Abstract
New Website from Magnetrol
Level and flow process control instrumentation company, Magnetrol International (Companion Company), has launched a redesigned corporate website. Users will, claims the company, be able to enjoy improved functionality and simplified navigation.
This streamlined website will also enable the company to focus to a greater degree on customer’s and representative’s needs by allowing it to more efficiently promote new products and initiatives, as well as quickly direct traffic to the content that users are looking for. Additional enhancements and improvements are on the way.
In more news from the company, the build-out of the facility in Belgium, which houses manufacturing, sales and administration operations, will double production capacity of Magnetrol’s regional headquarters (HQ) for Europe, Middle East, Africa and India markets. The expansion was scheduled for completion in the autumn, so should be ready now. President and CEO Jeffrey Swallow said, Magnetrol’s growth represents our commitment to delivering excellent products and service, while using strategic market opportunities. Our company’s history is tied to instrumentation technology breakthroughs, and our continued success will come from remaining our customers’ preferred partner for level and flow control solutions.
For information, visit www.magnetrol.com.
Invensys Acquires Major HMI Provider
Invensys (Companion Company) (www.invensys.com), the major supplier of industrial software, systems and control equipment, has acquired InduSoft, a provider of human machine interfaces (HMIs) and embedded intelligent device software for the automation market.
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, and founded in 1997, InduSoft has delivered more than 250,000 HMI software licenses to more than 700 customers worldwide, primarily industrial computer manufacturers and machine and system builders, who embed InduSoft’s software into their products. Ravi Gopinath, President of Invensys’ software business, said, The acquisition of InduSoft represents the continuing execution of our strategy to strengthen our portfolio through inorganic means, enabling us to target additional segments across our portfolio. InduSoft strengthens and broadens our leading software solutions portfolio, particularly in the embedded HMI segment, and provides a continuing driver for growth. They have a proven and experienced team who we are very happy to welcome to Invensys.
InduSoft has won many awards in its segment, including Control Engineering magazine’s prestigious Engineers’ Choice Award in 2010, 2011 and 2012. In 2013, InduSoft took the magazine’s top prize in three categories: Software Applications and Monitoring, HMI Software and Mobile Apps for Controls, Automation, Instrumentation. Marcia Gadbois, President of InduSoft said, Combined with Invensys’ existing software offerings, our capabilities and expertise in the OEM and machine-building segments allow us to provide a broader, end-to-end HMI, SCADA and MES solution to our customers. Together, our software tools will make it easier for them to integrate their information and automation systems. They will continue to work with the same strong InduSoft team, and we will ensure they continue to receive the exceptional products and service they have come to expect from us. But now they will be backed by a company with global capabilities and an excellent worldwide reputation for providing industry-leading HMI, SCADA, historian and advanced applications such as MES software and solutions.
Norm Thorlakson, Vice President, HMI and supervisory software and solutions, Invensys, said, With InduSoft we can now offer everything from basic embedded HMI devices to manufacturing operations, asset management and ERP integration.
InduSoft will continue to be managed by its existing executive team, adding employees to Invensys operations in the United States, Brazil and Germany.
Invensys has acquired InduSoft, which provides human machine interface (HMI) and embedded intelligent device software for the automation market.
Automation Support Service to Industry UK-Wide
GEA Process Engineering (www.gea.com) has appointed Automation Service Manager, David Wilkinson, to develop a new service team to support GEA Automation and other proprietary control systems throughout the United Kingdom.
The company says that industry feedback has been very positive in response to the new service. In offering a one-stop 24-h support to manufacturing businesses, customers have been able to outsource their needs, as opposed to running their own in-house support team. The service has successfully proven itself to be popular with production and engineering managers, and manufacturers across the United Kingdom.
GEA backs up the automation support with a comprehensive process consultation service that marries the company’s automation expertise and process design experience to ensure maximum productivity and efficiency.
The company has long supplied a wide range of market sectors, but it is in the dairy, juice, beverage, brewing and distilling markets that the company enjoys its most significant market share. David said, We have built a strong reputation for excellent service that is greatly appreciated by our customers. Customers benefit greatly from our ability to combine the expertise of liquid processing with automation control skills.
During their support visits, GEA engineers work closely with customers to integrate their engineering information using the latest GEA Assist technology. This enables engineers to save time, as it centrally stores all needed documentation relating to the supported system, whether that be programmable logic controller (PLC) backups, input/output (I/O) diagrams, piping and instrumentation diagram/drawing (P&IDs) or functional design specification documents. The results of each maintenance visit are also stored in this system or emailed to the customer allowing them to keep easy track of all maintenance activities. This ensures that all engineering information about the plant is kept in an easily retrievable central source. David explained, We spend a lot of time learning about each site at the start of the contract. By learning about the automation application on site and how it interacts, we can apply our knowledge to build a detailed knowhow of how a site works. In many cases our engineer has to be more familiar with these aspects than the staff based on site.
All contract customers are given access to GEA Assist as an added value service.
Valve Actuation Innovation for Giant Australian Clean LNG Projects
Rotork (www.rotork.com) flow control products have been selected for applications throughout the giant Queensland coal seam gas-to-liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects in Australia. To date, Rotork’s international sales network has received orders for more than 5000 valve actuators, embracing electric, electro-hydraulic, pneumatic and gas-over-oil technologies.
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 27 metric tonnes of LNG for export each year.
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. As 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.
The CVA actuators provide 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.
One of the many wellhead and separator skids installed on the Queensland mainland.
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.
On the left, CVA actuator, model CVQ1200, operates a 3-inch ball valve to control the gas flow and pressure. Behind the CVA, Skilmatic model SI-Q51 electro-hydraulic actuator operates a 2-inch safety shutdown ball valve on the water extraction line. The Skilmatic model SI-Q60 on the right controls a 4-inch safety shutdown ball valve on the gas line.
United Kingdom and Ireland Finalists Shortlisted for Graphical Design Awards
The shortlisted finalists in the 2013 Graphical System Design Achievement Awards have been announced by National Instruments United Kingdom and Ireland. These annual awards celebrate and honour engineers, scientists and researchers who are using National Instruments’ (NI) technology to address some of the most challenging engineering problems and improve the world around us.
The following outstanding applications have been recognised by the judging panel in various categories:
Controlling 70-tonne gripper arms for offshore wind turbine construction by Industrial Systems and Control Developing a hybrid simulation of automated air-to-air refuelling procedures by the Universities of Bristol and Bath
Controlling a robotic manipulator for nuclear decommissioning by James Fisher Nuclear and Key Engineering Solutions Monitoring and controlling a compact spherical tokamak for plasma research by Tokamak Solutions
Measuring biomechanical stresses in machine and live scrummaging by the University of Bath Testing and validating powered attendant-propelled wheelchairs by University College London
Building a next-generation test system for next-generation wireless communication by Imperial College London Wireless testbed solution for testing of novel future generation communications systems by Surrey University
Developing a quantum waveform synthesiser by National Physical Laboratory (Companion Company) High-throughput testing of a revolutionary electronically steerable antennae by Phasor Solutions
Aston Martin race engine vibration analysis by computer controlled solutions Measuring the hydroelasticity of inflatable boats to reduce injuries in harsh waters by the University of Southampton.
The winners were announced at the Graphical System Design Achievement Awards ceremony, held at The Royal Academy of Engineering, London, on 19 November, in the presence of Jeff Kodosky, National Instruments Co-founder and ‘Father of LabVIEW’.
At the time of going to press, we did not have the results, but to learn more, or to submit an entry to next year’s contest, visit http://uk.ni.com/gsdawards
Monitran Supports Oxford Aero-Engine Technology Research
Research work at the Oxford Turbine Research Facility (OTRF) is being supported by Monitran (www.monitran.com), a leader in the development and manufacture of transducers for the measurement of vibration, proximity and displacement. The company is providing specialist engineering services to part of the Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford.
Monitran has designed and is supplying high-accuracy signal conditioning units for interfacing with hundreds of thin-film heat transfer gauges, which the OTRF has fitted to a full working section of a turbine in order to investigate a variety of turbine blade cooling techniques.
Kam Chana, Commercial and Technical Director of the OTRF, commented, While we could have outsourced to a traditional CEM we selected Monitran because of their engineering professionalism when it comes to taking on specialist projects and their considerable experience in conditioning small signals.
Working from schematics provided by the OTRF, and using computer-aided design (CAD) software, the company designed a double-sided, eight-channel analogue circuit board. Each channel is isolated, and particular attention was paid to the use of ground planes to screen signal paths into high gain amplifiers.
The 19-inch rack-mounted boards have been tested at sample rates of 1 MHz, as the rationale behind the OTRF’s use of thin-film heat transfer gauge sensors is that they have response times in the order of 1 µs.
Monitran is supplying high-accuracy signal conditioning units for interfacing with hundreds of thin-film heat transfer gauges that the Oxford Turbine Research Facility (OTRF) is using to investigate aero-engine turbine blade cooling techniques.
Powerful Piston Actuators Improve Process Control
Emerson Process Management (http://www.EmersonProcess.com) has introduced the Fisher 685 double-acting piston actuator that provides high-thrust output for short to long travel applications. The accurate and reliable operation of the actuator improves process control and increases availability – contributing to increased productivity and efficiency.
Designed for use with both medium and large Fisher sliding-stem control valves, including the easy-e and FB series, the actuator is suitable for general, severe and critical service applications. The range includes piston diameters from 305 to 660 mm and travel from 25 to 610 mm as standard, with special constructions available up to 1118 mm piston diameter.
The actuator has a high-thrust capability, with a maximum of 351.4 kN available at 10.3 barg supply pressure. The units feature NPT supply connections – larger air connections reduce the complexity of instrument piping and improve actuator response to control signals giving better process control. This enables operating times of less than 2s in critical applications, such as compressor anti-surge.
Low-friction piston seals and either chrome-plated or xylan-coated cylinder bores, reduce sliding friction and wear – minimising deadband, reducing maintenance costs and extending operational life.
The Fisher 685 double-acting piston actuator from Emerson Process Management provides high-thrust output for short to long travel applications.
These low maintenance actuators can be specified with durable corrosion-resistant paint and are suitable for operation over a wide temperature range. Standard constructions offer a temperature range of −40 °C to +93 °C, but higher or lower temperatures are possible. Special constructions extend this range from −54 °C to +204 °C, making these actuators ideal for the extreme conditions found in many oil and gas onshore plants and offshore platforms.
News in Brief
Obtaining precise CO readings in the presence of diesel NOx
Gas detection and environmental monitoring expert, Trolex (www.trolex.com) has developed a product used to remove background NOx gases to provide accurate CO level indications. Measuring diesel fumes in the mining and tunnelling environments has been increasingly in the forefront of legislative news lately with Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) proposing an information collection on health standards for Diesel Particulate Matter Exposure in Underground Coal Mines this month. The Sentro D is a high-accuracy CO detector featuring Trolex’s gas discriminator technology, which filters out background mono nitrogen oxides (NOx) gases and prevents the gas sensor reading from becoming inaccurate, which can set off false alarms and cause production disruption. The intrinsically safe device is claimed to give the most accurate CO readings possible in environments rich in diesel exhaust, which is used as an indicator of fire in some hazardous environments.
Interfacing a four-channel resolver
A Nexus four-channel channel resolver interface from Advanced Micro Controls Inc. (AMCI) provides absolute position and velocity data. Arguably, the most versatile resolver interface available today, says AMCI, it has been engineered to provide absolute position and velocity data directly to the network, the four resolver channels can be configured in three different ways. The network availability for this device includes EtherNet IP, PROFINET, ControlNet, DeviceNet and PROFIBUS. Go to www.amci.com for more information.
Protecting against transient voltages
Crabtree supplies a range of single-phase and three-phase surge protection devices for industrial and commercial applications, designed to guard against transient or surge voltages. The consequences to an electrical installation having no protection can be serious. Unchecked, long-term exposure to even low levels of transient overvoltage may reduce the life of components in computers and many other valuable electronic devices associated with the control of industrial or commercial equipment. Exposure to higher levels, however, can result in immediate damage and can burn out circuit boards with the possibility of not only equipment loss, but also the risk of fire. Crabtree offers guidance on the selection of relevant surge protection devices. Email
Industrial PC panel mounts
From AutomationDirect (www.automationdirect.com) comes a panel-mount industrial programmable controller (PC) in Direct LOGIC 405 PLC form factor. It is pre-loaded with Windows NT, a 2.1-GB hard drive, a 1.44-MB floppy disc drive, 64-MB random access memory (RAM) and a video graphics array (VGA) controller. Its ports are two RS-232C serial, one parallel, two USB and one Ethernet 10BaseT.