Control System World

Amplicon has recently introduced the new Moxa MGate 510, an IT-friendly Ethernet gateway for optimizing PROFIBUS/PROFINET automation networks.

One of the biggest advances in industrial manufacturing is the trend towards connecting all management processes, as well as control and field level devices onto one network. Operators are looking for economical ways of connecting legacy devices to a network, especially solutions that leverage existing IT management technologies. In response to this need, Amplicon is pleased to announce the release of the MGate 5102-PBM-PN PROFIBUS-to-PROFINET gateways, which feature IT management tools to provide a second level of protection for automation networks.

The MGate 5102-PBM-PN has a rugged design with optional built-in optical isolation, -40 to 75°C wide-temperature operation, and microSD card for configuration backup, ensuring reliable performance for use in industrial applications such as oil & gas, power, process automation, and factory automation.

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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 signed a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract with KBR, Inc. to supply its SimSci™ PRO/II® simulation software.

Under the terms of a corporate licensing agreement, Invensys will provide PRO/II steady-state simulation software to help KBR accurately model its process technology, used in both the designs KBR provides to its customers and the technology it licenses to the hydrocarbon processing industry. In addition, Invensys will provide on-site guidance to assist KBR during transition from the previous model.

“Before agreeing to standardize on PRO/II software, KBR needed new functionality to support them while they transitioned from a previous simulation tool,” said Tobias Scheele, Ph.D., vice president, design, simulation and optimization for Invensys. “Our Invensys developers worked hand-in-hand with the KBR team so that they can more accurately model and quickly deliver their processing technology to the market. We are pleased to provide these new features to KBR, as well as to deliver hands-on guidance and on-site engineering services to help them make the transition. We look forward to a long, mutually rewarding partnership.”

One of the refining industry’s leading simulation solutions, PRO/II software is a comprehensive simulation solution for process design, revamp and operational analysis. It is backed by more than 45 years of research and development and includes proprietary correlations to model heavy oils.

“We recognize Invensys’ strong commitment to the refining and petrochemical industries,” said John Derbyshire, president, KBR Technology. “This mutually collaborative relationship and the valuable assistance they have provided during the transition will help us continue to safely deliver key projects for the benefit of our global customers and other stakeholders.”

ABB, a global leader in electric power and automation, today completed its acquisition of Los Gatos Research (LGR) of Mountain View, California. The acquisition, announced May 2, adds a new line of high-performance gas analyzers to ABB’s leading measurement products business.

LGR (www.lgrinc.com), a 19-year-old, 40-person company provides analyzers and services to a wide range of customers needing real-time measurement of trace gases and isotopes for research and environmental monitoring. Its novel and innovative laser-based measurement strategies allow for non-destructive analysis of gases and liquids.

The acquisition complements ABB’s existing measurement technology portfolio with a number of new solutions for industrial customers in oil & gas production and transportation, combustion, emissions, power generation and environmental monitoring. LGR can now better serve its customers and further expand its business in the environmental, scientific and industrial markets.

LGR’s employees will join the global Measurement Products business unit in ABB’s Process Automation Division. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

ABB's Measurement Products business unit (www.abb.com/measurement) is among the world's leading manufacturers and suppliers of instrumentation and analyzers. With thousands of experts around the world and high-performance technology, ABB's team is dedicated to making measurement easy for its customers.

ICONICS, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner of the Year and provider of Web-enabled, OPC-based, HMI/SCADA Visualization and Manufacturing Intelligence software for Microsoft Windows® operating systems, announces the release of Quality AnalytiX®, a Statistical Process Control (SPC) quality analysis suite that is flexible enough to apply to any quality monitoring application, yet simple to configure and deploy. It offers an extensive set of SPC calculations, control charts, portal dashboard views and standard quality reports that can be applied in a variety of combinations to help pinpoint quality outliers. Quality AnalytiX is built upon ICONICS universal connectivity which, via a wide range of industrial and IT open standards, can easily connect to your equipment and systems to immediately drive improvements.

The demand to increase product quality and reduce scrap is critical in many manufacturing applications. The expectation to have Six Sigma or better conformance to product specifications is required today. Achieving best-in-class quality output requires continuous analysis and real-time quality control.

Quality AnalytiX utilizes ICONICS Hyper Historian™, a high performance mission critical plant data historian. The architecture supports large enterprise-wide quality programs as well as applications requiring very fast sample rates. Quality AnalytiX applies ICONICS browser-independent visualization technology, enabling it to publish all charts, dashboards and data views for viewing on any browser, tablet or smartphone. In addition, ICONICS multimedia alarming can advise of quality deviations through SMS emails, alerts and marquees.

Quality AnalytiX enables operators, quality personnel, manufacturing engineers and management to view quality SPC data and other production parameters impacting product quality. Users can apply any of the extensive set of SPC calculations to any process variable: X-bar, R-bar, S-bar, sigma, moving average, Cpk, Ppk and much more. Integrate SPC data into expressions and logic to drive corrective actions based on process trends.

US-based Rand-Whitney Containerboard had two goals when it decided to replace the distributed control system at its Connecticut mill - system reliability and a good relationship with the new vendor. But ABB and System 800xA have delivered a lot more.

Rand-Whitney Containerboard produces 250,000 tons a year of containerboard at its mill in Montville, Connecticut in the United States. When the mill’s distributed control system (DCS) became obsolete and system support grew increasingly difficult to obtain, Rand-Whitney knew it would have to replace the outdated system. The company formed a team to compare control systems from different suppliers and assess how those systems would work in the mill environment.

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exida has announces the products chosen in the 1st Annual exida Safety Awards. exida states that they recognizes the importance of excellence in functional safety, and through extensive analysis of the nominated products, we feel as though the products that have been chosen best demonstrate exceptional work and have the ability to play a key role in the continuous journey of making the world a safer place.

About the Products:

Product: FlexSonic™ Acoustic Detector
Manufacturer: Det-Tronics

The FlexSonic™ Acoustic Detector was commercially released in August 2013 and is designed to recognize the unique ultrasonic frequency content of events such as gas leaks. When a pressurized gas leak occurs, the frequency content of the sound being generated extends beyond the audible portion of the spectrum into the ultrasonic region (above 20 kHz). Acoustic detection is less susceptible to environmental factors (such as high winds) that can degrade the ability of traditional sensing technology based on gas concentration to detect the presence of a leak. When combined with line of sight and/or point gas detectors, the additional layer of protection provided by the FlexSonic Acoustic Detector offers the ultimate solution for gas leak detection.

Product: DeltaV SIS with Electronic Marshalling
Manufacturer: Emerson Process Management

The DeltaV SIS with Electronic Marshalling is a modern approach to increase safety integrity while improving process reliability. It is based on the CHARMs Smart Logic Solver which simplifies the design, installation, wiring and commissioning of SIS projects. DeltaV SIS with Electronic Marshalling provides an integrated, constant monitoring approach for the complete safety loop –from sensor, to logic solver, to final control element. A key component of Emerson’s Smart SIS is to detect field device failures before they cause spurious trips. Electronic marshalling provides unprecedented flexibility to easily change or expand safety loops. In addition to reducing installation, re-work and commissioning cost, DeltaV SIS with Electronic marshaling reduce footprint by eliminating traditional marshaling cabinets.

Product: RTMSafety
Manufacturer: System Engineering Consultants Co., Ltd.

exida’s certification of Systems Engineering Consultants’ RTMSafety ensures that the world’s first middleware for robot automation meets the functional safety requirements for Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 3 capable per IEC 61508. RT Middleware (RTM) is a software platform which supports the construction of various networked robotic components for the establishment of a robot system. RTMSafety’s robot software platform is compliant with the IEC 61508 functional safety standard in order to provide functional safety for the robot system. RT system (RTS) is the robot, which is combined multiple software modules containing robot functional components.

Moxa is pleased to announce the release of the DA-682A, our new 19 inch / 2U embedded rackmount computer featuring our latest software advance, Smart Recovery, an OS recovery utility with powerful automation features. Built around the latest Intel® Celeron/ i7 CPU (Sandy Bridge), the DA-682A matches strong computational power with valuable software and hardware innovations that increase system reliability, all with a modular flexibility that easily meets any industrial system connection requirements.

Smart Recovery is one of Moxa’s most recent software innovations, an OS backup and recovery system implemented at the BIOS level, giving the computing system strong protections against software corruption that can cause system slowdowns, instability, or operating system crashes. Smart Recovery improves system dependability and significantly reduces the risks and costs associated with the software corruptions that inevitably emerge as a platform ages.

Smart Recovery provides several different modes that encompass all the basic approaches to OS recovery, including manual recoveries; fully automated, machine-initiated recoveries; and remote user-initiated recoveries.

As of 26 September 2013 Endress+Hauser holds 47.33 percent of shares in German-based Analytik Jena AG, 22.99 percent directly and 24.34 percent indirectly. Accordingly, the Group is preparing a mandatory offer to the company's shareholders.

Following last Thursday's clearance from the German Federal Cartel Office, Endress+Hauser (Deutschland) AG+Co. KG is able to acquire the shares originally held by the Netherlands-based Verder Group, along with unsubscribed shares from the recent increase of capital stock. "Accordingly, we yesterday published the fact of having gained control over Analytik Jena, together with our decision to issue a mandatory offer," stated Dr Heiner Zehntner of the Endress+Hauser Group's Executive Board.

The offer price of 13.75 euros per share lies above prices paid by Endress+Hauser for stakes in Analytik Jena during the period leading up to the offer. "We consider this to be a fair and just offer in light of the company's present position and future prospects," added Dr Luc Schultheiss, CFO of the Endress+Hauser Group.

The government of Thuringia, a German federal state, and Klaus Berka, founder and CEO of Analytik Jena, both welcomed Endress+Hauser's increased holding. The Free State of Thuringia currently owns 17.79 percent of Analytik Jena via a fund managed by bm-t, an investment company; Klaus Berka holds 9.93 percent of the company. At a later date both shareholders will negotiate on selling their respective tranches. Discussion will focus on the company's future direction and its integration with the Endress+Hauser Group.

Klaus Berka signalized his desire for involvement with this process, subject to extension of his contract by the supervisory board of Analytik Jena. "We are pleased that Mr Berka has agreed to stay on as CEO and continue running the company after its acquisition by Endress+Hauser," stated Klaus Endress, CEO of the Endress+Hauser Group.

Analytik Jena to remain independent:

Endress+Hauser is expressly committed to the Jena location. "We want Analytik Jena to remain an independent company," emphasized Klaus Endress. Already a leading provider of process instrumentation, with this acquisition the family-owned business aims to develop a presence in laboratory analysis, too. Analytik Jena is active in classical analytical instrumentation as well as in biotechnology and molecular diagnostics.

Endress+Hauser will be strengthening and extending Analytik Jena's worldwide sales to the laboratory sector. Klaus Endress also sees promising potential applications for laboratory instrumentation technology in process instrumentation, and vice versa. "Looking ahead, we will be present with our instrumentation from laboratories, through pilot plants, to industrial production," said the Group's CEO. "Both companies stand to profit from this."