Articles and News

ABB's 800xA Extended Automation system will provide control and monitoring of tanks and reactors, batch control plus control functions for automatic valves, stirrers and analog measurement signals for the process. The systems also include functions for the assembling and handling process, operational data management with functions for reporting and archiving.

Ciba Specialty Chemicals chose GE Fanuc's Proficy™ Plant Applications Batch Execution software, running on a Proficy HMI/SCADA - iFIX® platform, for two main pigment manufacturing processes at its Paisley, Scotland plant. Key factors in the decision were the recipe consistency, the flexibility and the ease-of-use offered by the software, part of the Proficy Production Management solution suite.

Thiele Technologies, a manufacturer of high-speed packaging equipment in Minneapolis, announced an agreement to acquire certain assets and the business of Streamfeeder, LLC of Minneapolis. Streamfeeder manufacturers material handling and packaging solutions for printing, converting and warehousing, including feeders, batch counters, accumulators, collators, bulk loaders, wrapping units and integrated systems.

Rockwell Automation is showcasing their overall system capabilities including batch tools, safety systems, advanced process control capabilities and migration solutions for legacy PLCs and DCS systems. In addition, Rockwell Automation is discussing its partnership with Endress+Hauser, one of the world’s leading suppliers of process instruments, and unveiling migration plans for legacy DCS systems.

Invensys Process Systems has been awarded a project by Petrofac Facilities Management to enable migration of the aging Emerson Fisher Provox system on the Kittiwake production platform in the central North Sea to a new Foxboro I/A Series process control system. This is the second process control project awarded to Invensys by Petrofac in recent years.

Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) will implement I/A Series distributed control systems (DCS) from Foxboro for a hydro power generation and pumped storage automation upgrade project. Located at the 1,088-megawatt Takuan Hydro Power Station in Nantau County in central Taiwan, the new implementation will utilize the Foxboro high-speed mesh control network backbone to maximize system availability and reliability.

ISaGRAF is the software of choice for Rabbit Semiconductor's new Embedded PLC Application Kit. The Rabbit Embedded PLC Application kit includes all of the hardware and software required to develop this low-cost PLC replacement system: the ISaGRAF Application Workbench, ISaGRAF programming cable, and the Rabbit BL2500 single board computer with embedded micro PLC firmware kernel.

“Software for Next Generation Automation and Control” paper touches on topics such as requirements for the next-generation of automation and control, the IEC 61499 standard itself, and the IEC 61499-compliant ISaGRAF 5.0 software development environment. The white paper can be downloaded.

Keynote speakers for the 2006 European conference at the Elewijt Center in Mechelen, Belgium on 13-15 November include Martin Zeller, who will deliver a detailed evaluation of batch data analysis on Tuesday, 14 November; and Lou Pillai and Dennis Brandl, who will address information model framework for manufacturing science on Wednesday, 15 November.

Invensys will implement five Tricon triple modular redundant (TMR) systems for integrated turbine compressor control (ITCC) and emergency shutdown (ESD) at a new plant being built for Egypt Basic Industries Corporation (EBIC). The anhydrous ammonia plant, at Ain Sokhna in Egypt's Suez Industrial Zone, will produce a planned 2,000 metric tons per day and will be the largest ammonia plant in Egypt.

PlantData Technologies announced it has completed more than 50 SCADA, EMS, and DCS Security assessments in the past five years. A division of Verano, Inc., the leading provider of security and SCADA solutions for mission-critical industries, PlantData continues its commitment to serving energy, utility, transmission and distribution, transportation and other critical infrastructure industries.

ISA's SP88 Batch Control standards development committee has formed a working group to update the first two standards in the widely used ISA-88 series. The update project will focus primarily on ANSI/ISA-88.01, Batch Control Part 1: Models and Terminology, but will also consider revisions to ANSI/ISA88.00.02, Batch Control Part 2: Data Structures and Guidelines for Languages.

Invensys Process Systems will supply 11 Triconex safety instrumented systems (SIS) as part of an operations, safety and security upgrade in major offshore projects for Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX). At the Ku Maloob Zaap oilfields off the coast of Campeche State, Mexico, PEMEX Exploration and Production Northeast Marine Region (PEP) is undertaking a significant upgrade and expansion of its drilling and production infrastructure.

Through this global alliance, Siemens has earned the distinction of being the only DuPont process control supplier selected in all three categories: distributed control systems (DCS), programmable logic controllers (PLC) and PLC based process control systems. Additionally, the alliance expands DuPont's acceptance of Siemens SIMATIC PCS 7 and other process control products.

The SANS citation declared that Invensys has demonstrated that vendors can take much of the pain, cost, and uncertainty out of securing process and SCADA systems. The award identified some Invensys practices, including rigorous pre-testing of operating system updates and software security patches, and additional enhancements such as providing anti-virus within its core distributed control system (DCS) product, that make security better, easier and less expensive for asset owners.

The new standard provides a detailed definition for batch production records, establishing a reference model for developing applications for the storage and/or exchange of batch production records. Implementations based upon the standard will allow retrieval, analysis, and reporting of selected batch production record data.

PLCopen is a non-profit industry organization dedicated to improving the programming efficiency control and automation engineers by providing information, training, and fostering communications between users, vendors, educators and others.

The refineries, which are among the largest in the Petrobras system, will each employ multiple Tricon safety systems in their cracking units. The emergency shutdown systems are being installed as part of a refinery modernization program. The new systems are replacing existing relay panels, and were selected to simplify maintenance, and to provide increased asset availability, safety and efficiency.