analyses for implementing health management capabilities and, on the softer side, maintaining balance while managing a successful career.

Keynote addresses were delivered on Thursday, 12 May, after a welcome from ISA and MFPT leadership. The first keynote, titled “Bringing Back the '70s: Simplifying IC Manufacturing Problem Resolutions with Machine Learning," was given by Ben Eynon, Senior Director of Engineering Development at Samsung Austin Semiconductor. Next, Joshua Kennedy, Associate Director of Sustainment Analysis for the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, presented a dynamic address focused on “Managing and Implementing the Biggest CBM Program in the World,” covering trials, tribulations, and lessons learned.

The keynote sessions continued with Professor Dale Carl Teeters, Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at The University of Tulsa. Professor Teeters’ keynote, titled "Nanotechnology for Improvement and Control of Power Systems," detailed the latest research and development work in this important area of study. Finally, Dr. William Kyle Simmons, Principal Investigator at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research, delivered a fascinating theory-based discussion on “Using Human Brain Imaging to Map the Neurocircuitry Underlying Food Motivation.”

The introduction of the new Rotork IQT electric valve actuator brings the advanced functionality and asset management capabilities of Rotork’s 3rd generation intelligent technology to the direct-drive operation of part-turn valves.

Proven in the field by thousands of IQ3 multi-turn actuators, new functionality brought to the compact and robust IQT includes an unrivalled range of advanced data logging and communication capabilities that have been increased in response to the end users’ desire to access more data, both in the field and in the control room.

Diagnostic graphics present a window into the process, showing the valve torque, usage profiles and service logs, facilitating real-time analysis directly at the actuator. The information-rich backlit display is the focus of attention for non-intrusive wireless communication and multi-functional indication, including user-friendly multi-lingual menus for configuration and commissioning. Local position indication, valve and actuator status, asset management and diagnostic operating information is available to download and can be viewed directly at the actuator on the large LCD display. The display provides real-time status data, positional and warning icon information; actuator setup and operating menus along with detailed diagnostic and operational data screens are clearly displayed in dot matrix format.

Using the Rotork Bluetooth® Setting Tool Pro, commissioning and configuring the actuator is faster and simpler than ever. The setting tool can also be used to securely transfer data from the actuators to a PC for analysis using Rotork Insight2 diagnostic software. Insight2 can further streamline actuator set up by pre-defining complete sets of instructions and settings. Each collection of settings can be saved as a ‘mission data set’ and quickly applied to multiple actuators requiring the same configuration.

Valve maintenance requirements can be identified and anticipated, eliminating unplanned interruptions to the process or over-cautious planned maintenance outages. The actuator's powerful datalogger provides comprehensive data capture for planned maintenance and troubleshooting. Data includes valve torque profiles, operational start profiles, vibration and temperature trend logs and an event log. Specific asset management information includes running time, average torque and number of starts. Service or maintenance alarms are selectable from configurable menus including open and close torque levels, total starts and vibration levels.

Torque sensing is reliable and accurate over the life of the actuator. Similarly, reliable valve positioning is critical. A patented absolute encoder with only one moving part tracks valve position without the requirement for a battery even when there is loss of power. In addition, as all configuration and datalogger data is stored in a non-volatile EEPROM memory, all settings are retained. If an actuator is manually operated during a power outage, the local display and remote indication is kept updated by the use of a battery which also facilitates data logging and power-off commissioning.

The IQT’s double-sealed IP68 watertight and temporarily submersible enclosure is universal to all Rotork actuators, including those with explosion proof certification. It permanently protects internal electrics from the ambient environment, even during site wiring with the terminal housing cover removed. The double-sealed design, in which the terminal housing is separately O-ring sealed from the rest of the actuator, has been a standard feature on Rotork electric actuators for over forty years. It is proven to increase long term reliability and durability in the harshest of climates. A plug and socket connector option is available which also retains the double-sealed design.

On the actuator’s compact and robust enclosure, local Open/Close and Local/Stop/Remote selectors are coupled magnetically to internal switches without penetrating the actuator body, further enhancing non-intrusive environmental protection. Emergency handwheel operation with motor preference is provided as standard.

IQT actuators are suitable for three phase, single phase or DC power supplies, with a torque output range of 50 to 2000Nm available for isolating, regulating and modulating duties. The motor always runs in the correct direction, irrespective of supply type and connection. In addition, the output speed can be non-intrusively adjusted over a 4:1 range without affecting the output torque. All valve interface bases conform to ISO5211 or MSS SP 101 and are fitted with removable couplings.

Hazardous area actuators are fully approved to the latest ATEX standards. Network connectivity options include Foundation Fieldbus®, Profibus®, HART® and DeviceNet® open systems, as well as Rotork's own dedicated Pakscan wired or wireless systems.

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces that Yokogawa and Shell have jointly developed Platform for Advanced Control and Estimation, a software suite that speeds up and simplifies the process of designing, deploying, and maintaining advanced process control applications.

This software suite brings together the advanced process control technology that Shell has acquired by operating its plants and the real-time control technology that Yokogawa has developed as a control system supplier. This product will help companies to improve their productivity. Yokogawa will launch sales of this software suite on June 5, 2015.

Features of This Software Suite:

Advanced process control systems improve product yield and reduce energy consumption by not only maintaining process values such as temperature, flow rate, and pressure within a set range but also keeping them as close as possible to their optimal set points. Thus, such systems are increasingly being used in facilities such as refineries, petrochemical plants, chemical plants, and natural gas liquefaction trains. This new software solution simplifies engineering and improves both operability and maintainability.

• This software suite brings the following functionality available within the same platform:
• Multivariable model predictive control (a function for modelling the dynamic characteristics of plant responses and controlling multiple variables based on model predictions)
• Soft sensing (a function for estimating quality in real time based on temperature, flow rate, pressure, and other process values)
• The ability to perform various types of calculations and customise settings.

The major features of this software suite are as follows:

1. Development of rapidly deployable applications

2. Excellent operability and maintainability

3. Integrated platform for improved engineering efficiency

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