Control - January/February 2024

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • VOLUME 37 • NUMBER 1

26

COVER STORY

Untethered

Digitalization combines wireless, mobility and edge computing in new and complementary ways

by Jim Montague

Image generated by Shutterstock AI / Shutterstock.com

36 64

MOTORS & DRIVES

CONTROL TALK

Reliably powerful winemaking

One wish for 2024–more APC

Cakebread Cellars and Novate Solutions create a high-tech process at its wineries to solve power grid challenges

by Len Vermillion

Why engineers should use simulations to achieve more prolific and productive APC

by Greg McMillan

CONTROL (USPS 4853, ISSN 1049-5541) is published 10x annually (monthly, with combined Jan/Feb and Nov/Dec) by Endeavor Business Media, LLC. 201 N. Main Street, Fifth Floor, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538. Periodicals postage paid at Fort Atkinson, WI, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CONTROL, PO Box 3257, Northbrook, IL 60065-3257. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Publisher reserves the right to reject non-qualified subscriptions. Subscription prices: U.S. ($120 per year); Canada/Mexico ($250 per year); All other countries ($250 per year).

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 5

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CONTENTS

Departments 9

EDITOR’S PAGE 2024: weirdness has only begun From genAI to economic uncertainty, it should be a strange trip through the next 12 months

10 NET ZERO BEAT A new pardigm for methane leak detection An emissions management solution automates an unreliable, manual process

18 WITHOUT WIRES Wireless advances likely to make an impact Wireless capabilities will continue to expand by leaps and bounds

20 IN PROCESS

Optimizing split heat pumps Heat pumps provide heat more efficiently than electric strips

16 ON THE BUS AI in your pocket Balancing automation with human engagement in a smartphone-distracted world

Recognizing innovation, leadership and excellence of automation technology suppliers

60 ASK THE EXPERTS

Ultrasonic flowmeter market revenues growing 7% per year Profinet ready for Ethernet-APL; HMS buys Red Lion

24 INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE 12 LESSONS LEARNED

40 LEADERS IN AUTOMATION

Coriolis benefits and savings keep flowing Coriolis technology offers more direct flow measurement

Achieving pipe straightening with roll control Advice on bending moments to configure a roll straightener

62 ROUNDUP HMIs gain processing power and protections Interfaces add memory and temperature ranges inside, get tough outside

34 INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE Embracing open automation for tomorrow's plant operations Software-centric, open automation streamlines operations

66 CONTROL REPORT Free to move Robotic mobility and diversity can fuel optimism

AD INDEX Ametek Process Instruments..........................17, 42

Pepperl+Fuchs.............................................. 23, 52

DigiKey Electronics.......................................... 3, 43

RS Americas.................................................. 11, 54

Emerson Electric Co....................................... 44, 68

SafetyChain Software..................................... 55, 67

Emerson Micro Motion....................... 13, 24, 25, 45 Endress+Hauser.............................................. 4, 46 Fuji Electric Corp........................................... 32, 47 Hawk Measurement............................................. 22 Inductive Automation............................ 48, cover tip Load Controls................................................ 30, 49

Schneider Electric Systems...................... 34, 35, 56 SOR..................................................................... 33 Tadiran Batteries............................................ 21, 57 Teledyne FLIR...................................................... 31 Trihedral Engineering............................................. 2

Moore Industries............................................ 19, 50

VEGA Americas............................................... 6, 58

Motion........................................................... 29, 51

Yaskawa America................................................... 8

ProComSol.................................................... 30, 53

Yokogawa Electric ............................................... 15

www.controlglobal.com

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 7

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EDITOR’S PAGE

Endeavor Business Media, LLC 30 Burton Hills Blvd, Ste. 185, Nashville, TN 37215 800-547-7377 EXECUTIVE TEAM CEO Chris Ferrell President June Griffin COO Patrick Rains CRO Reggie Lawrence Chief Digital Officer Jacquie Niemiec Chief Administrative and Legal Officer Tracy Kane EVP/Group Publisher Mike Christian EDITORIAL TEAM Editor in Chief Len Vermillion, lvermillion@endeavorb2b.com Executive Editor Jim Montague, jmontague@endeavorb2b.com Digital Editor Madison Ratcliff, mratcliff@endeavorb2b.com Contributing Editor John Rezabek Columnists Béla Lipták, Greg McMillan, Ian Verhappen DESIGN & PRODUCTION TEAM Art Director Derek Chamberlain, dchamberlain@endeavorb2b.com Production Manager Anetta Gauthier, agauthier@endeavorb2b.com Ad Services Manager Rita Fitzgerald, rfitzgerald@endeavorb2b.com Operations Manager / Subscription requests Lori Goldberg, lgoldberg@endeavorb2b.com PUBLISHING TEAM Group Publisher Keith Larson 630-625-1129, klarson@endeavorb2b.com Group Sales Director Amy Loria 352-873-4288, aloria@endeavorb2b.com Account Manager Greg Zamin 704-256-5433, gzamin@endeavorb2b.com Account Manager Kurt Belisle 815-549-1034, kbelisle@endeavorb2b.com Account Manager Jeff Mylin 847-533-9789, jmylin@endeavorb2b.com Subscriptions Local: 847-559-7598 Toll free: 877-382-9187 Control@omeda.com Jesse H. Neal Award Winner & Three Time Finalist

2024: the weirdness has only begun From genAI to economic uncertainty, it should be a strange trip through the next 12 months.

WE’RE just getting started, but 2024 is shaping up to be quite a year. At least to me, it seems like we’re firmly entrenched in a time when society is about to get, well, maybe a bit weird.

But that’s OK, because as Hunter S. Thompson wrote in Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

I’m just going to stay away from any fear and loathing about the campaign trail in 2024, but there’s some strange vibes brewing about the future and it’s not about two candidates, but two letters—AI. If there’s a disruptor that has people living in fear and loathing its existence, and simultaneously thrilling them for the future, it’s artificial intelligence, specifically generative AI (gen AI).

I’m not here to rank the year’s top trends, but is there anyone who believes gen AI isn’t the top technology trend in industry? Now is when gen AI starts to become a professional tool to augment efficiency and sustainability, and build reliability into processes. We’ve reached that fork in the road, and it has some people a bit weirded out.

So how will the professionals handle gen AI? I don’t know the answer, though maybe I can ask ChatGPT? I do know that many professionals, particularly those working in industrial process control, aim to figure out how to use gen AI to bridge the skills gap. Gen AI is a much-needed tool for storing institutional knowledge, so when skilled workers retire, it can help train new workers about best practices and procedures—and then do it again.

There are other trends to be mindful of this year. One is using predictive maintenance to further sustainability and efficiency. Recently, Aaron Merkin, CTO, and Ankush Malhotra, president, both at Fluke Reliability, opined on the upcoming year, writing, “Connected reliability provides an integrated approach to sustainability.” You can see more of their comments at bit.ly/reliability2024.

They also say that economic pressures continue to make efficiency paramount. The uncertainty of the global economy places emphasis on maintaining machinery, rather than replacing it, leading to greater adoption of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) tools and increased demand for AI analytics.

What? You thought AI wouldn’t make its way into augmenting IIoT?

LEN VERMILLION Editor-in-Chief lvermillion@endeavorb2b.com

"Now is when gen AI starts to become a professional tool to augment efficiency and sustainability, and build reliability into processes."

Two Time ASBPE Magazine of the Year Finalist Dozens of ASBPE Excellence in Graphics and Editorial Excellence Awards Four Time Winner Ozzie Awards for Graphics Excellence www.controlglobal.com

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 9

NET ZERO BEAT

A new paradigm for methane leak detection Honeywell’s emissions management solution aims to automate a manual and unreliable process

by Len Vermillion

OVER the last few years, the industrial sector developed a heightened awareness of methane emissions—and for good reason. Methane is 27-30 times more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to affecting Earth’s atmosphere, making it a large contributor to global warming.

“One of the reasons there’s such an emphasis on methane—besides the fact that it absorbs more heat than carbon dioxide—is it’s shorter-lived in our atmosphere, so it’s one of those gases that, if tackled as an industry, we can see meaningful change in our lifetimes,” said Robert Kester, CTO for emissions solutions at Honeywell Process Solutions (process.honeywell.com) during a reecent presentation.

There are several tailwinds propelling action on methane emissions, particularly in the oil and gas sector, according to Kester. Oil and gas producers understand they face stricter regulations, and desire to voluntarily set their own goals and commitments to methane emissions reduction. Getting there has its share of headwinds, however.

Among the challenges are current technology solutions. “One of the overarching challenges we’ve seen is that many approaches are very manual,” Kester said. That’s particularly true of the two most popular methods for methane monitoring and leak detection in the oil and gas industry. The first, Method 21, was introduced in 1981 by the U.S. EPA, and requires using specialized, volatile organic compound (VOC) analyzers to test for leaks.

It’s a manual process with workers using a wand to check every component or leak source. The second approach is using handheld cameras that let workers visually look for leaks.

However, manual approaches are labor-intensive and costly, and can lead to inaccurate data that presents only a snapshot in time of potential leaks. Also, they offer limited ability to classify emissions by type. “There’s a tremendous amount of effort on data collection and reporting, but even when that’s done, there’s a lot of uncertainty about your overall emissions profile,” Kester said.

Honeywell set out to rethink this leak detection paradigm, and get data collection and reporting into an automated and operations-focused process. Kester said the company is developing technology and software that enables automation and quantification, and lets users move “from the back seat to the driver’s seat in their emissions journey.”

10 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

Continuous streams of data The first step in making the emissions measuring process more dynamic is continuous measurement and monitoring.

Honeywell developed new instrumentation with that goal in mind. Its initial solution is Versatilis Signal Scout, which uses molecular property spectrometer technology to deliver rapid, sensitive and continuous methane detection.

Kester said Versatalis Signal Scout is one of the first hazardous area-certified gas sensors that can be deployed in the heart of operations. The devices “sniff” for gas much like the manual wands currently used. However, they offer GPS location, communications (wireless LoRa gateway), and battery- and solar-powered energy sources.

“We’ve taken manual sniffing and made it deployable,” Kester said. “We also added weather-monitoring.”

This weather monitoring lets users account for wind and how it blows gas molecules that might indicate a leak. Honeywell’s software can use advanced analytics and fluid-dynamic models to locate leaks and estimate how much gas has leaked.

Versatilis Signal Scout uses molecular property spectrometer technology to deliver rapid, sensitive and continuous methane detection. Source: Honeywell Process Solutions

Reinventing the camera method The other technology Honeywell set out to improve is manual leak detection with cameras. The company turned to NASA technology that determines the composition of galaxies, according to Kester.

Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) was turned into a camera system that can be deployed on the perimeter of a facility to visually monitor emissions. A software solution provided by Honeywell not only feeds visual data for users to monitor, but also adds data from the historian. “We’re pulling all the different types of data into one place,” Kester said. “Operators can view it similarly to how they view process data to start looking at correlations of signals.”

The process, Kester adds, is taken up a notch from current concepts of emissions monitoring. This new process eliminates the time to acquire data and analyze it. It makes decisions about how to act on the emissions data of a plant or drilling operation more quickly and precisely, according to Kester.

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LESSONS LEARNED

Optimizing split heat pumps Heat pumps provide heat more efficiently than electric strips

BÉLA LIPTÁK liptakbela@aol.com

"Heat pumps are often sized for the two (pump capacity and home requirement) to be equal when the outdoor temperature is around freezing, also known as the balance point."

LIKE pumping water uphill, heat pumps can "pump" heat from low-temperature environments to high-temperature environments.

They don’t produce heat. They move it by circulating a working fluid, which "picks up" heat from a low-temperature media (air or water) that’s evaporated at a lower temperature and pressurized to release heat into a higher-temperature media.

This is how air conditioners work in the summer. They move heat from the cooler inside air of homes and release it into the warmer outside air. Similarly, a heat pump picks up heat from the cooler outside air and (after reversing the flow direction of the working fluid) releases it into the warmer inside air (Figure 1). Such bidirectional (split) heat pumps move heat in both directions because reversing the flow direction of the working fluid reverses the direction in which the heat is moved.

limit of the zero-energy band (ZEB) is reached, and turned off when the other is reached. The result is on/off cycling around the comfort setpoint because, during operation, the compressor discharge pressure is higher and the expansion valve burns more energy than needed.

A variable-speed heat pump, also known as the inverter-driven compressor, doesn’t operate at full speed. It operates only at the speed needed to meet the load. Instead of piston-type compressors, scroll compressors are used because they have longer lifespans, and because heat pumps provide about 10 °F warmer air in heating mode.

The working fluid is often R-32, also known as HFC-32, which is an organic hydrofluorocarbon compound with the formula CH2F2. It’s a colorless, odorless, mildly flammable gas that’s insoluble in water.

Operation

Size and efficiency

Traditionally, split heat pumps are controlled in an on/off manner. The compressor is turned on at full capacity when one

Heat pumps provide heat more efficiently than electric strips. For example, at 10 °F outdoor temperature, typical heat pumps

Low-Pressure Low-Temperature Vapor

Outdoor Coil

Reversing Valve

Refrigerant absorbs heat from air and boils vapor

Inside Coil Compressor

Low-Pressure Low-Temperature

High-Pressure High-Temperature Vapor

Expansion Device

Refrigerant releases heat to air and returns to a liquid state

High-Pressure High-Temperature

Figure 1: Operation of an air-sourced heat pump with a four-way reversing valve positioned into home heating (winter) mode 12 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

www.controlglobal.com

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LESSONS LEARNED

produce around 40% of their full capacity at twice the efficiency of electric strip heat. On colder days, when heat pump output isn't enough to meet the heat requirement of a home, it must be supplemented by heat from a furnace or an electric strip as a backup. Heat pumps are often sized for the two (pump capacity and home requirement) to be equal when the outdoor temperature is around freezing, also known as the balance point. Heat pumps can handle a minimum outdoor temperature of -15 °C (5 °F).

The capacity requirement is a function of the size of a structure and the climate zone where it’s located. For winter heating, a 1,500-sq-ft home in a hot climate requires a 45,000 BTU/hr unit. In cold climates, a 90,000 BTU/hr unit

will be needed. The table included gives a rough estimate of the heating capacity requirements of these units in BTU/hr and as a function of the size of a structure. For purposes of comparison, the size range of typical residential gas furnaces is between 44,000 BTU/hr and 120,000 BTU/hr.

Optimized controls Figure 2 shows the controls I’d use to operate a split heat pump serving the summer cooling and winter heating of a home or a larger building. The system’s main controller is a multi-mode smart thermostat that manipulates the speed of a scroll compressor. This Wi-Fi-enabled, programmable split thermostat also controls the ZEB range and the operating modes of the system, which

Variable speed scroll compressor

Costs

4-way valve for reversing working fluid direction

M

SUMMER Low pr. Vapor High pr. vapor High pr. liquid Low pr. liquid

HEAT

WINTER Low pr. Vapor High pr. vapor High pr. liquid Low pr. liquid

HEAT

HEAT TIC Smart thermostat

HEAT Backup heatstrap

Two-directional expansion valve (closes when compressor is off)

Figure 2: Optimized controls of a split heat pump system in the summer (red) and in the winter (blue)

14 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

can be off (for maintenance or inside the ZEB range), cooling, heating, supplemental backup heating or defrosting. It also positions a four-way valve that sets the flow direction of the working fluid and the opening of its two-directional expansion valve, which closes when the compressor is off, and controls the superheat of the working fluid when it’s operating.

Ductless, mini-split heat pumps that serve individual rooms are more flexible and generally about 20% more efficient than centrally ducted ones. Their operating costs can be 40% less than electric heating. Individual, mini-split units control each room or “zone” separately. They eliminate wasted energy that occurs when some rooms are heated or cooled unnecessarily or excessively. Manualor mobile phone-operated scheduling is one of the most powerful, smart thermostat features since it enables savings by smart thermostats.

Most state and local governments, as well as utility companies, keep expanding rebates and other incentives for homeowners who install heat pumps. In the U.S., the Dept. of Energy (DoE) supports heat pumps over traditional heating systems.

The cost of ducted, split heat pump systems is between $5,000 and $20,000, depending on heating/ cooling capacities. The average installed cost is about $10,000, which is slightly higher than the cost of the same-sized gas furnaces. The cost range of ductless mini-split units is between $1,000 and $2,000.

Rebates and tax credits for heat pumps vary with location but are generally increasing. For example, the rebate provided by Massachusetts is around $10,000. The federal tax credit is 30% of costs, but limited to a maximum of $2,000.

www.controlglobal.com

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yokogawa.com/ia2ia/ The names of corporations, organizations, products, services and logos herein are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Yokogawa Electric Corporation or their respective holders.

ON THE BUS

AI in your pocket Balancing automation with human engagement in a smartphone-distracted world

JOHN REZABEK Contributing Editor JRezabek@ashland.com

"Today, smooth-running automation—an office or shop free of challenges— lures all to the distraction of social media and the rest of the Internet."

16 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

I’VE often thought the boss relished a chance to be a curmudgeon. It seemed to be the case when, after decades surviving without them, the crew suggested how useful automated valves would be for isolating some distillation columns. “So operators can spend more time staring at their phones,” he growled.

That our process plants would be inhabited by brains addicted to dopamine-inducing smartphones wasn’t foreseen 20 years ago. Today, smooth-running automation—an office or shop free of challenges—lures all to the distraction of social media and the rest of the Internet. For years, the silicon geniuses of this content employed artificial intelligence (AI) to put forth content that kept their victims scrolling and searching. How could our discipline—as paid providers of often vital “content” such as measurements and alarms via human-machine interfaces (HMI)—anticipate that a powerful, pocket-sized, Internet-connected computer would compete for the eyes we need on the process?

However, the same technology turning our workers into hypnotized distraction-seekers is also useful to us. Once upon a time, HMI was misgendered as “MMI” for man-machine interface. But the “machine” we want our operators to engage with isn’t the computer, it’s the process. Today’s graphics packages are being retooled using the same HTML technology that powers web content, so distributed control system (DCS) graphics can be scaled to smaller screens. The ability to view DCS screens on other platforms isn’t new, but try scrolling or “pinch-to-zoom” on such devices and you may be disappointed.

If you designed your graphics and faceplates for 16:9 aspect ratio LCD flatscreens from 24 in. and up, the ability to interact with them when shrunken to tablet- or smartphone-size can be frustrating. Try entering a new setpoint or changing the mode of a control loop on a 6-in. screen, especially if you have bratwurst-sized fingers.

The pocket computer is useful in other ways. Clever suppliers are happy to sell you a hazardous-area capable smartphone mounted to an ANSI-rated hardhat, which can be used to view DCS graphics or enable two-way live video and audio interaction with remote technical help. Its usefulness is predicated on the assumption that a remote assistant, who will likewise have the expertise and confidence to provide meaningful guidance, can be contacted in one’s hour of need. This, you may have noticed, is not a given.

Can a unified operator interface mend the broken, shared reality induced by Internetconnected screens? In the days before blockhouses and blast-resistant control buildings, operators were immersed in the physical process, checking local gauges and manipulating local controllers and manual valves, while listening to pumps and machinery for potential issues. For years, we’ve reflected on the lost paradigm of the central control room “board,” where a house operator could scan a 30-yard wall of controllers for deviations, and an unbroken graphic, sparsely populated with some key alarms, spanned the same wall above. Today, we have the potential to take most of it out into the plant, with us not only on tablets, smartphones and other screens, but also through augmented reality (AR)—the interface blended with views of actual reality.

Imagine if you could provide the details and precision of modern sensors and instrumentation, projected in context with one’s surroundings. Novice operators, who might struggle to connect the dull grayscale control house trends and graphics to the physical process, could accelerate the learning curve to make connections, diagnose issues, and avoid errors in real-time.

Today, we have the mounting challenge of dragging minds from their echo chambers into the shared reality of the process. Their safety and the continued reliability, efficiency and sustainability of the plant will depend on it. www.controlglobal.com

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WITHOUT WIRES

Wireless advances likely to make an impact Wireless capabilities will continue to expand by leaps and bounds

IAN VERHAPPEN Solutions Architect Willowglen Systems Ian.Verhappen@ willowglensystems.com

"One thing’s for certain, wireless capabilities continue to expand by leaps and bounds."

18 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

I doubt many people foresaw the impact that generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) would have on industry in 2023. However, that shouldn’t stop us from using our crystal ball to look at wireless advances likely to impact us over the next few years.

While the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (www.3gpp.org) doesn’t develop standards, it does coordinate with seven telecommunications, standards-developing organizations to produce reports and specifications that define 3GPP technologies. It’s responsible for developing use cases and associated “specifications” for upcoming New Radio (NR) permutations (5G advanced) and nextgeneration, 6G documents. The most recent release of 3GPP documents, Release 18 (bit. ly/3GPPR18), was issued on Dec. 22, 2023, with the following updates related to automation and controls: • Study of 700/800/900 MHz band combinations supports long-distance, lower-data requirement installations such as SCADA; • O ffers longer life for Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial IoT (IIoT) based on cellular backhaul; • Provides better integration of 5G with satellite systems for remote areas with minimal hard infrastructure such as fiber-optics; • Offers data aggregation and preprocessing to make better use of limited field resources; • Improves monitoring and use of the 5G infrastructure for system support for AI and machine learning (ML)-based services; and • Enables privacy of identifiers over radio access and related security enhancements.

3GPP has also started working on Release 19 that will include features to support the following use cases: • A network of service robots with ambient intelligence and energy efficiency as service criteria; • Uncrewed aerial vehicles and increased use of autonomous vehicles and robots for

security and deliveries, which requires a strong network connection with very low latency to perform well; • Improved satellite access; • Integrated sensing and communication; • Ambient power enabled IoT; and • A future railway mobile communication system and support for railway smart-station services.

Much of the 5G effort by service providers supports increased bandwidth. However, bandwidth isn’t the primary issue for most automation systems as they’re built and used today. If the use of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) take hold, particularly at field locations and control rooms, bandwidth will be a factor.

Fixed locations such as manufacturing facilities are more likely to support Wi-Fi with an alternate technology—5G or low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite—for the backhaul. Expansion of LEO satellite communication networks coverage continues to improve with reduced latency and renewed interest in satellite-based connectivity solutions. LEO networks aim to provide global, high-speed Internet coverage, even in remote and underserved areas, making them a viable option for remote SCADA applications.

Wi-Fi continues to evolve with IEEE expecting to approve the new Wi-Fi 7 standard in May 2024. Wi-Fi 7 offers a theoretical maximum throughput of 46 Gbit/s, and aims to provide 100 times less latency compared to Wi-Fi 6. Other features of Wi-Fi 7 include multi-access point (AP) coordination, enhanced link adaptation and retransmission protocol. Of particular interest to the automation community, it can integrate time-sensitive networking (TSN). This puts Wi-Fi 7 and 5G in direct competition for high-bandwidth requirements in congested areas, which won’t be too much of an issue for the control space when you attend your next sporting event.

One thing’s for certain, wireless capabilities continue to expand by leaps and bounds. www.controlglobal.com

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Ultrasonic flow market growing 7% per year Worldwide revenues are forecast to increase from $900 million in 2022 to $1.26 billion by 2027 THE worldwide ultrasonic flowmeter market will grow at a 6.9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from worldwide revenues of $900 million in 2022 to $1.26 billion by 2027, according to a new research study, “The world market for ultrasonic flowmeters,” 7th edition (www.flowultrasonic.com),

by Flow Research (www.flowresearch.com).

In the few decades since they were introduced, ultrasonic meters have gone from being mistrusted to being the fastestgrowing flowmeter technology in the world. The oil and gas (O&G) industry is the largest consumer of ultrasonic meters by far, and is responsible for much of their rapid adoption and growth. Flow Research found the O&G industry, including refining, accounted for more than 60% of worldwide revenues for inline ultrasonic flowmeters in 2022.

The study reports the role of ultrasonic flowmeters in the oil and gas industry depends heavily on oil prices, which were severely depressed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but recovered in 2021, and strengthened in 2022 to $80-100 per barrel before dropping to $70-80 for much of 2023. However, pent-up demand starting in 2022 kept O&G markets in recovery and growth mode throughout 2023, despite inflation and the impact of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Flow Research adds this period of growth in oil production favored the flowmeter market, especially ultrasonic, Coriolis, turbine, differential pressure and positive displacement meters.

New energy research frontiers The study also found that ultrasonic suppliers are exploring ways to tackle issues that come with measuring oil and gas. These include measuring wet gas and overcoming the effects of contamination, flow disturbances from blockages and buildup inside pipes, lack of adequate straight runs, and problems with costly false alarms. Many ultrasonic meters now incorporate innovative path arrangements, self-verification, enhanced diagnostics, and other features to provide greater accuracy, as well as clearer and more timely views of what’s happening with meters in the field.

Ultrasonic meters will also play a major role as the world shifts from fossil fuels to cleaner energy. They’re being considered for increased use in the renewable energy market, which includes measuring biogas, synthetic fuels, and hydrogen derived from renewable natural gas (RNG) and synthetic fuels. In addition, hydrogen’s physical properties are different from other gases including natural gas, so flowmeter suppliers are adapting to those differences, and figuring out ways for ultrasonic meters to accurately measure hydrogen 20 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

blends. In fact, some ultrasonic manufacturers offer meters that measure hydrogen, and are exploring how to best measure hydrogen and hydrogen blends.

“Ultrasonic flowmeters will play a pivotal role in flow measurement as the world transitions away from fossil fuels. Not only can they easily and accurately measure flows of refined fuels and natural gas, but they're also in the vanguard when it comes to measuring hydrogen and natural gas with hydrogen blends,” says Dr. Jesse Yoder, president of Flow Research. “Natural gas remains a more environmentally friendly source of energy than coal and oil. Despite the attractiveness of renewable energy, it will take years to replace oil and natural gas, given the world’s growing need for energy. Whatever energy sources are chosen, ultrasonic flowmeters will be there to meet measurement needs.”

Profinet ready for use over Ethernet-APL Profibus and Profinet International (PI, www.profibus.com) reported Jan. 9 that it’s successfully completed all requirements including a certification test for using Profinet over Ethernet Advanced Physical Layer (APL) in hazardous process automation applications.

This achievement was based on specification documentation for Ethernet-APL’s intrinsically safe (IS) physical layer.

This two-wire networking protocol was developed by the FieldComm Group, ODVA and OPC Foundation organizations, while corresponding additions were made to Profinet’s specifications by PI’s working groups. www.controlglobal.com

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Another task to prepare Profinet to run on EthernetAPL was updating the organization’s General Station Description over XML (GSDML) specification. The Profile for Profibus PA devices was previously optimized for use with Profinet. To support simple, manufacturer-independent device replacement, corresponding profile GSDs were provided. A GSD is a description of an I/O device from its manufacturer.

To ensure interoperability between products from different suppliers, PI’s Test System Development Group (TSDG) coordinates certification tests. Its scope includes additional APL-specific test cases for checking Profinet communications, establishing an APL-specific test setup for interoperability scenarios, and providing a test for Profile for PA Device functions.

HMS buys Red Lion To expand its presence in North America, HMS Networks AB (www.anybus.com) reported Dec. 11 that it’s agreed to buy Red Lion Controls (www.redlion.net) and

Red Lion Europe GmbH from Spectris Group Holdings for $345 million. This acquisition is expected to close during the first half of 2024.

“We’re happy to welcome Red Lion into the HMS Networks family. The companies are a great match when it comes to products, geographic presence, and cultural aspects,” says Staffan Dahlström, CEO of HMS. “The combination of Red Lion’s product portfolio, which is complementary to HMS’ offering and has limited overlap, and the geographic match with Red Lion’s strong position in the North American market and HMS with its core markets in Europe, will generate good cross-selling opportunities.”

Dahlström adds that Red Lion’s Access products fit well with HMS’ Anybus and Ewon product lines, while Red Lion’s Connect products adds what HMS has been seeking for several years—a strong Ethernet switch solution with a strong market position. Finally, Red Lion’s Visualize products present new opportunities for HMS to explore data visualization, which is becoming more central to industrial automation, and can add value on top of HMS’ connectivity and network products.

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IN PROCESS

SIGNALS AND INDICATORS • T he IO-Link Community (io-link.com) reported Jan. 9 that its IO-Link Wireless protocol has been published by the International Electrotechnical Commission (www. iec.ch) as the IEC 61139-3:2023 standard, “Industrial networks—single-drop digital communication interface—part 3: wireless extensions.”

• T he Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA, www.cisa.gov), FBI and EPA published Jan. 18 a guide to assist users in the water and wastewater systems (WWS) sector with best practices for cybersecurity incident responses. Developed with more than 25 WWS partners, “Incident response guide: water and wastewater sector” is available at www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2024-01/ WWS-Sector_Incident-Response-Guide.pdf.

• A BB (www.abb.com) announced Jan. 18 that it’s acquiring a majority stake in software service provider Meshmind

(meshmind.io) to expand its research and development capabilities in AI, IIoT and machine vision. This acquisition will let ABB integrate engineering talent, AI and software knowledge to form a new global R&D hub.

• SignalFire Wireless Telemetry (www.signal-fire.com) announced Jan. 22 that it’s partnering with Axess-Corrosion (axess.energy) to integrate its Ranger IoT, cellular transmitter into a new pipeline-corrosion monitor. They’re combining the transmitter with a sacrificial-sensing probe that provides data and alarms about corrosion levels.

• Valmet Oyj (www.valmet.com/automation/analyzers-measurements/wastewater/polymer-concentration-measurement-pcm) introduced Jan. 23 its Polymer Concentration Measurement (PCM) solution, which it reports is the first optical, inline polymer measurement technology for municipal and industrial wastewater treatment, as well as pulp and paper processes.

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INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE | SPONSORED CONTENT

Coriolis benefits and savings keep flowing

THOMAS SAUTIER Director, Sensor Product Management

CORIOLIS meters have many benefits and advantages for process industry applications.

Coriolis technology continues to gain popularity with operators because it offers a more direct approach to flow measurement than traditional flowmeters. Control’s editor-in-chief, Len Vermillion, asked Thomas Sautier, director of sensor product management at Emerson, about the innovative capabilities of Coriolis flowmeters, including the Micro Motion GSeries Coriolis flow and density meters, on a recent edition of the Control Amplified podcast (ControlGlobal.com/podcasts). Specifically, they discussed how the technology can benefit industrial applications.

Emerson

Q: Can you tell us what's new and innovative about Micro Motion G-Series Coriolis flow and density meters?

A: Micro Motion G-Series provides the essential features of a dual-tube Coriolis flowmeter in an ultra-compact design, making it easier to acquire and install. For example, the 1-in. line size has a form factor three times smaller than Micro Motion F-Series sensors. This compact size offers lower weight, easier handling, a smaller package, space savings, easier installation and fewer emissions. In addition, G-Series has universal, laser-etched tagging, which includes information on identification and tag numbers.

G-Series meters are easier to size and select with Emerson’s digital tools. It’s also easier to connect and configure with the latest Micro Motion 1600 Compact Transmitter

24 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

with Ethernet and the Micro Motion 4700 Config I/O Transmitter, which offers extended input/output connectivity and wireless Bluetooth for configuration. Finally, G-Series is ready for predictive maintenance with powerful diagnostics and Smart Meter Verification software.

Q: Who might benefit most from these innovations and why?

A: First, large industrial customers, who need a trusted, single-source Coriolis meter for all their measurement needs at the best performance and cost ratio. We want to upgrade their installed base to the latest technology without extra costs, thanks to the most compact Coriolis to match any retrofit installation.

Second, those who must reduce the total installed cost of their project with flowmeters will benefit. G-Series not only offers mechanical installation costs savings because it’s compatible with compact installation and existing piping, but also cabling cost savings because it has two-wire electronic and wireless configuration. It also reduces maintenance costs with Smart Meter Verification, and offers an optimized capital cost for the devices.

Finally, it will benefit anyone looking to replace traditional flow devices to improve safety, reduce energy and minimize emissions. G-Series is a flow game changer, offering drop-in replacement with no extra costs for piping and cabling installation, and better measurement accuracy, as well as available data for digital transformation readiness.

www.controlglobal.com

SPONSORED CONTENT | INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Q: What applications are most suitable for G-Series?

A: G-Series is for all types of flow applications that require a direct mass of volume flow or a density measurement up to 0.1% accuracy for liquid, 0.5% for gas and 5 Kg/m3 for density. It can deliver large flow rangeability with 8:1 turndown for applications up to 100 bar and 150 °C process conditions. It’s available for all line size from ¾ in. to 3 in.

Q: Why is Coriolis' technology, and thus Micro Motion GSeries, an important addition to the market?

A: Coriolis meters have many advantages over other measurement technologies, including direct mass flow measurement capability, no moving parts, and multiviable outputs for density—all in one device. When selecting a Coriolis flowmeter, two major considerations are size and cost. It can be tough to justify a Coriolis meter for a basic application when another technology might be good enough, but the user doesn't get all the benefits they’ll get from a Coriolis flowmeter.

www.controlglobal.com

Micro Motion G-Series increases the overall accessibility of Coriolis technology as a flow measurement solution, which couldn’t previously be considered because of the larger installation measurement footprint or the capital expenses of other solutions. Users value Coriolis accuracy and diagnostics. The size and the cost of Micro Motion G-Series enables using Coriolis technology where it wasn't possible in the past.

Q: Technology changes and innovation evolves, mainly due to the growing needs of industry. What's next for G-Series?

A: The main addition will be the expansion to additional line sizes, such as DN 40 or 1.5 in. This will be the next step for G-Series; the intention is to have a fully scalable portfolio that meets exact application flow ranges.

Also, the release of a hygienic version will be compliant with industrial standards for life sciences and food and beverage applications. It will also be available with all the necessary process condition for sanitary use, and as well as 15 Ra and array, and 30 Ra area finishes for wetted parts.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 25

WIRELESS, MOBILITY AND EDGE COMPUTING

Digitalization combines wireless, mobility and edge computing in new and complementary ways

BY JIM MONTAGUE

Image generated by Shutterstock AI / Shutterstock.com

HEAVY industries (and many lighter ones) are just that— heavy. Their components and facilities must be strong enough to handle the endless volumes of even heavier raw and intermediate materials they process, and withstand the operations required to produce them. And, most must run consistently for decades, even as planned downtime periods for maintenance and repairs get fewer and further between.

Maintaining these epic levels of stability traditionally means bolting down equipment to equally heavy-duty frameworks and infrastructures. However, the push towards digitalization—including recent advances in wireless networking, edge computing, robotics and other technologies—are giving many components and their users greater mobility, freedom and effectiveness than they enjoyed before.

26 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

“Whatever the method or buzzword—wireless, mobility or edge computing—it’s all about getting process data closer to users, and doing it faster and more efficiently,” says Jeffery Francis, system engineer at QDS (www.qdssystems.com), a system integrator in Baton Rouge, La., and a certified member of the Control System Integrators Association (CSIA, www.controlsys.org). “Where we traditionally used hardwiring and PLCs, we’re now doing more wireless networking with seamless technologies that aren’t centralized.”

Room to roam To address wireless capacity during an overall digitalization project, managers at the 101-megawatt (MW) Lucky Peak hydropower plant wanted to give their operators and www.controlglobal.com

WIRELESS, MOBILITY AND EDGE COMPUTING

technicians easier data access throughout the facility, as well as more situational awareness when installing or troubleshooting new devices near the powerhouse’s turbines. To overcome all the electrical interference in this setting, as well as signals blocked by its concrete infrastructure, Lucky Peak recently worked with Phoenix Contact to develop secure wireless networking for their roaming HMIs to provide realtime visibility into the utility’s remote assets, and make the plant more efficient, safe and collaborative.

Located 10 miles southeast of Boise, Idaho, the plant is situated at the foot of the Lucky Peak dam on the Boise River. The 340 x 2,340 ft, rolled-earth dam was built in the 1950s for irrigation and flood control, while the powerhouse was completed in 1988. It’s owned by the Boise-Kuna Irrigation District, and its hydrogeneration plant is operated by Seattle City Light.

Historically, if staffers wanted to view results of adjustments to equipment in the turbine pits, they had to be physically present in the control room. This lack of visibility caused alarm issues due to truncated data. The utility decided digitalization was necessary for efficiency, safety and futureproofing, while its engineers sought a secure, wireless option that would enable user mobility and safety.

Consequently, Lucky Peak implemented Phoenix Contact’s wireless local area network (WLAN) radios to relay data from the web-based Ignition SCADA software system monitoring its turbines and other equipment to Dell Latitude rugged tablet PCs placed in key operational locations (Figure 1). Two of three planned HMIs went live in May 2023, and let users see real-time information, fault data, and the rest of their processes as they work, rather than having to back and forth between the plant and control room. Phoenix Contact’s Network Engineering Services team supported the wireless installation with a site survey, configuration services, and Ignition programming support. The system is also backed up

by Phoenix Contact’s Quint power supplies and surge protection to ensure reliable power.

“We have operators all over the place and all over the plant. The roaming HMIs let them grab a tablet and go up to a piece of equipment—some of which still have manual controls—and make changes with more accuracy and confidence,” says Derek Stone, systems integration specialist at Lucky Peak. “Some of these devices have alarms and shutdowns, so accurate data is especially necessary.”

Ben Prier, senior business development manager for electric power at Phoenix Contact, reports 400 MHz or 900 MHz www.controlglobal.com

would have been ideal frequencies to use in the powerhouse environment to manage the electrical interference and concrete structures, but it wouldn’t give Lucky Peak the data pipeline required for its roaming HMI applications.

“We needed a higher frequency’s shorter wavelength, so we tried 2.4 GHz, which did OK because its signal was stronger,” says Prier. “Because we were under the turbines, we had to double check antenna placement and signal strength.

The tradeoff we were willing to make by using 2.4 GHz gave us a more robust wireless platform for our roaming HMI application. This also let us efficiently separate our newly deployed SCADA/HMI wireless network from their administrative wireless network, which used the 5 GHz spectrum.”

Four legs walk the refinery Just as wireless gets signals and data from inaccessible places, hardware in the form of robots, drones, automated

Figure 1: To give its staff easier data access, real-time visibility and more situational awareness, 101-MW Lucky Peak hydropower plant near Boise, Idaho, developed a secure wireless network for roaming HMIs. They implemented 2.4-GHz, WLAN radios from Phoenix Contact to relay data from the plant’s web-based Ignition SCADA software system monitoring its equipment to Dell Latitude rugged tablet PCs in key areas such as its turbine pits.

Source: Phoenix Contact JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 27

WIRELESS, MOBILITY AND EDGE COMPUTING

guided vehicles (AGV) and autonomous mobile robots (AMR) are following suit to monitor operations, and collect and relay data from hard-to-reach spots on plant-floors or in the field, where people don’t have the time to go or can’t reach even if thy do have the time.

For example, Cosmo Oil Co. (www.cosmo-energy.co.jp) performance tested a quadruped robot from Boston Dynamics (bostondynamics.com) in September at its Yokkaichi refinery in central Japan. Cosmo is collaborating with Yokogawa Electric Corp. (www.yokogawa.com) on this proof-of-concept (PoC) project in a temporarily closed facility at the refinery to determine how well robots can perform equipment and process inspections, and complete maintenance tasks (Figure 2).

“Cosmo refines crude oil into liquid propane (LP) gas, gasoline, jet fuel, diesel and other petroleum products. To ensure safety at our refineries, operators patrol these facilities to monitor the operating status of equipment and detect any anomalies at an early stage,” says Toshihiro Ito, manager of the project/IT system group in the refining and technology department at Cosmo. “With this initiative, we’re targeting the inspections carried out by operators, who walk around the plants to monitor the operating status of equipment and check for anomalies. We believe there’s room for automation in this area. Our desire to make operations more efficient at our refineries matched well with Yokogawa's interest in introducing the use of quadruped robots at such facilities.”

Users communicate with the robot via Wi-Fi, and it’s controlled by registering its walking routes. “We brought the quadruped robot to the refinery, and confirmed it was able to go up and down the stairs,” explains Ariyoshi Tada, associate senior corporate executive officer at Yokogawa Solution Service Corp. “We mainly checked the robot’s walking performance, and conducted the PoC test confirming its usefulness for maintenance activities.”

Cosmo and Yokogawa report they’re also identifying challenges for onsite applications, and selecting points that need to be verified to prepare for further onsite use of the robot.

They also plan to accelerate adoption of other types of digitalization at refineries with an assist from robot-driven inspection and maintenance. Cosmo and Yokogawa add that robots, drones and digital devices will help achieve “refineries where humans, robots and AI can work together,” starting at Cosmo’s Yokkaichi, Chiba and Sakai facilities.

“While I can’t go into specifics, the results of the PoC test were impressive. We can see the potential for using quadruped robots in plants,” adds Ito. “At the same time, we identified issues that will need to be resolved, and will accelerate our efforts to investigate these points. There are many challenges with using latest technologies that can only be uncovered by conducting PoC tests, so it’s important to take that first step.”

28 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

Figure 2: Cosmo Oil Co. performance tests a quadruped robot from Boston Dynamics in September at its Yokkaichi refinery in central Japan. Cosmo collaborated with Yokogawa on this proof-of-concept in a temporarily closed facility at the refinery to learn how well robots can perform inspections and maintenance tasks. Cosmo also held workshops in November at its Chiba refinery near Tokyo on using digitalized tools to improve refinery operations.

Source: Cosmo Oil and Yokogawa

Bring power to the picnic Francis reports that QDS recently collaborated with Mactech Inc. (www.mactechonsite.com) in Red Wing, Minn., to help develop its Stresstech mobile power station for heat treating pipe welds. This device has a series of power ports for insulating blankets, which are wrapped around newly welded pipes for two to four hours to even out their welds. To monitor the power stations, which need to be close to welds where operators may not be able to go, QDS integrated a Micro820 PLC into the power station, and networked it with a Pepwave Wi-Fi and 5G router from Peplink (www.peplink. com), which uses EtherNet/IP protocol, and can identify other devices on a network.

“I developed an HMI application with Aveva Edge, which was formerly InduSoft Web Studio SCADA software running on a laptop. The PLC and router integrated into the Stresstech station lets users monitor and control the entire process using the laptop from anywhere with an Internet connection,” explains Francis. “Pepwave easily establishes a virtual private network (VPN) linked to a centrally located, hardware-based VPN, which also lets users secure any www.controlglobal.com

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device, such as the welding machine or other proprietary equipment it’s connected to.”

Mactech initially had 32 Stresstech units running at a site in West Virginia, sent four to a pipeline in Australia, and deployed another two in Texas. The PLCs and routers QDS integrated let Mactech and its users monitor their mobile power stations, but they can also remotely control setpoints to complete time goals for particular welds and situations, which improves productivity and ease of use. A total of 20 are presently operating in various locations.

Mobile control attracts other players Just as wireless communications and edge computing enable mobile applications, they also allow other functions to join in. For instance, to 3D print aluminum-titanium coatings more quickly onto the decks of two of its aircraft carriers, the U.K.’s Royal Navy (www.royalnavy.mod.uk) and its service engineering firm recently worked with Platinum Electrical Engineering (platinum-eng.co.uk) and Schneider Electric (www.se.com) to build a robot-on-wheels that could apply the coatings in three, high-temperature steps at the required

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ABB (www.abb.com) reported Jan. 11 that it’s acquired Swiss startup Sevensense (www.sevensense.ai), which provides artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled, 3D-vision navigation technology for autonomous mobile robots (AMR).

Each AMR equipped with Sevensense’s vision and AI tools scans a unique part of their location, and uses visual simultaneous localization and mapping (vSLAM) software to collectively combine and complement each other’s views to form a shared map that’s also constantly updated. This allows each AMR to operate independently, make intelligent decisions, such as differentiating between fixed and moving objects, and work alongside people autonomously in rapidly changing environments. ABB adds that Ford Motor Co. will employ its AMRs with vSLAM to improve efficiency its U.S. manufacturing sites, and Michelin plans to use them for intralogistics at its plant in Spain.

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dimensions and throughput to create landing and takeoff capabilities for the F35 lightning fastjet, which wasn’t possible with traditional flight-deck coatings. Located in Newcastle, U.K., Platinum is a system integrator and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm that developed the 7 x 7 x 4 meter, four-wheel-drive, four-wheel steer, autonomous vehicle that includes a multi-axis, linear robot arm from Schneider’s division in Germany.

“This mobile, 3D-printing robot uses a laser-based alignment system, which determines distances and positions, indexes application areas, detect obstacles, and avoids tiedowns and other deck equipment,” says Stephen Maltby, managing director at Platinum. “Its servos and other devices communicate via multiple methods, and directly access onboard PLCs, such as Modicon LMC058 for motion control, via three protocols including Sercos, Modbus and CANbus.”

The Queen Elizabeth- and Prince of Wales-class carriers were launched in 2018, so the mobile robot was enlisted to apply the better-adhering coatings after the vessels entered service. More recently, the 3D-printing vehicle also upgraded from its standard PLC-to-robot communications and controls to an onboard supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA) for real-time production data.

Likewise, Maltby reports that Platinum implemented Aveva software for contract wine bottler Greencroft Bottling Co. (www.greencroftbottling.com) in Durham, U.K. These packages include Aveva Mobile Operator for connecting workforce software, and Aveva Insight that interacts with online historians. They collaborated with Schneider’s Twido PLCs and software to monitor Greencroft’s blending, largecontainer operations and process lines, and receive data from its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

“We can link all assets across Wi-Fi and PLCs to Aveva Insight,” explains Maltby. “This lets us know task statuses, flag equipment, pull up overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) records, show quality checklists, and display individual test results for mobile operations.”

Little edges, big edges Because microprocessors and software can run almost anywhere, they can simultaneously assist and take advantage of wireless and mobile technologies. These flexible, mutual benefits also enable edge computing to be applied in both small- and large-scale applications. On the larger-scale side, certified CSIA member Interstates (www.interstates.com) in Sioux Center, Iowa, recently helped a consumer packaged

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SIEMENS OPENS WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY LAB To help users and developers determine which wireless technologies are the most suitable for their applications and business goals, Siemens (www.siemens.com) opened a 300-square-meter industrial connectivity lab last July in the technology center at its Erlangen campus. The lab can test individual or multiple devices using wireless local area networks (WLAN), private 5G, real-time locating systems (RTLS), radio frequency identification (RFID), digital subscriber line (DSL) or other networking technologies under various industrial, ambient and environmental conditions. The lab also serves as a training and education environment, and is used for Siemens' internal technology tests.

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goods (CPG) manufacturer design a common, standardized, centrally managed, end-to-end, edge-computing stack, which it can deliver to its facilities worldwide. It intends to drop in this stack at individual plants to meet operations technology (OT) computing needs that couldn’t be offloaded to a cloud-computing service due to constraints like local licensing, latency or security issues. This longtime client also wanted to maintain the same support structure, whether it was addressing two to four servers or 20 servers.

“Because edge computing is so fluidly defined, how it’s applied comes down to scale, workloads and objectives the user wants to execute. Edge computing is also location-specific, so its projects typically include sites in data centers, controls and plant operations, HMI and historians and servers, and other broad tasks that are typically prone to network time delays and latency,” says Devin Robertson, systems analyst for OT infrastructure and security at Interstates. “Edge computing is also typically performed by granular, line-specific devices that need to do cybersecurity-related operations. So, because they’re often on isolated networks, they may need to move further up in the network hierarchy to allow communications and relay their data.”

Robertson reports the CPG manufacturer previously had wide variations in its OT computing infrastructure. They had no prior standardization between dozens of facilities worldwide, and each plant was responsible for sourcing, managing and maintaining its own OT computing. These functions consisted of all process controls required to run each plant, including PLCs, DCS, HMI, servers, and supporting security and maintenance tasks.

“Some facilities managed their OT computing well, and had capable servers and local control. However, other plants had patchworks of onsite servers doing different things, so the www.controlglobal.com

WIRELESS, MOBILITY AND EDGE COMPUTING

CPG company undertook a corporate initiative to standardize, and asked Interstates to work with them to design an architecture for an end-to-end, drop-in computing solution,” explains Robertson. “We started by using industry-standard design documents, and integrated those concepts with our own ideas on where we wanted to take this solution. Then, we worked to develop and build a proof of concept (PoC) in a lab environment. Its primary components include Dell’s PowerEdge servers, Cisco’s Ethernet networking, and VMware’s virtualization and storage technologies, such as vSphere and Virtual Storage Area Network (VSAN). All of this is managed by various software packages on top, including VMware’s vCenter software and Dell’s Open Management software.”

Robertson adds that each plant retains its own server rack, and its existing sensors are still networked to its PLCs. The new OT computing stack at each plant only manages controls for that site, while Interstates also consolidates data from each of them into a standardized, central management plane.

So how does Interstates and its CPG client decide which data processing applications to run on its local computing stack and which to run in the cloud? Robertson reports that, if a workload or process is necessary for a production process to run safely under normal conditions, then it should happen at the plant.

“If you’re running a critical process in the cloud and it requires a wide area network (WAN) connection to talk to OT hardware such as PLCs, then you couldn’t run it if that WAN was interrupted. You’d also be wasting the process on bad product, and risking safety issues or damage to machinery. For example, if you have an active directory for logins or authenticating staff, and its domain controller is in an IT or OT cloud that www.controlglobal.com

loses its WAN link, then users and service accounts could quickly run into authentication issues,” says Robertson. “However, with standardized OT computing and a read-only domain controller at the plant, if there’s an outage in the WAN link, then users can keep their processes and operations running, and report up to the cloud when the WAN is back up. Anything a plant needs to make product, and do it safely and securely, should be locaated at the plant. It may be 2024, but outages are still a major issue for many facilities and compnies.”

Robertson adds that implementing Interstates’ drop-in OT computing solution benefited its CPG client by standardizing its hardware and software deployments, simplifying its management and licensing tasks, and improving its cybersecurity with standardization that reduces its risk

footprint and provides a clearer path to remediating vulnerabilities.

“We replaced a hodgepodge of inconsistent hardware and software with consolidated and controlled server models, along with new procedures that provided more predictable and auditable access control,” says Robertson. “This makes life easier for the client’s dedicated team that supports its deployed solutions. Plus, plant personnel can offload server infrastructure maintenance to that team, which is something they’re happy to get off their plate. And, standardizing the server infrastructure into a handful of predictable devices shrinks the client’s overall security exposure. Where they used to have 20 different server models that each needed unique updates, they now have just one to three models to update monthly or quarterly, which is much cleaner."

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 33 1/24/24 1:42

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE | SPONSORED CONTENT

Embracing open automation for tomorrow’s plant operations UPGRADING the operations of a plant most likely involves automation. Software-centric open automation streamlines operations while increasing collaboration and productivity in industrial environments. So, what’s the true value of open automation to industry?

To get the answer, Control’s editor-in-chief, Len Vermillion, talked to Domenico Napoli, future offers leader for process automation at Schneider Electric, during a recent episode of the Control Amplified podcast (controlglobal.com/podcasts).

DOMENICO NAPOLI Future Offers Leader, Process Automation Schneider Electric

Q: How does software-centric, open automation increase the choices for industrial operators seeking to upgrade process control in their plants?

A: Traditionally, when thinking about process control, a lot of us understand that any type of advancement or improvement in a plant needs more automation. Now, when we think about open automation, it gives us more choices, not only to operators or owners, but also to end users, OEMs and system integrators. We're embarking on a world of plug-and-produce.

This isn’t the typical world we have today, where it's plug and engineer and test, figure out what went wrong, and do it all over again.

At Schneider Electric, and working with our partners, we want to overcome the misperceptions that it's impossible to achieve a world where we can get to plug-and-produce, and simplify how different automation technologies and automation vendors all play together.

Q: Let's talk about those misconceptions.

Can you discuss the process of what you and your partners are doing to help industry get past them?

A: A lot of people think, since it's open, there is an increased cybersecurity risk—everyone

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has access to it. I want to make sure that everyone has the same understanding. When we say “open,” it doesn't mean fully opensource like many of us are familiar with in the software world. Open, in this case, means it's easier to communicate across multiple different vendors. We can easily have an automation system that includes more than one vendor, and they all work nicely together and talk easily to each other. However, today we must consider gateways and protocol conversions and all those items that can potentially add risk and complexity to getting it started and long-term maintenance. This is simplified in open automation.

Q: Do you think industry understands the misconceptions may not really be as big a problem as they think?

A: I think everybody understands the problems that we have today, and everyone is looking for solutions to overcome these challenges and complexities in the automation space. They’re aware, and are looking at what's out there and what's available that can help minimize risk and remove complexities wherever possible.

Q: A basic understanding of open automation means we can segregate software from hardware, but what does that enable?

What's the advantage?

A: When we talk about segregating software from hardware, think of the world that we have today with laptops and cell phones, where you have a lot of different hardware vendors and manufacturers using the same underlying software. That's what we want in the industrial automation space, making sure everyone can use the same software, but run that software on their specific hardware or any vendor's hardware.

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SPONSORED CONTENT | INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

This impacts us in different ways.

Now, if we like a piece of software or hardware, we don't have to stay tied to that specific vendor for everything. Open automation lets us have fit-for-purpose hardware selections based on what we need to do and where we need to do it, and all running the same software on different hardware variations. Today, many automation solutions limit your hardware selections, and gates close the minute you want to go and use something from a different automation vendor.

Protocol transfers and transfer tables also come into play, as well as the extra engineering and complexity required to communicate seamlessly.

Q: That increases organizational collaboration. So, what's the collaborative advantage of open automation?

A: It provides an opportunity for collaboration across all automation vendors in industrial automation. If we look at industrial automation systems today, everybody needs to achieve the same thing. But I’d say no one is an expert in any particular thing, except for a couple of manufacturers.

Let's look at intrinsic safety (IS).

Most automation vendors today might have some IS expertise, but it's not their core business. However, there are other manufacturers whose core business is IS. Leveraging open

automation lets us connect the experts in a specific field or with a specific item without having so much added integration costs. Open automation means being able to work with the experts and what they do best, and leveraging that expertise as part of a holistic solution for our customers.

It also helps when we want to reduce and streamline risk. Minimizing potential points of failure is another area where open automation helps. I think most plants have more than one automation provider, and all of these are usually interfaced with each other through gateways and software protocol conversions. Leveraging open automation reduces all of those potential points of failure, and streamlines your operations and automation architecture. You don't need those gateways anymore because everybody's talking

LISTEN TO MORE Check out the Control Amplified podcast for more from Domenico Napoli, including a pair of use cases that illustrate the advantages of open automation. Listen at controlglobal.com/podcasts.

www.controlglobal.com

the same language and using the same software.

We have engineering tools we've developed at Schneider Electric, such as EcoStruxure™ Automation Expert, which can configure a control strategy once, and eventually deploy to whatever hardware we choose that's part of the open automation family.

There's a lot of other collaboration as well, when we think about how the workforce is changing, and how we can apply different types of programming into an automation platform with which more people are familiar.

When we think of the typical programming of industrial automation today, we typically think about the cyclical way of programming versus event-driven automation programming in the IT space. Schneider Electric adopted a new event-driven base of programming, which now opens the doors to a lot more people who are familiar with that type of programming. It opens the potential workforce that end users and customers have access to without having to retrain them on how to program in a cyclical way.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 35

MOTORS & DRIVES

Cakebread Cellars and Novate Solutions create a high-tech process at its wineries to solve power grid challenges

by Len Vermillion

WINE is a delicate product. Even the subtlest changes can mean the difference between serving a fine wine or a table wine. However, those subtleties start long before the cork pops. The distinctive quality of wine begins at the vineyard, where the winemaking process is an artform requiring precise timing, accuracy and cooling.

Cakebread Cellars (www.cakebread.com) is known for its award-winning wines produced at 18 vineyards from Napa Valley to Anderson Valley in northern California. While the region’s favorable weather and terrain produce exceptional grapes, it also presents challenges to the winemaking process. California's wildfires and subsequent power outages aimed at preventing more fires often produce instability in utility grids, which can put at risk the delicate balance of temperatures needed during the harvesting, crushing and fermenting processes.

“We age finished tanks at 50-60 °F, which is optimal because that's where the wine is most protected,” says Robert Wallace, winery facilities manager at Cakebread.

Temperatures during fermenting need to be regulated, so there's no damage to the yeast, which can cause unwanted problems. During aging, wine needs to be kept at a regulated temperature, so it doesn't get too cold and allow oxygen to permeate the wine. “Oxygen is not wine’s worst enemy, but it's not its best friend either,” Wallace adds.

So, maintaining a stable temperature during fermentation and aging is crucial because even slight fluctuations can change the wine's characteristics. Fluctuations in available power and regional weather patterns makes process reliability paramount at Cakebread Cellars’ glycol chiller facility. This is why an organic compound liquid that acts much like radiator fluid circulates through the tanks to extract 36 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

www.controlglobal.com

MOTORS & DRIVES

The egg hall in Cakebread Cellars glycol chiller plant ferments and ages wine. Wine temperatures must remain in a range of 5060 °F. Source: Alexander Rubin Photography

www.controlglobal.com

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 37

MOTORS & DRIVES

heat and keep the wine in the 50-60 °F range. Reliability is particularly vital during the windy summer months, when harvest and production are at their peak. However, this is also when California's power grid stresses and frequent outages are most prevalent.

And Cakebread Cellars has certainly had its close calls. In the 2010s, the winery experienced three years of wildfire-induced interruptions to its processes. At the time, it didn’t have a reliable backup system. Luckily, outside temperatures were cool enough to enable using nitrogen to cool the tanks. After that experience, they knew it was time to come up with a reliable solution.

Cakebread understood the importance of having a trusted partner to help design a reliable process, and enlisted Novate Solutions Inc. (novate. com) in West Sacramento, Calif. Novate is a vertically integrated technology partner specializing in designing, implementing, and supporting industrial technology solutions.

“Our challenge from a controls perspective was to not only meet the thermodynamic needs of the plant and maintain fermentation precisely, but also to deal with a lack of stability in the grid,” says Carlos Rogers, president and CEO of Novate.

Pouring over control challenges The winery’s chilled glycol plant needed a fully integrated solution with the flexibility to use power from multiple sources. Cakebread already generated some of its electricity using a gas turbine, but it wasn't enough to power the entire glycol chiller. Novate proposed incorporating multiple power feeds into the system, including backup generators, turbines and the utility grid. The plan also included a condenser to ensure continuous glycol flow, even during power outages, by connecting a generator to a 300-amp feed that kept the compressors and refrigeration yard operational. The two 38 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

Barrels of wine stored at Cakebread Cellars. Source: Alexander Rubin Photography

panels could draw power from different sources when needed to ensure a consistent supply.

California PUC Rule 21 regulates industrial customers generating their own electricity, meaning Novate’s approach to the glycol plant required collaboration with the plant team and the local utility. The plant needed to communicate with the generation system to predict when compressors or pumps should start or stop operations. California PUC Rule 21 prohibits exporting power back to the utility, so there’s a ceiling to how much energy could be generated onsite.

Novate selected a combination of ABB’s (www.abb.com) ACS580 variable frequency drives (VFD) and an ABB softstarter, each equipped with a fieldbus interface to provide realtime status with the generator and the plant’s control system. This arrangement ensured compliance with the rule and optimized operation of the chilled glycol plant.

Rogers reports the winery selected ABB’s units because they could integrate plant demands and collate close

to real-time data collated in a unified environment. “ABB did a phenomenal job providing the construct that made this possible,” he says.

The ACS580 drives proved to be a reliable solution with an easy-to-use fieldbus interface that seamlessly integrated with Cakebread's existing control system. ACS580 is part of ABB's all-compatible drives portfolio with a consistent architecture and user interface. The ultra-low harmonic feature of ABB’s ACS drives play a crucial role in harmonic management, mitigating line noise, and preventing the need for costly, oversized backup generators.

In addition, Novate wanted to develop a hyper-flexible, chilled glycol system that lets Cakebread control its different aspects. “This is quite different than a typical package chiller we’d see in a food processing or semiconductor plant or other places,” Rogers says.

The glycol chiller plant needed separate, independent controls for each of the compressors, the cooling tower system and the pumping system because they not only pump chilled glycol but also condenser water. www.controlglobal.com

MOTORS & DRIVES

These requirements meant reducing compressor availability to reduce the electricity being drawn, and balancing it with the heat load.

“It’s a fine line. It requires sophisticated automation software to monitor the load on the pump, the actual current through the interfaces, and whether we have predominantly VFDs,” adds Rogers. “We also have some soft starters, so we're watching those, too. We're reducing the current introduced by equipment starts and stops.

We're also reducing it to stay within the confines of our ability to generate on-premise. Or during certain periods, they bring in a backup diesel generator just as a spare."

Reducing downtime in the process A single day of the chilled glycol plant being offline could result in a loss of an entire year's production. That’s because, when the ambient temperature gets too hot, the yeast starts to get out of control and can change the characteristics of the wine.

To mitigate downtime, Novate set up a process that’s essentially “two plants operated by one brain,” according to Rogers. They designed a system so that half the plant can use online power, while the other half switches over to temporary, generator power. It’s a hyper-flexible system that, regardless of local environmental characteristics, balances the winery’s thermodynamic needs by rejecting the right amount of heat.

To build this hybrid system, Cakebread and Novate combined ABB technologies with software developed to adapt to all of the environmental characteristics of the plant. “So, when I just need the chiller, I turn it on. When I'm done chilling, I turn it off,” Rogers explains. “But we actually throttle up and throttle down based on thermodynamic demands as well as electrical availability.

We also calculate total energy used by the glycol-based chilled water system.”

The process also has two separate electrical feeds, so operators can understand what each is drawing and balance them.

Cakebread Cellars tank room at its Rutherford Winery.

Source: Alexander Rubin Photography

www.controlglobal.com

Though the feeds are separate, they ultimately result in one loop, which becomes like two power generators on the same grid. They can reject more heat by running everything, and reject less heat by running less equipment and balancing it.

Cakebread operates two wineries, one located across a creek from the other. The glycol chiller plant is housed at the Rutherford Winery. The Oakville Winery is just a five-minute walk down a path. The system is set up in Rutherford, but it’s expected the same hybrid process will be set up at Oakville in the future.

Assurances and reliability The new hybrid control process has yielded stellar results. Wallace estimates the chiller used to be down 5060% of the time before instituting their new process. The days of having a refrigeration tech onsite almost every day and nursing the old system are long over, and he reports that Cakebread appreciates the reliability assurances of its new system.

The solution also involved integrating VFDs, soft starters and other equipment into a UL508A control panel that's cooled by the chilled-glycol system. Due to limited space, combining ABB's compact ACS580 drives and the water-cooled industrial control panel proved to be optimal for Cakebread's demanding operation.

Redundancy was the design philosophy for providing those assurances.

The system is set up like a twin-engine airplane, so there’s still a way to fly if one engine goes down. The same concept applies to Cakebread’s new process for winemaking.

“It provides a mechanism that allows us in a pinch, even in the worst time like the middle of harvest, to isolate one system and service it while the other side continues to carry that thermodynamic load and prevent us from losing control of the process,” Rogers says.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 39

The Leaders in Automation program recognizes innovation, leadership and excellence among suppliers of automation software, technology and products.

40 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

www.controlglobal.com

www.controlglobal.com

Ametek Process Instruments

42

DigiKey Electronics

43

Emerson Electric Co.

44

Emerson Micro Motion

45

Endress+Hauser

46

Fuji Electric Corp.

47

Inductive Automation

48

Load Controls

49

Moore Industries

50

Motion

51

Pepperl+Fuchs

52

ProComSol

53

RS Americas

54

SafetyChain Software

55

Schneider Electric Systems

56

Tadiran Batteries

57

VEGA Americas

58

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 41

AMETEK PROCESS SCHNEIDER INSTRUMENTS ELECTRIC

AMETEK Process Instruments is a leading provider of process gas analyzers used worldwide by markets ranging from oil, gas, and power to pharmaceutical and semiconductor chip manufacturing. We focus our experience on designing innovative analyzers that help our customers reach higher levels of productivity and quality.

We achieve this by finding ways to overcome the limitations of current methods of process monitoring, control, and quality assurance. Through this focus we have created some of the most capable technologies in the world.

Our primary focus in analyzer design is reliability.

We understand that you must have confidence that the analyzer will provide the correct information when you need it. It is a documented fact that many of our analyzers have been in service for well over 20 years.

A business unit of the Process and Analytical Instruments division of AMETEK, Inc., we are part of a global corporation with a growth plan founded on four key strategies: Operational Excellence, Strategic Acquisitions, Global & Market Expansion and New Products

AMETEK Process Instruments 150 Freeport Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15238

+1 412 828 9040

42 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

sales.ametekpi@ametek.com

www.ametekpi.com

www.controlglobal.com

DIGIKEY

Enabling the world’s ideas DigiKey is a global distributor of more than 15.3 million electronic and automation products from over 2,900 quality name-brand manufacturers. The company’s reputation extends worldwide as the original industry pioneer and provider of 1.9 million in-stock parts ready for immediate shipment. With products available in both design and production quantities, DigiKey is the best resource for designers and buyers alike.

The key service differentiators that made DigiKey who they are today have laid the foundation for what DigiKey brings to the world of automation tomorrow. Through the use of digital tools, industry-leading supplier partnerships, and an unrivaled breadth of products, DigiKey paves the way as a one-stop shop to serve customers in a unique automation landscape.

DigiKey is the preferred supplier for industrial automation, control and safety products, carrying a broad portfolio including advanced controls like PLCs, HMIs, motion, safety and robotics.

DigiKey provides detailed technical resources and robust search functionality to help you find the exact parts you need, including a range of digital tools, on-demand multimedia library, comprehensive article library, community forums, and more.

The company’s 2.2 million square foot Product Distribution Center expansion allows DigiKey to meet and exceed customers’ expectations more efficiently.

From prototype to production, DigiKey has the resources and products to take your design to the next level! Learn more at www.digikey.com/automation.

DigiKey

701 Brooks Ave S., Thief River Falls, MN 56701 800/344-4539

www.controlglobal.com

sales@digikey.com

www.digikey.com

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 43

EMERSON

We drive innovation that makes the world healthier, safer, smarter and more sustainable.

Emerson, founded in 1890, has established itself as a leading global technology and software company, dedicated to providing innovative solutions across a wide range of essential industries. Its robust automation portfolio enables hybrid, process, and discrete manufacturers to enhance operational efficiency, ensure personnel safety, reduce emissions, and meet sustainability objectives.

The company's diverse footprint spans various sectors such as automotive, chemical, hydrocarbons, food and beverage, industrial energy, life sciences and medical, marine, mining, minerals and metals, oil and gas, packaging and filling, power generation, pulp and paper, refining, water, and wastewater. Emerson's Systems and Software division, headquartered in Round Rock, features notable brands such as DeltaV, Ovation, and AMS, which play a pivotal role in functioning as the 'central nervous system' of these facilities.

These brands are integral to Emerson's commitment to innovation and operational excellence, helping a wide array of industries achieve greater efficiency and sustainability.

With a significant global footprint, Emerson operates 130 manufacturing locations worldwide and has a workforce of over 65,000 employees. To discover more about Emerson's contributions to various industries and its innovative solutions, visit Emerson.com.

Emerson

1100 W Louis Henna Blvd, Round Rock, TX 78681 +1 888 889 9170

44 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

insidesales@emerson.com

www.emerson.com

www.controlglobal.com

EMERSON

We drive innovation that makes the world healthier, safer, smarter and more sustainable.

Emerson is a global leader in automation technology and software. We help customers in critical industries, like energy, chemical, power and renewables, life sciences and factory automation operate more sustainably while improving productivity, energy security and reliability.

Micro Motion G-Series Flow and Density Meter Micro Motion G-Series meters offer the most compact dual-tube designs available and are ideally suited for process monitoring and optimization applications across all industries, offering easy selection with pre-configured models, simple installation, quick connectivity with the latest Micro Motion Transmitters 4200, 1600, 4700 and 5700, and streamlined maintenance with Smart Meter Verification™.

Micro Motion 4700 Transmitter Config I/O Coriolis Transmitter Compact, backwards compatible, and fully configurable using the local operator interface, the Micro Motion™ 4700 Transmitter featuring Bluetooth® Technology provides advanced and scalable diagnostic features to make your operations smarter and more efficient.

Micro Motion 1600 Transmitter With a compact and light design, the 1600 transmitter delivers ease of integration with a native Ethernet connection and Power over Ethernet. A suite of powerful software solutions provide measurement confidence and valuable process insight in the most challenging applications. The data historian feature captures rich information about process events, fluid quality, and measurement stability - over long and short periods of time.

Emerson

8000 W Florissant Ave, Saint Louis, MO 63136 go.emersonautomation.com/contact-us

www.controlglobal.com

www.emerson.com

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 45

ENDRESS+HAUSER USA

We support our customers in improving their products and in manufacturing them even more efficiently.

Endress+Hauser is a global leader in measurement instrumentation, services and solutions for industrial process engineering. They provide process solutions for flow, level, pressure, liquid analysis, gas analysis, temperature, recording and digital communications, optimizing processes in terms of economic efficiency, safety and environmental impact. The company serves a variety of industries, including chemical, oil & gas, food & beverage, water & wastewater, life sciences, power & energy, and primaries & metals.

Endress+Hauser, a Switzerland-based company, was founded in 1953, and expanded operations to the U.S. in 1970. More than 80% of all Endress+Hauser instruments ordered and shipped within the U.S. are manufactured in the U.S. This means customers can rely on Endress+Hauser to deliver the products they need quickly. This strong manufacturing base is complimented by a complete network of sales partners and service locations to support its customers – wherever their instruments are installed.

Premium services, customized solutions, project management and IIoT applications round out Endress+Hauser’s offering, helping customers gain efficiency, increase quality and maximize plant availability.

Endress+Hauser USA

2350 Endress Place, Greenwood, IN 46143, United States +1-317-535-7138

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info.us@endress.com

www.us.endress.com

www.controlglobal.com

FUJI ELECTRIC CORP OF AMERICA

Our mission is to contribute to the creation of a responsible and sustainable society through our energy and environment businesses, and as part of our Management Policy, we strive to become a global growth company by leveraging our diverse human resources and the strength of the team as a whole.

Fuji Electric Corp of America is a leader in supplying the Americas with all types of power and electronic products ranging from semiconductors, photoconductors, HMIs, instrumentation, AC Drives, ring compressors and blowers, contactors, relays, power generation equipment, transit equipment, power supplies, uninterruptible power supply systems. Our commitment to our customers continues to remain a top priority. When you work with Fuji Electric, you aren’t just getting a manufacturer of quality products — you’re getting a partner who can support your business to overcome challenges. That’s what the Pinnacle of Performance and Reliability is all about — products with the best quality, world-class applications expertise, and unwavering dedication to help your business reach new levels of success.

We celebrated the 100th anniversary of “Fuji Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd” in 2023. In August 1923, our predecessor Fuji Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd. was established through the capital and technical partnership of Furukawa Electric of Japan and Siemens of Germany. Fuji Electric Corp. of America celebrated 50 years in the United States in 2020. Fuji Electric has created a number of new businesses during the nearly 100 years since our founding. A single theme has linked each of these—that of “Power Electronics Technology” combining power semiconductors, circuits, control systems, and similar technologies. Fuji Electric now aims to become a leading-edge company in “energy and the environment” by building upon our core platform of five technology fields which unlock the potential of electricity—energy, industrial systems, social systems, power electronics, and electronic devices.

Fuji Electric Corp of America 50 Northfield Avenue, Edison, NJ 08837

866-238-5126

www.controlglobal.com

fea-marketing@fujielectric.com

https://americas.fujielectric.com/

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 47

INDUCTIVE AUTOMATION

At Inductive Automation, our mission is to create industrial software that empowers our customers to swiftly turn great ideas into reality by removing all technological and economic obstacles.

Inductive Automation produces industrial automation software that reduces frustration and increases efficiency.

Ignition by Inductive Automation® is a universal industrial application platform. It empowers users to connect to all of the data across their enterprise, rapidly develop any type of industrial automation system, and scale their systems in any way, without limits. Ignition also offers unlimited extensibility through the addition of fully integrated modules. With Ignition, users can create a variety of seamlessly integrated industrial solutions.

SCADA: Control, track, display, and analyze your process.

IloT: Make your data more accessible and efficient with MQTT. Enterprise: Empower teams with better data to make smarter decisions.

Digital Transformation: One platform for collecting data, connecting devices, integrating systems, visualizing operations, and deploying solutions all across your organization.

HMI: Build optimized screens to monitor and control your machinery.

Alarming: Build complex alarming systems and get notifications instantly.

Reporting: Create and deliver dynamic, database-driven industrial reports.

Mobile: Easily build full-fledged monitoring and control applications in HTML5 with the Ignition Perspective Module.

MES: Track your production, manage recipes, calculate OEE, and more.

Power Monitoring: Centrally monitor, control, and optimize your power supply.

Ignition Edge: Capture, process, and visualize critical data at the remote edge of your network.

Ignition Cloud Edition: Extend your enterprise operations, leverage elastic architectures, and securely host and deploy solutions on leading cloud platforms.

Inductive Automation 90 Blue Ravine, Folsom, CA, 95630

1-800-266-7798

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info@inductiveautomation.com

inductiveautomation.com

www.controlglobal.com

LOAD CONTROLS, INC.

Load Controls’ mission is to accelerate the industrial world’s transition to sustainability, promoting energy efficiency by protecting and optimizing electric motors and the processes they power.

Load Controls was incorporated in 1984 with the vision of providing motor power sensors to the process manufacturing world. Decades later, that remains our focus, with a full product portfolio and over five thousand happy customers, with hundreds of thousands of controls installed to mark our progress.

We sell our products directly around the globe, and through pump equipment distributors and electric component supply partners. Our sensors and controls are in use by 9 of the 10 world’s largest chemical processing firms, 9 of the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies globally and 7 of the 10 largest global paper and pulp processing manufacturers.

We are based in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, in our own “mini-mill” brick building, a modern replica of the many red brick buildings that dot our regional landscape.

We manufacture all our controls and sensors here in Massachusetts.

In August 2022, Load Controls’ quality management system achieved the ISO9001:2015 Certification. For more information on this or our products, go to loadcontrols.com or contact us at sales@loadcontrols.com.

Load Controls, Inc.

53 Technology Park Rd. Sturbridge, MA 01566 888-600-3247

www.controlglobal.com

sales@loadcontrols.com

loadcontrols.com

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 49

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC MOORE INDUSTRIES-INTERNATIONAL, INC.

Our mission: Making tough and reliable products.

Continue being a world leader in the design and manufacture of interface instruments for industrial process control, system integration, and factory automation. Provide nothing less than the best quality in process industry products and exceptional services as our success isn’t possible without loyal customers and relationships.

Moore Industries-International, Inc. is a world leader in the design and manufacture of exceptionally rugged, reliable and high-quality field and DIN rail-mounted instrumentation for the process monitoring and control industries. Product lines include temperature transmitters and assemblies; functional safety solutions; signal isolators and converters; alarms trips and trip amplifiers; I/P and P/I converters; remote I/O and RTUs; HART® gateways, monitors and interfaces; and more. Our worldwide sales and support offices provide excellent customer service and solutions for many industries including: chemical, petrochemical, utilities, petroleum extraction and refining, pulp and paper, food and beverage, mining and metal refining, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology.

Moore Industries-International, Inc. 16650 Schoenborn Street, North Hills, California 91343

(818) 894-7111

50 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

info@miinet.com

https://www.miinet.com/

www.controlglobal.com

MOTION SCHNEIDER AUTOMATION ELECTRICINTELLIGENCE (MOTION AI)

Motion Automation Intelligence (Motion Ai) is the leading high-tech solution provider for industrial automation across the United States. The expertise found in this group includes emerging automation technologies with focused solutions engineering for machine and motion control, pneumatics, robotics, machine vision, digital networking/ IIoT, industrial framing and custom mechatronic systems.

Motion Ai’s engineering expertise and vast distribution network serve to implement automation solutions for a diverse set of end markets and applications. Many industries, including semiconductor, pharmaceutical, medical, logistics, automotive, aerospace and many more, benefit from Motion Ai applying best-in-class engineered systems, products and services.

Motion Ai serves various industries, including automotive, defense/military, agriculture, material handling, metals, textiles, food and beverage, construction, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, plastics, semiconductors and more.

Whether it’s motion control, industrial networking or robotics, Motion Ai’s automation specialists provide product selection, sizing and configuration, technical support and application engineering services customized for specific automation needs. Other engineered solutions include motor controls, electric panels and machine-level controls that network to customers’ manufacturing controls.

Motion Ai also supplies parts and entire assemblies, simplifying its customers’ supply chain. Motion Ai helps customers design and implement a trusted solution to decrease downtime and ultimately increase ROI.

Motion Automation Intelligence (Motion Ai) 1605 Alton Road, Birmingham, AL 35210

800-AUTOMATE

www.controlglobal.com

info@ai.motion.com

Ai.Motion.com

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 51

PEPPERL+FUCHS, INC.

As a pioneer in electrical explosion protection and a recognized expert in functional safety, Pepperl+Fuchs has been developing components and solutions for over 70 years. Our expertise in hazardous areas enables us to offer a complete range of technologically advanced solutions that are tailored to individual applications and geared toward future requirements.

Our wide-ranging process automation portfolio includes intrinsic safety isolators, Zener barriers, signal conditioners, fieldbus technology, remote I/O, HART interfaces, level measurement, purge and pressurization systems, Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) for hazardous environments, mobile computing and communications for hazardous areas, surge protection, custom cabinets, and junction boxes.

In addition, the Pepperl+Fuchs Solution Engineering Centers (SECs) around the world offer customized system solutions complete with hazardous-location certification and documentation. We create customer-focused solutions for a large variety of industries including oil and gas, petrochemical, chemical, and pharmaceutical, as well as wastewater treatment plants and power technology.

Whether conventional applications or complex tasks—turning forward-looking concepts such as Ethernet-APL into real innovations, integrating mobile devices for hazardous areas into your processes, and providing new digital products and services for automation—this is how we pave the way for the future of automation.

Pepperl+Fuchs continuously optimizes its processes to supply you with state-of-the-art technology and highend products you can count on. Our technical experts provide automation solutions to virtually every area of the world in our more than 40 subsidiaries on 6 continents. Around the world and in our own backyard, Pepperl+Fuchs sets the benchmark for excellence in automation, and has been named by the ARC Advisory Group—the leading technology research and advisory firm for industry, infrastructure, and cities—as one of the Top 50 Global Automation Companies.

Pepperl+Fuchs, Inc.

1600 Enterprise Parkway Twinsburg, OH 44087 330-425-3555

52 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

sales@us.pepperl-fuchs.com

www.pepperl-fuchs.com

www.controlglobal.com

our reputation with reliable USB HART modems certified by the FieldComm Our new Foundation Fieldbus (FF) most products follow in this tradition of innovation The HMUSB- ISO HART Modem is the cost-effective certified USBand H DevComFF.Win, released in 2021, provides full FF communicator capabilities using t available. transmitter DD for Windows. DevComFF.Droid, released in 2022, also provides full F communicator capabilities, but for Android devices.

ProComSol

We are known for several technical innovations. Among them is our Bluetoo ProComSol has always been a member of the FieldComm Group. We are committed modem which improving first appeared marketandinoffering 2005.high This makes usand theinnovat first the HART on and the FF protocols quality, reliable, these robust technologies. you dotonot see products or features tha capabilities forproducts HART using users.

We were also theIf first offer products based need, please contact us. We promise to work hard to meet your needs. technology. Our DevComDroid Smart Communicator App for Android, rele the first product to offer full DD capabilities on the Android platform. Our D for Apple products was released in 2017 - also an industry first.

Our HART Communicator software products (DevCom2000, DevComDroid iOS) have established themselves as the only real alternatives to expensive DevCom2000 was originally released in 2006. Constant and steady improv years have made DevCom2000 reliable, convenient, and feature rich.

ProComSol, (Process Communications Solutions) was founded in This means the TheLtd DevCom family of products also fully support HART-IP. 2005 dedicated to providing products for users of process communicawith the upcoming Advanced Physical Layer hardware (Ethernet-APL). tions technology. We established our reputation with reliable USB HART Suite 220, Lakewood, OH, 44107HART USA modems 13001 certifiedAthens by theAve, FieldComm Group.

The HM-USB-ISO Our new Foundation Fieldbus (FF) products follow in this tradition of innova Modem isPhone: the most cost-effective certifiedEmail: USB HART Modem available.

216/221-1550 sales@procomsol.com

ProComSol

DevComFF.Win, released in 2021, provides full FF communicator capabilitie www.procomsol.com transmitter DD for Windows. DevComFF.Droid, released in 2022, also provi We are known for several technical innovations. Among them is our but for Android devices.

Bluetoothcommunicator HART modemcapabilities, which first appeared on the market in 2005.

This makes us the firstLtd to offer wireless capabilities forSolutions) HART users.

ProComSol, (Process Communications was founded in 2005 always been based a member of the FieldComm Group. We are c We were ProComSol also the first has to offer products on SDC-625 technology. to providing products for users of process communications technology. We improving the HART and FF protocols and offering high quality, reliable, an Our DevComDroid Smartwith Communicator for Android, our reputation reliable USBApp HART modemsreleased certifiedin by the FieldComm products using these robust technologies.

If you do not see products or fe 2014, is the first product to offer full DD capabilities on the Android The HMUSB- ISO HART Modem is the most cost-effective certified USB H please contact promise to work hard to meet platform.need, Our DevCom.iOS Appus. for We Apple products was released in your needs. available.

2017 - also an industry first.

We are known for several technical innovations. Among them is our Bluetoo

Our HART Communicator software products (DevCom2000, DevCommodem which first appeared on the market in 2005. This makes us the first Droid, and DevCom. iOS) have established themselves as the only real capabilities for HART users. We were also the first to offer products based alternatives to expensive communicators. DevCom2000 was originally Our DevComDroid Smart Communicator App for Android, rele released technology. in 2006. Constant and steady improvements over the years theDevCom2000 first product to offer full DD capabilities on the Android platform. Our D have made reliable, convenient, and feature rich. for Apple products was released in 2017 - also an industry first.

The DevCom family of products also fully support HART-IP. This Ourcan HART Communicator softwareAdvanced products Physical (DevCom2000, means they be used with the upcoming Layer DevComDroid have established themselves as the only real alternatives to expensive hardwareiOS) (Ethernet-APL).

DevCom2000 was originally released in 2006. Constant and steady improv

Our Foundation Fieldbus products follow in this tradition ofand in- feature rich. years have made(FF) DevCom2000 reliable, convenient, novation and quality. DevComFF.Win, released in 2021, provides full FF communicator capabilities using the transmitter for Windows.

The DevCom family of products also fully DD support HART-IP. This means the DevComFF.Droid, released in 2022, also provides full FF communicawith the upcoming Advanced Physical Layer hardware (Ethernet-APL). tor capabilities, but for Android devices.

Our new Foundation Fieldbus (FF) products follow in this tradition of innova

ProComSol has always been a member of the FieldComm Group. We DevComFF.Win, released in 2021, provides full FF communicator capabilitie are committed to improving the HART and FF protocols and offering transmitter DD for Windows. DevComFF.Droid, released in 2022, also provi high quality, reliable, and innovative products using these robust techcommunicator capabilities, but for Android devices. nologies. If you do not see products or features that you need, please contact us. We promise to work hard to meet your needs.

ProComSol has always been a member of the FieldComm Group. We are c improving the HART and FF protocols and offering high quality, reliable, an products using these robust technologies. If you do not see products or fe need, please contact us. We promise to work hard to meet your needs.

ProComSol

13001 Athens Ave, Suite 220, Lakewood, OH, 44107 USA 216/221-1550

www.controlglobal.com

sales@procomsol.com

www.procomsol.com

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 53

Collaborating with designers, builders, and maintainers of industrial equipment and operations, we aim to make amazing happen for a better world. Our unrivaled choice of industrial products and business solutions helps drive organizations forward through ingenuity and innovation. We find solutions to engineering challenges, today and into the future.

RS Americas is a global provider of product and service solutions for designers, builders and maintainers of industrial equipment and operations. We are part of RS Group plc, an FTSE 100 global leader in the omni-channel distribution of products and services for industrial equipment and operations.

We carry more automation and control brand names than any other distributor in North America, with thousands of products from 700+ trusted suppliers (and growing).

Our solutions seamlessly integrate with our products, helping you drive efficiency and reduce costs through each stage of the industrial lifecycle — whether you design, build, maintain, or protect equipment and operations.

We’re always publishing relevant, insightful industry articles, interviews, and podcasts in our Expert Advice series. Everything we craft places critical knowledge and expertise at your fingertips, helping you identify product and technology solutions as unique as your business.

We also offer a comprehensive suite of services and tools, including the industry’s largest collection of 360° product images, an extensive range of 3D CAD models, more than 1.1 million up-to-date datasheets, and a highly experienced technical support team.

RS

7151 Jack Newell Blvd. S., Fort Worth, TX 76118 866-433-5722

54 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

CustomerService@na.rsgroup.com

us.rs-online.com/

www.controlglobal.com

SAFETYCHAIN

SafetyChain exists to take the guesswork out of determining the success of all elements within a plant. We do this by digitizing plant-wide processes to provide real-time and historical trend visibility into operational efficiencies, quality and safety compliance, and supplier management.

Our digital plant management platform is trusted by more than 2,000 facilities to improve their plant-wide performance.

It unifies production and quality teams with data and insights, tools, and delivers real-time operational visibility and control by eliminating paper and point solutions.

SafetyChain

7599 Redwood Blvd #205, Novato, CA 94945 (888) 235-7540

www.controlglobal.com

info@safetychain.com

www.safetychain.com

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 55

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

Schneider’s purpose is to empower all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all.

We call this Life Is On. Our mission is to be your digital partner for Sustainability and Efficiency.

At Schneider Electric, we drive digital transformation by integrating world-leading process and energy technologies, end-point to cloud connecting products, controls, software and services, across the entire lifecycle, enabling integrated company management, for homes, buildings, data centers, infrastructure, and industries.

We are the most local of global companies.

We are advocates of open standards and partnership ecosystems that are passionate about our shared Meaningful Purpose, Inclusive and Empowered values.

Schneider Electric

70 Mechanic Street, Foxboro, Massachusetts, 02035 se.com/ww/en

56 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

www.controlglobal.com

TADIRAN BATTERIES

Tadiran is the world’s leading manufacturer of ultra-long life lithium batteries for industrial applications. Nearly 50 years ago, Tadiran pioneered bobbin-type lithium thionyl chloride (LiSOCl2) batteries for low-power applications at remote sites and harsh environments. Common applications include Industrial IoT, SCADA, asset tracking, AMR/ AMI utility metering, infrastructure, medical, mil/aero, oceanographic, energy harvesting, toll tags and general automotive, oil & gas, flow metering, and cold chain, to name a few.

Tadiran bobbin-type LiSOCl2 batteries operate for up to 40 years with an annual self-discharge rate as low as 0.7% per year, while also delivering the high pulses required for two-way wireless communications.

Tadiran products include: XOL Series - delivering up to 40-year operating life with low pulses iXtra Series - delivering up to 10-year operating life with moderate pulses PulsesPlus Series - delivering up to 40-year operating life with very high pulses Extended temp - operating reliably in harsh environments ranging from -80°C to +125°C TLM Series - delivering up to 20-year shelf life with high pulses of short duration TLI Series -Rechargeable Li-ion cells featuring 20-year operating life and 5,000 charging cycles with high pulses Tadiran industrial grade batteries are safe, environmentally-friendly, and UL-listed with numerous third-party certifications. To choose the right battery, start by visiting tadiranbat.com and submitting an online applications questionnaire.

Tadiran Batteries

2001 Marcus Avenue, Suite 125E, Lake Success, NY 11042 (800)-537-1368

www.controlglobal.com

sales@tadiranbat.com

tadiranbat.com

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 57

VEGA AMERICAS, INC.

With innovative technologies and services, we develop solutions that inspire. Through our sense of simplicity and our focus on people, we are looking to the future with curiosity. Locally grounded and globally connected, together we give values – measurement values as well as human values – a home. VEGA is the HOME OF VALUES. For more than 60 years, VEGA Americas, Inc. has provided industry-leading products for the measurement of level and pressure. VEGA’s full product line of level and pressure measurement instrumentation allows us to provide one of the most complete ranges of measurement solutions in the industry.

VEGA’s continued innovation in radar, pressure, differential pressure, and point level switches ensures food and beverage operations of all sizes can continue to improve their processes and keep up with ever-shifting market demands. VEGA believes the future of instrumentation lies in the ability to produce high-quality, innovative products that keep pace with technology, and provide service and value to our customers in today’s competitive environment.

Our measurement solutions have helped make more batches, maintain inventory of raw ingredients, and save energy.

Located in Cincinnati, Ohio, VEGA Americas combines manufacturing, distribution, and service for products that represent the most sophisticated process measurement technologies anywhere in the world. VEGA Americas is a wholly-owned subsidiary of VEGA Grieshaber KG in Schiltach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

VEGA understands the benefit of investing in community and employees, because it’s people who make the difference in achieving success. This success fuels future innovation and transfers to the solutions we provide to customers.

VEGA Americas, Inc.

3877 Mason Research Parkway, Mason, OH 45036 +1 800 FOR LEVEL

58 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

americas@vega.com

www.vega.com

www.controlglobal.com

Measure • Control • Manage • Visualize • Network • Protect

Get your subscription to CONTROL the print magazine for process automation FREE TO QUALIFIED INDIVIDUALS IN THE UNITED STATES

For focused control and instrumentation coverage Written with the process industries in mind

Start your free subscription now at www.controlglobal.com/subscribe

ASK THE EXPERTS

Achieving pipe straightening with roll control Experts offer advice on bending moments to configure a roll straightener to straighten tubes.

This column is moderated

by Béla Lipták, who is also the editor of the Instrument Engineers’ Handbook (5th Edition: https://www.isa.org/products/ instrument-and-automationengineers-handbook-proce).

If you have a question concerning measurement, control, optimization or automation, please send it to: liptakbela@aol.com.

When you send a question, please include full name, affiliation and title.

Q. I need help calculating bending moments, so I can correctly-configure a 10-roll straightener to straighten tubes. The roll straightener consists of five rolls on the top and five rolls on the bottom. The rolls are serially positioned with respect to the top and bottom, and they’re offset from each other. We impart bending by positioning the three bottom inboard rolls. The rest of the straightening process is imparted by offsetting the rolls, though typical roll angles range from 30° to 37° with respect to the horizontal plane. The two outboard bottom rolls only have skew angle adjustment; otherwise, their heights remain constant and form a base pass line.

NICK BARANYK NicholasJ.Baranyk@ptcalliance.com

A1: I like your question because it illustrates the wide applicability of process control principles. I might add these principles also apply to non-industrial processes, such as artificial intelligence (AI) evolution or climate control.

Rotary machines were developed because most tubes and pipes are neither straight nor round when produced. These machines are called rotary because they grip and rotate the pipe as it passes through them, while it’s subjected to pressure- and

bending-straightening forces. In less exacting applications, there are three pairs of vertically opposed and individually driven rollers (Figure 1), while the more precise 10-roll machines have five pairs.

Ovalized sections of pipe require less force to collapse, and ovalization may also affect the integrity of the pipe coating as excessive deformation may result in damage. Pipeline ovality can occur if the pipe is incorrectly supported. Areas of soil transition, such as tie-in welds or road crossings, where the trench is in over-excavated regions, are also frequently concerning. The difference in compaction can cause a great amount of stress at the points of soil transitions. To prevent this, PipePillo pipeline supports can be placed in the trench prior to pipe placement or loosely tied to a pipe prior to lowering it in.

The straightening machines use both bend (or offset) straightening and pressure straightening. The profiles of the roll in the straightening machine are hyperbolic and only touch the pipe at three points (Figure 2).

The number of bending moments produced is a function of the number of rolls (one with six rolls, two with 10). It’s difficult to set the required bending moments manually, and it requires a lot of experience. This is where

Figure 1: Vertically opposed rollers eliminate ovality

60 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

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ASK THE EXPERTS

With Radius Only 3 Contact Points

No Contact With Tube

Figure 2: The hyperbolic rollers touch the tube or pipe at only three points

Magnetic V Block

Taut Line

Magnetic V Block

H

Figure 3: Taut line method of pipe straightness measurement

process control enters the picture.

Today, computerized systems are available, which guarantee that the resulting ovaility doesn’t vary as a function of operator actions.

Accurate measurement depends on first identifying a datum—an imaginary line between the two pipe ends. The most common and simplest method is to attach a strong, lightweight wire or string to both ends of the pipe, resulting in a taut line stretched between the pipe ends (Figure 3), and measure the difference between the length of the pipe and the length of the line.

Although this method is common, in pipes longer than 12 m, line sag or air movement can be problems. In such cases, laser, collimator or telescope sensors are used.

Heavy-duty pipe straighteners are available to straighten up to 16-in. diameter pipes, having up to 38 mm wall www.controlglobal.com

thicknesses. The drive system for such large machines is about 400 hp.

BÉLA LIPTÁK liptakbela@aol.com

A2: Achieving straight tubes is a function of regulatory control with the obvious target of getting zero curvatures.

Your problem may require a complex, multivariable regulatory control solution, which may or may not be easily available. If the regulatory control you have is insufficient, it can be complemented with intelligent supervisory control that learns from operating data. For your needs, it could be configured to make adjustment decisions to achieve your objectives (feed-forward), assuming everything of interest is readily measured.

CARLOS W. MORENO, PH.D. CEO and founder

A3: Every control loop requires a sensor and an actuator, as well as a controller. So, how do you sense a pipe that's untrue? How do you adjust the rolls now? Manually?

Do the three adjustable rolls require three control loops, or can it be done with a single sensor and calculated roll positions?

Why do you need to know about bending moments when a controller's job is to reduce the error to zero? Or, is that how you calculate roll positions?

I've got a picture of the basics of the machine, but no clue as to the scale.

Are you straightening house water pipes or cross-country pipeline pipes?

Is the pipe from a coil or is it nearly straight? How big are the rolls? How fast does the pipe go through them?

The PTC Alliance (ptcalliance. com) website answers some of these questions, but not why you'd need to straighten the pipe, unless welding distorts it If I understand you, this is not a problem that feedback control can solve. You seem to need the equation for how much to bend the tube to get the deformation required to straighten it. As you said, that depends heavily on the properties (and temperature) of the material. I'd have thought that various scientists and engineers would have published enough data, but perhaps it’s completely proprietary. Is your empirical data not adequate?

Does the amount of bending vary during a run? The machine as described can only straighten in one direction. Does it require multiple passes? Does the pipe somehow rotate going through?

Having a skew adjustment implies that the rolls are flat, not grooved. That means the machine is for a wide range of diameters, adding further depth to the knowledge required.

Ultramax Corp.

BILL HAWKINS Rosemount Controls (retired)

carlos.moreno@ultramax.com

bill@iaxs.net JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 61

ROUNDUP

HMIs gain processing power and protections Interfaces add speed and memory inside, and wider temperature ranges and tougher housings outside PANELS WITH MEMORY AND MANY PORTS

HTML5 AND APPROVED FOR -20 TO 65 °C

CM5 HMI series lower-cost, high-performance HMIs come in sizes from 4 in. to 22 in., and have a 1.6 GHz processor in the 10-in. and larger units. They also feature 43 Mbytes of memory, and provide better trending, extra data storage, faster communication, and improved file types including jpegs. CM5 panels have many communication ports for plug-and-play connections with industrial networks, including serial and Ethernet ports and several supported protocols.

PACSystems RXi rugged HMI provides intuitive graphics, smartphone-like usability, and HTML5 for collaboration from anywhere.

It’s designed with a projective, capacitive touchscreen for easy interaction with the visual display by using 10-point, multitouch capabilities, such as swipe, pinch or zoom. PACSystems RXi has certifications for high-pressure water jets and marine use with an IP66 water resistance rating, as well as approvals for use in temperatures from -20 °C to 65 °C.

AUTOMATIONDIRECT www.automationdirect.com/hmi-panels

EMERSON www.emerson.com/IndustrialDisplays

QUAD-CORE FOR CONTROL AND RESOLUTION

ALUMINUM HOUSING FOR OUTDOORS

With 15.6 in. or 21.5 in. screens in its standard or advanced lines, Touch Panel 600 HMIs have large-screen options and a built-in, quad-core processor for high-performance control and immaculate graphic resolution.

They also provide four configurable, digital I/O points for direct input into a controller, and can be wired to many commonly used devices. Touch Panel 600s are IIoT enabled with a built-in firewall, VPN and embedded MQTT protocols.

VisuNet FLX modular HMI platform has added flexible options that let it be used outdoors. In addition to its stainless-steel housing, VisuNet FLX has a new, aluminum housing, so it can be used at -20 °C to 50 °C and outdoors. This aluminum housing also enables optimal heat dissipation. To ensure good readability, even in very bright lighting, FLX series has an optically bonded display. If required, added sun shields can be attached to the sides, top edge and rear of the housing.

WAGO www.wago.com

PEPPERL+FUCHS www.pepperl-fuchs.com

800 X 400 PIXELS IN A 7-INCH, TFT DISPLAY

FASTER PROCESSOR, FREE PROGRAMMING EDITOR

MP011740 is a 7-inch HMI from Multicomp Pro that has a 800 x 480 pixels TFT display, and a Cortex A35 1.2GHz processor with input/output port options such as USB, COM, x1 Ethernet and a 4G/Wi-Fi module (optional). Its four-wire, resistive touch panel makes it userfriendly. MP011740 operates on a 12-28 V DC power supply, and its LED backlight has a 50,000-hour life. It also has 128 M Flash, 128M RAM and SD card storage.

EZTouch EZ5 HMIs have an updated i.MX RT-based processor that’s faster with more features. They support two serial ports (RS232/422/485), one 10/100/1000 Base-T Ethernet port, two USB ports (Type A and B) and a MicroSD Card slot. They’re programmed via a revamped and free EZ5 programming editor suite. EZ5s are available in 4-, 7-, 8-, 10-, 12- and 15-in. sizes.

NEWARK www.newark.com/multicomp-pro/mp011740/7in-hmi-remote-moni-

EZAUTOMATION www.ezautomation.net/HMI-Human-Machine-Interface/ez5series/

toring-cortex/dp/70AK6664

ez5-series.php

62 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

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ROUNDUP

INTRINSICALLY SAFE, SMART GLASSES

FREE FACEPLATE TEMPLATES FOR VFDS

Navigator Z1 advanced, intrinsically safe (IS) headmounted, smart glasses have received their official ATEX/IECx IS certification. This hand-free computing solution is powered by a Qualcomm SnapDragon 6490 chipset with a built-in, advanced AI engine. Navigator Z1 ensures voice recognition for fully hands-free use up to 100 dBA. Its modular design also enables customization, including the ability to add an IS-certified thermal camera and a swappable battery.

CP600 HMIs integrate with ABB’s VFDs by providing free, prebuilt HMI screen templates that mirror the faceplates of its low-voltage drives. This lets users monitor real-time status of the drive directly from the HMI. Drive faceplate templates are available for the CP600-eCo, CP600, CP600-Pro series of HMIs with screen sizes from 4 in. to 21 in. in plastic or aluminum housings. They also feature operating temperatures from -4 to 140 °F (-20 to 60 °C).

REALWEAR www.realwear.com/navigator-z1

ABB new.abb.com/plc/control-panels

HMI ON AN IPC WITH ERP AND MES

7-INCH SCREEN WITH SOFTWARE FOR 400 PLCs

As part of the overall Sysmac solution, Soft NA allows the full functionality of Omron’s NA5 HMI on an industrial PC (IPC), which can also run enterprise resource planning (ERP), manufacturing execution system (MES) or other software. Soft NA can replace a separate IPC and HMI when HMI machine control and computer power are both needed. It’s also supported by Omron’s NY IPC line, which is designed for the factory floor and hosts a variety of software.

cMT3072XHT 7-in. HMI from Maple Systems has an extended temperature range, remote access and IIoT functions.

Its free HMI software supports Modbus and more than 400 PLCs. cMT3072XHT also has a hardware platform that runs both an HMI application created with Maple Systems’ free configuration software and PLC logic programmed with CoDeSys.

OMRON AUTOMATION AMERICAS 800-556-6766; bit.ly/3t4xDTR

DIGIKEY www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/m/maple-systems/ cmt3072xht-7-hmi

INTERFACE WITH QUAD-CORE CPU

WIRELESS INTERFACE WITH 5-INCH DISPLAY

Monitouch V10 joins Monitouch V9, TechnoShot and X1 series of HMI products. This new series offers the high-speed processing of a quad-core CPU, allowing stable operation and communication on high-load screens, an advanced storage device (eMMC), reducing startup/transfer time and labor, and panel cutout size and functions that are fully compatible with existing V series devices.

X5 wireless HMI features a 5-in. color display, built-in web server, real-time data acquisition and visualization, customizable alarms and notifications, reporting and data analysis tools, and compatibility with multiple protocols. It also has a Linux-based open platform; system settings by web browser; two Ethernet ports for WAN/LAN network separation; and dual-band Wi-Fi for safe communications to handhelds.

FUJI ELECTRIC CORP. americas.fujielectric.com/products/hmi/monitouch-HMI-V10-series www.controlglobal.com

EXOR INTERNATIONAL www.electromate.com/media/assets/catalog-library/pdfs/exor-electronics/exor-x5-wireless-brochure.pdf JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 63

CONTROL TALK

One wish for 2024—more APC We conclude this modeling and control series by asking engineers to use simulations to achieve more prolific and productive APC

GREG MCMILLAN Gregory K. McMillan captures the wisdom of talented leaders in process control, and adds his perspective based on more than 50 years of experience, cartoons

by Ted Williams, and (web-only) Top 10 lists. Find more of Greg's conceptual and principle-based knowledge in his Control Talk blog.

Greg welcomes comments and column suggestions at ControlTalk@ endeavorb2b.com

GREG: If I had one wish for the new year, it would be that process control engineers use digital twin and virtual plant technology to improve process performance by using more advanced process control (APC).

Nearly all the knowledge offered in articles and books written by process control legends such as Greg Shinskey and William Luyben was developed and detailed by dynamic simulations.

This is also true for my writing, as well and more recent works by Peter Morgan.

We documented knowledge largely gained through simulation in ISA Technical Report ISA-TR5.9-2023, “PID Algorithms and Performance,” for which we received the 2023 ISA Standards Achievement Award.

I’ve written several articles and columns on the synergy of modeling and control. The one that stands out in my mind is the Control Talk column featuring Julie Smith, global automation and process control technology leader at DuPont, and titled “Dynamic world of modeling and control” (Control, Aug 2016, bit.ly/ ControlTalk0816).

To further open our minds to the opportunities granted by using models to improve process performance with effective use of APC, we conclude our series on modeling and control with a conversation with José María Ferrer, who has more than 25 years of experience in dynamic simulation and control of hydrocarbon processes, and presently serves as a senior advisor at Inprocess Technology & Consulting Group.

José, How can models help in prototyping APC?

JOSÉ: Both types of models (steady-state and dynamic) have value to prototype APC controllers. Steady-state models can calculate deep process gains. Dynamic models can calculate transient process responses for all independent variables, including the perturbation variables that can’t move freely in a real plant during step tests. The most important advantage is being able to calculate all process responses for all potential states of the plant, so you can analyze all non-linearities of the process. Plant tests are minimized or eliminated as a result, and a better APC can be designed to consider process nonlinearities. There are multiple references for using simulation models in APC projects over the past 20 years, but it’s worth mentioning one of the first APC implementations in Lysekil (Sweden), where no step tests were needed. Read about it at “Step-test free APC implementation using dynamic simulation” (bit.ly/step-test).

Some 15 years ago, I analyzed the myths and barriers of not having a general simulation usage between the APC engineers in a control seminar titled, “Utilizing rigorous simulation in advanced process control projects” (bit. ly/APCsim). Now, I don´t see APC engineers as simulation model builders but as simulation model users. Building a good simulation model, if feasible, might take some time, experienced simulation engineers and the right tools. We see more use of multi-purpose dynamic simulators (MPDS), which is also called Lifecycle-OTS (operator training system), and the real-time simulator (RTS), also called digital twins. The availability of a good dynamic model is more frequent today than in the

For an extended version of this column and the Top 10 ways APC can improve relationships, visit bit.ly/ControlTalk0124. You can read all past Control Talk columns at ControlGlobal.com

64 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

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CONTROL TALK

past, and APC engineers can make use of them for their projects. But remember to follow 10 rules when you request MPDS, which can be found at “10 best practices to request and exploit Lifecycle OTS v2021” (bit.ly/ JoseMariaFerrer),so you can reuse the OTS models for APC purposes.

GREG: Simulations provide details about what measurements are needed to detect equipment and piping problems.

JOSÉ: All equipment manufacturers supply equipment designed to work under certain conditions (flow, temperature, density, composition, for example). Once the plant is commissioned and operating, the equipment will suffer all kind of variations to those design conditions, and their performance will deteriorate over time. RTS simulation models (models running secondby-second with real-time data) can determine the current performance of the equipment, and generate an alarm when things are not working as expected. The model is not only useful for detecting the anomaly, but it can also trigger additional simulation models to diagnose the most likely cause of the anomaly. Every piece of equipment running in a plant must comply with all the thermodynamic laws and can’t escape them. If they escape, then the instrumentation is lying.

was state-based. The states were called STEPs and all analog outputs, digital outputs, alarms, etc., were calculated based on the STEPs. Many manual start-up or shutdown procedures were converted to automated procedures, where parameters and code must be checked out. At that time, DOWTRAN provided the AISIM and DISIM functions to simulate all the instrumentation inputs from the plant, and test all the code before uploading it to the running plant. The simulation code had to be programmed by the control engineer, and the simulation was used to verify all state-based automated procedures. There are more details about it in this in this document, “Optimize DCS Testing and Operator Training.” (bit.ly/optimizeDCStest).

I remember another project on the north coast of Spain, where they had to do a large DCS migration project.

The lead control engineer at the plant was an ex-Dow engineer, and automated the startup and shutdown sequences of large distillation columns, which previously were done manually and according to the taste of each operator shift. We were requested to develop dynamic process models of the distillation systems and conceptually test all new control strategies.

Later, we reused those models to test all the migrated DCS code with all the new sequences and train the operators before startup. It was a clear example of how models can help verify automated sequences and DCS code, which can also be found at “Digital twin: three birds, one stone” (bit.ly/FerrerOptimize).

GREG: Please make the personal time investment to use simulations to elevate your role in process control.

GREG: How can models be used to provide the best procedure automation and state-based control?

JOSÉ: Some 29 years ago, I started my career as process control engineer at Dow Chemical, so I was well educated on programming DOWTRAN with the MOD5 computers. Everything www.controlglobal.com

It's time for process control engineers to improve process performance by by using more advanced process control technology.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 • 65

CONTROL REPORT

Free to move Robotic mobility and diversity can fuel optimism, too

JIM MONTAGUE Executive Editor jmontague@endeavorb2b.com

“If we think of all robots as fixed, bolted-down arms, it becomes hard to consider what else they could do, anticipate what’s coming, or even see what’s emerging in front of us.”

66 • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024

BACK when I also covered discrete automation, control and machine building, I saw a rerun of the original Terminator movie, and noticed the climatic ending scene was in a real factory that featured several robot arms from Fanuc and Yaskawa Motoman. I was struck by the counterpoint of the genuine machinery and the stripped-down, humanoid robot that spawned its endless franchises of movies, TV shows, etc. I thought the genuine equipment provided conventional points of reference that made the fictional Terminator seem more believable and terrifying to the audience.

I also realized that the iconic, Terminator and all his red-eyed descendants and knockoffs have an equally long line of ancestors from the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz to the lovable robots in Star Wars and onward. Just like the “animals” in every animated cartoon, they’re simply anthropomorphic characters— just more humans in clever masks, still transferring their psychology onto automatons and other stand-ins, such as the Golem, Frankenstein, the Wolfman and so many others.

In the same way that scary characters and stories get retold until they’re diluted and can’t cure our boredom, real robots mostly in automotive plants gradually became icons cemented in the public mind. This is a problem because icons are static and don’t evolve, which is very appealing to those who dislike change. Unfortunately, if we think of all robots as fixed, bolted-down arms, it becomes hard to consider what else they could do, anticipate what’s coming, or even see what’s emerging in front of us.

This is why we’re so surprised when actual, practical innovations come along—such as adding wheels and propellors to create unmanned arial vehicles (UAV), automated guided vehicles (AGV), automated mobile robots (AMR) and other acronyms. Even with our long history of radio-controlled (RC) model cars, airplanes and boats, most of today’s

drones seemed to come out of nowhere—especially for Russian tank crews trying to invade Ukraine in the past couple of years.

I remember we covered Kiva Systems shortly before it was acquired by Amazon more than 10 years ago. Its little, orange mobile, robotic units looked like upside-down recycling containers, but they could pick up shelves, bring them to pick-and-place personnel, and make order-fulfillment operations more efficient. Since then, they and other AGVs and AMRs have multiplied and grown into large, increasingly mobile, slab-like robots that can transport heavy loads in increasingly varied applications.

I believe this memory inspired me to keep an eye peeled for mobile robots in the process industries. So, I was gratified when several exhibitors at a recent ARC Industry Forum highlighted what appeared to be Boston Dynamics’ well-known, four-legged robots. Despite this hopeful news, it took another couple of years for an end-user to confirm they were using these deer-like, quadruped robots, but Yokogawa finally reported in this issue’s “Untethered” cover story (p. 26) that it’s working with Cosmo Oil to test them at its Yokkaichi refinery in central Japan.

If I’d been stuck on the prejudice that robots could only be fixed arms on automotive or discrete manufacturing lines, I might have missed or ignored them when Cosmo and Yokogawa started to see if they could walk up and down stairs, navigate its facility, and likely soon perform inspections and other tasks.

The reporting lesson for me continues to be don’t be held back by common conceptions and static icons, and don’t trust easy, lazy, cynical answers from uninformed sources that haven’t verified what’s actually happening.

Just pay attention and be open-minded in the present, remember the past, and form useful connections that will likely make the future more visible and hopeful, too. www.controlglobal.com

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