Articles and News

By Bill Lydon, Editor Siemens COMOS 10 is an enterprise platform for the process industry that integrates functions including automation design, plant engineering, operations, and enterprise interfaces.

The Summit, being held June 24 - 27, will provide professionals with end user automation learning opportunities - from process and discrete to motion control and drives.

Automation expenditures by the upstream oil and gas sector, which includes exploration, production, and pipelines, are expected to grow at an rate of nearly 8 percent over the next five years, according to ARC.

Emerson will provide integrated safety and automation systems to help boost oil recovery and extend the life of the field while also reducing operating costs and minimizing safety and environmental risks.

Opened in partnership with Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) and PetroVietnam University, the college will boost the technical skills of local engineers for the process industry in Vietnam and surrounding Southeast Asia.

Invensys, as the main automation provider, supplied complete control and safety solutions, including field instrumentation, process analytics and valves to the new Yaysky oil refinery in Kemerovo, a city in Russia.

ABB supplied embedded medium- and low-voltage switchgear, variable-speed drives and motor control centers, a plant-wide process automation system, and fiber optic network equipment cabling.

Honeywell will supply an Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS) and Advanced Alarm Manager system to OOO Kirishinefteorgsintez for its refinery in Kirishi, Russia.

Control Station's LOOP-PRO TUNER PID controller tuning software is integrated within the PlantPAx engineering workstation.

ARC says the total distributed control systems market in Asia will exceed $6,300 million in 2016.

ARC says the total distributed control systems market in India will exceed $800 million in 2016.

ARC clients can now make use of ARC’s supplier selection process for Advanced Process Control (APC), Analytics, Batch Control, CPM/MES and Distributed Control Systems (DCS).

The PlantPAx system with EtherNet/IP and ControlNet network connectivity passed tests for “61b,” the Fieldbus Foundation’s most demanding host profile.

Automation.com, October 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor Nathalie Marcotte suggested that attendees expand their view on modernization by not just thinking about the DCS, but the need to modernize the entire plant and operations.

By Danaca Jordan Track: Control Performance During Wednesday’s Control Performance Track session on "Efficient Operations Starts with Control Performance," we will use an ongoing case study to demonstrate how process control improvements can still be accomplished around a hectic schedule.

By Flávio P. Briguente (Monsanto) and Greg McMillan (CDI Process & Industrial) Track: Control Performance In batch processes, control becomes more complicated because of the variability of level, pressure, and concentrations. For this particular case, the process consists of a batch reactor, an external shell-and-tube heat exchanger with cooling tower water flow on the shell side.

Automation.com, September 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor Is it time for DCS suppliers to use open industrial Ethernet protocol standards for their backbone networks? I have asked major DCS suppliers this question and answers vary from supplier to supplier, but there are a few common issues.

The contract covers DCS, Fire and Gas Detection (F&G), emergency shutdown (ESD), drives and electrical systems and related instrumentation installed on oil platforms.

Automation.com, September 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor Rockwell Automation is clearly focused on building a process automation business to compete in segments that have traditionally been dominated by DCS suppliers. I recently visited with their PlantPAx experts to discuss the system and explore this business initiative.

Experion C300 distributed control system (DCS) controller and Experion fieldbus interface module (FIM) now carry the ISASecure designation.