Control System World

Foster Wheeler AG (Nasdaq:FWLT) announced today that a subsidiary of its Global Engineering and Construction Group has been selected by Farabi Petrochemicals Company to undertake a concept study and technology selection contract for the Jazan Petrochemicals Project in Saudi Arabia.

Foster Wheeler’s scope of work will include development of the overall concept for the project, which is planned to include a world-scale linear alkyl benzene plant and a range of units producing specialty chemicals derived from diesel feedstock. Foster Wheeler will also recommend the technology for the production of low aromatics solvent and for the treatment of heavy fuel oil, as well as develop a capital and operating cost estimate and the invitation to tender for the front-end engineering design. The study is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2014.

“We are delighted that Farabi Petrochemicals Company has awarded this important strategic study to Foster Wheeler, continuing a relationship that stretches back over a decade,” said Umberto della Sala, President and Chief Operating Officer, Foster Wheeler AG. “We look forward to making a key contribution in assisting our client to progress this significant investment, and delivering a strong performance that will position us well for subsequent phases of the project.”

“Farabi Petrochemicals are pleased to award this contract to Foster Wheeler and look forward to working with them to develop this key investment in our company’s future,” said Mohammed Al-Wadaey, President, Farabi Petrochemicals Company.

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces that its subsidiary, P.T. Yokogawa Indonesia, has received an order from PT. PLN, a government-owned utility in Indonesia, to supply the control system for a project that will renovate the first of four 20 MW power generation units at the Lahendong geothermal power plant, which is located in the Lahendong district on Sulawesi Island.

As part of this renovation project, the system used to monitor and control the steam turbine auxiliary facilities in unit No. 1 will be replaced with the CENTUM® VP integrated production control system. Yokogawa Indonesia will be responsible for engineering, installing, and commissioning the new system. This project is scheduled to be completed by February 2014, whereupon unit No. 1 will be returned to service.

Geothermal energy can generate a stable supply of electricity day and night, and in all weather conditions. Since no carbon dioxide is emitted, it is regarded as an attractive alternative to fossil fuels. However, the systems and instruments used in geothermal power plants must be robust and capable of operating in the presence of corrosive substances and gases. For such applications, Yokogawa provides highly reliable systems that support the remote monitoring, diagnosis, and adjustment of devices in the field as well as a range of products that are suitable for use in corrosive gas environments.

CENTUM VP systems have already been operating for some time in units No. 3 and 4. The solid performance of these systems, combined with Yokogawa's superior technical expertise in geothermal power generation, the quality of its products, and its extensive engineering and service network in Indonesia, were primary considerations in PT. PLN's decision to go with the CENTUM VP solution in unit No.1.

To further grow its industrial automation and control business and contribute to the realization of a sustainable society, Yokogawa is targeting renewable energy fields such as geothermal power. As such, the company will be seeking to expand the provision of its solutions in Indonesia and other geothermal resource-rich countries.

Foster Wheeler has announced that a subsidiary of its Global Engineering and Construction Group has been awarded a contract by Aramco Overseas Company B.V. (AOC) to perform the front-end engineering design (FEED) for a gas compression project that is part of AOC’s Master Gas System Expansion in Saudi Arabia.

The Foster Wheeler contract value was not disclosed and was included in the second-quarter 2013 bookings.  Foster Wheeler will be responsible for developing a FEED package on a fast-track basis, initially for two compressor stations. AOC plans to develop up to three additional compressor stations in a subsequent phase of this expansion.

“Foster Wheeler is very pleased to be awarded further work for Saudi Aramco,” said Umberto della Sala, President and Chief Operating Officer of Foster Wheeler AG. “This latest win reflects our client’s confidence in our team, our performance track record on their projects and, in particular, our ability to execute a fast-track schedule.”

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces that Yokogawa Electric International, a subsidiary that oversees Yokogawa’s IA and control business outside Japan, has received an order from Sinopec International Petroleum Service Corporation (SIPSC)*1 to supply the monitoring system for a large water distribution pipeline that the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC)*2 is building in Saudi Arabia between the cities of Yanbu and Medina. This is Yokogawa’s first order from SIPSC for a water distribution pipeline project.

Yanbu is a Red Sea port and a center of industry in Al Madinah province, and Medina is the capital city (population 1.1 million) of that province. When completed, the new water distribution pipeline will stretch 610 km from a seawater desalination plant in Yanbu to the city of Medina and its surrounding districts, and will be capable of supplying 709,000 m3 of potable water per day. This is one of the largest-ever international water distribution projects to be undertaken by SIPSC.

This order includes the FAST/TOOLS SCADA*3 software and the STARDOMTM network-based control system for monitoring the pipeline, the PRM® integrated device management software package for instrumentation monitoring and online diagnosis, pipeline leakage detection systems, and a telecommunicaions system. Yokogawa Electric International will be responsible for engineering, supervising the installation of, and commissioning these products. These products will be delivered by July 2014 and the new pipeline will become operational the following month.

Tetsuya Murai, General Manager of the Sales Division’s Power & Utilities Department at Yokogawa Electric International, said, "The countries of the Middle East and emerging nations in other regions are facing water shortages due to rapid industrialization and population growth, particularly in urban areas, and thus need to build seawater desalination plants and water distribution pipelines. Encouraged by winning this order, we will forge a track record with SIPSC and other EPC*4 contractors that are actively developing their business in the international market, and will expand our IA and control business by targeting water infrastructure."

Invensys, a leading supplier of state-of-the-art industrial software, systems and control equipment to the world’s major industries, today welcomed customers, system integrators and partners to its 2013 Software Conference and Tech Support Symposium, being held this week in Dallas, Texas. Themed The Industrial Software Revolution Begins Now, the conference includes presentations and demonstrations of the company’s Avantis®, SimSci® and Wonderware® products and solutions. Sessions will cover topics such as situational awareness visualization, virtualization, mobile solutions, Cloud, EAM, MES, HMI, SCADA, the refining value chain and partner solutions.

Invensys kicked off the event with the release of its Wonderware InTouch® 2014 and Wonderware System Platform 2014 software. Delivering powerful, additional capabilities to its flagship HMI and supervisory offerings, the new software promises to improve operator awareness, optimize performance and minimize disruptions during startup, operation and shutdown.

“While other HMI providers have been focusing solely on graphics to improve the operator experience, Invensys has been collaborating closely with some of the world’s most recognized industrial companies—large and small—to understand their most pressing challenges and issues, and then devise the most innovative ways to solve them,” said John Krajewski, director of HMI and supervisory product management for Invensys.

One major operating challenge is the ability to more quickly identify and address abnormal situations before they impact operations. The company’s Wonderware InTouch 2014 and Wonderware System Platform 2014 software take a revolutionary new approach to HMI design and supervisory systems by providing new capabilities in alarm management, color representation, information presentation and window navigation, all intended to maximize user performance.

The updates include new object templates; styles for consistent and standardized colors and fonts in HMI applications; and consistency in the way alarms are represented throughout systems, all simply managed from a central repository.

“Utilizing 15 years of human interface studies, we have delivered a toolkit that transforms the way industrial users design and interface with their HMI,” Krajewski said. “We’ve moved from simply presenting data to displaying information in context. Instead of developing a library of ‘graphics,’ these new capabilities enable application builders to focus on creating content, easily assembling the most effective HMI applications and user interfaces for abnormal situation management.

“Initial testing indicates that these new styles and standardized colors can help users reduce situation interpretation time by 40 percent and can lead to a five-fold improvement in detecting abnormal situations before they occur. After the initial detection, our enhanced navigation can improve the success rate for handling abnormal situations by as much as 37 percent, and we’ve seen a 41 percent reduction in the time required to complete tasks.”

The new controller generation Simatic S7-1500 expands the range of the Siemens Industry Automation Division with two new. CPUs. CPU 1515-2 PN is designed for mid-level applications in machine and plant automation. CPU 1518-4PN/DP is now the most powerful device in the controller range and is intended for high-end applications. In addition, the new firmware V1.5 is available for the existing CPUs. This firmware considerably extends the functionality of all S7-1500 controllers, for example with option handling in a central configuration or the first steps for team engineering.

• Simatic S7-1500 CPU 1515-2 PN for mid-level applications

• Simatic S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP for high-end applications

• Firmware version 1.5 for all Simatic S7-1500 CPUs

Simatic S7-1500 CPU 1518-4 PN/DP for high-end applications features a user memory of 13 MB (megabyte) and has four communication interfaces: a Profinet interface with 2-port switch for communication to the field level, two Profinet interfaces and a Profibus interface. The high performance and large memory allow the connection of up to 128 drive axes and their isochronous operation in the range of 250 microseconds. The CPU 1518 has a bit performance of 1 nanosecond.

Simatic S7-1500 CPU 1515-2 PN is a controller for mid-level applications. It features a user memory of 3.5 MB (500 kilobytes for program memory and 3 MB for data) and is equipped with two Profinet interfaces: a Profinet IO interface for communication to the field level and an interface which can also be used for integration in the company network, for example. The CPU 1515 has a bit performance of 30 nanoseconds.

With the new firmware version 1.5, S7-1500 controllers support option handling in the central configuration. This offers potential for saving in creation, commissioning and documentation for modular machine concepts, for example in series machine manufacturing. Machine manufacturers configure the maximum configuration for their machines once. The target configuration for the individual machine is defined with the user program. Initial team engineering functions, such as joint online commissioning of a controller, have also been implemented for complex projects. Users can automatically synchronize their local project copies with the controller. Maintenance of CPUs has also been improved: The hardware and program, including symbols and module parameters, can be detected quickly and without errors.

The Simatic S7-1500 controller range for medium to large applications in machine and plant automation comprises five CPUs with graded performance features. These differ, for example, with respect to the number of interfaces, bit performance and the size of the work memory. According to the individual automation task, the CPUs in the central configuration can be supplemented with as many as 31 expansion modules, for example with communication and technology modules or I/O modules which have the same format as the Simatic ET 200MP I/O system from Siemens.

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Invensys, a leading supplier of state-of-the-art industrial software, systems and control equipment to the world’s major industries, has acquired InduSoft, a provider of HMI and embedded intelligent device software for the automation market. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, and founded in 1997, InduSoft has delivered more than 250,000 HMI software licenses to more than 700 customers worldwide, primarily industrial computer manufacturers and machine and system builders, who embed InduSoft’s software into their products.

“The acquisition of InduSoft represents the continuing execution of our strategy to strengthen our portfolio through inorganic means, enabling us to target additional segments across our portfolio,” said Ravi Gopinath, president of Invensys’ software business. “InduSoft strengthens and broadens our leading software solutions portfolio, particularly in the embedded HMI segment, and provides a continuing driver for growth. They have a proven and experienced team who we are very happy to welcome to Invensys.”

Known for its easy-to-use software and friendly, high-quality customer support, InduSoft has won multiple awards in its segment, including Control Engineering magazine’s prestigious Engineers’ Choice Award in 2010, 2011 and 2012. In 2013, InduSoft took the magazine’s top prize in three categories: Software Applications and Monitoring; HMI Software; and Mobile Apps for Controls, Automation, Instrumentation.

“Combined with Invensys’ existing software offerings, our capabilities and expertise in the OEM and machine-building segments allow us to provide a broader, end-to-end HMI, SCADA and MES solution to our customers,” said Marcia Gadbois, president of InduSoft. “Together, our software tools will make it easier for them to integrate their information and automation systems. They will continue to work with the same strong InduSoft team, and we will ensure they continue to receive the exceptional products and service they have come to expect from us. But now they will be backed by a company with global capabilities and an excellent worldwide reputation for providing industry-leading HMI, SCADA, historian and advanced applications such as MES software and solutions.”

“With InduSoft we can now offer everything from basic embedded HMI devices to manufacturing operations, asset management and ERP integration,” said Norm Thorlakson, vice president, HMI and supervisory software and solutions, Invensys. “InduSoft technology quickly makes us more competitive and gives us immediate entry to new customers and a stronger OEM sales channel, with a focus on machine builders and embedded systems. We are confident it will make us much more attractive. Wonderware® users will now be able buy industrial devices, machines and computers with InduSoft software, while companies that are using InduSoft software will be able to expand their solutions with Wonderware supervisory, historian and manufacturing operations management software.”

InduSoft will continue to be managed by its existing executive team, adding employees to Invensys operations in the United States, Brazil and Germany

Rotork's acquisition of Renfro Associates Inc. heralds the expansion of Renfro’s valve adaptation and accessories business to cover all of the USA.   From its home in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Renfro Associates has been designing and manufacturing valve automation packages encompassing actuators, gearboxes, instrumentation and fabricated adaptation for flow control applications in industries including oil & gas, water treatment and food processing since 1979.

The company’s in-house CAD facilities, combined with a modern machine shop and welding equipment, have earned an impressive reputation for the manufacture of quality actuated valve packages of all sizes to meet the demands of virtually any duty.

When asked about the acquisition, Rotork Chief Executive Peter France explained: “Renfro is a long established business with an excellent reputation for delivering high quality product and service to its customers. The acquisition provides us with the opportunity to repeat the success of our UK based Valvekits business by expanding the Renfro offer across the USA.”