Control System World

Badger Meter announces the introduction of the Vision Series turbine flow meters, which comply with lead-free provisions of the United States Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and are bisphenol A (BPA) free. The compact meters are designed for flow measurement of low-viscosity and non-aggressive liquids, including de-mineralized water, alkaline solutions, oils, fuel, beverages, water solutions and coolants.

The Vision turbine flow meter is intended for use in diverse applications found in the food, medical products, chemical, pharmaceutical, automotive and general industrial fields. Many of these applications are affected by the SDWA, which authorizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set health-based standards to protect against both naturally occurring and man-made contaminants in the nation's drinking water supply.

The Vision Series consists of two turbine flow meter models: the V1000 for measuring liquid flow as low as 0.026 gallons per minute (gpm) and up to 0.65 gpm, and the V2000 for measuring liquid flow as low as 0.13 gpm and up to 9.2 gpm. The flow meters provide accuracy of ±3 percent with resolution up to 70,000 pulses per gallon (ppg), depending on the model. They have a temperature range of –4…212° F and withstand operating pressure up to 362.50 pounds per square inch (psi).

For more information about the Vision turbine flow meter, please visit Vision Series

Kepware Technologies, a software development company focused on communications for automation, announced today that its flagship product has been integrated with iQuest, Inc.'s iQagent to deliver an augmented reality view of any industrial plant floor. The Kepware-supported iQuest, Inc. application turns any plant floor into a data-rich environment by allowing technicians to gather, view, and access all data associated with industrial machinery.

iQuest needed iQagent equipped to instantly connect with any machine regardless of its supported protocol. Engineered to support the OPC standard and over 150 different protocols, KEPServerEX allows iQagent to interact with virtually any piece of machinery to consolidate and display previously disparate resources, including operational data, schematics, technical resources, and URLs associated with the equipment process. The iOS-supported application uses QR codes to identify the equipment or process area in the user's vicinity and then displays all relevant process data, document links, and resources in a highly intuitive user interface on an iPad or iPhone display. iQagent turns any plant floor into a data-rich environment by providing technicians with an augmented reality view of production machinery.

Kepware's KEPServerEX is specifically engineered to connect disparate devices and applications. It easily manages, monitors, and controls diverse automation devices and software applications through a robust platform that supports an array of open standards. Kepware's OPC drivers offer the broadest set of support and remove the burden of learning new communications protocols and applications.

"In the Industrial Automation industry, there is no standard language for communications, like the widely known HTTP standard that you see on the Internet," said Bob Meads, Founder and CEO of iQuest. "So you can imagine how difficult it could be to get one application to connect to and communicate with disparate devices in an environment as diverse and complex as an industrial plant floor. With Kepware, it just worked."

Since partnering with Kepware, iQagent has been implemented by highly reputable customers, including the production facilities of one of the industry's largest automotive companies and one of the world's leading healthcare product developers.

The Fieldbus Foundation has announced that it is developing technical specifications for integration of devices based on the Modbus® communications protocol into its FOUNDATION for Remote Operations Management (ROM) technology. Integration of these instruments will help enable an overall remote operations solution in a wide range of industrial automation applications.

The first development of its kind integrating remote input/output (I/O), ISA100.11a, WirelessHART®, wired HART, and FOUNDATION fieldbus H1 protocols into a single, standard data management environment, FOUNDATION for ROM extends the capabilities of FOUNDATION fieldbus to wired and wireless devices installed in some of the world's harshest and most remote locations. This open, non-proprietary solution provides a unified digital infrastructure for asset management in applications ranging from tank farms and terminals to pipelines, offshore platforms, and even original equipment manufacturer (OEM) skids.

The FOUNDATION for ROM technical specifications for the remote I/O, wired HART, WirelessHART and wireless ISA100.11a interfaces have been completed and were successfully demonstrated at a live end user demonstration at the Petrobras research and development facility (Cenpes) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in April of this year.

The Fieldbus Foundation is now proceeding to develop specifications for Modbus integration into FOUNDATION for ROM. Modbus devices such as well head flow meters and submersible pump controllers need to be integrated as part of the overall solution in some applications.  The Modbus integration team, comprised of end user and supplier engineers, had their kickoff meeting in May hosted by Shell Global Solutions in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Fieldbus Foundation Director of Technology Development David Glanzer said: "We have a great team working on the Modbus integration. They have made exceptional progress on the use case development." Technical Team Leader Todd Shadle of Phoenix Contact agreed, saying, "All of the team members are fully engaged and are eager to complete the specification."

Whether operating on a wired or wireless HSE backhaul network, the FOUNDATION for ROM solution enables automation end users to bring device data into the FOUNDATION fieldbus infrastructure, which provides a single source of data management, diagnostics, alarms and alerts, data quality control, control-in-the-field capability, and object-oriented block structure.

The Automation Federation is assisting the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency of the US Department of Commerce, organize a fifth NIST workshop on the federal government’s national cybersecurity framework initiative.  This fifth workshop, to be held 14-15 November 2013 at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC, USA, provides another opportunity for leading cybersecurity experts across America and the world—as well as other key stakeholders in industry, academia, and government—to weigh in on the merits of a national Cybersecurity Framework called for by President Barack Obama.

“The Automation Federation accepted the invitation of NIST to assist in the scheduling and organization of this fifth workshop,” reports Michael Marlowe, Automation Federation Managing Director and Director of Government Relations. “NC State University, located just a few miles from the RDU International Airport and the Automation Federation headquarters, is an excellent location for this meeting.”

According to NIST, the key target audience for the workshop includes “critical infrastructure owners and operators and cybersecurity staff, specifically those who have operational, managerial and policy experience and responsibilities for cybersecurity, technology and/or standards development for critical infrastructure companies.”

The workshop will be held at NC State’s Hunt Library, Centennial Campus, 1070 Partners Way. The precise meeting times, other information, and a registration link will be available shortly. For answers to immediate questions, contact Angela Ellis at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

At NIST’s request, the Automation Federation and its affiliated organization, the International Society of Automation (ISA), have actively participated in all four previous workshops, serving as advisors to the federal government in the development of the framework. In fact, well before the President in February of this year called for a federal proposal on cybersecurity, Automation Federation and ISA leaders have been consulting with White House National Security Staff, US federal agency officials, and members of Congress on the critical need to establish national cybersecurity standards, guidelines and compliance testing.

Since standards are widely viewed as essential to any effective cybersecurity initiative, the Automation Federation and ISA are strongly recommending the inclusion of the ANSI/ISA99, Industrial Automation and Control Systems Security standards—widely recognized for their comprehensive approach to industrial cybersecurity.

The ANSI/ISA99, Industrial Automation and Control Systems Security standards—developed by a cross-section of international cybersecurity subject-matter experts from industry, government and academia—apply to all key industry sectors and critical infrastructure, and, as a result, provide the flexibility to address and mitigate current and future vulnerabilities in industrial automation and control systems (IACS).

Putting widespread cybersecurity standards in place is vital since many of America’s industrial production settings and infrastructure environments are woefully under-prepared to address cyberwarfare. If industrial control systems and critical infrastructure—such as a power plant, water treatment facility, or transportation grid—are attacked, the result could be significant equipment impairment, production loss, environmental damage, and public endangerment.

Attend Automation Fair® great opportunity to explore smart, safe, sustainable manufacturing solutions geared toward improving your business profitability.

DISCOVER how to improve productivity and efficiency throughout the life cycle of your automation investments.

LEARN how flexible, scalable automation solutions can lower costs and improve overall performance.

EXPERIENCE how sustainable production practices can increase your competitiveness and help you better manage energy and materials costs.

Attend industry forums, user group meetings, hands-on labs, technical sessions and demonstrations to expand knowledge and use of the latest control, power and information technologies.  Take advantage of automation expertise from Rockwell Automation and our PartnerNetwork, providing comprehensive solutions from industry leaders in distribution, systems integration, machine building, and complementary technologies.

November 13-14, 2013
George R. Brown Convention Center
Houston, TX USA

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Session Information

• Agenda
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Case Study: The three projects – Queensland Curtis LNG, Santos GLNG and Australia Pacific LNG - are developing coal seam gas in Queensland’s Surat and Bowen Basins. Hundreds of kilometres of pipelines will link the natural gas production wells on the Queensland mainland with a world-class LNG production plant under construction on Curtis Island, which will initially produce more than twenty seven million tonnes of LNG for export each year. These coal seam gas projects are centred on a clean and efficient energy source with half the carbon dioxide emissions of coal.

For the upstream mainland wellheads, HART-enabled Rotork CVA modulating electric actuators have been ordered for process valve control at an eventual total of 2000 widely distributed sites. In addition to the natural gas, CVA actuators will also control the flow on the extraction process for coal seam water. This resource will be treated for use by agricultural and industrial customers as well as supplementing domestic water supplies.

CVA actuators deliver continuous, repeatable modulating control with a programmable fail to position option. Resolution, repeatability and hysteresis performance is quoted at less than 0.1% of full scale, offering suitability for the most demanding control valve applications. Among other advantages, innovative CVA electric actuation removes the expense of installing and maintaining instrument air supplies at these remote sites, where the pressure of the gas itself is too low to provide a viable source for actuator operation. CVAs are also preferred because electric actuation eliminates the release of any environmentally harmful gas into the atmosphere during valve operations.

Nearly 1000 Rotork Skilmatic SI and EH range electro-hydraulic actuators have been ordered for control valves, shutdown valves, wellhead skids and metering skids. These self-contained actuators combine the simplicity and convenience of electrical operation with the modulating precision of hydraulic actuation and the reliability of mechanical failsafe motion. Designed to SIL3 standards for use in safety critical applications, Skilmatic actuators are also programmable for partial stroke testing, enabling valves to be tested without interrupting routine processes.

The orders for Rotork electric actuators are completed with IQ actuators for various isolating valve automation duties. All the Rotork electric actuator ranges feature advanced and user-friendly non-intrusive programming and commissioning technologies, combined with integral data logging, diagnostics and asset management capabilities.

The balance of Rotork orders on this giant project involves fluid power actuators for the pipeline and the LNG plants on Curtis Island. The majority of these are CP and GP range pneumatic actuators operating butterfly valves on LNG production lines. The actuators are customised with control packages to meet specific operating duties, including SIL2 and SIL3 applications.

Irregularities in incoming power can negatively impact discrete and process applications’ electronic components and the bottom line. Rockwell Automation has expanded its Allen Bradley power-quality portfolio to now include the i-Sense monitoring solution, i-Grid service and DySC dynamic sag corrector. These scalable solutions help OEMs and end users identify and mitigate power issues to improve uptime and productivity.

“Power-quality issues are responsible for a significant amount of unplanned downtime, yet power quality is often overlooked as a key productivity variable,” said Scott Harlan, product manager for power-quality portfolio, Rockwell Automation. “Our new monitoring and mitigation solutions help identify where and when voltage sags and outages occur, and offer corrective actions to improve performance.”

Improved monitoring – The first step toward improved performance is identifying any power-quality issues affecting electronic equipment. The i-Sense voltage monitors read incoming power for the entire facility. The cost-effective, maintenance-free i-Sense technology provides vital data that pinpoints voltage-based power events, reveals any consequent relationship between voltage sags and downtime situations, and helps users get operations running with minimal mean time to repair (MTTR).

Real-time analyzing – The subscription-based i-Grid service logs, analyzes and corroborates i‑Sense data via an Ethernet or modem connection from in and around facilities to confirm if power-quality issues were the result of a grid event. Service options include detailed technical analysis and executive summaries. The i-Grid service also can send instant notifications to facility managers that a power event has occurred, enabling them to more quickly diagnose downtime and resume operations.

Proactive protection – Data collected from the Rockwell Automation installed base of several thousand i-Sense units suggests that most downtime events are the result of short-duration voltage sags, commonly lasting less than 0.1 seconds. While barely perceptible, these sags can impact the performance of electrical equipment and the facility as a whole. The DySC dynamic sag corrector uses patented, double-conversion inverter technology to protect against brief voltage sags and momentary outages. Customers can scale the DySC corrector from 0.25 kVA to 2000 kVA, offering machine- to facility-wide protection. The corrector provides 100 percent sag protection in a relatively compact size and without batteries, compressors, pumps or flywheel bearings. Optimized for fast response at voltage peaks, the DySC corrector has a typical peak voltage detect time (pVdT) of one millisecond and can provide a facility continuous, uninterrupted power for up to five seconds.

The Allen-Bradley power-quality portfolio reaches beyond the new solutions to meet the needs of customers at every level and stage. The Allen-Bradley PowerMonitor 5000 monitor provides current, power factor flicker, waveform capture, harmonic analysis and sub-cycle transient detection. The Allen‑Bradley PowerPad Portable PowerMonitor unit offers a portable, self-contained solution, enabling monitoring anywhere in the facility. Allen-Bradley surge and filter products mitigate transient and noise problems at a machine level and uninterruptable power supplies (UPS) provide backup power to keep critical control and network circuits operating through a power interruption.

For Information:

i-Sense voltage monitor and i-Grid servers: http://ab.rockwellautomation.com/Energy-Monitoring/1608-i-Sense-Voltage-Monitor

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 v10.8 of GENESIS64™, a cutting-edge HMI/SCADA software suite! Several new product technologies and exciting enhancements were added to this new release, in particular, ReportWorX™ Express, the Cloud Connector for Windows Azure™, Distributed AssetWorX™ scalable architecture, and a brand new ScheduleWorX64™. ICONICS also spent significant effort to achieve OPC Foundation certification and the prestigious VMware Ready™ status.

With over 300 key new features added, ICONICS' GENESIS64 is a progressive leap towards the future of automation software and is designed from the ground up for 64-bit operation, maximizing the advantages of the latest Intel 64-bit processors and providing the highest performance and memory headroom on the market. GENESIS64 allows users to get their HMI/SCADA system up and running quickly and efficiently, while easily bridging the plant floor and facilities to corporate business systems.

ICONICS President and CEO, Russ Agrusa, introduces the new 10.8 version of GENESIS64 as having "hundreds of time-saving and important new features that help transform Big Data into visual intelligence. In keeping with our technological leadership in real-time solutions for energy, industrial and building automation, GENESIS64 benefits all industries in its energy and time savings and has now also achieved the highest level of BACnet and OPC Foundation certification."

Based on its longtime partnership with Microsoft, ICONICS has taken advantage of the entire Microsoft technology platform, including Microsoft .NET, SQL Server, SharePoint®, Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8. Microsoft Bing, Google and Esri geospatial maps can be combined with real-time information, creating powerful GEO SCADA solutions. Users can access information from anywhere, anytime and on any platform using the WebHMI browser-based solution and HTML5 technology.