September 2013 - Control Global

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There are lots of mobile worker tools, and they’re allowing even the smallest companies to have all the bene� ts of mobility.

THE MOBILE WORKER

Picking Low-Hanging DAQ Fruit

How to Get Drives and Motors to Dance Together

More Cross-Generational Conversation

ON THE WEBSecure WirelessHART

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Answers for industry.

usa.siemens.com/process

In this dynamic and advancing world, some may find it hard to remain at the forefront of the competition! That’s why Siemens answered with a control system your business can trust. With the release of SIMATIC PCS 7 Version 8, you’ll have the performance you need to keep up with the latest innovation and technology.

Take advantage of the uniquely scalable and powerful PCS 7 platform featuring enhancements and new functions that will decrease your engineering time and operational costs. Version 8 is a testament on how we’re listening to our customers and helping them meet their challenges. Rely on SIMATIC PCS 7 – performance you trust.

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The age ofenlightenmenthas arrived.

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Introducing the Foxboro Evo™ system.You’ve been waiting for a control system that shines light into every corner of the plant. So every member of your team can be enlightened — with the context-rich information they need to manage risk and turn opportunities into profi ts. A system with the power and fl exibility to know the past, collaborate in the ever-evolving present, and even predict the future. This is the next generation of advanced automation. This is Foxboro Evo. See what the Foxboro Evo process automation system can do for you at Foxboro.com/FoxboroEvo

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© Copyright 2013. All rights reserved. Invensys, the Invensys logo, Foxboro, and Foxboro Evo are trademarks of Invensys plc,its subsidiaries or affi liates.All other brands and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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usa.siemens.com/process

In this dynamic and advancing world, some may find it hard to remain at the forefront of the competition! That’s why Siemens answered with a control system your business can trust. With the release of SIMATIC PCS 7 Version 8, you’ll have the performance you need to keep up with the latest innovation and technology.

Take advantage of the uniquely scalable and powerful PCS 7 platform featuring enhancements and new functions that will decrease your engineering time and operational costs. Version 8 is a testament on how we’re listening to our customers and helping them meet their challenges. Rely on SIMATIC PCS 7 – performance you trust.

Performance you trustSIMATIC PCS 7 Version 8

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To access Version 8 information, use the code reader on your smart phone, snap a picture and experience.

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The age ofenlightenmenthas arrived.

Protect

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Operate

Engineer

Manage

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Introducing the Foxboro Evo™ system.You’ve been waiting for a control system that shines light into every corner of the plant. So every member of your team can be enlightened — with the context-rich information they need to manage risk and turn opportunities into profi ts. A system with the power and fl exibility to know the past, collaborate in the ever-evolving present, and even predict the future. This is the next generation of advanced automation. This is Foxboro Evo. See what the Foxboro Evo process automation system can do for you at Foxboro.com/FoxboroEvo

Tel: 1-888-FOXBORO E-mail: [email protected]

© Copyright 2013. All rights reserved. Invensys, the Invensys logo, Foxboro, and Foxboro Evo are trademarks of Invensys plc,its subsidiaries or affi liates.All other brands and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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CONTROL (ISSN 1049-5541) is published monthly by PUTMAN Media COMPANY (also publishers of CONTROL DESIGN, CHEMICAL PROCESSING, FOOD PROCESSING, INDUSTRIAL NETwORkING,

PHARMACEUTICAL MANUFACTURING, and PLANT SERVICES ), 555 w. Pierce Rd., Ste. 301, Itasca, IL 60143. (Phone 630/467-1300; Fax 630/467-1124.) Address all correspondence to Editorial and Executive Offices, same ad-

dress. Periodicals Postage Paid at Itasca, IL, and at additional mailing offices. Printed in the United States. © Putman Media 2013. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or part without

consent of the copyright owner. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CONTROL, P.O. Box 3428, Northbrook, IL 60065-3428. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Qualified-reader subscriptions are accepted from Operating Management in the control

industry at no charge. To apply for qualified-reader subscription, fill in subscription form. To non-qualified subscribers in the Unites States and its possessions, subscriptions are $96.00 per year. Single copies are $15. International subscriptions are

accepted at $200 (Airmail only.) CONTROL assumes no responsibility for validity of claims in items reported. Canada Post International Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement No. 40028661. Canadian Mail Distributor Information:

Frontier/BwI,PO Box 1051,Fort Erie,Ontario, Canada, L2A 5N8.

S e p t e m b e r / 2 0 1 3 www.controlglobal.com 5

September 2013 • Volume XXVI • Number 9

f e at u r e s

W E B E X C L U S I V E S

WirelessHART—Secure by DesignThe well-known security flaws in Zigbee led the Wire-lessHART designers to build robust security into the de-sign of the protocol from the ground up.www.controlglobal.com/SecurewirelessHart

C o v e r S t o r y

38 / the mobile Worker —there Are 100 Apps for that!

There are lots of mobile worker tools that allow even the smallest companies to have all the benefits of mobility. by Walt Boyes

D A t A A C q u i S i t i o n

83 / picking Low-Hanging Fruit with DAq

Now that we can collect all this data, what do we do with it? by Nancy Bartels

D r i v e S A n D m o t o r S

91 / Coordinated motion, Concentrated power

Drives choreograph motors for the greatest effect and en-ergy savings. Here’s how experienced users gain their ad-vantages. by Jim Montague

e n g i n e e r i n g e D u C A t i o n

97 / talk to each other moreThe rewards of mentoring; how to get ahead; young managers, older reports; and rewards and recognition. by Danaca Jordan, Greg McMillan, Soundar Ramchan-dran and Hunter Vegas

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D E P A R T M E N T S

September 2013 • Volume XXVI • Number 9

Food & Kindred Products............................................ 11,430Chemicals & Allied Products ...................................... 10,731 Systems Integrators & Engineering Design Firms ......... 9,277Primary Metal Industries ............................................... 5,073Electric, Gas & Sanitary Services .................................. 4,055Pharmaceuticals ............................................................ 3,749Paper & Allied Products ................................................ 3,623

Petroleum Refining & Related Industries ....................... 3,417Rubber & Miscellaneous Plastic Products .................... 3,372Miscellaneous Manufacturers ....................................... 2,141Stone, Clay, Glass & Concrete Products ....................... 1,758Textile Mill Products ..................................................... 1,248Tobacco Products ............................................................. 146Total Circulation .......................................................... 60,000

CirCulation audited June 2012

9 / Editor’s PagePicking Appropriate Technologyusing the appropriate level of technol-ogy—not the newest or the coolest—is what makes high-quality, reliable products.

15 / On the Webthe Best Gets BetterJim Montague takes you on a tour of some of the back-end improvements to Control-Global.com

17 / FeedbackWhich is better? analog or digital?

18 / Lessons LearnedWe’ve Come a Long Way in 50 Yearsit’s not your granddad’s automation anymore.

27 / On the BusNo KISS for Digital Integration?Keeping it simple by just doing what you’ve always done is not necessarily the best way to run a process operation.

28 / Without WiresWill IPv6 Give ISA100.11a a Leg Up?iPv6’s functionality may make iSa100.11a the come-from-behind winner in the wire-less standards race.

30 / In ProcessSchneider electric’s good deal, Siemens on Mars and rockwell automation’s big green building.

36 / ResourcesCalibration online. Videos, ebooks, white papers and more.

101 / Technically SpeakingReal-Time Optimization with MPCYokogawa and Shell Global Solutions ally to provide software to implement multivari-able process control.

102 / Ask the Expertsour experts tackle what equal percentage is, why we use it, and how to get stable con-trol with it

105 / Roundupthe best gear for temperature measure-ment and sensing is here.

108 / ProductsWago’s new multi-tasking controller, plus other new products for your operation.

111 / Control TalkA Perfect Storm of SkillsMcMillan and Weiner cover the multiple skills needed to work in a process plant.

113 / Ad Indexand now a word from our sponsors.

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Walt boyeS Editor in [email protected] t

E D I T O R ’ S P A G E

Picking Appropriate technology

With Siemens, I was able to celebrate International Craft Beer Week in August by visit-

ing several of the larger craft brewers around St. Louis. Anheuser-Busch-InBEV has been

seriously hurt by the increasing popularity of the craft brewing industry, not least be-

cause of the fact that many leading craft brewers are refugees from the big brewers,

of which AB-InBEV is the biggest. One such is Florian Kuplent, co-founder

and brewmaster of Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. (www.urbanchestnut.com). Born in Ger-many and educated at the University of Mu-nich, Kuplent worked for Anheuser-Busch for eight years before co-founding Urban Chest-nut. Although Urban Chestnut is in the midst of an expansion from its original brewery to a new, much larger one that will make it (count-ing both locations) the second largest brewery in St. Louis, Kuplent told me, “I may not be the best person to give you a tour of our automa-tion. I really don’t care about it. My job is to make beer.”

Those of us who work as automation profes-sionals often forget that we produce a means to an end and not an end in itself. Our customers, clients and co-workers are engaged in making beer or petroleum products or consumer prod-ucts or chemical formulations or whatever.

Kuplent showed me his bottling line, which had to be the slowest bottling line I’ve seen in probably 30 years. It bottles about 1500 bot-tles an hour. The bottles move with agonizing slowness through the washer, filler and capper, and then are hand-loaded into boxes.

“We don’t need it to go any faster,” Ku-plent told me. “When we move, we are buy-ing a faster one, because then we’ll need it. We bought this one used, and we will sell it to an-other brewery.”

Urban Chestnut uses automation, be sure of that. It has a very nice batch automation sys-tem, which runs the mash mixer, lautering tun and the brew kettle. The brewery has about 25 recipes, but it actually runs only six or seven of them regularly.

When the company moves to the new brew-ery, since it is a whole city block long, it will probably go to a central HMI, so that workers

can see everything that’s going on without tak-ing a very long walk. For now, as Kuplent noted, there are two rooms, one for the brewing and one for the bottling line, and they’re separated by an archway and a sanitary curtain.

So what can this tell us? Sometimes, in the high tech world—and automation is certainly part of that world—we want to use technol-ogy simply because it is cool. Companies often push new technologies on customers long be-fore the customers need it or can really use it. However, as Urban Chestnut shows us, the use of appropriate levels of technology—not neces-sarily the newest—makes it possible to make product with high quality, high reliability and high repeatability.

The two technologies that are pushing into, or being pushed on, the process industries are wireless sensor networks and mobile worker ap-plications. The jury is still out on both of these technologies, although it looks like both will actually add value over time.

I asked Kuplent if he thought mobile worker technologies would add value to his brewery. “You mean, like being able to start the brew kettle from my smart phone in the morning at home? Not really,” he said.

On the other hand, with the millennial gen-eration, who seem to be born with a smart-phone grafted to their hands, those very same mobile worker technologies may be essential to the way they want to work in manufacturing and in the process industries.

Pardon me, while us grey-haired, early adopt-ers wait and see.

Those of us who

work as automation

professionals

often forget that we

produce a means

to an end and not

an end in itself.

CT1309_09_Edit.indd 9 9/3/13 12:13 PM

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S E P T E M B E R / 2 0 1 3 www.controlglobal.com 15

Updated every business day, the Control Global online magazine is available at no charge. Go to www.controlglobal.com and follow instructions to register for our free weekly e-newsletters.

C O N T R O L O N L I N E

www.controlglobal.com/thismonth Search this site | Tips

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Multimedia Alerts

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Bottom-Line Automation, Second EditionPeter Martin’s updated whitepaper

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Oh sure, Controlglobal.com was named one of the top 10 business-to-business websites in the United States by the American Society of Business Publication Editors, but that was way back in July. As they say in the entertainment indus-

try, “What have you done for me lately?”Well, in the case of Controlglobal.com, the answer is plenty. Just a couple of

weeks ago, our senior managing editor for digital media Katherine Bonfante, as-sociate digital editor Sarah Cechowski and their colleagues completed the Her-culean task of moving our website to a new SilverStripe content management system (CMS). By now, all the � les are moved, many back-of-site improvements are � nished, some bugs have been � xed, and we have a shiny, new website that’s even more informative, useful and helpful than it was before. Sweet!

First up, just moving around and searching on the website is quicker and more comprehensive. I’m told that many of the back-end improvements to the website, such as more reliable interlinking between internal articles, will be seamless to visitors, but this one seemed pretty ap-parent to me.

Second, probably the most important new feature is visitors can comment directly on every single web page. You can add insights and criticize every article, news story, column or other piece of content right at the mo-ment you think of something to say, or when you trip over some incomplete or outrageous statement that needs a response. Yes, you can also let me know im-mediately just how full of baloney you may think I am. Uh oh.

Third, Controlglobal.com’s internal search engine is more user friendly. You can now search by date, content type or by 10 technical topics.

Fourth, one of my favorite new features is an independent “News” tab under the “Most Recent” category at the top of our front page.

Fifth, our blog entries now look very similar to regular article pages. The new system gives bloggers and audience members alike a better experience when participating in our online communities.

Sixth, our RSS feeds’ directories have moved, but visitors can still access our new feeds via the old ones. Our previous RSS feed automatically redirect to the new ones, or users can establish new subscriptions when desired.

Seventh, the menu bar at the top of the front page is redesigned with a dark background and white lettering that makes it more readable.

Eighth, the process for submitting Wiki entries has been streamlined, so us-ers can add to the Directory of Lost Companies more easily.

Ninth, the box listing whitepapers in the right column of every web page has been upgraded to a new format that scrolls through headlines about several recent papers, and also includes an informative description below each headline.

Best Gets Better

JIM MONTAGUE E XECUT IVE EDITOR

[email protected] t

CT1309_15_WebTOC.indd 15 9/3/13 12:15 PM

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Analog or Digital Output?If you haven’t checked out the Control-Global discussion group on LinkedIn, you should. A lot of smart and savvy people check in there, and some pretty interest-ing discussions get going. One of the most recent ones was started by Jean Carl, PR and social media consultant at Macro Sensors. She asked, “Do you prefer ana-log or digital output to monitor operating parameters?”

The question generated a lot of talk.Quinton Christensen, engineering/IT manager at Pilkington Metal Finish-ing, said, “I prefer digital where possi-ble. If digital is not possible, I try to use a transmitter as near the signal as possible. Less induction and loss as the data tra-verses the plant.”

On the other hand, Francis Mali-nosky-Rummell, PE, owner, Portland Engineering, industrial automation con-sultants, voted analog. “Networks can be very � nicky and are much more dif� cult to troubleshoot if they’re not working. You do have to make sure you’re wiring cor-rectly to avoid induction, but that goes for network wiring as well. If you’re using 4-20 mA signals (vs. voltage), you should not have any signal loss”

Jorge Edgar Cano Carmona, global process technical consultant at Rockwell Automation, added that, “Please, we’re in the 21st century. I prefer digital (FF or PA), of course.”

Not surprisingly our own � eldbus guru and process control specialist at ISP Lima LLC, John Rezabek prefers digi-tal. He replied to Malinosky-Rummell. “@Francis, ‘networks can be very � nicky’ I read as ‘digital networks are not robust.’ I can’t say that that’s been borne out by my experience.

“We were ‘surprised’ last year when the long-obsolete 3Com switch interconnect-ing controllers and HMI, et. al. via Eth-ernet � nally failed after nearly 13 years of non-stop 24-7 operation. We were sur-prised because it functioned quietly and � awlessly non-stop. This year we preemp-tively replaced its twin with a more mod-ern switch, i.e. it was still functioning.

“At the same time our plant is full of two-wire digital buses, both � eldbus and RS-485 Modbus, which likewise have been amazingly robust for as many years.

“Sloppy, unreliable or otherwise de-� cient craftsmanship when installing the ‘physical layer’ is an issue for analog 4-20 mA as well as digital. You have more chances to screw it up with analog, since you’re running a pair to every device.”

Malinosky-Rummell replied, “I stand by my statement. Sure, there are plenty of work-ing networks, and I’ve put in a bunch of them myself, including var-ious � avors of Mod-bus, Pro� bus, De-viceNet, ControlNet, EtherNet/IP and Ethernet. I haven’t worked with Foun-dation � eldbus or CANbus. They can be very functional, sta-ble, and these days can provide more data out of a given device than you would normally get. That said, networks are often dif� cult to con� gure at the beginning, very dif� cult to troubleshoot when they go bad, and can be dif� cult to modify. If I have the choice of re-lying on a 4-20 or a Pro� bus node, give me the 4-20 any day.”

Dan Schwab, automation manager, projects at BP, is another analog fan. He says, “Francis is right on. I prefer a 4-20 mA signal, leveraging HART—the best of both worlds. You can easily troubleshoot a 4-20 mA signal (loose wire for example), digital either works or it doesn’t and is therefore dif� cult to pinpoint a problem.”

Rezabek observes in another reply, “I can see where the simplicity and familiar-ity of analog makes your projects feel less risky, and that’s what pays the bills. Maybe at the end of the day, the client who set-tles for 4-20 mA never notices any differ-ence. But, there are end users who could and would bene� t. Putting the kibosh on all things digital won’t eliminate risk, and may discourage end users who would re-ally bene� t.”

[For more such discussions, go to www.linkedin.com/groups/CONTROL-Global-2230245.]

CT1309_17_Feedback.indd 17 9/3/13 12:16 PM

18 www.controlglobal.com S E P T E M B E R / 2 0 1 3

BÉLA LIPTÁKl ip takbela@aol .com

L E S S O N S L E A R N E D

Automatic

safety controls

are the airbags

of industry.

We’ve Come a Long Way in 50 Years

Our profession has changed a lot during the last � ve decades. In the � rst edition of The

Instrument Engineer’s Handbook (IEH), I described how to tune single-loop pneumatic

controllers and was perfectly satis� ed with � oats for level and � lled bulbs for tempera-

ture measurements. At that time, in some plants the main job of an instrument engineer

was to clean plugged sensors and � x stuck control valves. Our control panels were full of pushbuttons and manual-loading stations, showing that the designers trusted the opera-tors more than automation.

Today, when we use multivariable envelope algorithms to optimize complete plants, when the control theory of our industries has spread from military to medical applications, and when we block operators from overriding or de-activating automated safety systems, those early years seem like distant memories.

Fifty years ago, process automation as a sepa-rate discipline didn’t exist. I taught process con-trol in the chemical engineering department of Yale University, and the � rst edition of the IEH came out of the electrical engineering division of its publisher. Why? Not because Yale or Chil-ton disliked our profession! They didn’t know it existed! This has changed a lot.

The PresentToday in some industries, the roles have ac-tually reversed. New developments in chemi-cal or electrical engineering are relatively few, while the science of automation and process control is exploding. This increase is acceler-ated by the dropping cost of computer mem-ory, by the standardization of protocols, by the ease of con� guring complex algorithms and dy-namic displays. This sudden rise in the recog-nition of our profession is due not only to the better tools at our disposal, but also to what we are doing with these tools.

It is now recognized that automation can si-multaneously increase pro� tability and safety! No other profession can increase the GDP with-out building a single new plant. We can do that just by optimizing the existing plants. We can do that while also reducing pollution and energy consumption, solely through the application of

state-of-the art automation. We can increase pro-ductivity without using a single pound of addi-tional raw material and without spending a sin-gle additional BTU.

SafetyWe can do that because, by replacing manual control with automatic, we maximize not only production but also safety. It is because delegat-ing accident prevention to automatic systems increases safety, while delegating it to pan-icked, disgruntled or badly trained operators does not. For some, this change in the safety culture is hard to accept, and this group even includes some of our own older colleagues, who spent a lifetime designing manual or semi-automatic controls.

We now know, for example, that automatic f looding of the Fukushima reactors during the 45 minutes between the earthquake and the arrival of the tsunami could have pre-vented the meltdowns, and the automatic venting of hydrogen could have prevented the explosions. Similarly, lives would have been saved at the BP accident, if the plat-form was automatically disengaged from the well, or at the Asiatic jet accident, if landing was automatically aborted when the speed was manually allowed to drop below its safe limit. My purpose here is not to list cases, but to emphasize the need for changing the “safety culture” of our profession from man-ual to automatic.

Automatic safety controls are the airbags of industry. The operator of the process doesn’t need to actuate the safety controls, nor can he disable them, because the controls trigger the safety protection automatically when the situ-ation requires it. In the coming age of cyber terrorism, the acceptance of this safety culture will be even more important.

CT1309_18_20_Lessons.indd 18 9/3/13 12:17 PM

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L E S S O N S L E A R N E D

IT and AutomationAnother major step in the right direction was the separation of information technology (IT) and process control. It took some time for industry to realize that IT has no safety culture; that nobody ever got killed by an of� ce machine, unless it fell on them. Another cultural difference is that process control is continuous, while IT runs during daylight. Therefore, today we know that process data can � ow from the process to the enterprise (IT), but direct queries from the enterprise to the process control system are absolutely unacceptable.

StandardizationIn the distant past, it took decades to standardize on the 3-to-15 PSIG (0.2 - 1.0 bar) pneumatic signal and years to standard-ize on the 4 to 20 mA DC electronic signal range. Everybody bene� ted from these standardizations because they allowed the products of different manufacturers to “talk” to each other.

Today, we work with microprocessor-operated intelligent � eld devices (IFDs), digital transmitters and digital valve actu-ators. They communicate digitally, and can handle multifunc-tions, such as detecting multiple variables, and simultaneously carrying out multiple tasks. Similarly, the valve actuators can have a variety of algorithms that can act as valve-opening sen-sors, limit switches or as remotely tuned PID algorithms.

Now the time is ripe to adopt a worldwide standard for a dig-ital communication protocol, a standard that could link all the digital “black boxes,” and could also act as a “translator” for those older instruments that were not designed for the digital age. Naturally, this standardization will allow the easy mixing of different manufacturers’ products in our control systems.

A major step in this direction was taken in 2011, when the � ve major automation foundations agreed to unite around one pro-tocol for � eld device integration (FDI). They agreed to combine their efforts, and form a joint company, FDI Cooperation. Its

“board of managers” is composed of representatives of the � ve automation foundations and the managers of global automation equipment suppliers. (See “Swimming in the Alphabet Soup of Device Management,” July ’13, p. 49, www.controlglobal.com/articles/2013/bartels-device-management.html).

We have good reason to hope that the FDI will � nally end the Babel of communication protocols. When this material-izes, the automation and process control engineers can once again concentrate on designing safe and optimized control systems, and stop wasting their time � guring out the commu-nication among black boxes of the different suppliers.

Smart Instruments, Soft SensorsAnother step in the right direction is the availability of mul-tiple sensor ranges, multiple references and the built-in intel-ligence serving to switch among them. Sensor improvements also include the ability to switch between wired and wireless data transmission, providing both local and remote displays of both the real-time readings of variables and their past history, or providing self-diagnostics that signal the need for mainte-nance, recalibration or to report sensor failure.

Soft sensors are detectors that don’t directly measure vari-ables, but obtain measurements through the evaluation of other variables. For example, the mass of water in a boiler can be obtained indirectly on the basis of material balance between the water entering and the steam leaving. Similarly, out� ow from a tank can be obtained from the rate of level change or from pump speed and pump power consumption. The mass � ow of gases can be obtained from ori� ce ∆P, up-stream pressure and gas temperature, or in custody transfer of oil, while mass � ow can be obtained from volumetric � owme-ters by using compensation algorithms for density.

Accuracy, RangeabilityIt is also a major step forward that the best manufacturers now include the basis of their accuracy and rangeability statements in their speci� cations, and independent testing organizations, such as Evaluation International (www.evaluation-interna-tional.com), are used to con� rm them. The best manufactur-ers are also de� ning rangeability as the ratio between those maximum and minimum readings for which the claimed ac-curacy statement is still valid.

Similarly, nowadays the best control valve manufacturers’ literature de� nes the rangeability of their valves as the range over which they guarantee that the speci� ed valve character-istics are maintained within 25%. This is usually between 5% and 85% or so.

In short, there is no profession with a brighter future and a better ability to contribute to human progress than ours.

Béla L ip ták , PE , con trol consul tan t , is a lso edi tor o f the Ins t rument Engineers’ Handbook , and is seek ing new co-authors for the coming new edi t ion of tha t mul t i-volume work . He can be reached a t l ip takbela@aol .com.

Figure 1: Automatic safety systems are the “airbags of industry.”

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Using wireless here and there is one thing.But using it across my entire operation? There’s no one I could trust to do that.


O N T H E B U S

john Rezabek contribut ing [email protected]

S e p t e m b e R / 2 0 1 3 www.controlglobal.com 27

KISS may mean

just installing

4-20 mA and

forgetting about

digital integration.

ing proceedures for each station. This level of troubleshooting and repair is not common though. For many other airframes, this service is performed by civilians back at the contrac-tor’s facility.

When systems are intended to steel one’s de-fenses against the most feared adversary, you don’t want to scrimp on technology. With superi-ority hinging on increasingly esoteric technology, there’s fear the reasoning/troubleshooting skills, morale and creativity of maintenance personnel may atrophy. But developing cutting-edge top se-cret technology into serviceable aircraft means us-ing self-diagnostics and expert systems.

One of our basic engineering axioms is: “Keep it simple, stupid” (KISS). It was in-vented by Lockheed engineers, and was aimed at ensuring that complex, advanced aircraft re-mained repairable in the throes of combat, far from the sophisticated tools and technical re-sources available to the designers.

KISS has some applicability in process mea-surement and control. We are faced with the same predicament: Use the best technology, but don’t require engineers to be on call for maintenance. While we’re not in an arms race per se with our competition, we are tasked with delivering safety, reliability and quality to our enterprises with diminishing human resources and a smaller budget. If we’re anticipating com-bat-like circumstances during commissioning, start-up, shutdowns and/or midnight callouts, we may be compelled to forego the latest so-lutions in favor of the tried-and-true. In such cases, KISS may mean just installing 4-20 mA and forgetting about digital integration.

But what if the phone man was dutiful about KISS? He could run copper to our house in-stead of fiber. That would be fine for my Aunt Edith, but the younger generation might be-come envious of the neighbors’ bandwidth.

Being perpetually resource-strapped and battle-weary may be reality for a lot of us, but is this how we’d choose to practice our profes-sion? If KISS is the tactic to survive the combat, what’s the strategy? “No one was ever fired for doing what they did last time”—except maybe André Maginot (look it up). Digital capabilities may never be completely exploited, even by the most talented and motivated end user. Are we scrimping on our duties if we defer to KISS? Where do you draw the line?

Control’s editor in chief, Walt Boyes, re-cently blogged about his visit to a local brew-ery. When asked about his control systems, the brewer said, “We just want to make beer.” This seeming indifference to our specialty is not un-common, and it hardly inspires one to step out boldly. If the end user is indifferent about in-struments, imagine how much they care about networks. But even the little brewery could benefit. For example, if a density measurement came “free” on a Coriolis flowmeter integrated with Modbus, Ethernet or fieldbus, that mea-surement would be mouse clicks away. So now while “just brewing beer,” the brewer can also see when his sparging is complete, boil less wa-ter, and save some water and energy.

The capital required for process control is generally small compared to the overall kit, but its impact on long-term safety, reliability, qual-ity and efficiency is disproportionately large. Digital integration of devices and systems may marginally increase complexity, risk and require a new skill set for the service guy, but it’s an investment that can be strategic. While “lifecycle cost” and “lifecycle benefit” are prac-tically becoming clichés devoid of meaning, it’s a better metric for guiding our specifications than KISS. “Fitness for purpose” should con-sider all the intelligence and insight a measure-ment and control system has to offer.

My son was giving us a tour of his workplace, the “back shop” of Ellsworth Air Force

Base, where he and his fellow airmen service the advanced avionics of the B1-Lancer.

Along with the 7-foot-tall racks of test equipment for diagnosis and repair of ailing avi-

onics systems, numerous bookcases are filled with volumes detailing the troubleshoot-

no KiSS for digital integration?

CT1309_27_OTB.indd 27 9/3/13 12:20 PM

W i t h o u t W i r e s

28 www.controlglobal.com S e p t e m b e r / 2 0 1 3

ian verhappenDirector,

inDus trial automation ne t [email protected]

The recent Wireless

Sensor Network

Study by IDtechEx

anticipates the

WSN market will

be over $2 billion

in 10 years.

will iPv6 Give isa100.11a a leg up?

Besides giving us another acronym to add to our repertoire, will the Internet Protocol,

version 6 (IPv6) in the industrial sector make “Ethernet everywhere” extend to field sen-

sors? The ISA100 development team certainly thinks and hopes so. With the 128-bit ad-

dresses, IPv6 supports 216 or 3.4 x 1038 addresses. When you consider that we continue

to use all the techniques that are allowing us to extend IPv4, this number may not equal infin-ity, but it is getting closer.

As a result, it should be possible to connect to an almost limitless number of sensors—al-lowing us to measure anything, anywhere, any-time. Active and passive radio frequency identi-fication (RFID) sensors are both small enough and low enough in power to enable anything-anywhere sensing.

The recent Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) study by IDtechEx (http://tinyurl.com/kbg28g7) anticipates the WSN market will be over $2 billion in 10 years. The increasing ubiq-uity of RFID-sensor-enabled devices and their shrinking cost will contribute to the growth of the Internet of Things (IOT) and 6LoWPAN (“diet” IPv6) will likely play a role in connect-ing these devices to the larger network.

The Internet Engineering Task Force’s (IETF, www.ietf.org/) request for comments (RFC) for the 6LoWPAN working group (https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/6lowpan/) de-fines encapsulation and header compres-sion mechanisms that allow IPv6 packets to be sent and received via IEEE 802.15.4-based networks, which coincidentally are the same networks used by industrial wireless protocols WirelessHART, Bluetooth and ISA100.11a. ISA100.11a is the only one of these standards to incorporate IPv6 directly as part of its network layer and transport layer definitions.

Because ISA100.11a supports up to 216 de-vices, the ability to create and participate in subnets is an important tool for managing the network. ISA100.11a’s support for multiple sub-nets will enable sensors to be grouped together much like a VLAN for traffic and network management, while also breaking the network into zones for security reasons.

ISA100.11a includes support for subnet-level

mesh, as well as backbone-level routing. Dif-ferent parameters and requirements need to be adopted and fulfilled in different routing sce-narios, such as when performing address trans-lation when the routing level changes. Doing so also has an energy-efficiency benefit, since 16-bit address deployment in subnet routing consumes much less energy and bandwidth than using a 128-bit global address.

Stringent timing accuracy and high reliabil-ity are critical components of industrial con-trol systems. ISA100.11a includes the ability to configure a field backbone into the network for the purpose of latency minimization, addi-tional bandwidth and higher quality of service. The backbone router that acts as an interface between the field and backbone networks, typi-cally by connecting to the field network gate-way, encapsulates network layer messages, and transmits them through the protocol stack of the backbone network to the final destination. This “final destination” could be a gateway for the host with its associated applications, or an-other I/O device placed at the opposite end of the backbone because the backbone is “the In-ternet.” With appropriate security, the other end could be practically anywhere.

ISA100.11a and the recent demonstra-tion at Petrobras in Brazil (http://tinyurl.com/m8oq4g4) give IPv6 the advantage of seamless end-to-end routing with “anything anywhere” effectively in a single environment. This is the reason that, though behind now, the suite of ISA100 standards has a good chance of being the “come-from-behind winnah at the wire” in the wireless standards race.

For a number of reasons, wired connectivity to field sensors has more roadblocks than those of the wireless world envisioned by ISA100.IPv6 and ISA100 make the Industrial Internet of Things, or I2OT, one step closer to reality.

CT1309_28_Wireless.indd 28 9/3/13 12:21 PM

trusted protection

Pepperl+Fuchs, Inc.Twinsburg, Ohio330.486.0002www.pepperl-fuchs.us

Gaining trust comes With consistency And proven reliabilityAs a market leader of solutions for hazardous areas, Pepperl+Fuchs has built trust and confidence into every element of our product portfolio. With over 60 years of hazardous location and intrinsic safety protection experience, we’ve established ourselves as a trusted partner in the process industry.

Our versatile isolated barriers for DIN rail and termination board applications together with our cost-effective zener diode barriers have made us the world’s leading supplier of intrinsic safety barriers.

With a global sales and support organization, we are able to provide any plant with an adaptable range of interface and network products for advanced process control. For intrinsically safe solutions, go to: www.pepperl-fuchs.us

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See more, do more and be more profitable with the most trusted partner in wireless — Emerson. Emerson is your proven partner with Smart Wireless in more customer sites and with more operating hours than anyone else in the process industry. Smart Wireless has the widest range of technologies to expand your vision into more places across your operations. And its self-organizing mesh network delivers the highest reliability available. It is simply the most intelligent, secure and cost-effective operation-wide wireless option available. See how Smart Wireless can empower your bottom line at EmersonProcess.com/SmartWireless

Using wireless here and there is one thing.But using it across my entire operation? There’s no one I could trust to do that.



I n P r o c e s s

Schneider’s CeO Justifies Invensys takeoverSays purchase will be a “good deal” for both shareholders and customers, but what about

Invensys’ brands?

In an exclusive interview with CNBC News, Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Schneider’s CEO and chairman, said, “It’s a very good deal for our customers, because our customers in the infrastructure seg-ment need integrated solutions. Inven-sys and Schneider are neighbors in the world of automation, but they are just covering complementary fields.”

The “good deal” refers to the $5.2-bil-lion takeover of Invensys, the U.K.-based owner of such well-known automation brands as Wonderware, Foxboro, Tri-conex, Eurotherm and SimSci-Esscor.

He added in the same interview, “And of course it’s an interesting of-fer for Invensys shareholders. There is a significant premium. On the side of Schneider, due to the synergies that this combination brings, it’s also a very interesting, valuable proposition.”

Schneider estimated the merger would create savings of $211.5 million annually from both revenue synergies and cost savings.

How good a deal it will be for Inven-sys and those brands remains to be seen. Analysts at Gartner (www.gartner.com) say the buyout emphasizes the impor-tance of “operational technologies” (OT), placing Schneider in the same pool with ABB, General Electric and Siemens, and pointing out the advan-tages of the acquisition—to Schneider. Gartner adds that the OT companies “have been transitioning from indus-trial conglomerates. Expanding their software capabilities through acquisi-tion is becoming the norm. Further-more, this acquisition comes at a time when asset-intensive companies are re-visiting their strategies for managing IT/OT convergence.”

Gartner suggests that Schneider Elec-tric is likely to use the various products

and technologies from Invensys in multiple Schneider Electric divi-sions. That’s where the rub may come for some of those well-known brands. Wonderware Intelligence, ArchestrA System Platform and IntelaTrac over-lap with established Schneider appli-cations. Others, such as Skelta BPM, ArchestrA System Platform, Wonder-ware Manufacturing Execution Solu-tions and SmartGlance, will fill gaps in Schneider Electric’s portfolio for the food and beverage, chemicals, hydro-carbon processing and mining indus-tries, adds Gartner’s analysts.

However, Schneider’s earlier forays into process automation technology have not been good for the acquired brands. Acquistion by Schneder has not been good for either Citect or Modicon.

Jim Pinto in his “Connections for Growth and Success” blog on Aug. 29 had a less sanguine view. “Schneider said the deal will generate significant revenue savings—$530 million a year by

2018—as a result of expanded offerings, complementary customer bases and from integration. But then, that’s what everyone says up-front. It remains to be seen what will happen to the group of excellent people in the many Invensys companies.”

Siemens at theSummit–and on MarsKeynoting the Siemens’ North Ameri-can Automation Summit in New Or-leans earlier this summer was Doug McCuistion, the former NASA execu-tive who led the Mars exploration pro-gram. In his speech, he emphasized the Siemens connection to Mars.

Siemens software was used in design-ing the rover. “Siemens,” said McCuis-tion, “was an important part of making the Curiosity rover work. This is a great automation story because of the seven minutes of terror—the pucker factor for this mission—when the rover sent, ‘I’m starting my sequence,’ it was already on the ground. We didn’t know the end of the movie, but it was all over. That 14-minute bidirectional communica-tion lag made the mission totally auton-omous—fully automated.”

Coming back to earth, the confer-ence focused on another national mis-sion—renewing manufacturing, both in the United States and in Europe. A panel discussion on the subject featured Patri-cia Panchak, editor in chief of Industry Week, Raj Batra, president of Siemens Industrial Automation, Jerry Gipson, re-tired senior technology director for the Dow Chemical Co. and immediate past chair of Fiatech’s board of advisors, and Bonnie Knopf, president of Intrepid Plastics Manufacturing and Intrepid Idea Innovators.

Schneider Electric’s CEO and chairman,

Jean-Pascal Tricoire, says his company’s

buy of Invensys is a “very good deal.”

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I n P r o c e s s

Batra pointed out that, for a number of reasons, there is a new growth in the manufacturing sector in North America and Europe. People are talking about advanced manufacturing technologies. “We talk about the integrated production process and the concept of one supplier for the entire integrated process,” he said.

Knopf described how her company survived the downturn, and brought home contracts that she’d lost to the Chinese long before. “We have been focused on cost,” she said. “The triad is cost, quality and delivery. Being lo-cal allows us to provide timeliness in delivery, high quality and reasonable cost. We have a very heavy emphasis on quality, higher than ever before.”

Gipson talked about the so-called skills gap, saying, “There is good news, but it has to be communicated in

context. There are about 12 million man-ufacturing jobs. The jobs are evolving with a requirement for more advanced skill sets and more accountability embed-ded in those jobs. The gaps—companies do have difficulty filling open jobs, yet we have historically high unemployment—so there’s a mismatch. There are not enough STEM-trained people. Compa-nies and industry are taking more respon-sibility to address these needs.”

The discussion ranged from the skills gap to asset age and management to managing millenials and potential wage wars for talent and experience.

Dennis Inverso, principal consultant with E. I. Dupont and Co. discussed his company’s vision for the “smart plant” of the future. He talked about embedding intelligence into the engineering tools, automation systems, manufacturing

computing systems, field instrumenta-tion, safety instrumented systems and production assets themselves. Inverso quoted the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition: “Smart Manu-facturing is a dramatically intensified, knowledge-enabled industrial enter-prise in which all business and oper-ating actions are executed to achieve substantially enhanced energy, sus-tainability, environmental, safety and more sustainable manufacturing.”

Siemens introduced many new prod-ucts and concepts at the event, including the North American launch of the latest Siemens integrated engineering archi-tecture and the latest versions of PCS7 and new controller designs.

Siemens also announced the 2013 Customer Excellence award recipients. They were Forum Energy Technologies,

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Super-E® MotorsDrive Down Your ConsumptionSince our beginning in 1920, Baldor

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FM 78587AS9100 Rev. C andISO 9001:2008

Primary Standard Calibration Service

Repeatable and reproducible—every time.Successful flow measurement requires accurate and repeatable

flow meter calibrations. COX Flow Dynamics® primary standard

calibration service by Badger Meter calibrates flow meters from

any manufacturer and all flow metering technologies. As the first

independent flow lab to receive NVLAP (Code 200668) accreditation,

we offer superior liquid calibration uncertainties of ± 0.03 percent,

with a repeatability of ± 0.01 percent, and gas calibration with an

uncertainty of ± 0.20 percent and ± 0.10 percent repeatability.

Our service provides certified calibration data sheets, historical

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EXPERIENCE MATTERS. With thousands of installations across the globe in some of the world’s toughest conditions and applications, Orion Instruments® proves daily that we are the leading supplier of magnetic level indication. Contact us today to find out how we can apply ORION INSTRUMENTS technology to help solve your level applications.

• Oil & Gas Exploration & Production • Refining • Pulp & Paper • Power • Chemical • Military • Wastewater

www.orioninstruments.com • 2105 Oak Villa Boulevard • Baton Rouge, Louisiana • 70815 • 866-55-ORION • 225-906-2343 • f: 225-906-2344Orion Instruments, Magnetrol, Aurora, and Jupiter are registered trademarks of Magnetrol International. Atlas and Reveal are trademarks of Magnetrol International.

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ARC and ControlWant to KnowARC Advisory Group and Control magazine are conducting a survey of stakeholders and champions to develop a better understanding of how indus-trial organizations quantify the busi-ness value created with modern au-tomation or IT deployment, and how companies justify automation and IT projects or migrations. We’re particu-larly interested in learning whether re-liability issues and maintenance costs alone are enough to justify new deploy-ments, or if additional business justifi-cation is required.

All answers will be kept strictly con-fidential and no company-specific in-formation or individual responses will be disclosed. The survey is designed to take less than 10 minutes to complete, and participants will receive a free sum-mary of the aggregated results. The survey can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7ZKNFRK.

Rockwell Automation Takes the LEEDRockwell Automation has earned Leadership in Energy and Environ-mental Design (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for significantly reducing the overall environmental impact of its landmark corporate headquarters in downtown Milwaukee. The 2.1-million-square-foot building is the second-largest ex-isting structure in Wisconsin to receive this certification. Rockwell invested $3.2 million to upgrade its corporate headquarters, starting in 2001. LEED is the nation’s pre-eminent program for

the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings.

The recognition culminates a compre-hensive, 12-year sustainability program at Rockwell Automation’s headquarters, which includes combined office, labora-tory and former manufacturing space. The project included physical retrofits and sustainable operational practices im-plemented by Rockwell Automation to reduce the environmental footprint of its corporate headquarters.

“The sheer size of the buildings was the most challenging—and reward-ing—aspect of the program,” says Steve Strzok, Rockwell Automation’s facility manager. “Every part of the space had to meet LEED specifications for an operations and maintenance rating, including indoor air-quality standards and ‘green cleaning’ procedures and products used by custodians.”

Water consumption inside the buildings was reduced by half with the

installation of state-of-the-art, sensor-acti-vated faucets and other lavatory fixtures. Rockwell Automation employees also made significant strides in recycling ev-erything from cardboard to old office re-frigerators, diverting 82% of the facility’s solid waste from landfills in 2012. Em-ployees were responsible for the team be-ing awarded additional LEED points for using alternative transportation for travel to and from work, such as carpooling and bike riding. Rockwell Automation was recently awarded the 2013 Commuter Champion Award from the Wisconsin Partners for Clean Air.

The crowning feature of the environ-mentally friendly facility is its green roof —the largest private-sector roof in Wis-consin—that helps reduce the energy required to heat and cool the building, and annually retains 1.2 million gallons of rainwater that otherwise would runoff into the city sewer system and eventually into Lake Michigan.


Rockwell Automation’s headquarters in Milwaukee, Wis., has earned LEED certification,

the second-largest structure in the state to do so.

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CT1308_30_35_InPro.indd 35 9/3/13 12:35 PM

R E S O U R C E S


Calibration OnlineControl’s Monthly Resource Guide

Every month, Control’s editors take a specific product area, collect all the latest, significant tools we can find,

and present them here to make your job easier. If you know of any tools and resources we didn’t include, send

them to [email protected], and we’ll add them to the website.

HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU CALIBRATE?Plants can improve their efficiency and reduce costs by performing calibra-tion history trend analysis. By doing it, a plant is able to define which instru-ments can be calibrated less frequently and which should be calibrated more frequently. Calibration history trend analysis is only possible with calibra-tion software that provides this func-tionality. Download this whitepaper to learn how to use calibration history trend analysis to adjust calibration in-tervals of plant instrumentation. The whitepaper is free, but registration is required. The direct link is at http://ti-nyurl.com/kqm3ngq,

Be ame xw w w.beamex .com

IMPROVE LOOP CALIBRATIONSSignificant performance improvement can realized by optimizing the loop calibration measurement system to better accommodate the unique char-acteristics of the temperature sensing element. This four-page PDF walks you through the necessary steps to get the most from your temperature sens-ing equipment. The direct link is at http://tinyurl.com/k4lv7f6.

Fluke CaliBr at iOnw w.f lukecal .com

MAINTAINING YOUR pH SENSORSAll pH readings are supposed to be taken and accepted only when the pH sensor is clean, so one must make sure the sensor is clean before doing a cali-bration. Once a pH sensor is installed in the process and operating, how do you determine when it is time to take the sensor out of the process, and do a

cleaning or calibration? Does one per-form both a cleaning and a calibration or just a cleaning, or just a calibration? This paper will address knowing when to do a pH sensor calibration versus a calibration check; how to properly clean a pH sensor; how to perform a pH sensor calibration; and a decision tree for step-by-step guidance. Free and downloadable PDF. The direct link is at http://tinyurl.com/l8rsjdk.

endress+Hauser w w w.us.endress.com

CALIBRATING SMART INSTRUMENTSIn the early days of smart transmitters, the concept of remote range setting (“remote calibration”) and re-ranging without applying input was revolution-ary. It took years of education to be ac-cepted and understood. Calibration can be carried out using a handheld communicator in the field, a laptop in the workshop, or from intelligent de-vice management software as part of an asset management solution. Elec-tronic Device Description Language (EDDL) is the technology used by device manufacturers to define how the system shall display the device in-formation and functions to the tech-nician. This document covers how EDDL works with sensor trim, range setting, position feedback sensor trim, device integration and other issues. The direct link to the free PDF is at http://tinyurl.com/9eultke.

eddlw w w.eddl .org

CALIBRATION BASICSThis is one of the chapters in NIST’s Engineering Statistics Handbook

(www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/index.htm), covering a variety of cali-bration topics, including types of cali-bration, calibration designs, control of instrument calibration and more. Ac-cess is free. The direct link is at http://tinyurl.com/bv2dpnw.

nis t inFOrmatiOn teCHnOlOgy l aBOr atOryw w w.nis t .gov/ i t l

CALIBRATION TUTORIALThis free tutorial covers calibration basics: instrument system models, in-strument errors, range, accuracy, re-peatability, stability, time-lag error, re-liability, drift, proper procedures and calibration errors. Each section con-tains diagrams, basic equations and self-assessment tests. On completion of this tutorial, you should be able to explain the model of a basic instru-ment system, calculate the relationship between input and output for a com-plete system, explain and identify the main errors that occur in instrument systems, explain the basic principles of calibration, and explain primary and secondary standards. The link to the tutorial is www.freestudy.co.uk/instru-mentation/tutorial4.pdf.

Free s tudyw w w.f rees tudy.co.uk

CALIBRATION PDFSEBook Browse gives users access to eb-ooks on a wide variety of subjects. The direct link to a page with a collection of PDFs on calibration subjects is lo-cated at http://tinyurl.com/nf6lsxb. Registration is required, but many of the publications are free.

eBOOk BrOwsew w w.ebookbrowsee.ne t

CT1309_36_Resources.indd 36 9/3/13 12:41 PM

© 2012 Badger Meter, Inc.Flow Dynamics® is a trademark of Badger Meter, Inc.

FM 78587AS9100 Rev. C andISO 9001:2008

Primary Standard Calibration Service

Repeatable and reproducible—every time.Successful flow measurement requires accurate and repeatable

flow meter calibrations. COX Flow Dynamics® primary standard

calibration service by Badger Meter calibrates flow meters from

any manufacturer and all flow metering technologies. As the first

independent flow lab to receive NVLAP (Code 200668) accreditation,

we offer superior liquid calibration uncertainties of ± 0.03 percent,

with a repeatability of ± 0.01 percent, and gas calibration with an

uncertainty of ± 0.20 percent and ± 0.10 percent repeatability.

Our service provides certified calibration data sheets, historical

data, annual calibration reminders, and a swift return of

your flow meter.

480-948-3789 | www.flowdynamics.com

EXPERIENCE MATTERS. With thousands of installations across the globe in some of the world’s toughest conditions and applications, Orion Instruments® proves daily that we are the leading supplier of magnetic level indication. Contact us today to find out how we can apply ORION INSTRUMENTS technology to help solve your level applications.

• Oil & Gas Exploration & Production • Refining • Pulp & Paper • Power • Chemical • Military • Wastewater

www.orioninstruments.com • 2105 Oak Villa Boulevard • Baton Rouge, Louisiana • 70815 • 866-55-ORION • 225-906-2343 • f: 225-906-2344Orion Instruments, Magnetrol, Aurora, and Jupiter are registered trademarks of Magnetrol International. Atlas and Reveal are trademarks of Magnetrol International.

Schedule a visit to our manufacturing facility

ISO 9001

Advanced MLI withintegrated Guided WaveRadar level transmitter.

Basic, high-performance MLI suitable for a variety of applications.

F e a t u r i n g

wide ind icatorpatent pending

Magnetostrictive Level Transmitter

What’s your

of confidence?LEVELLEVELLEVEL

#1 Magnetic Level Indicator

#1 Magnetostrictive Level Transmitter



CT1309_38_81_CoverStory.indd 38 9/4/13 9:28 AM


m o b i l e a u t o m a t i o n p r o f e s s i o n a l

Mobility is relative. So are the technologies used to increase mobility in the workforce of plants and enterprises. The mobile worker was born the day the Internet-enabled laptop was first offered for sale (Figure 1). Combined with the cellular phone, workers could stay connected to their offices wherever they were. These tools helped managers and engineers, but weren’t all that helpful for operators and maintenance technicians.

The process industries are generally thought to run about 10 years behind other industries in their adoption rate for new technologies. For example, the discrete industries, such as automobile manufacturing, have been using wireless sen-sors and even wirelessly powered robots for 10 years or more, and the process industries are barely over the early adopter phase for WirelessHART and ISA100 sensor networks. The entire world is blanketed with IEEE 802.11x wireless (Wi-Fi) networks, and process plants are still deciding where—or if—they will put one in the plant.

But things are changing and changing rapidly. “All of our customers are using smart phones and tablets to keep up with email and after-hours support,” says Keith Jones, PE, of Prism Systems Inc. (www.prismsystems.com), a system inte-grator in Mobile, Ala. “Everyone is more connected now to his or her job than ever in the past. The number of custom-ers that are using specific apps written for their business is increasing fast.”

Opto 22’s (www.opto22.com) vice president, Benson Hoa-gland, chimes in. “The biggest benefit of mobile technol-ogies is cost. Any time off-the-shelf, commercial technolo-gies can be used in a plant setting, it’s worth taking a look. For mobility (another huge benefit), nothing beats a smart phone or tablet that can be purposed for plant-floor appli-cations. The mobile revolution is changing the way people

do their jobs, interact with friends and family, and stay up to date with the latest news and events. Engineers, manag-ers and technicians on the plant floor can absolutely benefit from this revolution in many of the same ways: Do their jobs better, interact with others in the plant, and always be aware of what’s happening in a plant.”

But, note that Hoagland is talking about commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies. Not all of them are usable in the process plant environment.

Or are they? Listen to Keith Jones. “Having a SCADA system in your pocket is invaluable. We all get calls about

There are lots of mobile worker tools, and they’re allowing even the smallest companies to have all the benefits of mobility.

by Walt Boyes

Figure 1. The day of the mobile worker began with the first

laptop with communications connectivity.

Mobility is relative

The Mobile Worker —There Are 100 Apps for That!


M O B I L E A U T O M A T I O N P R O F E S S I O N A L

issues, but being able to [access a] VPN from your phone to look at diagnostics reduces the time an engineer or man-ager spends resolving issues, and can reduce downtime by reducing response time.”

There has been continuous movement in the process industries toward mobility for years, especially in the as-set management space. Rob McGreevy, Invensys’ (http://iom.invensys.com) vice president for platforms and appli-cations, believes that in that space, adoption of worker mo-bility technologies is well over 25%, but that most of the companies are early adopters. Even though Invensys’ In-telatrac products have been used for years for asset man-agement and are industrially hardened and designed for the process environment, users are mostly large compa-nies in oil and gas and chemicals—and not all of them have “gone mobile.” (Figure 2)

Diederick Mols, wireless solutions business leader from Honeywell Process Solutions (www.honeywell.com), agrees. “I would estimate that 10% of our end users are using mobile worker technologies in one form or another (mobile operations, work� ow automation, troubleshooting, maintenance, con� guration and safety), and we expect that to double to around 20% after three years.”

McGreevy adds, “The adoption rate of mobile technolo-gies is moving way faster than before. Virtualization was fast, mobile will be faster.”

Mols says, “Everyone bene� ts from being better in-formed, as well as being able to make better decisions and take actions quickly. [Mobile devices] help improve opera-tor productivity and overall production ef� ciency. For ex-ample, better decision-making through mobile technology can help reduce turnaround and maintenance cycle times, and increase the asset availability index. These alone can save a typical re� nery $945,000 per year.”

That’s big money, but there’s still reluctance out there Beginning in 2011, Control began surveying our audience about how it uses mobile HMI technologies. In 2011, 19% of respondents said they had the capability of accessing their HMI from anywhere; 42% said they used a remote or portable HMI operator interface. About 7.5% indicated that they used a smart phone or cell phone to interface with the control systems and see alarms. In 2013, the num-bers remained approximately the same, with 41% using a remote or portable HMI operator interface, and 7.1% in-dicating that they use a smart phone or tablet to interface with their control system.

What’s the Hang-Up?So why the foot-dragging? “The biggest limitation is the absence of low-cost rugged, hazardous zone-rated wireless computing devices. Pricing of these devices will drop only when numbers go up,” Mols adds.

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The other big limitation is the learning curve. Many of these devices either use proprietary software or versions of Windows with stripped down functionality.

“But there are pockets of innovators exploring new tech-nologies,” McGreevy said. “And remember, these are major companies with strong business cases for mobility. They are changing the way people operate. For example, one of our customers has a lot of remote wells in the southeast. The mobile technologies allow an assessment of any problems remotely, which saves a lot of windshield time.”

In fact, that excessive “windshield time” is just what Union Township (www.uniontownshipmi.com) in Mt. Pleasant, Mich., faced. The township’s water distribution and sewer collection systems cover 28 mi2 (72 km2), and provide ser-vices to about 10,000 residents. The system is large and the staff is small. Until recently, they found themselves with a pickup-truck SCADA system—that is, somebody got into a truck and went out to a pumping station or well or to the water treatment plant and looked at what was going on and made whatever changes necessary. With the price of fuel and the limitations on headcount because of the economy, all this windshield time was simply unsupportable.

The obvious thing to do was to implement a remote mon-itoring system, and since most of the locations to be moni-tored were running with PCs and HMI software already, it was straightforward to install remote desktop software to view

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CSUAE2013_7.78X5inch Ad for ControlsV1.pdf 1 6/26/2013 4:31:56 PM

Figure 2. The mobility solutions that have made the deepest inroads are

those for asset management like this temperature and vibration tester.

INTELATRAC USER CHECKS ASSET AVAILABILITY AND RELIABILITY



and operate the PCs. The remote desktop solution wasn’t opti-mal, according to wastewater treatment plant superintendent Michael Dearing and chief water operator Shaun McBride. It required a PC running HMI software at every remote loca-tion and wasn’t compatible with smart phones or tablets.

Opto22 (www.opto22.com) produced most of the indus-trial PCs in the field for the township, and when Opto22 introduced its new server-based universal HMI tool, groov, Dearing and McBride decided to try it and see what it could do. “Considering the limited time we had between other projects,” McBride said, “we were surprised that we were up and running so quickly.”

The groov interface provides equipment status and pro-cess sensor readings from every station, and can be used on any device capable of displaying a modern browser, such as iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets—even a Kindle Fire. Such an empowered phone or tablet could cost less than $500 (instead of the several thousand dollars a conventional device costs). Similar to Inductive Automa-tion’s (www.inductiveautomation.com) marketplace, the groov app is bringing the benefits of mobile technologies to smaller and smaller customers.

“We monitor flows, power consumption and tank levels,” Dearing says. The township also monitors dissolved oxygen, chlorine residual, pH and turbidity throughout the system.

Another company that moved to groov is New Enter-prise Stone and Lime Co., Inc. (www.nesl.com) in Roaring Spring, Pa., which implemented a complete, groov-based pump control system. “We quickly built a web-based inter-face for the pump control system,” says automation man-ager Ashley Fleck. The groov interface shows key informa-tion like operational status, current draw, flow rate and other variables—and it does so on any smart device thanks to auto-matic scaling and re-sizing for the appropriate format.

bYoD?The smart phone and tablet revolution has taken the world by storm. Millions of the devices have been sold. Companies have issued iPads or other tablets to their executives instead of laptops. Most people have a smart phone. Some have two. It is instructive to look at the reason for the success of the smart phone and tablet market. The odds are pretty good that many of those 7.1% of smart phone and tablet users from our survey that interface with their control systems are part

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of the growing bring your own device (BYOD) movement. There are good reasons why using your smart phone for

work in the control space makes sense. First, the hardware is relatively inexpensive. The most equipped iPad you can buy costs around $1000. Many tablets cost significantly less.

Second, the software that comes with smart phones and tablets—the “apps”—are very inexpensive. A temperature measurement app from Apple’s App Store might cost less than $5, not $500. We have started to see this in the pro-cess environment from companies such as Inductive Auto-mation, which launched an “app store” for its flagship prod-uct, Ignition, earlier this year. You buy the base software and only the modules (apps) you need.

Third, apps are designed to have little or no learning curve difficulties. Simple, effective and inexpensive, apps have pushed into the process environment.

Companies have had varying responses to the BYOD move-ment. It has had much better reception in the office environ-ment than in the plant. This is largely because companies want to maintain control over their intellectual property, and don’t want it walking out of the plant on somebody’s iPad, but also because these devices have not been industrially hard-ened for use in the plant environment. Especially problematic are plants with hazardous area classification environments.

When the iPad first came out, I called Apple and talked to a marketing executive about whether Apple had any interest in making one version of the device that could be certified for hazardous areas. The executive laughed and asked me how many million devices like that Apple could sell. Clearly, there was no thought of producing industrial devices.

But ever since the first smart phones and tablets went on sale, people have been taking them into plants whether they had permission or not.

“It’s an inevitability,” McGreevy says. In fact, Invensys in-troduced Wonderware InTouch Access Anywhere shortly af-ter I talked to McGreevy. InTouch Access Anywhere is a web browser-based version of Wonderware’s flagship HMI soft-ware that can connect to other InTouch applications “any-time, from anywhere, using any mobile device, including Microsoft Surface tablets, iPads, iPhones, Android devices and others,” McGreevy told me. (Figure 3)

The adoption curve for using COTS smart phones and tablets is accelerating wildly. In areas that don’t require spe-cial purpose hazardous area devices, the use of smart phones and tablets is ubiquitous. Keith Jones reports, “Now, we’re de-veloping applications that monitor equipment and processes from personal phones. It is currently a small percentage of


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Figure 3. “Anytime, from anywhere, using any mobile device.”

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customers that are actively developing applications, but the number of customers talking about doing so is impressive. In the next few years, we expect to see a drastic increase in our iOS development for industrial clients.”

The other thing we’re seeing is the use of mobility tech-nologies by smaller companies than could use them previ-ously. If you have to buy Motorola, other hardened devices or Panasonic Toughbooks, you can’t get them for everyone. And, the natural perversity of the universe says that the op-erator who does not have a mobile device is the one who is out in the � eld with really strong need of one. Companies are now looking at how to equip all of their employees with smart devices, not just a few.

But when they do, they’ll still have to make sure that the devices can be used in speci� c areas in the plant. Even wastewater treatment systems have areas which are desig-nated hazardous areas, such as basement-located pump rooms or chemical storage rooms.

Niches to the Rescue!Many people are familiar with Otterbox (www.otterbox.com), whose Armor series of cases for smart phones can be supplied waterproof, dustproof and even, to a certain extent, crush-proof.

The Samsung GS4 is being supplied with a native enclo-sure that is waterproof and dustproof.

Grif� n Technology’s (www.grif� ntechnology.com) Survivor cases are “tested and certi� ed to meet or exceed U.S. Depart-ment of Defense Standard 810F,” according to the company’s website. Grif� n’s claims that its Survivor military-duty case is designed from the inside out to protect an iPad from extreme conditions—dirt, sand, rain, shock, vibration and a host of other environmental factors. The website’s data indicates that the Survivor case is independently tested and veri� ed to meet or

exceed environmental testing standards for blown rain, blown dust and grit, vibration, shock, temperature and humidity.

So, you can certainly have industrially hardened COTS smartphones and tablets. But that’s not enough for the pro-cess industries.

Honeywell’s Mols has an idea. “Another option could be to develop and deploy a secondary, ruggedized, hazard-ous zone-rated enclosure that could be zipped or wrapped around a readily available device, such as an iPad.”

And voilà! A company in Houston called Xciel (www.xciel.com) has developed a methodology that Apple sup-ports, according to business development manager Xavier Balourdet, for taking a standard iPad, iPad Mini or iPhone and making it usable in a hazardous area (Figure 4).


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Balourdet notes, “The XCiPad in an aluminum case and the XCRiPad in a rubber and nylon case will allow you to use your iPad in a Class 1, Divison 2/ATEX Zone 2 area. These devices are certi� ed for use in Class 1, Div 2, Group A-D while continuing to allow operators to use it the same way they would ordinarily. We have patents pending on the creation of Class 1, Division 2/Zone 2 iPads.”

We’re talking useful here. Now we can see why Mols and McGreevy believe that the adoption curve of mobile tech-nologies is about to take a quick, sharp, upward turn.

But What About the Control Room?If everybody in the plant has smart phones and tablets, and is highly connected wherever they are, is there still a need for a control room?

Honeywell’s Mols said, “We expect control rooms to be-come more centralized as time goes on, with single control rooms increasingly responsible for operating a greater num-ber of assets and processes.

“It’s possible the control room will be emptier during nor-mal operational practices,” Mols continued, “with operators in the plant doing meaningful production, observational or maintenance tasks, while staying informed in real time through their mobile computing devices. The control room will certainly be manned during special production events, shift hand-overs or emergencies. Mobile operators will be better equipped to help staff make better decisions, but that won’t diminish the importance of the control room.”

Invensys’ McGreevy agrees. “Control rooms will always have a purpose, but mobility technologies can extend it be-yond the four walls. We can get back to Hewlett and Pack-ard’s ‘management by walking around’ concept, and get the operators up and out of their chairs into the plant.”

Prism’s Keith Johnson says, “This is not going away any-time soon. A central control room is still a must for the pro-cess industries. We will see capability enhanced with mobile devices, but there is too much risk associated with not having a person plugged into critical process parameters and alarms. Multiple monitors and large displays are important here.”

And What About Security?Keith Jones reminds us, “Security is the biggest concern and potential limitation of mobile worker technologies. But an entire library of new products is emerging to address secur-ing industrial networks. We as engineers must educate our-selves on the risks and the available security solutions.”

That includes the risk of having a mobile device lost or stolen, not just hacked or compromised. McGreevy reminds us that wireless location services are not only for locating personnel in an emergency. “We can use proximity-based smart devices in two ways. We can tie accessibility to loca-tion and to speci� c people. So, for example, an engineer or operator outside the plant only has access to some functions, while inside the plant, the same engineer with the same smart device has access to more, or even all the functions of the control system or asset management system.”

In just the same way that the PC and Windows was a com-plete game changer in the process industries, leading in less than 10 years to a near-complete abandonment of proprie-tary “big iron” control systems, it sure looks like mobility technologies are going to extend that trend to a complete change in the way plants are operated. By decentralizing control functions and monitoring, we can have truly “dis-tributed control systems” after all.

Wal t Boyes is Control ’s edi tor in chief.


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D A T A A C Q U I S I T I O N

Now that we can collect all this data, what do we do with it? Turns out one of the � rst places all that formerly stranded, rescued data comes into play is in energy savings and sustainability.

by Nancy Bartels

Necessity is the mother of invention, goes the old saw. Whether driven by regulations, stockholder pressure, concerns over the price of energy, the desire to be a good corporate citizen or even just seeing a good marketing strategy on the horizon, sustainability initiatives are quickly evolving from being “nice-to-haves” to corporate “must-haves.” And one of the easiest jumps onto the sustainability bandwagon is via energy savings. Even the most cynical global warming skeptic can appreciate a � ve-, six- or even seven-� gure saving on energy bills. At that point, whether the practice is “sustainable” or not is irrelevant. It’s simply good economics.

One of the bottom line basics of a good energy-saving strategy—as well as process optimization and quality control—is data. You need to know how much you’re spending, what you’re spending it on, and how well your processes are operating within given parameters. The answers to these questions lie not just in the of� ce of the CFO or the heads of your most senior operators, but in the multitude of data in your PLCs, sensors, SCADA systems, HMIs and all the other basic monitoring systems in your factories and facilities.

The challenge has always been to get that data from the “islands of au-tomation” into the hands of the people who can make decisions about how to manipulate processes in a way to both optimize the processes and sys-tems to reap the savings that can be derived from optimized operation. For-tunately, getting from here to that ideal of real-time information, which enables the decisions that make energy savings (and other process optimi-zation) possible, is getting easier. This is thanks to the happy con� u-ence of improved hardware and sensor technology, connectivity solutions, GUIs and understanding of the implications of the Inter-net and both its promises and problems for the process industries.

The good news for end users is that most every major automa-tion vendor has jumped on this energy-saving bandwagon to one

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degree or another, and has offerings that can meet the needs of both the simplest and most complex applications. The other piece of good news is that these kinds of changes in operation can be incremental. It’s relatively easy (and in-expensive) to start small and build on little successes. Of course, sometimes, it makes more sense to go big from the beginning.

Steel DrivingTake the case of Tata Steel (http://www.tatasteel.com), the sixth largest steel company in the world with an annual pro-duction capacity of 30 million metric tons (tonnes). Tata’s Jamshedspur Steel Works in Jamshedpur, India, is the com-pany’s home base and its � rst plant, established in 1907. In 2010-11, it produced approximately 7.5 million tonnes of iron, 6.8 million tonnes of crude steel and 6.7 million tonnes of saleable steel, including rolled and forged bars, hot-rolled coils and strips, cold-rolled coils and semi-� nished steel. The Jamsedpur facility is equipped with six coke oven batteries, four sintering plants, seven blast furnaces, � ve Linz-Donawitz converters, three billet steel shops, two slab steel shops and rolling mills that produce wire rod, bar, plate, and hot and

cold strip products. Not surprisingly, an operation of this size consumes a lot of energy and produces a lot of CO2 emissions.

Energy saving and emission reduction has been part of Tata’s plan long before either of them became missions du jour for process operations in general. The company has already reduced the amount of energy it needs to make a tonne of steel in half over the last 40 years. Now it has added the goal of cutting CO2 emissions by another 20%. The In-dia division alone has set a target of reducing CO2 emissions from 1.8 tons per ton of liquid steel to 1.5 tons. To get the job done, the company has set up an Energy Management Center with a SCADA system that gathers all the plant site energy information, and manages the load dispatch. Honey-well (www.honeywellprocess.com) is the chosen automation partner for the project.

Tata’s latest efforts began in 1998 when the company ac-quired eight PLC-based remote terminal units (RTU). More were added to the network between 2006 and 2010, along with � eld instrumentation and modi� cations to the SCADA system. The company also installed a plantwide, dedicated, more than 100-km, � beroptic network to connect the vari-ous shops spread over the facility.

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D A T A A C Q U I S I T I O ND A T A A C Q U I S I T I O N

Honeywell’s ExperionPKS automation system, the SCADA system and the network have enabled Tata to get accurate measurements and records of energy consump-tion, correlate energy consumption of process units to their measured output, and set benchmarks using data from the historian. The system also gives plantwide access to the en-ergy supply and consumption of the entire site through a centralized server to enable monitoring of individual en-ergy networks and process units in real time, all of which will enable Tata to meet its emission-lowering goals.

Milk RunWhile not as massive an operation as Tata Steel, Murray Goulburn (MG, www.mgc.com.au), a cooperative of some 3000 dairy farmers and the largest milk processor in Austra-lia, also uses its sliced-and-diced data to improve its opera-tions and quality of its product and save energy.

Much of Murray Goulburn’s product ends up as dried milk powder. Extracting suf� cient moisture from whole milk and cream to make powdered milk products may seem like a pro-cess as far removed from steelmaking as one can get, but in its own way, the processes are equally delicate and require careful monitoring. In MG’s case, collecting that data involves special software from Rockwell Automation (www.rockwellautoma-tion.com) to automatically monitor and precisely control the most critical part of the process—the � nal drying stage.

MG’s operation near the village of Koroit in Queensland uses four dryers to process skim and whole milk into a va-riety of dairy-based powders. The dryers, which stand up to six stories high and are 20 meter in diameters have steel chambers (Figure 1).

Swirling air, which can reach up to 220 ºC, removes the water from droplets until all that remains is a small particle of milk powder not much larger than a dust mote. As the droplets fall, the air cools to about 65 ºC.

One of the crucial variables that affects the quality of the powder is its moisture content. Depending on its end use, the powder should contain between 3% to 6% mois-ture. The key to achieving the right moisture level is to con-trol the temperatures of the air entering the tower, the static � uid bed and the vibrating � uid beds.

MG operators used to change the temperature setpoints manually to control throughput and moisture content based on their experience and using feedback from moisture sam-ples taken once an hour. But, tests on samples taken every hour showed the moisture on a single product would often vary by as much as 0.3%. Given that overall 3% to 6% range, that’s still too much. To create a more consistent product, the temperature setpoints would need to be adjusted auto-matically based on a predictive model of the dryer.

Maintaining temperature and moisture balance was also important for keeping production at its highest possible level.

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D a t a a c q u i s i t i o n

When the moisture in the air exiting the dryer was too high, the dryer could block and shut down, leading to wasted time, wasted resources and, ultimately, reduced yields.

“We knew we needed an automated system to reduce the moisture variabil-ity of the powder,” says Geoff Rome, automation and utilities engineer at Murray Goulburn. “Our goal was to find a solution that would help us maintain consistent quality, while in-creasing final product throughput.”

To meet its goals, MG selected the Rockwell Automation Dairy Dryer So-lution powered by Rockwell Software’s Model Predictive Control (MPC) and Optimization technology. The solu-tion continually collects data from each dryer, and uses predictive models to calculate optimum temperature set-points for controlling and maintaining the desired moisture level.

Specifically, the system uses Predic-tive Quality–Soft Sensors to provide in-line, inferential quality measure-ments and facilitate real-time and fre-quent control feedback. The system automatically collects data inputs ev-ery 15 seconds, resulting in a significant

reduction of moisture content variation. Once every hour, a sample of the pow-der is analyzed with an infrared spectro-photometer to confirm the model. The results are automatically sent back to the modeling system where adjustments are automatically made if necessary. With the new system the moisture variability levels in each dryer were reduced on average by 52%, giving MG an average of one tonne more of powdered milk product per day across its four dryers.

“Those extra tonnes of powdered milk out the door made the investment in the Rockwell Automation solution well worth it,” Rome said. “Our reduc-tion in energy costs has also contrib-uted to the ROI by 5% to 10%.”

and the one-Man BandSimilarly, you can’t get much smaller than GG Services in Los Angeles. Gavin Gray is the sole owner and em-ployee of this automation systems inte-grator and machine builder operation, specializing in alternative energy sys-tems and industrial machines.

One of his clients needed remote, real-time access to the Opto 22 (www.opto22.com) control system Gray built

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Figure 1. Murray Goulburn’s dryer tanks convert liquid milk to the dry powder used in

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D a t a a c q u i s i t i o n

for its mobile water treatment system. Gray recognized that de-livering this remote access was going to demand a lot of his time, which would mean additional costs for his client. He was up to the job, but Gray had added remote monitoring and HMI capabilities to control systems before and knew that installing, configuring, debugging and deploying the various elements of a remote access system can be complicated.

To do an end-run around many of these issues, Gray went back to Opto22 for its new groov system for building and deploying simple operator interfaces for Windows-based sys-tems. The system enables users to simply and quickly build customized HMI interfaces for either computers or mobile devices to provide easy, remote access to necessary process control data. Best of all, the system costs less than $2000, and can be up and running in under an hour.

After installing a communications link at the mobile wa-ter treatment plant, Gray configured the groov Box, and built screens for the interface. On start-up, real-time data on pH, ORP, flow rate, conductivity and other parameters were immediately available.

The client can also remotely controls pumps and filters, set tank levels, and track power use. “With real-time data from

the water treatment system,” says Gray, “we can see problems and make corrections, as well as get general information.”

Rethinking Energy ManagementMatthew Littlefield, president and principal analyst at LNS Re-search (www.lnsresearch.com), sees sustainability and energy management as part of a bigger picture than just saving dollars on electric bills. He says, “It’s going to require a shift in thinking of energy as a budgeted facility cost to thinking of it as some-thing that’s an input to production. Energy is then just another raw material that has to be managed.”

Energy management beyond just switching light bulbs or installing variable-speed drives is still a nascent field, he adds. “We’re still in the ‘Golly, how do we make it work’ stage.”

However, harvesting stranded data and applying it to an energy-saving program “is a good starting point for compa-nies,” he says. “You can integrate it with an operational ex-cellence program. Energy is a piece of that puzzle, and can easily be the low-hanging fruit to get you started.

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D R I V E S A N D M O T O R S

Drives choreograph motors for the greatest effect and energy savings.

Here’s how experienced users gain their advantages.

by Jim Montague

It’s all about being in the right place at the right time—even if it looks like you’re just spinning wheels.

In the case of motors and rotating equipment in process control applications, drives are what help them meet those appointments and get to the exact right positions. Lately, variable-frequency drives (VFDs) and variable-speed drives (VSDs) enable more precise motion and ef� ciency, but the evolution of drives isn’t stopping there.

For instance, Daqing Petrochemical Corp’s re� nery in Daqing, Heilongjiang, China, produces 600,000 tons per year of gasoline, diesel oil, kerosene, paraf� n and other pe-troleum products as a subsidiary of PetroChina Co. Ltd. (www.petrochina.com). As a result, the crude oil pump for Daqing’s 3500-ton, pressure-reduction process needs to maintain a steady � ow at 9000 to 10,600 tons per day, but it consumes huge amounts of electricity, and required two full days of downtime and maintenance per year, costing more

than $16,000 in lost production per day. This was mainly be-cause the pump and its motor were always running non-stop and at full speed, and used a valve-throttle control method that was only adjusted periodically, causing increased pipe pressure, leaks and seal replacements.

To adopt more ef� cient pump controls, Daqing’s engi-neers sought a medium-voltage (MV) drive solution, and recently implemented a PowerFlex7000 MV drive from Rockwell Automation (www.rockwellautomation.com). This drive has a 6-KV recti� er and a 6-KV inverter that can be built with fewer 6.5-KV components without an out-put transformer. It also uses current source inverter-pulse width modulation (CSI-PWM) to reduce its power devices, and it achieves this ef� ciency with over-current protection capabilities that don’t require fuses and electronic fusing circuits to protect the power devices, which simpli� es the drive’s complexity.

Coordinated Motion,Concentrated Power

CT1309_91_95_Feature3.indd 91 9/3/13 11:31 AM


By adopting PowerFlex7000 for pres-sure reduction, Daqing cut its power consumption for 9000 tons of output by about 41% from 426 KWh to 250 KWh, which saves 1.5 KWh per year. Likewise, for 10,500 tons of output, the new drive cut consumption by 32% from 585 KWh to 400 KWh, which saves 1.6 KWh per year. Also, the new drive safeguards the refinery’s pump

motors against over-currents, and saves about $15,000 per year in maintenance and downtime.

Grace Under CompressionSimilarly, the Dez Gas natural gas collection and distribution facility, lo-cated in the Deir Es Zor desert region in northeastern Syria, takes previously flared natural gas from nearby oilfields,

Implementing variable-frequency drives (VFDs) can pay back big benefits, and adopting

them is easier than it might seem at first. You just have to follow a few basic guidelines,

which are highlighted in “Building a Reliable VFD System” by Brian Shuman, Belden’s

senior product development engineer. The whitepaper is located at www.belden.com/

docs/upload/Building_a_Reliable_VFD_System_WP.pdf.

1. What are the torque demands of the loads or processes in your planned system?

Will any of the loads be hard to start? VFDs have limited over-current capacity, so hard-

to-start loads may require an over-sized unit to cover higher current demands.

2. How many motors will the drive control? If it’s more than one, will they start sequen-

tially or simultaneously? Calculate the total peak currents of all motor loads under the

worst operating conditions your planned system will see. Size the VFD according to this

maximum current requirement.

3. Will your applications require a quick start or an emergency stop of the load? If

so, high currents will be demanded of the VFD. Over-sizing the drive may be necessary.

4. Is motor overheating a potential concern for any of your planned VFD applications?

It may be, for reduced-speed, constant-torque applications.

5. What range of motor sizes will your process or processes require the VFD to

handle? Remember, smaller motors aren’t as efficient as larger ones, so improve-

ments due to the VFD will likely be apparent. However, since large motors use much

more power, even small increases in efficiency can produce appreciable savings over

the life of the motor.

6. Will the VFD system be operating in an environment containing volatiles, airborne

particulates or high ambient temperatures? For volatiles, make sure all materials used

are resistant to chemicals and are properly grounded. For particulates, ensure proper

sealing. For high temperature, allow for needed cooling.

7. Do you need equipment or drive protection features that will ensure continuity in

processing? Be aware that you can have a drive that trips instantly in an over-current

condition, or one that maintains constant motor torque and reduces motor speed to

maintain current required

8. Do you want or need a lot of diagnostic capability in your unit? How critical is it to

get a handle on load downtimes and be able to do a detailed fault analysis?

9. Are power factor correction capacitors present on the motor loads your VFD sys-

tem will have to handle? When these are switched, they typically generate power distur-

bances, and VFDs can be negatively impacted. Isolation transformers or line reactors

may be necessary.

10. Is it possible the power source for your planned system will occasionally be

switched while the VFD is operating? This might happen, for example, when loads are

switched to stand-by generators during a power outage. Some drives can handle a brief

power outage, while others can’t.

10 Things To Consider When seleCTing a VFd


D R I V E S A N D M O T O R SD R I V E S A N D M O T O R S

uses reciprocating compressors to boost pressure, and pushes it through a 250-km pipeline to the national grid. The facility includes five plants, each of which can process 20 million stan-dard cubic feet (scf) per day.

However, because Dez Gas distrib-utes directly without silo storage, its volume must be regulated based on actual consumer demand, which can vary considerably. And, since recipro-cating compressors displace a constant volume of gas regardless of operating conditions, they must be configured to displace slightly more gas than re-quired, so some excess gas still has to be flared. In gas plants, fuel-driven en-gines usually adjust compressor speed, but their disadvantages include limited process control and vibrations, which are a major problem on skids (Figure 1). Also, it’s very difficult to cool this equipment in the desert’s 52 °C ambi-ent temperatures.

Consequently, Daz Gas evaluated and implemented ACS 1000 medium-voltage VSDs from ABB (www.abb.com) with help from Singapore-based integrator Gas Services International (www.gasservicesinternational.com). These drives include three-level, volt-age source inverters (VSIs), water and air cooling, and induction motors. By using VSDs to soft start the compres-sors, high starting currents, voltage dips and trips on other electrical de-vices on the same bus are eliminated. This smooth ramp-up protects the skids’ mechanics, which reduce main-tenance and prolong their lifecycles.

In addition, the VSDs eliminate vi-bration on the skids, while configur-ing them with 12- and 24-pulse recti-fiers minimizes harmonics and allows gas pressure to be regulated according to demand without having to flare ex-cess gas. Because there’s no local wa-ter for cooling in the Deir Es Zor area, ABB also supplied chillers, which consist of a closed-loop, water-cooling system, enabling the VSDs to run in the desert heat.

Cows and PowerOf course, one of the most instruc-tive proving grounds for drive and motor innovations is in water and wastewater applications, which must continuously and reliably move large

volumes over long distances.For example, Joseph Gallo Farms

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with seven acres of surface area to convert manure into elec-tricity. The herd produces 200 tons of manure daily, and the digester produces 3000 ft3 of methane daily. This powers two reciprocating engine generators that produce 740 kW, or about 9.4 GWh per year, which is about half the dairy’s on-site power requirement.

The lagoon’s methane production is accelerated with warm water from plant clean-up, which was previously controlled by a vertical, hollow-shaft AC motor that drove a pump with a check valve and pressure regulator lim-iting the line to 70 psi. However, when plant engineers sought to reduce the flowrate during manure flushing to prevent over-watering the digester, Control Techniques (www.controltechniques.com) suggested a design using its 200-hp Commander SK AC VSD custom-configured AC drive package and 300-psi pressure transducer. Pump software is pre-loaded on a Control Techniques Logic-Stick, and all parameters are accessed via a door-mounted CT-Vue HMI.

Previously, to reach a 1000 gpm flowrate, power consump-tion was 154A at 60Hzm, but the VSD was able to achieve the same rate with 25% less speed, which halved the current to just 75 Amps at 45Hz. This allowed the optimal 70-psi pressure to be maintained without a regulator, but it’s still retained for when bypass mode is used.

“This VSD pump control is in line with our environ-mental policy at Joseph Gallo,” says Mark Tovar, Joseph Gallo’s project engineer. “We’re constantly looking for ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions and save energy.

This small project produced significant savings, while giving us improved control over this part of our digester system.”

Smarter Mill ‘Spotting’Beyond granting improved operations and efficiency, vari-able-speed capabilities and the data their components need to exchange are drawing drives and motors into new diag-nostic and intelligence capabilities. For instance, 100-year-old Ash Grove Cement (www.ashgrove.com) in Chanute, Kan., relies on nearly 1000 motors with a combined 45,000 hp to continuously produce about five tons of cement per minute or up to 4500 tons daily.

Similar to most cement plants, Ash Grove mixes lime-stone with other ingredients, heats it to 2000° F in its 150-foot-long kiln, and then grinds the resulting clinker in mills filled with steel balls. However, the plant’s workers had trouble using an old, 60-hp generator motor to slowly rotate and position these ball mills for monthly servicing. This manual positioning process, called “spotting,” was difficult because Ash Grove’s technicians had no effective way to ac-curately apply torque to the medium-voltage motor directly from their power system.

“Along with the problems we had moving the bulky mill to a precise position, cogging, or abrupt starting and stop-ping of the motor, can cause mechanical and electrical damage to equipment,” says Bob Wright, Ash Grove’s elec-trical operations manager. “And each hour we shut down operations to perform routine maintenance or resolve a fault translates to 300 tons of cement we could’ve produced.”

Consequently, Ash Grove replaced the generators power-ing the ball mills’ spotting functions with Rockwell Automa-tion’s preconfigured Allen-Bradley 480-V, 450-hp AC VFDs (Figure 2). These drives run three existing 4000-V, 2300-hp AC motors exclusively during spotting, and have the torque control required to operate at the 6 Hz needed to efficiently rotate the mill and bring it to controlled starts and stops. For instance, the drive can separate and independently control motor flux and torque-producing current, allowing it to de-liver full torque down to zero speed.

As a result, Ash Grove saved an initial $250,000, increased production, and achieved 90% uptime. “Besides costing less than half as much as a medium-voltage drive, using a low-voltage AC drive helped save money on maintenance and energy,” adds Wright.

Shortcuts to Motor ControlLogically, just as VFDs can lead to better drive-related data and intelligence, the same phenomenon is emerging in other motion technologies, too. Sergio Gama, power con-trol market development director at Rockwell Automation, reports that motor control centers (MCCs) are beginning to

Figure 1: Water-cooled VSDs on Dez Gas’s compressor skids

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ColleCt and Compress D

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“A 10-V output card for a drive can behave just like any other I/O card in a process control system, which is allow-ing drives to become actuators in control strategies, and letting drives in MCCs become integrated into process controls and applications,” says Gama. “Previ-ously, everything was hardwired with dis-crete I/O, but then we took the interme-diate step to VFDs that saved wire and commissioning time. Now, we’re moving further ahead on EtherNet/IP network-ing, and can map data structures in de-vices directly to process controls. So, in-stead of building tables in PCs and then associating variables from controls to � eld devices, we can now directly com-mand variables in the � eld.

“These new data structures are also providing more than on/off and slow/fast functions, and enabling real-time intelligence and diagnos-tics to be sent to PCs and historians. In fact, our motor controls have in-ternal databases that send all oper-ating and diagnostic conditions—

such as status, current, voltage, hours running, bearing temperatures and other performance and asset data—up to larger distributed control sys-tems (DCSs) and asset monitoring systems. Also, when you’re replacing

a VFD, the control system will recog-nize it and replace its IP address, auto-matically download the right con� gu-ration, and get it back to run mode.”

Jim Montague is Control ’s execut ive edi tor

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E n g i n E E r i n g E d u c a t i o n

The rewards of mentoring; how to get ahead; young managers, older reports;

rewards and recognition.

by Danaca Jordan, Greg McMillan, Soundar Ramchandran and Hunter Vegas

Here we continue our conversation about working with mul-tiple generations of process automation professionals with Danaca Jordan, manufacturing staff engineer for a specialty chemical company, Hunter Vegas, senior project manager at Avid Solutions Inc., and Soundar Ramchandran, senior direc-tor of technology for Ascend Performance Materials.

greg: What are some key, mutually beneficial features of a men-toring program that could be set up within a plant or company?

Danaca: The first hurdle for any mentoring program is set-ting expectations for the parties involved. Time is extremely valuable to both parties, and agreed-upon rules for when and how to communicate, formality, timeframe and goals are key to ensuring that neither party’s time is squandered. I’d be frustrated with a mentor who never returned emails, just as some mentors would prefer to hold scheduled sessions with predetermined agendas.

A great mentoring program will involve peer mentoring as well as more traditional cross-generation relationships. Peers are great sounding boards, often have similar issues, and are easier to approach than the esteemed experts in the field. As demonstrated during my ISA mentorship, mentoring a group of peers together can foster this interaction, as we now

have shared experiences and known interests. For example, I know I can go to my fellow Hector for questions on using ad-vanced PID features and only involve our mentor as needed.

Hunter: It has been my experience that the best mentoring relationships occur when the engineers work together as part of a team, rather than setting up a formal program where an engineering new hire meets with his mentor on an intermit-tent basis. Engineers learn by doing, and if a younger and an older engineer work together, there is much more opportunity for the young engineer to see and understand the hundreds of design decisions that must be made during a project.

At the same time, the older engineer is developing a valu-able team member, who can contribute to the success of the project. Formal mentoring programs are okay, but I would strongly suggest that, if at all possible, the company try to pair older and younger engineers in a working relationship.

Soundar: A mentoring program within a plant or a com-pany should focus on educating and coaching how to make the upcoming generations successful. Newer generations need coaching on how to sell their ideas and thoughts to their supervisors and leaders. As corporations tend to be hi-erarchical like family structures, it is more than likely that a

Talk to Each Other Some More


e n g i n e e r i n g e d u c a t i o n

majority of the leaders may be from a previous generation. In a typical corpo-rate or plant structure today, it’s highly likely that the president and his staff and the senior management will be from the Boomer generation, whereas the middle management has a greater percentage of Gen X, and the first-line leaders and their staffs will be com-prised of mostly Millennials.

Exposing the Millennials to the way of thinking and value system of the Boom-ers and Gen X would increase the ability for all of these generations to understand each other better, and enable companies to benefit from the new ideas and tech-nological innovations that are happen-ing in the present time. Empowering Millennials will produce innovative so-lutions to problems that were once con-sidered as “cost of doing business.”

Mentoring is a two-way street; both the protégé and mentor have to be in-vested. The mentor sees value for the time spent on the protégé, and the pro-tégé should take advantage of the oppor-tunity as a means to gain valuable knowl-edge from the experience that someone is willing to share. I’ve found that expe-rience is the hardest thing to explain to a younger generation. Inasmuch as we say that the value system changes from generation to generation, I find that the difference is only in the dynamics of the response. The steady-state gain for the values has not changed much from gen-eration to generation.

greg: What are some ways of gaining rec-ognition and advancement besides doing your job well?

Danaca: From what I read and see at my office, this is one of the larger areas of misunderstanding between generations. Millennials like me are often called because we tend to expect immediate feedback on our efforts. Some experts propose that our parents caused this by praising our every accomplishment, in-cluding just participation. I doubt that was the only influence, but since I am an

engineer rather than a social scientist, I will not attempt to explain how these ten-dencies started. I will say we are perpetu-ating the trend long after we move out.

The extent of social media usage may be responsible for some of the disconnect between generations here and elsewhere. On Reddit, for example, a user can post a picture, story, news piece or observa-tion. It is immediately up or down voted by the community. In addition, other us-ers can comment on the submission, and the comments receive ratings. Even sub-comments about the original comments are voted on, with only the best rising to the ephemeral Front Page. If something is ignored, it soon disappears. People will spend hours working or risk limbs for a brief acknowledgement with no thought of money or reward.

Based on this, I believe that cheap, short-term recognition is much more ef-fective for my generation than an expen-sive carrot at the end of a long stick. Of-fering long-term promotions or money is always welcome, but I would appre-ciate feedback, good or bad, on a very consistent basis. A simple “Thanks,” or “This is what I’m looking for,” or even “Not quite, can you add…” will moti-vate my efforts, whereas if a project or document is ignored, I assume it was not important and try to work on some-thing worthwhile instead.

Hunter: I would strongly encourage en-gineers to give presentations at technical forums and write articles and/or techni-cal whitepapers whenever possible. Vol-unteer to talk at your next ISA meeting. Such activities allow engineers to be recognized outside of their companies, and such positive recognition is often re-flected in promotions and monetary re-wards within the company as well.

You did not ask this question, but I will offer one other piece of advice to younger engineers. One of the most difficult situations for a younger engineer occurs when that engineer is promoted over sev-eral older engineers. The older engineers often feel they were denied a promotion

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that they deserved, and they’re concerned the younger manager will not appreciate their knowledge or experience and will try to tell them how to do their jobs. The younger manager wants to make a good impression, and show the new direct re-ports that he/she knows his/her stuff and deserves the managerial position. This is a recipe for disaster.

If you’re faced with this situation, it’s important to understand the dynamics and address them carefully. Engineers of any age want to be a part of the deci-sion-making process and feel that they’re heard. They also want to be treated fairly. The new manager must ultimately make the � nal decision, but if the manager takes the time to elicit the opinions of his or her direct reports and incorporate that information into the � nal decision, then the initial concerns will often be eased. Mutual respect is critical.

Soundar: Reward and recognition is different for each generation. It’s not something we have quite � gured out in corporate America. The basis for reward and recognition is still based on merit raises, special awards, bonuses, promo-tions, etc. The reward system has to be tied to the value system for each genera-tion. For example, for Millennials, be-ing offered a couple of baseball game tickets this week as a recognition for do-ing something good last week is more satisfying than being given a bigger bo-nus or higher percentage increase once a year. They live in a fast-paced world, and prompt feedback and af� rmation is a critical element for them.

On the other hand, Gen X, while still accepting the baseball tickets, would like to be remembered with a bigger merit raise or bonus package in the annual cy-cle. If the baseball tickets were the only thing they got, they would � nd it to be very trite. Boomers like promotions and other forms of recognition, such as a big-ger of� ce, as a way of recognition for their hard work and successes.

We have to learn to use all of the above and not get stuck on one form or another.

It behooves supervisors to learn what is important to each generation as they � g-ure out a way to lead their teams. Since more and more Millennials are � nding themselves with � rst-line supervision roles, it’s � tting that they also learn about values as perceived by the various genera-tions as they may well � nd a few Boom-ers and Gen X on their team. It’s essential that they try to learn the value system if they want to have a winning team.

ConclusionThe most effective way to share knowl-edge about the implementation of pro-cess control is networking by virtual communities, such as forums for speci� c software and instrument user groups, archives of shared code and open-edit wikis. Technical societies should corre-spondingly foster virtual committees for standards and advancing technology that is not supplier-speci� c.

Mentoring is best done by assigning experienced engineers to work with new engineers for implementing new systems and maintaining and improving exist-ing installations. An open-door culture should be created where new engineers are encouraged to seek advice on a ca-sual basis, and good listening practices are fostered. One-on-one conversation is the most complete and bene� cial type of communication to resolve misunder-standings and con� icts. All other types can escalate problems.

The ISA Mentor program found that questions and answers of general in-terest can be effectively conducted by email and shared by posts. Words can’t convey the enthusiasm and immedi-ate bonds of mutual interest and re-spect seen in the kick-off meeting at ISA Automation Week. Conversations between protégés have continued to show the bene� t of new automation

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E n g i n E E r i n g E d u c a t i o n

Types of CommunicationDanaca’s* Ratings

Hunter’s Ratings**

Soundar’s Ratings*** Comments

Articles in Print, Web 1, 10 9, 1 10, 1

Conference Papers 5 6 8

Conference Presentations 5 8 5

Conference Panels 1 8 10 Danaca: Without agenda set up-front, these turn into user-specific Q & A.

Books 10 9 10 Danaca: Prefer e-books for searches, easier storage and lighter weight.

Blogs 10 2 3 Danaca: Depends on blogger, but best contain links to worth-while articles.

Company Standards 5 4 8

ISA Standards 5 6 8

Company Reports 10 2 10 Danaca: Can capture information and data with less legal and proprietary concerns.

Company Courses 5 n/a 5 Hunter: I almost never find these any more.

ISA Courses 5 6 7

Lunch-n-Learns 1 6 8 Danaca: I’m often distracted by plant concerns during training at the plant.

Web Q & A Posts 10 7 2

Web Seminar Recordings 10 5 4

Web Meetings 5 5 8

Virtual Plant 1 n/a 10 Danaca: Blocked by company firewallHunter: I haven’t tried this technology.

Boomers, Gen X-ers and Millennials also have different ways of learning. We have asked Danaca, Hunter and Soundar to rate the material, methods

and techniques for learning. What follows are their ratings and comments. The ratings for communication largely reflect generational differences.

Relative Ratings of Ways to leaRn and shaRe

commentsGeneral comment by Greg: The virtual plant is an actual download of

the configuration and operator displays connected to a process simu-

lation running in real time. I’ve the used the virtual plant or predeces-

sor (emulated plant runs) throughout my 40+ years to study dynamics

and develop and prototype process control improvements. Most of my

knowledge was gained from this exploration. The use of process control

labs I created as a virtual plant for access over the Internet referenced

by Danaca was blocked by company firewalls. The Process Control

Labs Download can be imported into a laptop with virtual plant software

where the user has administrative privilege and at least 4 GB of memory.

* General comment by Danaca: Other communication types not men-

tioned that I use frequently:

Online Forums – Several DCS and instrumentation user forums, as

well as online groups on networking sites discuss common installations

and troubleshooting. I use them to determine if someone else has seen

the same problem that I have while remaining relatively anonymous.

Peer-Reviewed Wikis – Wikis are used as a starting point for most re-

search and new projects. They provide solid overviews and links to stan-

dards, conference papers and journals for verification and more detail.

Social Media Feeds – I use these less frequently, but if managed cor-

rectly, they’re an effective way to summarize and lead users to interest-

ing or new developments.

** General comment by Hunter: I personally don’t spend much time

on the Web, so blogs, Q/A posts and recorded seminars are not some-

thing I tend to check out. I much prefer written material that I can read

and digest. I tend to like live presentations, where I can ask questions

and better understand the material.

***General comment by Soundar: I find reading on a computer screen

distracting, so any kind of learning for me has to be from something I can

hold and write on.

engineers sharing and learning on a one-on-one basis. Fi-nally, the co-authoring of articles, papers and presentations helped focus achievements, gain recognition and provided a greatly needed new-user perspective.

Books, papers and articles are still the most effective way to transfer general knowledge. Print versions need to be available for the older generations, who do not want to read on a computer screen and want the ability to

creatively browse without knowing exactly what to look for. Web versions are increasingly important to enable longer versions, addendums, updates and internal/exter-nal searches.

greg McMil l an is a Control columnis t . danaca Jordan is a manufac tur ing s taf fengineer for a special t y chemical company. hunter vegas is senior projec t manager a t av id solu t ions inc. , and soundar Ramchandran is senior direc tor of technology for ascend Per forance Mater ials .


T E C H N I C A L LY S P E A K I N G

DAN HebertSenior Technical ediTordheber [email protected] t


real-Time optimization with MPc

Proper process control enhances product yield, reduces energy consumption and im-

proves safety, improving profitability and competitiveness. A leading technology for

improving process control is multivariable model-predictive control (MPC), which iden-

tifies relationships among independent and dependent variables, and uses matrix-

based control and optimization algorithms to control all of these variables simultaneously.

Independent variables fall into two catego-ries, those that can be adjusted—manipulated variables (MVs)—and those that cannot—dis-turbance variables (DVs). Multivariable MPC uses dynamic models relating every indepen-dent variable to every dependent variable— controlled variables (CVs).

CVs also fall into two categories, control ob-jectives and constraints. Each control objective needs to be kept as close as possible to its re-spective setpoint, and each constraint should approach, but not cross, the constraint value.

Multivariable MPC will reduce variability of each CV, and allow it to be held closer to the setpoint or constraint value. In those cases where there are more independent than depen-dent variables, extra degrees of freedom are available, and the potential for optimization exists, as many controllers can then operate in two modes: control (satisfy all constraints) or optimize (maximize an economic function and satisfy constraints).

“Yokogawa has created an alliance with Shell Global Solutions to provide a set of software packages called Exasmoc to implement mul-tivariable MPC,” says Dr. Merle Likins, PE, a solutions consultant with Yokogawa Corp. of America (www.us.yokogawa.com).

“Exasmoc interfaces Shell’s multivariable optimizing controller (SMOC) with, not only the Centum DCS, but also with any DCS that supports OPC. SMOC has been implemented in various refineries, petrochemical plants, power plants, pulp and paper plants and other facilities worldwide, with more than 1000 ap-plications running successfully and uptime ex-ceeding 95%.”

He adds that several features distinguish it from other traditional multivariable MPC

packages. “Users can combine the traditional black-box models with specific process knowl-edge to produce a gray-box model that will pro-duce more accurate predictions. They can also define intermediate variables, ones that predict a change of another variable.

Likins notes that traditional multivariable MPC is designed for linear processes, whereas SMOC can handle nonlinear processes by us-ing the Robust Quality Estimator, which not only acts as a soft sensor, but also handles non-linear models and calculates nonlinear gains.

“Multiple economic functions may be de-fined. Only one economic function can be ac-tive at a time, but the economic functions may be selected, and the economic coefficient may be changed on-line. Operators can make these changes on the fly without requiring the con-trol engineer to make the changes and down-load a new controller,” notes Likins.

In one recent refining application, the SMOC controller was applied to a distillation unit for diesel and gas products. One controller with three sub-controllers was deployed. “An analysis was conducted to monitor operation for one month before and after commissioning. The measured economic benefit was approxi-mately $1 million per year,” reports Likins.

In another application, the SMOC control-ler was applied to a unit producing mono-, di- and tri-ethylene glycols. Two sub-controllers were deployed, one on the ethylene oxide side and the other on the ethylene glycol side. The measured economic benefit was approximately $3.5 million per year, primarily achieved by reducing steam consumption and increasing product yield.

“These examples demonstrate that applica-tion of multivariable MPC can produce sig-nificant benefits, with payback typically in the range of six to 12 months,” concludes Likins.

The economic

benefit was

approximately

$3.5 million per

year, achieved by

reducing steam

consumption and

increasing product

yield.

CT1309_101_TechSpeak.indd 101 9/3/13 11:48 AM


a s k t h e e x p e r t s

This column is moderated by Béla Lipták (http://belaliptakpe.com/), automation and safety consultant, who is also the editor of

the Instrument and Automation Engineers’ Handbook (IAEH). If you would like to become a contributing author of the 5th edi-

tion or if you have an automation-related question for this column, write to [email protected].

Rangeability of Equal Percentage Control Valves

QI am an engineer working in operation and mainte-nance of test facilities in the Indian Space Research Organization. I have a requirement for a new con-

trol valve to be installed in our facilities. Per ISA guide-lines, I have calculated the max and min Cv required by the process conditions. I am selecting equal percentage characteristics for the control valve, but I need to specify the rangeability for the control valve.

For this, I have calculated the ratio of required max Cv to min Cv (10 for the particular case), and I have selected the valve rangeability (50:1), which is higher than this

ratio. Kindly correct me if my method is wrong. I would be highly obliged if you can guide me on this point.

Jai ViShnu [email protected]

AI could just say that your vendor is making a false claim (50:1) and your valve is probably OK, but I want to be more helpful, so I will give a brief explanation of what

equal percentage (=%) is, why we use it (Figure 1), what its gain is, and how that gain relates to stable control.

If a 1% change in the control signal results in a 2% change in the flow (also called load) through that valve, it has a gain of 2. So long as the pressure drop accross the valve (ΔP) is constant, the terms % flow, % load and % valve coefficient (Cv) are interchangeable. The gain of linear valves is con-stant; the gain of non-linear valves (=%, quick opening, parabolic, hyperbolic, etc.) varies with load. The gain of an =% valve rises with flow, so a 1% control signal change will cause a 3% change in the flow if the =% value of the valve is 35. The left side of Figure 2 shows the relationship between percentage of valve stroke and percentage of flow (Cv) of three valve characteristics on a linear scale, while the right side shows the same on a logarithmic scale.

With this long introduction, now we can talk about range-ability, which (at constant ΔP) is the ratio of that Cvmax/Cvmin

at which the valve maintains its =% characteristics within 25%. Because the manufacturing tolerance of the plug is about 10% to start with, and typical instability is about 5%, the valve should not be used near the two ends (0% and 100% stroke). Figure 3 shows one recommendation, suggesting that the theoretical (line 1, dotted) and the actual installed (line 2, solid) gain-to-load relationship of an =% valve should be within 25%. We can see that the actual (solid) line stays within 25% of the theoreti-cal (dotted) between about 5% to 70% of the f low (Cv). Therefore, the valve rangeability is 14:1. So, as far as your question is concerned, an =% valve for your application is OK. Size it so that your Cvmin to Cvmax range will fall inside the 5% to 70% range. As to the vendor’s claim of 50:1, forget that. By the way, if the ΔP across the valve changes with f low (pumping systems), or if you have f lashing, cavitation or sonic velocity (choked f low) con-ditions, you need an intelligent positioner. See Chapter

Figure 1: Equal percentage valves are used to provide stable con-

trol on heat transfer loops by compensating for the process gain

that drops with load by its increasing their gain, so that the loop

gain stays constant at around 0.5.

For stablecontrol

Load

Load

Load

+ -

+ +

EQuAl PERCEntAgE VAlVEs foR stAblE ContRol

CT1309_102_103_ATE.indd 102 9/3/13 11:50 AM

A S K T H E E X P E R T S


6.7 in Volume 2 of my Instrument Engineer’s Handbook.

BÉLA LIPTÁ[email protected]

AFor a detailed understanding, please follow as Béla has suggested. Please � nd basic rules for selecting control valve on rangeability aspect. From process � ow mini-

mum and maximum ratio perspective, no control valve can handle a rangeability of more than 1:20. There could be spe-cially manufactured characteristic trim which can improve rangeability further.

When a process requires a rangeability of 1:50, you need also be careful to select the right � owmeter because no sin-gle � owmeter element, except an ultrasonic meter, can give you such high rangeability.

From a control valve sizing perspective, you need to sat-isfy the requirements of controllability. At min and max � ow, generally 10% and 70% opening should be achieved to have good controllability.

When one control valve does not meet your � ow range-ability requirement, two control valves or more should be considered in parallel. To achieve high rangeability you can use two different trims in the same body. First trim can serve minimum to normal � ow range; the second one can be used when the � ow is normal to max. Or this ratio can be ad-justed according to the available standard trim ranges.

D [email protected]

Figure 2: At constant ∆P, the Cv of an =% valve increases by a � xed percentage of the prevailing Cv whenever the control signal (valve

stroke) opens by 1%. On a logarithmic scale, the characteristics of an =% valve is a straight line. The slope of that valve is the =% value.

% lift or stroke

% lift or stroke

Equal percentage and butter�y

Linear

Quickopening

Equal percentage and butter�y

Linear

Quickopening100

80

60

40

20

0

100

70

5040

30

20

10

8

654

3

2

00 20 40 60 80 100 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCENTAGE OF VALVE STROKE AND PERCENTAGE OF FLOW

Figure 3: The actual (installed) characteristics of an =% valve stays

within 25% of the theoretcal between about 5% and 70% Cv (� ow),

according to Les Driskell.

Gain

1 Theoretical gain characteristics of equal % valve

2 Actual, inherent gain characteristics of equal % valve

3 Theoretical gain characteristics of linear valve

4 Actual, inherent gain characteristics of liner valve

12.50

2.25

2.00

1.75

1.50

1.25

1.00

0.75

0.50

0.25

0.125% �ow

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

2

4

±25% of = %

±25% oflinear3

ONE RECOMMENDED SOLUTION

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R O U N D U P


The Latest in Temperature TechnologyWe have hot and cold running sensors, transmitters, thermowells and more.

HEADMOUNT TRANSMITTERThe TTF300 headmount temperature transmitter is available in HART, Foun-dation fieldbus or Profibus. Its large LCD display en-ables users to easily adjust to process requirements at the transmitter and at the pro-cess. The terminal block with cable guide ensures a secure connection with a IP 66/67 (NEMA 4X) aluminum or 316L stainless-steel housing. ABB Measurement Products 800-435-7365; www.abb.com

ATEX-CERTIFIED TEMPERATURE TRANSMITTERS ST130 Series temperature transmitters are ATEX-ap-proved for use in explosive atmospheres. These thermo-couple and RTD transmitters are USB-configured, loop-powered and provide a pro-portional 4-20-mA output. The official ATEX certification is Ex II 3 G Ex nA IIC T4 Gc -40°C ≤ Ta ≤ +80°C (explosion-protected for Category 3G, Group II, Zone 2 gas atmospheres; non-incendive). Acromag 248-295-0865; www.acromag.com

TEMPERATURE SIGNAL CONDITIONERS Jumpflex signal condition-ers cover the complete band-width of temperature coef-ficients from PT100 sensors up to KTY and Ni sensors. Each DIN-rail device con-verts temperature signals to standard analog signal types. They have a -25 °C to +70 °C operating range and provide safety/reliability via 2.5-kV, three-way isolation and signal transmission accuracy of <0.1% full scale.Wago 800-DIN-RAIL; www.wago.us

A PROBING SOLUTIONThe new HC2SH probes for humidity, temperature and dew points with AirChip3000 technology allows adjustment of the probe at up to 100 points of RH. It offers com-pensation of humidity and temperature at 30,000 refer-ence points, recording of 2000 data points, and calculation of the current dew point. It also combines within itself an ASIC, microcontroller and an EEPROM.Rotronic 631-427-3898; www.rotronic-usa.com

WILL TRANSMIT FOR FOOD The new TD Series temper-ature transmitters for food and beverage applications have laser-welded, integrated transmitter electronics, pro-cess connectors and Pt1000 Class “A” RTD probes that are IP69K-sealed to meet 3A standards. They’re corrosion-resistant. The two-wire, loop- powered transmitter is pre-scaled for ranges of 0-100 °C and 0-300 °F. ifm efector 800-441-8246; www.ifm.com/us

SPLASH-PROOF TEMPERATURE DATA OM-CP-RFOT series of splash-proof, wireless tem-perature data loggers for the the meat processing indus-try are equipped with flexible piercing probes for use in the harshest environments, and are ideal for smokehouses, ov-ens and other cooking processes. They offer two-year battery life, memory wraparound, minimal long-term maintenance, and CE-, HACCP- and USDA-compliance. Omega 888-826-6342; www.omega.com

CT1309_105_107_Roundup.indd 105 9/3/13 2:51 PM

R O U N D U P


WIRELESS TEMPERATURE TESTING The CNX wireless system wirelessly connects multiple measurement modules, and sends simultaneous readings to a master device up to 20 meters away. The CAT III 1000-V/CAT IV 600-V mul-timeter displays its readings along with live readings from up to three other measure-ment modules. AC voltage, AC current clamp, iFlex AC cur-rent clamp and K-type temperature modules are available.Fluke 800-443-5853; www.fluke.com

HEAT AND HUMIDITYHumidIcon digital humidity/temperature sensor combines digital output, relative hu-midity and temperature sens-ing. Applications include pre-cision relative humidity and temperature measurement for microenvironments, and condensation removal in compressed air lines, industrial HVAC/R systems, thermostats, humidifiers/de-humidifiers and humidistats. Honeywell Sensing & Control 763-954-5093; http://sensing.honeywell.com

DAQ FOR TEMPERATURE INSTRUMENTATION The MAQ20 industrial data acquisition and control sys-tem is ideal for temperature measurement. Its thermo-couple modules have eight differential input channels. There are separate models for interfacing to Types J, K, T, R and S thermocouples. In addition, all the thermocouple channels are individually configurable for range, alarm lim-its and averaging. Dataforth 800-444-7644; www.dataforth.com

ONLINE THERMOWELL SIZING CALCULATOR This free, online thermowell calculation tool is compliant with the new ASME PTC 19.3 TW-2010 standards. It calculates the thermowell’s ability to withstand stresses under given process condi-tions. The sizing calculator allows users to make preliminary calculations to select the right thermowell early on in the design process—in just a few clicks. It’s available on-line via the E+H Applicator tool. Endress+Hauser 888-363-7377; www.us.endress.com

TEMP TRANSMITTER GOES PROThe ProSense line now in-cludes head-mounted and DIN rail-mounted tem-perature transmitters in non-programmable and programmable models. Non- programmable models are available for thermocouple Types J, K or T and 3-wire RTD type Pt100. Head-mounted models powered by 8 to 35 VDC; 35-mm DIN rail-mount models are powered by 12-35 VDC. Automation Direct 800-633-0405; www.automationdirect.com

PROGRAMMABLE TEMP TRANSDUCERS The MINI Analog family in-cludes two universal software programmable temperature transducers that convert and condition signals from most of the common RTDs and thermocouple temperature sensors, including sensors to meet GOST standards. The MINI Analog family has a 6.2-mm thin housing and T-bus power bus capabilities that save space and drastically reduce installation time. Phoenix Contact 800-322-3225; www.phoenixcontact.com


R O U N D U P


BOOST BOILER EFFICIENCY KS98-1 is a configurable multi-function controller that allows flexibility in the execution of process control tasks in steam and hot water boiler applications. Energy demand is determined by a PID controller, which oper-ates the individually controlled device. If the relevant set-point has not been reached, an additional device is switched on or off as required to manage demand correctly. West Control Solutions www.West-CS.co.uk

THERMOMETER GOES SOLARIdeal for those who prefer the readability of a digital ther-mometer, Palmer Solar Digi-tal Industrial has a ½-in. high LCD screen. Powered by a built-in solar cell, its batter-ies never need replacing, and even a flashlight is enough to power it. This easy-to-read model is completely mercury-free for safe installation in a variety of environments. Mod-els with 4-20-mA transmitter capability are available. Palmer Instruments 800-421-2853; www.palmerwahl.com

CREEPY, CRAWLY TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTWorm flexible temperature sensor offers a universal sen-sor strategy with response times 13% faster than straight sensors. It trims to length to handle nearly every ther-mowell assembly, transmitter head, hockey-puck connec-tion head and dual-sided enclosure. It’s available with a vari-ety of RTDs and thermocouples, including ohm, platinum, copper, nickel RTDs, J- and K-type thermocouples. Moore Industries-International 818-894-7111; www.miinet.com

WIRELESS MULTI-INPUT TRANSMITTER YTMX580, built on the ISA100.11a wireless standard, is a battery-powered tem-perature transmitter with an eight-analog input channel. Each input is configurable for thermocouple, RTD, DCV and 4-20mA measurement. The intrinsically safe battery pack, designed for field re-placement in hazardous areas, uses two D-size, 3.6-V, long-life, lithium-thionyl chloride batteries. Yokogawa www.field-wireless.com/en/

I/O FOR TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTBAS-3018BC module com-municates via a BACnet MS/TP Server, serial RS-485-based protocol in mas-ter or slave modes for build-ing automation. There are eight isolated, universal input channels, each individually configurable, with sensor input types such as RTD, either Pt-100 or Pt-1000; thermistor, either 3K or 10K; as well as common analog input signals such as 4-20mA or 0-10 VDC. Advantech 888-576-9668; www.advantech.com

TOUGH TRANSMITTERFor demanding temperature measurement applications, RTT80 temperature trans-mitter provides the best so-lution. It is a mid-tier, two-wire temperature transmitter available with HART and soon-to-be-released Founda-tion fieldbus protocols, dual sensor inputs, universal hous-ing, diagnostics, alarms, RTDs and TCs. It also provides di-agnostics according to NAMUR NE107. Invensys Foxboro 949-455-8132; www.fielddevices.foxboro.com


C o n t r o l E x C l u s i v E


All-in-One Controllers Do Networking, Too

Wago Corp.’s PFC200 line of four new programmable logic controllers provides an all-in-one approach to

demanding measuring and control applications inside a small footprint. The PFC200 line is powered by high-

speed, 600-mHz, ARM Cortex A8 processors, according to Charlie Norz, Wago’s product manager. In spite of

its power, even the largest of the line has a small footprint of approximately 4 x 4 x 4 in.

The PFC200 controllers are multi-taskers. Each one pairs dual Eth-ernet ports with multiple fieldbus interfaces. This enables the con-trollers to serve as fieldbus gate-ways, while communicating with other control systems. Users simply change between integrated ports to switch a field device between CANopen, Profibus or Serial RS-232/RS-485 within one unit. No third-party converters are required. This reduces costs while conserv-ing DIN-rail space.

The controllers are also ex-tremely flexible. Compatibility with DHCP, DNS, SNTP, FTP, Te-lenet and HTTP protocols enables the units to interface with standard PLC applications and other control systems. Safe connections are ensured via SSH, HTTPS and FTPS. For communication with higher- and lower-level sys-tems, that is MES, SCADA and device-level components, each controller features 256 Mbytes of internal flash mem-ory and SD/SDHC card capability (up to 32GB). A total of 128 Kbytes of retained memory is provided for non-volatile storage of retained PLC variables.

“The thing that makes this product unique is that it has a number of different fieldbus interfaces on it,” says Norz. “It can be used as a gateway between a CAN system and an Ethernet system, for example. I/O modules can also be used for direct control from the device.”

Part of the fieldbus-independent Wago-I/O-System, the PFC200 line has access to 400+ analog, digital and specialty modules. This includes compatibility with hazardous loca-tion devices without separate components, such as Zener barriers. Users can cost-effectively extend the functionality of existing hazardous location applications—particularly in petroleum processing.

“This is going to be especially attractive to oil and gas and off-shore applications because it’s so small and powerful,” says Norz.

To suit a very diverse applica-tion range from textile manu-facturing to marine engineer-ing, the controllers employ IEC 61131-3-compatible Codesys software. This provides users fa-miliar with standard program-ming languages, such as Ladder Logic, with an easy-to-use, envi-ronment for PLC programming and process visualization. More advanced users have the freedom of writing projects in C, PHP or shell scripts. Regardless of lan-guage, all programming and li-braries created will interact with Codesys applications.

Each PFC200 controller carries 13 LEDs to provide operational in-formation, such as system fieldbus

and user status, at a glance. An operation mode switch (run, stop and reset) resides on the top of each controller for ad-ditional flexibility.

To provide robustness and reliability, Wago has mini-mized moving hardware in the PFC200 series. The units do not rely on internal cooling fans, keeping energy require-ments low. The absence of rotating storage media and bat-ter-free buffering of the real-time clock also enhance reli-ability, while making the units extremely shock-resistant. Wire terminations are provided by maintenance-free Cage Clamp spring pressure technology.

To support varying applications, the PFC200 line spans from an entry-level controller (Ethernet connectivity and serial connections) to a flagship unit with Ethernet, se-rial, CAN and Profibus connectivity. The multi-tasking PFC200 controllers enable users to perform several tasks simultaneously.

The PFC200 line will be available to customers by the end of September.

For more information, go to www.wago.us or call 800/346-7245.

Wago’s new PFC200 controller can be used as a

gateway between CAN and Ethernet systems.

mulTi-TAskiNg plC

CT1309_108_Exclusive.indd 108 9/3/13 11:52 AM

P r o d u c t i n t r o d u c t i o n s


GEnius!Pump Genius software for Weg’s CFW-11 variable-speed drives manages and monitors up to six pumps in a coordinated system. It can operate motors from 5 to 150 HP in the 208 and 230/240- VAC range, and motors from 5 up to 600 HP in the 480-VAC range. It provides control and protection, management of cycle hours, master-and-slave designation, and monitors and controls system pressure or flow with available faults and alarms.Weg 800-275-4934; www.weg.net

sAFEtY isoLAtors For HArtSSX and SST safety isolators and splitters provide reliable isolation and signal conver-sion for HART data in func-tionally safe process control settings. The two-wire (loop-powered) SSX and four-wire (line/mains-powered) SST have been certified by exida for single use in safety instru-mented systems up to SIL 2. It also has 1500 Vrms of isolat-ing capability and standard 20-V/m RFI and EMI protec-tion. FMEDA-certified safety data is available on request. Moore Industries-International 818-894-7111; www.miinet.com

nEW VALVE PositionErsType-2000 pneumatic and electro-pneumatic valve po-sitioners are designed to provide stable and accurate control of rotary and linear valves. The base pneumatic version operates on a 3 psig to 15 psig (0.2-1.0 bar) instru-ment signal supplied to the positioner to achieve a required valve output. They’re available for rotary or linear actuation, both single and double-acting. The unit accepts standard NAMUR mounting for rotary actuators. ControlAir 603-886-9400; www.controlair.com

HiGH-PrEssurE rEGuLAtorsHPP range of high-pressure pneumatic regulators man-ages supply pressures up to 413 bar (6000 psi) at tempera-tures up to 260 ºC, and deliv-ers high-output pressures be-tween 207 bar (3000 psi) and 69 bar (1000 psi). It comple-ments the HPD regulator range that manages supply pres-sures up to 413 bar (6000 psi), and regulates lower output pressures down to between 35 bar (500 psi) and 1.66 bar (25 psi). Both have 316 stainless-steel bodies. Rotork Fairchild 800-334-8422; www.fairchildproducts.com

X-rAY VisionGenerate fast, reliable el-emental composition data with Niton Field X-ray Lab (FXL) equipped with z-Cal, which is a fit-for-purpose cali-bration and operation meth-odology for light elemental analysis. Detect oil-bearing strata, improve mud-logging, and support geo-steering. With a new custom pellet holder, it can accommodate pre-pared samples in the field. It’s ideal for generating rapid sam-ple analyses in the oil and gas industries.Thermo Scientific 800-875-1578; www.thermoscientific.com/niton

siL-coMPLiAnt FLoWMEtErST100 Series thermal mass air/gas flowmeter is certified for SIL 1-compliant service. It has been classified as a Type B subsystem in accordance with IEC 61508-1 with a hardware failure tolerance of 0. It stores up to five unique calibration groups, and obtains up to 1000:1 turndown. Also standard is an onboard data logger with an easily accessible, removable 2-GB micro-SD memory card capable of storing up to 21 million readings.Fluid Components International 800/854-1993; www.fluidcomponents.com

CT1309_109_110_Products.indd 109 9/3/13 2:53 PM


P r o d u c t i n t r o d u c t i o n s

don’t stAGnAtE!Tideflex Mixing System (TMS) greatly improves the quality of drinking water in finished water storage reser-voirs. The TMS is a combi-nation of patented Tideflex check valve technology and a piping manifold that sepa-rates the inlet and outlet. TMS can be installed in new or ex-isting water storage tanks of all shapes and sizes to eliminate stagnation and short-circuiting. Its all-elastomer construc-tion renders the system virtually maintenance-free.Tideflex 412-279-0044; www.tideflex.com

sMArt trAnsMittErsTX2000 pH/mV transmitter and CX2000 conductivity/resistivity transmitter moni-tor changes in process fluids for more accurate control in a range of water, chemical, electronics, food production, environmental and wastewa-ter applications. Both include Multi-Cal calibration with automatic buffer recognition, two assignable isolated analog (0/4-20mA) current outputs, two alarm/control relays and a universal 100-240-Vac power supply. Sensorex714-895-4344; www.sensorex.com

tiME to WEiGH inSWB505 MultiMount weigh module offers built-in safety features, including SafeLock to ensure easy installation. SafeLock protects the load cell from accidental overload during shipping and instal-lation, and ensures proper mounting alignment. It’s hermetically sealed, rated IP68 and available in three different materials (carbon steel, 304 stainless steel, 316 stainless steel), which means it can be used in harsh industrial environments.Mettler Toledo www.mt.com/ind-multimount

KEEP Your Wits ABout YouThe OPC Server for well-site information transfer speci-fication (WITS) provides open data connectivity to well-site data systems using WITS-compliant devices. Key features include support for communications through TCP/IP, UDP and/or serial channels and simultaneous sup-port for WITS Level 0-compliant active and passive devices. It permits read-and-write access to available data points, and is compliant with OPC DA 1.0, 2.0a and 3.0 specifications. MatrikonOPC 780-945-4099; www.matrikonopc.com

nEW PLAYEr in tHE LinEuPMelsec-L Series has added new controllers, network, power supply and I/O mod-ules. The L Series integrates advanced sequence, motion, temperature and vision con-trol into one package. All models feature single-CPU architecture with built-in Ethernet and mini-USB inter-faces, SD/SDHC memory card slot, 24 I/O for positioning and high-speed counter functions, and a CC-Link V2 mas-ter/local station. Mitsubishi Electric Automation847-478-2100; www.MEAU.com

custoM sEnsor soLutionsHoneywell offers customiz-able pressure and thermal sensor solutions, including modules with multiple sen-sors and technologies in-tegrated inside. Available options include heaters, mag-netic, magneto-resistive, in-frared, optical, pressure, thermal and humidity for custom-ization. Additional options include custom interfaces, I/O, size and shape, environmental packaging and total thermal management solutions. Honeywell Sensing & Control 800-537-6945; sensing.honeywell.com

CT1309_109_110_Products.indd 110 9/3/13 2:54 PM

C O N T R O L T A L K

GreG McMillanStan weiner, pecontrol ta [email protected] t

S e p t e M b e r / 2 0 1 3 www.controlglobal.com 111

The Perfect Storm of Skills

Greg McMillan and Stan Weiner bring their wits and more than 66 years of process

control experience to bear on your questions, comments, and problems.

Write to them at [email protected].

Greg: When I was reintroduced to Jack Ahlers about four years ago, I was amazed by the breadth and depth of his skills and experience. He’s the key guy for instrumentation, configu-ration, simulation, operator graphics, historians and process control at a crop chemical firm.

Stan: Give us a brief summary of your career?

Jack: I started at the Muscatine, Iowa, plant in 1989. I did Fortran simulations for testing and training for DCS systems being used to replace pneumatic instrumentation and electronic con-trollers. A few years later, a process control group was formed with great people like P. D. Patel and Carol Pulliam and led by Bernie Hardin. We then got into process control improvement, in-cluding optimizing a compounding facility and creating flexibility in blending and product en-capsulation. An important part was the innova-tive batch process algorithms and loops to return to an operating point mid-batch whenever there was a problem. I then moved to a Fayetteville, N.C., plant to become the IT supervisor for the boilers and utilities. I got to learn the business side of process management and a better emphasis on costs. Next, I became the IT infrastructure team lead at the Luling, La., plant. I did process control for the production units of major intermediate chemicals, which eventually resulted in a process control group being formed. I ended up being a process control specialist for all of crop chemicals with responsibility for all projects for new plants and upgrades. Presently, I am spearheading a global migration plan to the next generation of DCS to be completed by 2015.

Stan: What were your two major challenges when you first started out?

Jack: Starting out with an electrical engineering degree meant I needed to come up to speed

quickly on process and business interrelation-ships, especially since the perception might be that I was simply an instrument and electrical (E/I) engineer. The major, persisting challenge was making sure the DCS was an enabler rather than inhibitor. Initially, there were extensive prob-lems with getting the DCS to change as fast as the business decisions. I decided to not make the DCS part of the conversation. This, plus the process of developing simulations, forced me to become process-aware. I gained a lot of practi-cal process knowledge from virtualization of the chemistry.

Greg: I attribute most of my knowledge of process dynamics to writing and program-ming the differential equations for material, energy, momentum and charge balances in simulations of unit operations for process con-trol improvement. These equations provide an understanding of first principles, which were

CT1309_111_112_ControlTalk.indd 111 9/3/13 11:55 AM

C O N T R O L T A L K


discussed in Control Talk blog’s post for Aug. 3, 2012, “Where Do Process Dynamics Come From?” (http://ti-nyurl.com/md58jw5).

Stan: What provided the inspiration to learn more about dynamics and pro-cess control?

Jack: I had a group leader, Bernie Hardin, who pushed us in this direc-tion. The generation before me made process control something you wanted to do. People like Bob Heider and the drivers of process control improve-ment (PCI) initiative were inspiring. PCI included opportunity sizings and assessments (see June 2012 column, “The Human Factor,” http://tinyurl.com/nxhfa8v), as well as an integrated manufacturing committee (IMC) headed by the late, great Vernon Trev-athan, creator of the ISA Certification of Automation (CAP) program. When the suitcase for valve testing was on the front page of the IMC Newsletter, we started testing our own valves and solving problems.

Stan: The transition from analog elec-tronic computing modules to function blocks in a DCS is an analogous situ-ation. However, the leadership may no longer be there to try to do more than the obvious. Our supervisors were pre-viously E/I and process control engi-neers with decades of experience.

Jack: What management thinks is im-portant is quite different than what the process control specialist values.

Greg: Reporting of benefits will open doors. This is a key part of MPC suc-cess, as discussed in June’s Control Talk, “The Route to MPC Success” (http://tinyurl.com/kemt4j4). This col-umn shows the value of building infra-structure to take advantage of advances in tools. Dennis Cime, featured in this column, is clearly a person with exten-sive process control experience.

Stan: Who are the key people who can get the process to perform better?

Jack: The people whose needs you most want to make sure you meet are the operators. You can do it by being there in the control room and with better operator training that elevates operations’ expectations and levels of achievement.

Greg: What was your motivation when you became a supervisor in IT?

Jack: My venture into IT was to get the data to the process engineer, elim-inating the prevalent use of manual data entry and personal spreadsheets. I needed to understand process data his-torians, disk storage, security and deci-sions on how frequently and what to collect in data.

Stan: Why does IT seem to be at odds with the user of the data and the pro-cess control specialist?

Jack: Access was often denied. There were privilege and navigation issues. Compression was too large and update rates were too slow for process control engineers. IT focused on protecting the data administrator from the data owner. IT is always in the doomsday mode. Broad rules were applied, many of which are no longer valid because disk storage is so cheap. However, if the IT person does not understand dynamics, inertia and tradition persists, making the analysis and identification of dynamic responses a frustrating or even futile experience. Slow data can result in enormous lost op-portunities. For example, each second we cut out of the centrifuge cycle gives us $1 million more in worldwide capacity.

Greg: How did you change the per-spective in IT?

Jack: I stimulated collaboration with the users and shifted the cost reward re-lationship to the reward side. I realized

IT exists to support manufacturing and not vice versa.

Stan: What are process control engi-neers today doing in the plants with all this data?

Jack: Except for the ISA mentor pro-gram protégés, the plant automation engineers are focusing on Six Sigma analysis, rather than on innovative so-lutions using PID and MPC.

Greg: The lure of tools that eliminates the need for understanding is great, and can result in the disappearance of resources and skills within the plants.

Jack: Are we going to be the last gener-ation that emphasizes the fundamental concepts and insights of dynamics and control because of a change in man-agement goals, advancement of tools, appeal of rapid worldwide data access and gratification, and the retirement of process control advocates?

Greg: I am trying, through the ISA and Mynah Technologies mentor pro-grams, to reverse the trend. So far, the results are encouraging, but the pres-sures to revert to business as usual are tremendous. The protégés are an ex-ample of the initiative and energy of the next generation.

Top 10 Reasons for IT to Set the Data Compression and Update Rate

10. Money saved on data storage pays for part of IT Christmas party.

9. IT meets its goals.8. IT Rules!7. Identified dead time is now more

constant.6. Identified process gain is more

constant.5. Valves don’t appear to be sticky.4. Measurement noise is history.3. Overshoot is gone.2. Process is drawing straight lines.1. Headquarters executives touring

plant are impressed.

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ADVERTISER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGE NO.

ABB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, S31Advantech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Allied . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21AutomationDirect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8, 11--14Badger Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Baldor Electric. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Dome Exhibitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Emerson Process Mgt/AMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82Emerson Process Mgt/Rosemount . . . . .19, S11Emerson Process Mgt/Systems . . . . . . . . . . 116Emerson Process Mgt/Wireless . . . . . . . . . . 29Endress + Hauser. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 7, S2Exlar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76FCI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92Fieldbus International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S29Fluke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85, S17Hart Communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S32Honeywell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 -- 26, 89, S25Invensys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Krohne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Load Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84MacTek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S3Magnetrol International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Maple Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98Martel Electronics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Meriam Process Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . S6Mesco Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S29Moore Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S4Omega Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Opto 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Orion Instruments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Otek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99Pepperl + Fuchs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22, S15Phoenix Contact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S26Precision Digital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95ProComSol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S19Rittal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80, 81Rockwell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90, S13SEW-Eurodrive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96Siemens Energy & Automation . . . . . . . 3, S22Siemens Process Analyzers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79SOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Turck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78Ultra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Valve. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88Wago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77WEG Electric Motors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Yaskawa America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115Yokogawa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31, S20

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C O N T R O L R E P O R T

Jim montague e xecut ive editor

[email protected] t


Harvest time

Maybe it’s the back-to-school atmosphere. Maybe it’s because we’ll be covering a

bunch of tradeshows and user groups this fall. Maybe it’s because everyone can now

comment on every article at Controlglobal.com. Or maybe I’m just a big, fat squirrel

stuffing my elastic cheeks with acorns. Whatever the inspiration, autumn is a great time

On the job and

off, it’s possible

to revisit familiar

places, issues and

people, explore

them more fully

and gain a deeper

understanding.

to gather choice items, and a biological and cul-tural imperative in temperate zones with win-ter’s scarcity coming on, at least until global warming ramps up soon. Me, I collect facts about process control—and Doritos.

Of course, lots of details can be gathered by phone and on the Internet, and due to lack of time and travel budgets, they’re how I secure most of my stories. However, these sources of-ten feel slightly lacking and diluted because they’re usually second- and third-hand ac-counts at a distance.

What I really crave primary sources and be-ing there. Face-to-face interviews and on-site experiences are always more vivid and memo-rable than cobbling together hearsay and ear-lier accounts. For instance, I read a lot of books and watched even more TV as a kid, but the memories that really stand out and became part of me were all first-hand experiences.

In fact, I think the first tradeshow I ever at-tended was when my dad inexplicably dragged me and my brother to the New York Boat Show at the city’s old convention center sometime in the late 1960s. We weren’t too thrilled at first, but then we learned we could crawl up on and into all the yachts and check out the galleys, sleeping quarters and engines. Very cool, and probably one of the main reasons I enjoy trade-shows more than 40 years later.

Likewise, as a longtime reporter covering many beats, I much prefer getting out and into various trenches and talking to people about ac-tivities, events and issues that mean the most to them. For example, while I’d already writ-ten many process control stories, the field really came alive for me about seven or eight years ago when I visited Honeywell Specialty Materi-als’ facility in Geismar, La. It was just a regular plant tour, but all the process applications, ves-sels, pipelines, valves, instruments, controllers,

integrated security systems and other equip-ment gained a much stronger presence in my mind when I could see them running live and in-person, and learn how they were optimized by their engineers and operators.

Of their memories, people say, “I can see it just like it was yesterday.” Well, the sheer vivid-ness of direct experience gives it more staying power than text, audio or even video accounts. The more recent saying is, “Reality is the ulti-mate simulation/video game.”

Unfortunately, magazine and website arti-cles must by definition add an insulating layer between their readers and the actual facts and events going on. This is unavoidable, of course, or no part of the story could get across. But be-cause all media are necessarily limiting, I rec-ommend physically getting up, going out, see-ing what’s happening with your own eyes and ears—and maybe realize you’ve gained some new eyes and ears in the bargain.

I know this can be difficult with set sched-ules, deadlines, routine and responsibilities. Few of us can just pick up,and go off on desired adventures. However, both on the job and off, it’s also possible to revisit familiar places, issues and people, explore them more fully and gain a deeper understanding.

There are always chances to collect new ex-periences. Take the long way home. Get into a few places you don’t usually visit, meet people you don’t usually talk to, and even discuss some new topics with your usual gang. With just a lit-tle effort, I’ve found I almost always find some-thing new, surprising and invigorating. Acorns are fine. Interesting memories are better.

Then come back, tell someone about it, or even let me know. First-hand experiences are preferable, but other people’s stories are almost as good because no one can be everywhere. You might even get me to take my own advice.

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can be sure your system will shut down when required, and keep running safely when a componentfails. Electronic marshalling in DeltaV SIS gives you the flexibility to implement safety functions easily,safely, while eliminating time consuming tasks, re-work and re-design headaches associated withtraditional marshalling. That’s modern. That’s peace of mind. Find out more at: www.DeltaVSIS.com

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September 2013 - Control Global

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