Control System World

exida, the global leader in functional safety certification for the process industries, has issued a functional safety certification per IEC 61508 for the Detcon TP 700 Hydrogen Sulfide Gas Detector.

“The TP 700 design process met SIL 2 requirements showing a good level of design integrity,” says exida Certification Evaluating Assessor John Yozallinas. “The FMEDA analysis was verified with solid field failure data and fault injection testing.”

“We chose exida because they have in depth knowledge of IEC 61508 that goes beyond the others we were considering,” says Detcon President Bob Masi. “exida showed us a path through this complex standard.”

The Weir Group PLC has agreed to acquire a majority interest in the South Korean valves business formerly operated by HIM Tech Co Ltd (“HIM Tech”).

Located in Ansan, near Seoul, the business designs and manufactures control and choke valves for severe service power generation and oil & gas applications. As well as domestic customers, its products are supplied to major South Korean engineering contractors for international projects. In the year to 31 December 2010, HIM Tech’s valves business recorded sales of US$10.5m.

Weir has agreed to acquire 60% of a new Korean company, Weir International, into which the HIM Tech valves business has been transferred.

Keith Cochrane, chief executive of Weir, commented: “This acquisition in South Korea, one of the “Next 11” high growth economies, increases our global capability, allowing us to add local content in Korea and provides strong links to a number of important Korean contractors who supply both the home and international markets. The team at HIM Tech, led by Heang Hoon Cho, are already well known to us as trading partners. In recent months we have been collaborating on a number of initiatives which we expect will generate new orders for our global valves business."

Heang Hoon Cho, who will continue as president of the Ansan operation under the Weir banner, added: “I have worked with Weir for 17 years, first as agent and then licensee, and I am delighted that we are becoming an integral part of the Weir Group. The acquisition opens many new avenues to expand the business both in Korea and with Korean customers worldwide.”

Topics such as integration, remote control or intelligent data management are becoming increasingly important. The precise volume measurement of the water is critical to process control and optimization, and also billing. This is the world of Proline Promag 400. The new Promag 400 combines industry-optimized design with experience and innovation. Compliance with guidelines for custody transfer (OIML R49 and MI-001) and the providing of industry-relevant drinking water approvals are certainties.

Promag 400 is durable and guarantees reliable measurement operation even under extreme conditions. Promag 400 copes with permanent use underwater or in the ground and also in highly variable climatic conditions without additional protective measures:

• Certified corrosion protection (EN ISO 12944)

• Rugged, fully welded sensor and IP 68 protection

• Corrosion-resistant junction box with multiple seal design

Your benefits

- The specialist for very demanding water and wastewater applications

- Sizing - correct product selection

- Applicator- the reliable, easy-to-use tool for selecting and sizing measuring devices for every application

- Installation - simple and efficient

- Compact design

- Certified corrosion protection (EN ISO 12944) needed for submerged or direct burial installations

- Compact and remote version perfectly suited to meet the requirements of the water/wastewater industry

- Commissioning - reliable and intuitive

- Guided parameterization - "Make-it-run" wizards

- Integrated web server for fast commissioning

- Operation - increased measurement availability

- Simultaneous measurement: volume flow and conductivity

- Immune to process influences

- Diagnostics; automatic data restore by HistoROM

Total today announces that its subsidiary Total Upstream Nigeria Limited (TUPNI), operator of the OML 130 block, and co-venturers have obtained the necessary approvals from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to award the main EPC contracts for the development of the offshore Egina field.

The field, discovered in 2003, is located in water depths of around 1,600 meters, 200 kilometers offshore Port Harcourt and 20 kilometers southwest of the Akpo field, located on the same license.

“Egina is the second development of the OML 130 license. Following Akpo, which was brought on stream in 2009, it will add significant value to the partnership. With more than 21 million man-hours of local work, the project will make a material contribution to the development of Nigerian economy. After more than 50 years in the country, we are confident that Nigeria will continue to provide a suitable framework to promote investments” commented Yves-Louis Darricarrère, President of Upstream at Total.

The field development plan calls for 44 wells connected to a 330 meter-long floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel with a storage capacity of 2.3 million barrels. The design of the FPSO includes capacity for future developments of nearby discoveries. First oil is expected end-2017, with output reaching 200,000 barrels of oil per day at plateau.

Brooks Instrument, a world-leading provider of advanced flow, pressure, vacuum and level solutions, has expanded its GF 40/80 Series portfolio of thermal mass flow controllers (MFCs) to enable a broader range of applications. The new GF81 MFC can be used for gas flow rates up to 300 slpm, making it ideal for high-flow applications in thin film, solar, analytical, biotech and fuel cell.

The GF81 provides the same high-stability sensor and best-in-class repeatability as the GF40/80 Series, but with a higher flow rate. Compared with competitive products offering a similar flow rate, the compact footprint and low power draw of the GF81 allows users to design smaller, more efficient systems. It also provides better actual process gas accuracy over devices that use traditional single-point conversion factors.

The GF81 Series features an all-metal seal flow path for durability and high leak integrity, precise flow control with fast sub-1-second settling times, and 1% of reading accuracy to ensure reliable flow measurement and control in demanding gas flow applications. A wide range of digital and analog I/O options offers the broadest range of communication protocols, making the GF81 an ideal upgrade for existing MFCs or MFMs.

Product Website

Omega FDT-40 Series ultrasonic flow and energy meters clamp on to the outside of pipes and do not come in contact with the internal liquid. The technology has inherent advantages over alternate devices including: low-cost installation, no pressure head loss, no moving parts to maintain or replace, no fluid compatibility issue, and a large, bi-directional measuring range that ensures reliable readings even at very low and high flow rates. FDT-40 Series is available in a variety of configurations that permit the user to select a meter with features suitable to meet particular application requirements.

Features:

• Bi-Directional Flow Measurement

• Rugged, Aluminum Enclosure

• Rate and Total Backlit Display

• 4 to 20 mA and Dual Alarm Outputs

• USB Programming Port

• RS485 MODBUS® Network Connection

Product Website

The latest release of the PlantPAx process automation system from Rockwell Automation allows companies across multiple industries to improve operator effectiveness with automated procedures, enhanced visualization and new skid-integration capabilities.

The system’s new sequencer tool enables companies to easily automate process procedures, perform system modifications, and sequence actions directly through human-machine interface (HMI) faceplates. If a process change is necessary or an abnormal event occurs, a user with the appropriate login privileges can modify the sequence directly from the HMI screen, rather than waiting for a control system expert to modify the procedure code.

“The new PlantPAx sequencer tool eliminates the need for custom-coded configurations to automate procedures for continuous processes,” explained Jason Wright, PlantPAx product manager, Rockwell Automation. “It’s intuitive, user-friendly interface helps operators see and understand the information they need, and makes procedures repeatable and easier to track.”

The PlantPAx system further extends operator effectiveness with a comprehensive HMI toolkit for effective display design and enhanced standards-based alarming. This allows the operator to focus directly on the process itself, reducing system downtime and incidents. The latest PlantPAx system also features an enhanced independent workstation (or network station) that offers companies more flexibility in plant design – especially when integrating best-of-breed skids into multiple plants worldwide.

“There is an industry trend to leverage process skids for quicker line and plant expansion to help reduce time-to-market,” Wright said. “However, integrating these process skids into a traditional distributed control system (DCS) can create complexities and increase costs. In fact, for a traditional DCS, integration accounts for 50 to 60 percent of the project costs for end users.”

For example, skid integration often requires custom data-mapping or duplicated code on the DCS. This is not the case with the PlantPAx system – the skid-based controller can be added as a native controller to the system. Enhanced independent workstation capabilities help reduce the cost of integration by allowing the skid to share common infrastructure resources, such as user accounts and security settings, without losing application independence. This allows companies to leverage the specific application expertise of multiple skid vendors while providing a consistent operator experience.

Want to build groov operator interfaces for an Allen-Bradley RSLogix PLC system? You can.

All it takes is a SNAP PAC controller and Opto22 EtherNet/IP Gateway Strategy for groov. The Gateway Strategy runs on the PAC, which acts as a gateway between groov and the A-B system.

With groov, it's simple to build operator interfaces for your control system. And you can use these interfaces to monitor and control your system from virtually any device with a modern web browser, from an iPod touch all the way to a web-enabled HDTV. Just imagine what you can do!

A future release of groov will support OPC UA, and at that point you'll be able to build groov HMIs for any system that's compatible with OPC UA. In the meantime, this Gateway Strategy gives you a way to make it work.

The EtherNet/IP Gateway Strategy is available for free in our Samples & Freeware downloads. It includes all the files you need plus a technical note that shows you how to use them.

Download the EtherNet/IP Gateway Strategy for groov.
Read the EtherNet/IP Gateway Strategy for groov Technical Note to see how it works.