Control System World

Moore Industries has published a new white paper on an application using the WORM Flexible Temperature Sensors to measure the temperature of molasses during the production of beet sugar. Using the WORM as a replacement for standard thermowells allows site engineers to get more accurate temperature readings and maximize the amount of sugar recovered from the molasses.

American Crystal Sugar Company struggled with getting accurate temperature readings of molasses created during the process of extracting beet sugar. The molasses ran about 1 1/2-inches thick at the bottom of a pipe. Using a standard straight thermowell and a solid sheathed RTD sensor meant that the thermowell and sensor was only partially submerged. This led to inaccurate temperature measurements.

This was solved by creating a custom thermowell from 3/8-in. Stainless steel tubing with a radial bend at the end. The flexible WORM RTD sensor was inserted and secured into the newly designed thermowell. This allowed the tip of the sensor to be angled so that it was fully submerged in the molasses. The result is that site operators are able to get highly accurate temperature readings, which allows them to adjust their processes to extract more sugar from the molasses.

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In the current year, B&R is expecting record sales revenue of €535 million, therefore surpassing the defined goal of a half-billion euros by a wide margin. This was announced by general manager Peter Gucher at B&R's annual press conference. With a 13% increase in sales, the company continues along the highly successful course laid out in previous years.

"We have considerably increased our market share," says Gucher. Whereas industrial production has only returned to pre-2008 levels in 2014, B&R sales have increased 75% during this time. B&R's core market is in Europe, where two-thirds of the company's sales are generated. The strongest increase in sales revenue was generated in Asia and North America.

In the past 12 months, machine and system manufacturers have automated 270,000 machines with B&R controllers. "The complete scalability of our entire product range gives us a clear competitive edge on the market," explains Gucher. "With Scalability+ solutions, we already offer the tools needed for flexible production as envisioned in the Industry 4.0 concept."

To ensure that its technologies remain on top in the automation industry, B&R invests nearly 15% of sales revenue back into research and development. "We can only continue along the road to success by developing new innovations," says Gucher. In the last five years alone, over 700 engineers have been hired. In addition, ten percent of all engineering hours is invested in training and continued education.

B&R is represented by 24 subsidiaries and nearly 200 offices in 75 countries around the world. "Our decentralized structure is an essential part of B&R's business model," states Gucher. "We are in close proximity to our customers all around the world and always have sales and support engineers who speak the local language." Just in the last 12 months, B&R has opened many new offices, including the company's 24th subsidiary – this time in Japan. A complete team of support, application and sales engineers started work there in June.

KBR Inc.has announced today that its joint venture partnership with PT Rekayasa Industri, JGC Corporation and PT JGC Indonesia, the RJK JV, has been awarded the onshore front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract by BP for a third liquefaction train at the Tangguh LNG Project in West Papua province, Indonesia.

The expansion project follows the successful completion in 2009 of the two train Tangguh LNG plant and associated facilities by a joint venture partnership between JGC Corporation, KBR and PT Pertafenikki Engineering (KJP JV).

The Tangguh LNG Project, located in remote Bintuni Bay, West Papua, was the largest capital development project ever undertaken in Indonesia and involved the successful delivery of community, local content, environmental and safety performance.

“KBR is proud to continue our longstanding relationship with BP and our joint venture partners, PT Rekayasa Industri and JGC Corporation and PT JGC Indonesia, on the Tangguh LNG expansion. This project represents KBR's ability to bring world-class engineering skills to complex energy projects and follows KBR’s 30-year presence and successful track record in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Stuart Bradie, KBR President and CEO.

The Tangguh LNG Project is located in Teluk Bintuni, Papua Barat. Tangguh began production in 2009 and gas from a third LNG train will come from a phased offshore development of new shallow water platforms, new pipelines to shore, new infield pipelines, a new integrated onshore receiving facility and new development wells. Tangguh’s capacity is currently 7.6 million tons and is expected to reach 11.4 when the expansion project is completed.

Technip, in a joint venture with Fluor Corporation, has been awarded an engineering, procurement, and construction management (EP&CM) contract by Sasol for its world scale ethane cracker and derivatives complex near Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA.  The new complex will be a major expansion to Sasol’s existing Lake Charles Chemical Complex and will be constructed adjacent to its existing facility in southwest Louisiana. Under this contract, the Technip and Fluor joint venture will be responsible for a 1.5 million-tons-per-year ethane cracker, downstream derivatives units and associated utilities, offsites and infrastructure work.

The contract covers the overall project management, detailed engineering, procurement and construction management, together with start-up, commissioning and performance testing support to Sasol operations, and is scheduled for completion in 2018. The project will be executed by Technip in Houston, Texas, USA, with support from its operating centers in Rome, Italy, Mumbai, India, and its Technip Stone & Webster Process Technology global business unit.

This award validates Group’s strategy of early involvement to design an effective project execution scheme, bringing value to clients. Technip Stone & Webster Process Technology had earlier been awarded the license and FEED for the ethane cracker.

Rosemount Analytical is the leader in oxygen flue gas analyzer technology. The 6888 continues the tradition of integrating an oxygen probe and field electronics into a single, compact package. The probe inserts directly into a flue gas duct to measure oxygen in combustion processes. No sampling system is required, and the newest version offers an optional on-line automatic calibration capability embedded within the probe, freeing up your technician’s time, and ensuring the most accurate O2 readings over time.

The 6888 in situ O2 transmitter provides accurate measurement of the oxygen remaining in the flue gases coming from any combustion process. Optimal combustion efficiency can be obtained by maintaining the ideal level of oxygen in the flue gases coming from these processes and the lowest level of NOX, CO and CO2 are produced.

Easy to use and easy to integrate. This in situ analyzer was designed with customer ease-of-use in mind. There are no moving parts or sampling apparatus resulting in an extremely reliable probe that requires very little maintenance.

Specifications:

• Net O2 range: variable 0-10% to 0-50%(Xi electronics offer 0-50% O2 range)
• Accuracy in oxidizing conditions: ±0.75% of reading or 0.05% O2, whichever is greater
• Lowest detectable limit: 0.02% O2
• Process temperature effect: less than 0.05% O2 from 100-700°C
• System speed of response to calibration gas: Initial response in less than 3 seconds, T90 in less than 8 seconds. Response to process gas changes will vary, depending on process gas velocity and particulate loading of the diffuser
• Calibration validity: Presentation of calibration gases matches the normal process to within ±0.02% O2
• Accuracy in reducing conditions: ±0.1% of reading, or 0.1% O2, whichever is greater
• System response in reducing conditions
• going from oxidizing to reducing -T90 in 120 sec.
• going from reducing to oxidizing -T90 in 30 sec.

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Advantech’s new 12.1” and 15” TPC-1251T/1551T touch panel computers are the latest of their type to use the Intel® Atom™ E3827 1.75 GHz Processor, and to feature the much heralded iDoor Technology, a truly flat screen and a multitude of I/O ports whilst being able to operate in a wide range of temperatures..

The Intel® Atom™ E3827 1.75 GHz Processor is the latest CPU from internationally renowned processor manufacturer and features an enhanced performance and provides a smooth operating experience in a wide array of industries.

The truly flat and seamless design of the TPC-1251T/1551T provides easier maintenance and avoids mis-touches by providing IP66 protection against dust and water which can affect the use of the touch panel. This feature expands the environments which the TPC-51T series can now work in.

Advantech’s iDoor technology is a new modular way of adding versatile functionality to give system integrators the flexibility to choose the functions that they need without purchasing devices that have excess costs and functions that they’ll never use. With Isolated DI/O ports, Power over Ethernet, Profibus and CANOpen modules iDoor Technology gives a cost efficient solution to increase the functionality of the TPC-51T series.

Advantech’s TPC range is renowned for its multitudeof I/O ports and expandability and the TPC-51T series is no exception since it has: two USB 3.0 ports for Power over Ethernet and other high speed devices; a PCI slot for adding functions; a HDMI port for an additional display; the iDoor Technology slot uses a mini PCIe connector and if not being used for iDoor modules it can be used for adding additional cards such as Wi-Fi, 3G and GPS. If further I/O ports and storage are required the TPC-1251T-EHKE expansion kit provides additional storage for hard disks/solid state disk and iDoor modules.

Historical information is used by the Automation Industry to improve process throughput, manage assets, and report to regulatory authorities. Therefore, access to this information is critical. Both Operations and Engineering teams require solutions that can be located close to the data source, are capable of storing data at high speeds, and have the flexibility that teams need to efficiently respond to the requirements of the manufacturing line, drilling rig, test laboratory, pump station, or other industrial environment. Kepware Technologies' Local Historian Plug-In for KEPServerEX is a flexible, easy to use, and cost-effective solution that provides industry-leading trending, reporting, and analytics tools with access to historical data using OPC Historical Data Access (HDA).

A Local Historian can supplement the existing Enterprise Historian model used in most large-scale industrial environments like Manufacturing, Oil & Gas, and Utilities. Although the Enterprise Historian will continue to have a place in large companies as the final perpetual archive of critical information, many organizations also have a need for a smaller, more flexible historian application that is easy to configure and provides open access to third-party analysis and reporting tools at the point of collection.

Kepware's Local Historian Plug-In leverages the KEPServerEX communications platform to transport information to its high-speed datastore. The Local Historian provides historical information to custom or off-the-shelf OPC HDA-compliant client applications for data visualization, reporting, and analytics. Because the Local Historian's design decouples data storage and visualization, users can choose the visualization or reporting solution that best meets their unique needs.

Kepware has tested the plug-in with multiple third-party trending and reporting products to validate its OPC HDA implementation and ensure a seamless user experience. One of the reporting products with which Kepware has completed testing includes XLReporter from SyTech.

"Kepware's Local Historian is a robust historian backed by Kepware's long experience in the automation field," said Peter Kaprielian, CTO, SyTech. "It has been fully tested with XLReporter and both products work seamlessly together. We, along with Kepware, are committed to providing high-quality support for our products."

The Local Historian Plug-In supports high-speed logging to 10 milliseconds and tiered licensing for up to ten thousand tags. Open standards allow locally-stored data to be accessed from multiple clients with no additional cost per client connection.

Rockwell Automation has announced it has purchased the assets of ESC Services, Inc., a global hazardous energy control provider of lockout-tagout services and solutions.

“ESC Services will enable Rockwell Automation customers to increase asset utilization and strengthen enterprise risk management, while adding safety to our growing portfolio of data-driven, cloud-enabled services,” said Matt Fordenwalt, Rockwell Automation consulting business manager.

ESC’s unique methodology utilizes Quick Response (QR) codes that can be scanned to obtain asset information and streamline compliance with both external regulations and internal safety policies.

“The global use of lockout-tagout is expanding among multi-national corporations, and represents a great growth opportunity,” said Kelly Michalscheck, president, ESC Services. “This acquisition enables us to extend ESC Services lockout-tagout procedures and ScanESC solutions to tens of thousands of additional OEM machines, delivering more value and unique offerings to Rockwell Automation’s extensive global channels.”

ESC Services, based in Franklin, Wis., will be integrated into Rockwell Automation’s Control Products & Solutions segment as part of its customer support and maintenance business unit. Terms were not disclosed.