Control – May 2025

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MAY 2025 • VOLUME 38 • NUMBER 3

of Fame l l a H n o ti Automa s s e c o r 2025 P

24

COVER STORY

The 25th class of inductees helped shape process control for the future

by Len Vermillion

14 33

ON THE BUS

Can AI accelerate digitalization?

What will it take to attract investment to increase effectiveness?

by John Rezabek

ETHERNET-APL

Ethernet-APL bears fruit Suppliers launch switches and products that bring Ethernet's physical layer safely into hazardous areas

by Jim Montague

CONTROL (USPS 4853, ISSN 1049-5541) is published 8x annually 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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Printed in the USA. Copyright 2025 Endeavor Business Media, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopies, recordings, or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the publisher. Endeavor Business Media, LLC does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any person or company for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in the material herein, regardless of whether such errors result from negligence, accident, or any other cause whatsoever. The views and opinions in the articles herein are not to be taken as official expressions of the publishers, unless so stated. The publishers do not warrant either expressly or by implication, the factual accuracy of the articles herein, nor do they so warrant any views or opinions by the authors of said articles. www.controlglobal.com

MAY 2025 • 5

CONTENTS

Departments 9

EDITOR’S PAGE Mount Rushmore of process control Which technologies and innovations do you think reshaped the process control industry?

10 LESSONS LEARNED Switch, baby, switch Controlling the manipulated varible if global warming was a temperature control loop

12 OTHER VOICES The next decade of industrial process modeling How large language models, generative AI and controllable AI will impact modeling frameworks

16 INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE Free-space radar tackles many of today's processing challenges

Why wireless sensors benefit process safety Enhanced predictive maintenance and real-time risk assessment drive effectiveness and adoption

Cables and connectors underpin everything Control's monthly resources guide

18 EXCLUSIVE Gas chromatograph manages multiple roles Rosemount 470XA GC serves in diverse applications

44 ASK THE EXPERTS Selecting flowmeters for custody transfers Expert advice on selecting the best choices

19 IN PROCESS ODVA turns 30, looks to automation’s future Schneider Electric also shapes the future

46 ROUNDUP Level shrinks down and powers up Compact, non-contact, ultrasonics and submersible designs allow level sensing in difficult settings

22 INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE 25 years of industrial computer monitor innovation

41 EXCLUSIVE 15 WITHOUT WIRES

43 RESOURCES

Quicker, simpler gas detection Rosemount 625IR fixed gas detector increases reliability and reduces maintenance

48 CONTROL TALK Smart manufacturing for excellence in process plants—Part 1 Tools and techniques for process plant automation

50 CONTROL REPORT Up for an end run?

Could Ethernet-APL help bring O-PAS into hazardous areas?

AD INDEX ABB Management Services.................................. 36

Microcyber ......................................................... 35

Azbil ................................................................... 38

Migatron.............................................................. 31

DigiKey.................................................................. 3

Moore Industries.................................................. 34

Emerson ....................................................... 32, 52

Motion Industries................................................. 29

Endress+Hauser ............................................ 16-17

Pepperl+Fuchs.................................................... 36

FieldComm Group.................................................. 6

R. Stahl Schaltgerate........................................... 39

Hammond Manufacturing.................................... 30

Softing................................................................. 37

Hope Industrial Systems................................. 22-23

Tadiran Batteries.................................................. 42

Inductive Automation.............................Cover Tip, 8

Trihedral Engineering Limited................................. 2

Krohne................................................................ 20

VEGA Americas................................................... 40

Load Controls...................................................... 31

Yaskawa America................................................... 4

Lumenite Control Technology............................... 21

Yokogawa Electric................................................ 38

www.controlglobal.com

MAY 2025 • 7

One Platform, Unlimited Possibilities

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EDITOR’S PAGE

Endeavor Business Media, LLC 30 Burton Hills Blvd, Ste. 185, Nashville, TN 37215 800-547-7377

Mount Rushmore of process control

EXECUTIVE TEAM CEO Chris Ferrell COO Patrick Rains CRO Paul Andrews CDO Jacquie Niemiec CALO Tracy Kane CMO Amanda Landsaw EVP/Group Publisher Tracy Smith 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 Rita Fitzgerald, rfitzgerald@endeavorb2b.com Ad Services Manager Jennifer George, jgeorge@endeavorb2b.com PUBLISHING TEAM VP/Market Leader - Engineering Design & Automation Group Keith Larson 630-625-1129, klarson@endeavorb2b.com Group Sales Director Mitch Brian 208-521-5050, mbrian@endeavorb2b.com Account Manager Greg Zamin 704-256-5433, gzamin@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

Which technologies and innovations do you think reshaped the process control industry?

EVERYONE loves to see the signs of spring. Whether the start of baseball spring training in Florida, bluebonnets blooming in Texas, or snow thawing in Minnesota, spring tends to put most of us in a better mood. Over the last few years, one of my favorite signs of spring is the commencement of the annual Process Automation Hall of Fame inductions. March Madness for me includes interviewing visionaries and innovators and learning their fascinating stories.

In the process (no pun intended), I learn about many of the notable technologies that have shaped the industry through the years. This year was no different. I learned about the development of DeltaV from Duncan Schleiss and was intrigued by the evolution of distributed control technology through the years. Sandy Vasser explained how automation helped reshape offshore oil and gas production. John Hedengren regaled me with tales of how runners (hey, I’m one of those so my ears perked up) can use their cell phones these days to better their performance and avoid injuries.

You can read their stories in our cover story on page 24 or listen to this year’s three inductees tell them in their own words on the Control Amplified podcast (www.controlglobal.com/podcasts).

This year, these conversations started me thinking about some of the biggest innovations in process control—those technologies and processes that reshaped our industry, and made us more productive and efficient. I wonder what would make up the Mount Rushmore of process control innovations.

This is where you come in. I haven’t been around nearly long enough to seriously opine on such honors, but I bet many of you have your own opinions on what technologies you’d like to see on that mountain. So, let’s hear it.

While we can’t chisel them into a hillside, we’ll average out the results and come up with four process control innovations to grace our mythological mountain. Stay tuned.

Visit controlglobal.com/mountrushmore to submit your four innovations, or feel free to send them to me directly at lvermillion@endeavorb2b.com.

Looking forward to your thoughts.

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

“ While we can’t chisel them into a hillside, we’ll average out the results and come up with four process control innovations to grace our mythological mountain.”

Jesse H. Neal Award Winner & Three Time Finalist 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

MAY 2025 • 9

LESSONS LEARNED

Switch, baby, switch Controlling the manipulated variable as if global warming was a temperature control loop

BÉLA LIPTÁK liptakbela@aol.com

“We know that the easiest way to change human behavior is by impacting wallets.”

10 • MAY 2025

IF global warming was a temperture control loop, how could a process control engineer select and control the manipulated variable for that loop?

Statistics show 10% of Americans don’t believe in climate change and favor using even more fossil fuels in the future. It’s a small minority, but another 15% are undecided or have some financial interest in maintaining the status quo.

We know that the easiest way to change human behavior is by impacting wallets. Therefore, strong financial motivation is needed to stop us from doing what emperor Nero did— playing the fiddle while Rome burned.

We’re beginning to accelerate switching to a sustainable and clean energy economy. One indicator is that wars over oil and minerals are starting. They’ll become much worse as we near the bottom of the resources barrel. Another indicator is that use of solar- and windbased electricity use exceeds all others, and their costs are below all other sources and dropping (Figure 1).

I have mixed feelings about the future.

On one hand, the time available to fix things is running out. I was on one of the 13 green energy development teams set up by President Jimmy Carter 46 years ago. We took for granted that in a couple of decades global warming would be stopped.

It was a time when 39 solar panels were placed on the roof of the White House and our teams (directed by military officers) came up with methods to switch to renewable energy.

Now, Carter's solar panels are gone and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached the point where—if the gas wasn’t transparent—the planet would be dark.

However, I have mixed feelings because, after the coming, four-year period of "drill, baby, drill,” our society will see the consequences of inaction, face reality, and the slogan will turn into "Switch, baby, switch!"

Switching the manipulated variable To design a "climate control loop," the first task is selecting a powerful, manipulated variable that brings in the controlled variable (human behavior) to serve the loop's goal. The manipulated variable isn’t education, legal or political action. It’s simply money. We must create conditions that will make switching to renewable energy a financial benefit to voters. It will happen when we stop treating the atmosphere as a free garbage dump. We must make people understand that, just as we pay for removing solid waste from our homes or disposing of our wastewater, we must also pay for dumping harmful gases into the atmosphere.

Today, the global yearly emission of carbon dioxide equivalent gases is 40 billion tons. I estimate that charging a fee of about $20 per ton of harmful emissions for two decades would be enough to finance the conversion to a carbonfree age. Compare this sum to how much we pay our municipalities for removing a ton of garbage or wastewater from our homes.

There is another way to look at it—calculate the present cost of passivity or estimate future costs of idleness, if inaction continues. Compare it to the financial and emotional costs of restoring the damage that Los Angeles suffered from a single wildfire ($0.25 trillion). Naturally, this wasn’t the only disaster in which climate change played a major role.

After all, whole regions are already becoming unlivable. The total global damage was probably already more than 10 times that of the L.A. fire, or more than $2.5 trillion. Estimating the cost of restoring all the damage that climate change will cause worldwide in the coming years is anybody's guess.

If the cost of stopping greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is $20 per ton, and 40 billion tons are being emitted yearly, that cost is $0.8 trillion, or three times the damage in L.A. or about 0.5% of global gross domestic product (GDP). www.controlglobal.com

LESSONS LEARNED

THE COST OF ELECTRICITY

THE COST OF RENEWABLE ENERGY

30

40 20

U.S. Cost (cents/kWh)

Cost of electricity (cents/kWh)

50 25

15 10

30 20 10

5 0 0

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

2025

2030

2010

2015

OiI

Nuclear

Coal

Gas

2020

2025

Year

Year Wind

Concentrating solar

PV

Offshore wind

Solar photovoltaic

Onshore wind

Figure 1: Costs of photovoltaic (PV) solar and wind energy are dropping, while most others are rising. In Connecticut, where most of the electricity comes from nuclear or Canadian sources, last month’s price was 29¢/KWh. Source: Seeking Alpha and Wikipedia Controlling solar-hydrogen storage Solar energy is a clean, inexhaustible, safe and free energy source. It directly fuels life on Earth by providing energy for plants, which produce hydrogen from water in the ground and combine it with carbon in the air to form complex molecules that provide energy for us. Millions of years ago, at the end of this cycle, the remains of plant and animal life collected in the planet’s crust to form fossil fuels, which can be viewed as stored solar energy. In a carbon-free energy economy, we’ll stop using this storage and will switch to directly using solar energy.

Because solar energy is available only intermittently, continuous use requires storage. We must not only stop burning fossil fuels, but also prepare large energy storage facilities to supply our energy when the sun isn’t shining. The most common ways of storing energy is taking advantage of gravity (pumped hydraulic) or electrochemical (battery) methods, but both have serious limitations (Figure 2).

Building pumped hydraulic storage is possible only in mountainous regions, while battery storage is limited because we’ll run out of materials www.controlglobal.com

ELECTRICAL ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS Mechanical Pumped hydro Compressed air

Electrochemical

Electrical

Secondary batteries

Double-layer Capacitor

Flow batteries

Superconducting magnetic energy storage

Lead acid, NCd, NiMh, NaS

Redox flow, Hybrid flow

Flywheel

Chemical

Thermal

Hydrogen

Sensible heat storage

Electrolyzer, Fuel cell, SNG

Molten salt, A-CAES

Figure 2: Electrical energy storage options. Source: Columbia University

required to build them. Meeting global energy storage needs with batteries in a "solar-hydrogen age" would require 100 times the amount of minerals used for that purpose today. For these reasons, we must start using chemical storage (solar hydrogen).

The bottom line Today, only about 4% of hydrogen produced is green (made from water by solar electrolysis), while 96% is produced from hydrocarbons by carbonemitting processes. Also, hydrogen is expensive. Its storage technology has

changed little in the last half-century, and builing the infrastructure needed for its widespread use, such as converting natural gas distribution to also handling hydrogen, has barely started.

Hydrogen use in transportation has made progress, but the number of fuel-cell electric vehicles on the roads is less than 100,000. There’s more substantial use of hydrogen in rocket and space exploration because its low weight and density are keys to space travel. The use of hydrogen by the military as the fuel for drones is increasing because it’s hard to detect.

MAY 2025 • 11

OTHER VOICES

The next decade of industrial process modeling How large language models, generative AI and controllable AI will impact modeling frameworks

LARGE language models (LLM) and generative AI (genAI) are proving increasingly strategic for enterprises across all industries.

However, there will be certain impacts of this revolution on the modeling frameworks of industrial companies in the next decade.

Will AI ever run plants autonomously?

GIL COHEN CEO Imbuit

“ The concept of a robot plant will likely happen 100 years from now.

Could it be 50, or even 30 years from now?

It’s hard to predict.”

Let’s start with the ultimate question: when will artificial intelligence (AI) take over and run plants autonomously? Looking far into the future, we can imagine AI constructing a plant and operating it autonomously without human intervention. The concept of a robot plant will likely happen 100 years from now.

Could it be 50, or even 30 years from now?

It’s hard to predict.

We can, however, grasp where technology might take us over the next decade. We predict that plant decision-making and modeling will be based on “controllable AI models,” LLMs and human domain experts, who will continue to make critical decisions.

Traditional plant modeling framework A complex manufacturing plant includes five to seven major, technical decision-making domains, each built on technical expertise acquired over long careers. Examples include process engineering, maintenance, advanced process control (APC), control systems, process safety, control room operations, and planning and economics.

In each domain, information is received from the plant, and processed by a carefully engineered scheme of tailored models and human expert reasoning—to generate decisions—fed into other decision-making domains or plant processing equipment. Each domain uses a different modeling technique to describe overlapping plant areas, representing different “versions of the truth.” The reason for these different, often conflicting, versions of the truth is the computational limitations of

12 • MAY 2025

modeling technology. Most process manufacturing plants operated for decades before personal computers were introduced.

Developed in a data-limited era, each model was tailored to solve a specific problem within a decision-making domain. Each domain developed its own set of first principles and mathematical assumptions to build parametric models supporting their automated and manual decisions. For example, planning and economics teams use a linear programming (LP) model to optimize complex, nonlinear plants. Applying linear solutions to nonlinear problems involves a delicate system of assumptions and procedures honed over decades to approximate, validate, maintain and adapt these models.

Over decades, the user community of plant technical staff from each domain built their careers around the modeling technologies that served them, honing their skills, and developing methodologies around their modeling technology. Modeling technology providers delivered solutions tailored to their specific domain users. The effect of these supplier and consumer behaviors on today’s technology landscape is a series of domainspecific toolsets that are difficult to interconnect, and don’t automatically communicate.

All communication between the decisionmaking domains is done manually by the plant’s technical staff.

Traditional modeling encumbers genAI Modern genAI is based on LLMs trained on large portions of human-generated data, and increasingly used throughout enterprises as co-pilots to support human decision-making. To get ahead of the curve, most companies push their limits of autonomous decision-making, exploring how their future operations will look with AI-assisted workers, and further down the road as AI agents working alongside humans. www.controlglobal.com

OTHER VOICES

LLMs exhibit promising, human-like autonomous caproperties of the model are mathematically or statistically pabilities. They can acquire human collective knowledge, observable in a way that’s easily understood by users. They and interact with the world in a way that mimics human include certain engineering selections that let users steer the interaction. However, LLMs are also fundamentally flawed model training to express, for example, a set of desired relain terms of reliability, safety, stability and explainability. tionships between variables.

Research is being applied to solve LLM flaws, and until These traits of controllable AI give engineers more these issues are solved, we don’t expect plant operating controllability and observability, which meet the harsh recompanies will let LLMs make autonomous decisions in quirements of safety-critical environments, such as indusmission-critical environments. trial process plants.

The probability of an industrial plant allowing AI to make decisions made by human technical experts is extremely The 2035 equation unlikely in the next one or two decades. Before enabling AI Human, domain experts plus controllable AI plus genAI automation, any AI decision must be transparent, explainequals improved plant performance. able and verifiable by a human expert. AI operating on top For genAI to unlock its increasing strengths and opportuof traditional, siloed decision-making domains must respect nities, it must be unburdened by siloed human assumptions established habits and methodologies, mimicking human and biases developed over past decades by each domain’s analysis and decision-making. AI on top of traditional modelexperts. GenAI must generate decisions as close to the ing will provide value to each decision-making domain by optimum as possible based on current plant data and one capturing knowledge, organizing human decisions and disshared, verifiable version of the truth. cussions, and formalizing communication between teams.

In the next decade, effective and safe use of genAI will However, applying AI within the confines of the traditional, be accomplished by integrating genAI with controllable AI. plant-modeling framework will fail to unlock the power and Using controllable AI, genAI serving all domains will develop value that modern AI can prothe same understanding of the vide by pushing a manufacplant via shared, controllable “We can grasp where technology might take turing plant to its true global AI models. This understanding us over the next decade. We predict that optimum. This approach will of the plant will be validated, plant-decision making and modeling will burden AI with the same asverified and approved by dobe based on 'controllable AI models,' sumptions, biases and limitamain experts through controlLLMs and human domain experts, who tions that plague traditional lable AI. GenAI will explain will continue to make critical decisions.” approaches. A truly optimized its decisions and recommenplant means that every action dations using a sequence of taken will likely best serve the plant's business goals within reasoning, also known as a “chain of thought,” based on its constraints, given all the available raw plant data at the controllable AI models, which are shared and understood by time of the action. That will require a holistically different all decision-making domains. plant-modeling framework.

To return to our originally posed questions, we don’t expect any decision-making domain to vanish in favor of genAI, Next-generation plant modeling via controllable AI at least not in the next decade. Each domain will employ Increasing computing capacity and market needs give rise genAI that boosts the productivity of its human experts, and to a new type of AI, which we’ll refer to as “controllable AI.” generates high-frequency, automated decisions and recomControllable AI models aren’t genAI or LLMs, nor are they hymendations for manual decisions made between domains. brid models—traditional approaches with AI bolted on. ConControllable AI will serve as a bridge, protocol or platform trollable AI models are intended to empower domain experts between the decision-making domains, where the shared to optimize plants more closely with the plant’s business model presents one lens of reality. goals, within its constraints, and provide domain experts with This integration between controllable AI and genAI will not more observability and controllability into the AI models. only empower the plant workforce and enable high-performControllable AI models are constructed using an architecing collaborative teams, it will unlock the true power of modture that’s known to the user, and trained only on datasets ern AI in process plants. known to the user. The user has full decision-making power over the precise dataset used for model training, including Gil Cohen is the CEO of Imubit and has been leading the company from inception to its growth in the global refining and chemical data sources and data points within each source. market. Prior to Imubit, Cohen founded and built Cigol Digital SysOnce trained, controllable AI models are well-defined tems, an IoT edge cybersecurity software vendor. deterministic, mathematical functions or algorithms. Key www.controlglobal.com

MAY 2025 • 13

ON THE BUS

Can AI accelerate digitization?

What will it take to attract investment to increase effectiveness?

JOHN REZABEK Contributing Editor JRezabek@ashland.com

“ The real potential of AI might only be realized when diverse, siloed diagnostics are available to it.”

14 • MAY 2025

THE device management dashboard at Elmer’s plant lay neglected, and no one from operations questioned his team when a faulty, valve-position, feedback device slowed a plant restart. The consequences were befuddling.

Why did they find out about the device only after restarting following a week-long outage?

Probably because no one expected such defects should be detected thanks to digitization.

Elmer read some consultant commentary, lamenting that digitization was being adopted at a slow pace. It was necessary for applying computerized, data-analytics tools, machine learning and OpenAI. As observed in a Forbes magazine article (bit.ly/digitalizationadoption) published pre-pandemic, much of this slower-than-hoped-for pace was attributed to more “mature” leadership, who had their own concepts about how to use data to guide decisions and safeguard against malfunctions.

Similar to many plants, where motivated technicians/technologists were cut to the bare minimum, Elmer only acted on priorities, at the direction of the operations team, and in keeping with the old aphorism, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.” Past endeavors to address a need that was solved, such as the exchanger fouling too quickly until the cooling water quality was fixed, were cluttering his technician’s “device management” alert dashboard. The WirelessHART device’s batteries were low (or dead), their communication reliability was low, or they had a plethora of configuration-changed alerts that no one could understand or explain. After a while, no one bothered to look at it.

There was another category of smart diagnostics embedded in his control system, which were likewise largely neglected until operations complained about an issue. A journal of system events was constantly recording every diagnostic the system designers felt was worthy of attention. Few looked at them routinely or understood the meaning

of two-thirds of them. On another platform, the shutdown system’s PLC monitored every solenoid or physical relay coil powered by its output cards, so one could imagine where a faulty coil might reveal itself before a spurious failure—if someone was looking.

Machine learning has evolved some capabilities that could be useful for Elmer. A simplistic approach might consist of the correlation between a valve’s position and its related process variable (PV). When it becomes unusual or flatlined, send an alert to the end user. But like his other device management tools, the propensity to generate spam (i.e. meaningless or redundant messages) would threaten to overwhelm potential insights with noise. Noise or cycling is a phenomenon in the wheelhouse of Aperio Systems (bit.ly/ aperioai), for example, among a repertoire of data validation algorithms. Even in the hands of transient managers, such tools might empower them to challenge Elmer.

The real potential of AI might only be realized when diverse, siloed diagnostics are available to it. Perhaps data diodes—conceptually, a gateway that only allows data to flow one way from source to receiver—will address the concerns surrounding security. Creating pathways between industrial control assets, shutdown systems, field networks and business applications requires increased focus on systems hardening, patching and monitoring.

One wonders whether Elmer and his team have the time or expertise to learn and fulfill these roles.

Somewhat ironically, the dearth of embedded and motivated humans in plants’ operateand-maintain roles might be the biggest drag on AI adoption. If Elmer’s reports caught the valve defect before it impacted the startup, there would have been no fanfare or parade.

Only when such successes are recognized and celebrated are we likely to attract investment to increase their effectiveness. www.controlglobal.com

WITHOUT WIRES

Why wireless sensors benefit process safety Enhanced predictive maintenance and real-time risk assessment drive effectiveness and adoption

PUBLISHED in 2017, ISA-TR84.00.08 technical report addresses how to install wireless for safety. It was discussed in my September 2022 column (controlglobal.com/wirelessforsafety). Wireless sensors benefit process safety without directly being part of the safety function/loop itself.

Functional safety and its associated safety instrumented function (SIF) can be continuous demand, meaning the safety function is always active, such as closed doors on a passenger train. They can also be on-demand, meaning they’re called on to act in unusual circumstances, such as an emergency shutdown valve in a process. Diagnostics can help in both scenarios, but they’ll have a larger impact in on-demand scenarios.

Wireless sensors and networks built in compliance with ISA-TR84.00.08 and good industry practices use sensors’ embedded self-diagnostics to monitor the integrity of measurements. Likewise, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) sensors that monitor equipment health provide additional information on the condition of critical equipment.

Access to continuous health and status information has key benefits: • Reduced dangerous undetected failure rate ( DU), which is a key parameter in probability of failure on-demand (PFD) calculations. Continuous diagnostics monitor the health and functionality of SIF and its components, alerting users to dangerous failures that would otherwise remain undetected until a proof test, reducing the average rate of dangerous undetected failures.

• E xtended proof test intervals. Continuous diagnostics provide high confidence in the operational status of SIF. Because online monitoring provides a degree of failure detection, it reduces the need for frequent manual intervention. The required frequency of manual proof tests can often be extended as a result. Assuming other www.controlglobal.com

factors remain constant, longer proof test intervals generally lead to a higher PFD, but the significant reduction in DU due to continuous diagnostics usually outweighs this effect, resulting in a lower overall PFD. • Diagnostic coverage. Continuous diagnostics offer more diagnostic coverage because they’re constantly monitoring themselves with embedded diagnostics and the equipment or process they’re connected to.

Higher diagnostic coverage values directly translate to lower PFD. • Insights into system behavior. Data provided by continuous diagnostic systems offers valuable insights into failure modes and operational and equipment health trends of the safety equipment, which can improve design, maintenance and future equipment selection. Integrating diagnostic data to provide feedback to the design process is the foundation of the digital twin concept.

• Increased confidence in safety system performance. Continuous monitoring gives operators and safety personnel greater confidence that safety systems will function as intended when required.

Demand for SIFs continues to grow, according to Global Industry Analytics Inc. They’re driven by: • Increasing enforcement of safety standards to meet risk-reduction targets; • Strong emphasis on avoiding costly accidents, minimizing downtime and reducing liability; • Growing complexity of industrial processes such as oil and gas, chemicals, power generation, pharmaceuticals, and food and beverages, which require advanced safety systems; and • Rapid industrialization and urbanization in Asia-Pacific, particularly in China and India, creates growth opportunities for the safety instrumented systems (SIS) market used to implement SIFs.

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

“ Wireless sensors benefit process safety without directly being part of the safety function/loop itself.”

MAY 2025 • 15

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE | SPONSORED CONTENT

Free-space radar tackles many of today's processing challenges

ASHLEY DAVID Level Product Manager, Endress+Hauser

NON-CONTACTING radar level measurement has become much more cost-effective and accessible for end users. These days, processing industries require simpler instruments with that can offer data reliability, preventive maintenance and simpler installation, among several other capabilities.

How far has radar level measurement come? To find out, Control talked with Ashley David, level product manager at Endress+Hauser, to get a sense of how new technologies and instruments, such as Endress+Hauser’s Micropilot FMR series 80 GHz radar line, address complex user requirements these days. In the following interview, David discusses the top challenges customers face, new user requirements, available solutions and the expanding benefits of new technologies.

Q: Relating to radar level applications, what are the top challenges you see where customers can use this type of technology in their plants?

A: A lot of challenges for customers revolve around having reliable, non-contact level measurement. Keeping a measurement non-contacting prevents cross contamination, makes cleaning easier, and prevents possible build up on measurement probes.

Free-space radar has come a long way over the years. Previouslye, its limitations pushed us to technologies such as guided-wave radar, ultrasonic or pressure devices. We can achieve much more now with free-space technology. We can measure further distances for lower dielectrics and still get positive readings.

Q: What new technologies in radar-level devices are today’s top requirements?

A: Customers look to do much more with instruments in today’s world. In addition to basic level measurement, the field expects instruments to not only self-diagnose problems, but also provide preventive maintenance data and solutions to problems before they even

Micropilot FMR10B

16 • MAY 2025

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Continuous level measurement with Heartbeat monitoring and verification.

Micropilot FMR10B in use at a water and wastewater site

happen. Our customers want instruments that give them more than just a level measurement—they want answers. They want instruments that not only diagnose instrument problems, but also detect process anomalies.

Q: What solutions are available to address these challenges?

A: Endress+Hauser’s instruments feature Heartbeat Technology to assist our customers in monitoring and verification of process anomalies.

Heartbeat Technology has an algorithm called the Radar Accuracy Index (RAI), which is essentially a fingerprint of the instrument’s functions taken at

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the factory, where the device can constantly run self-checks to assess for problems in the instrument or problems in the process.

Q: Do these solutions offer any other benefits to users?

A: They allow users to do more with their processes and make data-driven decisions about process anomalies, such as foam or build-up on sensors, which can pose potential challenges.

Those in the field can use the power of newer radar technologies to take preventive steps in their maintenance routines, minimize downtime, and truly take control of their processes.

MAY 2025 • 17

CONTROL EXCLUSIVE

Gas chromatograph manages multiple roles Rosemount 470XA GC serves in diverse applications from renewable natural gas to carbon capture

AS users transition to alternative energy sources and stratethe energy value of the NG, and CO2 users are interested gies, sensors and analyzers are shifting to measure more in the purity of the CO2 gas," adds Palacios. "Many users and different parameters—while delivering required data can therefore deploy 470XA as a commercial, off-the-shelf cost-effectively at the same time.

GC because applications like these are standard options “The natural gas (NG) market is evolving, with global available right from the catalog. 470XA can often also be producers injecting hydrogen and biogas from landfills, engineered to order (ETO) to customize the product to animal-based oils and waste becoming more prevacustomers’ specific applications. lent, and carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) “To verify its design lived up to customers’ performance emerging as well,” says Michael Palacios, global product expectations and our design goals, 470XA was subjected to manager for chromatographs at Emerson. “Gas chromatosome of the most extensive, rigorous, and long-term testing graphs (GC) could already measure these applications five ever performed on a Rosemount GC design. Twenty protoyears ago, but today’s users are more price conscious, type 470XAs underwent long-term factory testing, each runand they need a GC to meet their needs in these new ning a continuous C6+ analysis. No intervention or calibraroles and emerging markets.” tion was done on any unit for the first 90 days. Afterwards, To serve in all these new applications—and do it costeach unit was allowed to auto calibrate every two weeks. effectively—Emerson is launching its Rosemount 470XA Performance data from each GC was collected daily to verify compact, flexible, expandable and explosion-proof GC to its long-term stability and reliability. simplify NG analysis custody transfers, carbon capture, utiOther highlights of 470XA include: lization and storage (CCUS) and other traditional and non• Full-color, LCD, local operator interface (LOI). traditional gas and process applications. Rosemount 470XA • Supported by Rosemount MON2020 software that simcan be used in diverse applications because its space-opplifies configuration, maintenance, data collection and timized oven and analyzer design are based on the widely remote access, and reduces the need for specialized applied Rosemount 770XA GC. In addition, 470XA uses the training by guiding operators through common tasks, same TCD detector, XA-series valves, solenoids, and colsuch as module replacement, changing calibration gas umns as 770XA. and auto-valve timing.

For the NG market, Rosemount 470XA’s • Low power consumption of 55 Watts at startup, and measurements can help perform standard less than 25 Watts in steady-state mode.

C6+ BTU/CV analyses of hydrocarbons, • Allows users to select hydrogen or helium as carincluding methane, ethane, propane, burier gas, and pick air, nitrogen or helium as actuatane and pentane. For the renewable NG tion gas to optimize gas selection and costs.

(RNG) market, 470XA can perform C3+ • Reduced calibration gas usage with Cal-Gas analyses for lower-energy natural gases.

Saver automatic validation routine.

And, for processes seeking CO2 • Doesn’t require a shelter to run in most environpurity, it can detect and report ments, and 470XA combines its critical, funcon amounts of standard tional parts in one assembly, which allows impurities. Meanwhile, its quick and easy replacement or repairs. An isothermal, airless heat-sink optional enclosure is available for extreme oven with flexible gas path environmental conditions. configurations enables applications beyond C6+.

For more information, visit www.em“NG users need to meaerson.com/en-us/catalog/rosemountsure amounts of natural gas sku-470xa-gas-chromatograph. or view components like methane, ethRosemount 470XA gas chromatograph. a video about it at www.youtube.com/ Source: Emerson ane and butane to determine watch?v=5M7DxLLwXZI&t=60s 18 • MAY 2025

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IN PROCESS

ODVA turns 30,looks to automation’s future More than 100 attendees get updates on EtherNet/IP, cybersecurity and AI at 23rd annual meeting

SIGs on security The event was attended by more 100 visitors from almost 40 companies, who took in updates from ODVA’s many special interest groups (SIG). For example, David Brandt, chair of the EtherNet/IP Physical Layer SIG, reported on its efforts to harmonize with the Profibus/Profinet International organization on single-pair Ethernet (SPE) in non-hazardous locations.

The gathering also addressed the European Union’s (EU) upcoming Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) and its expected impact on ODVA’s CIP Security specification, suppliers and end-users, especially when it requires risk assessments (RA) and baked-in cybersecurity for products sold into the EU starting in December 2027.

“We’re well-positioned to meet CRA’s four main requirements of security by default, preventing unauthorized access, data confidentiality and data integrity,” said Jack Visoky, vice chair of ODVA’s EtherNet/IP system architecture SIG) and a principal engineer and security architect at Rockwell Automation. “They fit well with CIP Security."

The gathering also addressed ongoing digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI) issues, virtualized PLCs and www.controlglobal.com

Al Beydoun, president and executive director at ODVA.

Source: ODVA

ODVA (www.odva.org) celebrated its 30th anniversary at its 23rd annual members meeting in Clearwater, Fla., on Mar. 19-20, and traced the evolution and present impacts of its core Common Industrial Protocol (CIP) specifications and technology, which serve as the backbone of its EtherNet/IP protocol and automation network.

“ODVA was founded in 1995 to promote DeviceNet, introduced ControlNet in 1997 and EtherNet/IP in 2001, and has continuously launched technologies and services ever since,” said Dr. Al Beydoun, president and executive director of ODVA. “We’ve continuously adjusted CIP’s specifications to provide better solutions, continue to certify EtherNet/IP products, and steadily grew to today’s 415 members worldwide, including 30 new vendors. This is also accomplished by collaborating with other standards development organizations (SDO) and other partners. These partnerships are why we’re successful and how we keep driving innovations.”

EtherNet/IP transformed over the past year by further adapting to process industry requirements and by adding more security capabilities. The protocol expanded its process device profiles that include RTD and thermocouple temperature along with level sensors, combining concurrent connections and CIP Safety, support for PA-DIM, Version 1.1, and a new device-based firewall and a pull model for configuring to CIP Security.

controllers, simplifying addressing for Internet protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) and EtherNet/IP, wireless 5G and the CIP Motion specification, metadata for CIP devices, carbon neutrality and the CIP Energy specification, and EtherNet/IP incabinet and concurrent connections.

To access technical papers and presentations at the 23rd annual event or prior meetings, visit https://www.odva.org/newsevents/industry-conference/library-of-proceedings

Schneider Electric also shapes the future By combining automation, electrification and digitalization, Schneider Electric (www.se.com) demonstrated its recent advances in open, software-defined automation and other innovations on Mar. 31-Apr. 4 in its exhibits at Hannover Messe 2025 in Germany. The company reports its users and their industries are beset by challenges that require interventions and investments to ensure long-term viability and competitiveness.

A key solution is automation.

“Embracing innovation in automation is essential for industries to adapt and compete at the rate of change required today. By integrating information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT) with open, software-defined automation, we empower users to achieve new levels of industrial performance that closed systems can’t match,” said Barbara Frei, EVP of industrial automation at Schneider Electric. “Our MAY 2025 • 19

solutions go beyond virtualization, and support integration of any third-party software and hardware based on the UAO.org open standard, which is fostering a growing, versatile ecosystem that users and their companies can deploy. UAO.org's growth to over 100 members confirms broad industry interest in this new paradigm.”

Put expertise on a platform Building on the success of EAE, Schneider Electric is introducing its EcoStruxure Automation Expert Platform, which is a unified automation environment that offers an overview and management of control applications including control logic, motion, HMI, safety and simulation.

“We’re decoupling software from hardware at the abstraction layer, which makes software agnostic to the

hardware it’s running on,” explained Ali Haj Fraj, digital factory SVP in Industrial Automation at Schneider Electric. “This gives EcoStruxure Automation Expert Platform its three layers of connected sensors, drives and other items, mission-critical controls, and enterprise-layer access, which allows users the flexibility to deploy them where they want. For example, in our automated farm demonstration, infrared sensors can identify where cows are located, adjust fans in response, and use AI to optimize environmental conditions for them. The difference now that we’re using software-defined automation to integrate these pieces and orchestrate them more easily.”

For more information, visit www. se.com/ww/en/about-us/events/hannover-messe.jsp

Source: Schneider Electric

IN PROCESS

Cem Özdemir, Germany's federal minister of food, agriculture, education and research, opened Schneider Electric’s Mar. 31 press conference at Hannover Messe, with Schneider Electric's Olivier Blum, CEO, Barbara Frei, EVP of industrial automation, Caspar Herzberg, CEO of Aveva, and Neil Elliott Smith, CPG president.

Highly robust and waterproof level measurement at a cost-effective price OPTIWAVE 1520 and OPTIWAVE 1540 – Compact radar (FMCW) level transmitters with IP68 • Compact 80 GHz radar with flush-mounted PVDF Lens antenna • OPTIWAVE 1520 – for (waste)water basins, pumping stations etc.

• OPTIWAVE 1540 – for IBCs, chemical tanks, granular silos etc. and high accuracy requirements (±2 mm / ±0.08 in) • Commissioning via Bluetooth® and OPTICHECK Level Mobile app

krohne.link/optiwave-products-us

products solutions services

IN PROCESS

SIGNALS AND INDICATORS • A new consortium led by VDMA (www.vdma.org) and consisting of ODVA (www.odva.org), OPC Foundation (www. opcfoundation.org) and PI (www.profibus.de) published Mar. 31 their version 1.0.0 of a specification for interoperable and efficient energy management in industrial and process automation. This specification defines a standardized information model based on OPC UA to enable comprehensive energy management in industrial automation.

• The International Society of Automation (www.ISA.org) published Apr. 10 its ANSI/ISA-95.00.01-2025 (IEC 62264-1 Mod), “Enterprise-control system integration—part 1: models and terminology.” This update to 2010’s version of ISA-95 Part 1 includes changes to reflect functions in the enterprise, highlight the boundary between enterprise and manufacturing and control domains, and introduce consistency with other details in the standard.

• Bentley Systems Inc. (www.bentley.com) announced Apr. 9 it’s gained new asset analytics capabilities by using Imagery Insights from Google Maps Platform to detect and analyze

roadway conditions. These capabilities are part of Bentley’s Blyncsy software that applies AI to crowdsourced imagery for automated asset detection and inspection.

• Aveva announced Apr. 8 that it’s been selected to build a comprehensive, operations data management infrastructure for Archaea Energy, a subsidiary of BP (www.bp.com) that's reported to be the largest renewable natural gas (RNG) producer in the U.S. Archaea will use Aveva’s software to enrich and visualize its real-time operations data, enabling performance analysis across its plants.

• EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG, www.ethercat.org) reported Apr. 3 that its members and other users have installed and are presently operating approximately 88 million EtherCAT nodes worldwide.

• ABB Process Automation (go.abb/processautomation) reported Apr. 2 that it’s delivered an integrated scope of automation and digital products for IndianOil Corp.’s (https:// iocl.com) nationwide, oil-and-gas pipeline network. Spanning more than 20,000 kilometers across multiple states, this network is vital to supporting India’s energy needs.

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE | SPONSORED CONTENT

25 years of industrial computer monitor innovation

MIKE McGRAW

EVERY control system on the factory floor needs reliable monitors, touchscreens and related products to keep their operation running efficiently. For the last 25 years, Hope Industrial Systems (HIS), based in Atlanta, Ga., has been at the forefront of manufacturing monitors and supplying them quickly to customers all over the world. How did the company succeed, so it can celebrate its 25th anniversary?

Mike McGraw, president of Hope Industrial Systems, talked with Control's editor-in-chief, Len Vermillion, to explain what sets the company and its products apart from the field.

President, Hope Industrial Systems

Q: Tell us about Hope Industrial and how it arrived at a quarter century in business?

A: Our founders came from one of the world leaders in automation, and they started HIS in a basement outside Atlanta. They didn't rely on outside investments or take on any debt.

They just came up with products, designed and manufactured them, and sold them.

We’re unique because we make touchscreens and computer monitors for factory floors only. We sell directly to end users, systems integrators and OEMs. Anytime you buy our products you're buying from us directly, and all our manufacturing is done just outside of Atlanta.

We believe our greatest strength is our people. All of us focus on creating a positive customer experience every time.

Q: What are your most popular products, and how are they used in the field?

A: We make displays with or without touchscreens, in sizes from 12 inches to 23.8 inches. They're available in panel-mount versions, as well as what we call our Universal Mount monitors, which are fully enclosed monitors that can be mounted on pedestals,

22 • MAY 2025

walls, posts or columns, anywhere on the factory floor. We also make rack-mount monitors.

We have both resistive and projected capacitive (PCap) touchscreen options. We also have accessories that go along with the monitors, such as keyboards, extended cabling options, PC enclosures, and different mounting options for workstations.

Q: A business really doesn't get this far without setting itself apart from the field. For starters, you're a price leader in the industry, right?

A: We are. There are a lot of great suppliers all over the world, and we all go about things differently. HIS is somewhat unique in that we’re laser focused on industrial monitors and touchscreens only. We like to say that “we sell a lot of a few things.” We also have a streamlined, direct-selling model, so there's no one between us and our customers.

We base our pricing solely on our costs.

Our goal is to drive pricing in our market. We aren't looking around to see what other folks are charging for their products.

We're constantly trying to drive our costs down so we're able to lower our prices as well.

Those are a few things that allow us to be a price leader.

Q: You're manufacturing in Atlanta, but your products are installed all over the world. Can you talk about that supply?

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Hope Industrial Systems offers both panel-mount (left) and its Universal Mount monitors (right).

A: For 25 years, every monitor we've made has been made in Atlanta. It's a family here. We're in an office complex with lots of windows, as opposed to a big, dark warehouse. We don't have assembly lines. All our employees work at their own table, where they make full products on their own from start to finish. When it ships out, they know it's something they personally made, and a lot of times they know the specific customer that will use it and how it will be used. We're different in that way.

We have monitors on all seven continents. We've shipped hundreds of thousands of monitors over the last 25 years.

We have product stocked in the U.K. and in the EU. If you contact us from Europe, we ship directly from those warehouses—our shipping to Europe is fast.

A: One thing we’ve realized is our customers need product quickly. You can do a lot of things right, but a lot of times it's just that they need a quality monitor fast. We decided to make sure to have products in stock and ready to ship. Most of the time, that results in one-to-two-day shipment lead time. A lot of the time we'll ship the same day.

The other thing that customers really care about is reliability. They don't want to put a monitor in service and then have it fail on them. We've worked over the years to increase the reliability of our products. And in fact, all our products are backed by a five-year warranty, which is the longest warranty in the industry. We also publish detailed product reliability reports on all our products.

Q: What is the importance of the customer experience?

Q: What are some other aspects about your business that set you apart?

HEAR MORE You can hear more about Hope Industrial and its monitors on the Control Amplified podcast, available at www.controlglobal.com.

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A: Everyone here is focused on creating a positive customer experience every time. Every production person, everyone in marketing or sales, even everyone on the accounting and executive team is thinking about creating a positive customer experience every time.

More than 90% of our business is from repeat customers.

To me, that means customers like us. When they come to us, they like the product, they like who they're dealing with, and they stick with us.

MAY 2025 • 23

ce o r P 5 202

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by Len V

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d s helpe e e t c u d n lass of i c h t e future 5 h t 2 r o f l The o ss contr e c o r p shaped

IT’S NOT EASY TO MAKE YOUR MARK on the process control industry. As evidenced over the first quarter century of the Process Automation Hall of Fame, the industry is filled with innovators and visionaries who shaped the way the global processing and manufacturing sectors operate and improve. They shepherded challenges from supply chain disruptions to market changes, and from a global pandemic to global warming. But, this year’s trio of inductees carved out their niches, and are still doing their parts to set up industry for the next 25 years and beyond.

One inductee altered the way we think about distributed control systems (DCS). Another ushered in an innovative process in oil and gas, including the world’s first floating production and storage (FPSO) vessel. A third eased the way new engineering students learn about process control through experiential learning. All three remain humbled by their work and quickly defer credit to the engineers who aided and guided their careers.

24 • MAY 2025

Please join us in congratulating the newest inductees.

Duncan Schleiss is VP of business development at Emerson and often thought of as the flagbearer for developing DeltaV. Sandy Vasser is a (retired) IC&E manager for ExxonMobil, who specialized in the design, construction, commissioning, operation and maintenance of automation and power facilities. John Hedengren is also a former ExxonMobil engineer, who made his mark as a professor at Brigham Young University and advisor to its innovative PRISM Group.

Over the past several weeks, Control talked to all three men to understand their career journeys and thoughts about the industry. We explored what makes each of them unique, and delved into the fun they have when not at work. In the following pages, we tell their stories. In addition, you can listen to their stories in their own words at the Control Amplified podcast, available at www.controlglobal.com/podcasts. www.controlglobal.com

PROCESS AUTOMATION HALL OF FAME

PROCESS AUTOMATION HALL OF FAME MEMBERS 2001

2005

2008

2011

2015

2020

2023

Béla Lipták Greg McMillan Greg Shinskey

Richard Caro

Vernon Travathan William M. Hawkins

Don Bartusiak Armando Corripio James Downs

2012

2016

Penny Chen Martin Zielinski Duncan Mellichamp Ian Nimmo

Carlos Enrique Garcia

William “Bill” Luyben

John Berra Sigurd Skogestad Maurice Wilkins

2021

2024

Tom Burke Bridget Fitzpatrick Babatunde Ogunnaike John Rezabek

Mark Darby

Russell Rhinehart

2002 Marion“Bud” Keyes Terry Tolliver Harold Wade

2003 Karl Aström Lynn Craig Charles Cutler

2004 Terry Blevins Thomas M. Stout Ted Williams

2006

Dale E. Seborg

2009 Hans Baumann

Mark Nixon Tom Phinney Vern Heath

Charlotta Johnsson James Rawlings

Eric Cosman Charles Moore

Edgar H. Bristol II

Renzo Dallimanti

Richard E. Morley

Pat Kennedy

Wyman “Cy” Rutledge

Carroll Ryskamp

2013

Kathleen Waters

Cecil Smith

Dennis Brandl John MacGregor Peter G. Martin Ian Verhappen

2007 James H. Christensen

2010 Joseph S. Alford John Gerry

Thomas F. Edgar

Willy Wojsznis

Angela Summers

Yutaka Wakasa

2014 Dave Emerson Paul Murrill

Would-be teacher becomes DeltaV pioneer It can be a little intimidating to find yourself among people you’ve long admired, but it also makes the honor much more meaningful. Such is the case for Duncan Schleiss, longtime VP of business development at Emerson, who now adds a new title to his legacy—2025 Process Automation Hall of Fame inductee. Schleiss, who many in the industry recognize for his work as part of the development teams of some

DUNCAN SCHLEISS

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2017

2018 Thomas McAvoy Herman Storey

2019 Nicholas Sands Carlos Smith

2022 Tom Badgwell Lorenz Biegler Andy Chatha Brian Ramaker Thomas Marlin

Tariq Samad W. Harmon Ray

Marcos Peluso Joe Weiss

2025

John Hedengren Duncan Schleiss Sandy Vasser

notable technologies, particularly DeltaV, admits being mentioned with some of the people he’s respected, and in some cases considers his heroes, is “nothing short of incredible.”

“I have so much respect for so many of the names [in the hall of fame],” Schleiss says. “They’re all legends in my mind.”

Schleiss now joins a peer group that not only worked with him throughout his career, but also nominated and selected him to join them in the hall of fame. He mentions members like Terry Blevins, Dave Emerson, John Berra and Greg McMillan as people who helped shape his career.

It’s no surprise that Schleiss quickly points out the work and influence of others while talking about his own induction. He considers his success the result of the great teams of colleagues and mentors he’s had. “I walk in big shoes, and I feel really humbled to be in the presence of the great people in our industry,” he says.

One of those heroes is his father, a chemistry major as an undergraduate in their native South Africa. Schleiss combined his father’s chemistry influence with his own math acumen into a chemical engineering degree from the University of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) in Durban, before heading the U.S. to complete his master’s degree at Louisiana State University (LSU) in Baton Rouge. “LSU and Natal U were sister schools linked by the sugar industry,” he explains.

At LSU, Schleiss loved educating others, and became an assistant professor, fulfilling his goal of becoming a teacher.

“I always felt I wanted to be in the education business,” MAY 2025 • 25

PROCESS AUTOMATION HALL OF FAME

he says. “Well, I still feel like I’m in the education business when it comes to the world of automation. After 40 years in business, you tend to know what you’re talking about.“ And he’s all too willing to pass along his knowledge to the next generation of engineers.

to the team at Emerson. “I was certainly part of a team of people that worked really hard to make it happen,” he says. “I was just one of a community, but I’m gracious to be the flagbearer.”

Developing DeltaV Building a career These days, Schleiss has lived in the U.S. longer than he did in South Africa, but he still maintains plenty of family and work connections with his homeland. “In a strange way, it’s still my home,” he says.

Home in the U.S. is Round Rock, Texas, just outside of Austin, where he’s worked for Emerson for the last 32 years.

It’s also where he’s made more than his fair share of the accomplishments that led to his selection to the Process Automation Hall of Fame. For example, he currently holds 54 patents for technologies that many of us use in our work today.

“I’m very proud of those,” he says.

After graduating from LSU, he worked for EMC Controls (now Valmet), which acquired NovaTech Automation that created the D3 distributed control system (DCS) in 1982. D3 introduced the concept of unit relative operations to the process control industry, dividing processes into functional units for better control. He remembers trying to keep up with the work as a new employee. “I felt we were changing things on the fly which was pretty scary,” he remembers.

Schleiss soon left for a job at Combustion Engineering, which had just merged with Taylor to become one of the largest process instrumentation companies in the U.S. Combustion Engineering was acquired by ABB in 1989, where he became intimate with Taylor’s MOD300 system that added to his vision of the perfect DCS. He later joined Fisher Controls, which was acquired from Monsanto by Emerson in 1992. He’s thankful that he ended up with the company and never left, like a lot of his colleagues. “It’s a good place to work and people tend to stick,” he says.

Becoming a flagbearer Schleiss isn’t shy. He knows he’s sometimes outspoken in meetings, especially when it comes to technology, but it’s also what helped him advance in his career. “I got into some meetings, where I vocalized lessons learned from D3 and MOD300. I felt the D3 system was technically superior to anything that I’d worked on,” he recalls. “I guess they thought maybe this guy can help build the next-generation system.”

He was assigned to do just that, and the result eventually became DeltaV, which integrates advanced automation solutions, real-time analytics, sophisticated control systems and lifecycle services into one platform. Of course, these days, DeltaV is a stalwart of the process control industry.

For many people, Schleiss became the unofficial face of DeltaV, but he’s again quick to humbly give more credit 26 • MAY 2025

DeltaV is common now, but in 1992, when Schleiss and team began development, there were several challenges to overcome. At the time, conventional wisdom said that a DCS should be Unix-based with serial communications, just as Ethernet would be hub-based, 10BaseT, though it was nowhere to be found in the industrial sector at that time.

“Serial comms was rather nice in some respects because you didn't have any electronics in the middle like we have today with Ethernet switches,” Schleiss continues. “You could do Ethernet with a ring, but then you couldn't expand it because, if you open up the ring, things fell apart.”

There was only one thought that prevailed. “We’re going to change the world,” he recalls of the team’s skunkworksstyle mantra.

To do so, the team had to project what technology was coming in the next five years. It meant making big decisions, such as going with personal computers when there was only one commercial PC on the market. That PC was from IBM and it came with the IBM OS2 operating system.

“We chose not to use IBM because we found a small company called Microsoft that was working on a new platform called Windows95 and NT," he says. “We switched from Unix, abandoned OS2, moved to Win95 on a scary decision day, and went all in, even though Win95 was a singlethreaded system, and not yet nearly the powerhouse Windows it is today. We were on the inside track with Microsoft.”

It was a massive leap of faith. Nobody knew anything about it and the Internet didn’t yet exist, so there was no way to do research. They also needed a PC that could run Windows, and they found it right down the street in Austin with Dell, also an up-and-coming company at the time.

Other components that contributed to the development of DeltaV were smart switches and the development of an open system that users could connect to.

“We got together with four other companies (Intellution, Rockwell, Microsoft and Opto22), and started with our flagship, proprietary, interfacing Computer Highway Interface Program (CHIP) software from our legacy DCS. Together with these partners, the ubiquitous OPC communication standard was developed, and the rest is history,” he says.

This team wasn’t without critics, facing adversity and naysayers, but still blazed their trail. “I think we got DeltaV to number one through deep perseverance over the years,” Schleiss says proudly. “We did some really good technology things, but I said, man, we were driven in those early days when we had nothing to lose.” www.controlglobal.com

PROCESS AUTOMATION HALL OF FAME

Schleiss concludes, “Reflecting, while I’ve always been a visionary and driven person, I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time, when three technologies were going through an inflection point, and my company was on a mission and willing to bet on their longest shot—me.”

At the forefront of oil and gas process automation Growing up in Alabama often means making a choice— “Roll Tide” or “War Eagle.” More often than not, you’re born into your football allegiance for Alabama or Auburn. Other times, your choices put you at odds with those closest to you. Sandy Vasser admits he was a big Alabama Crimson Tide fan growing up, while his father was a fan of the Auburn Tigers.

“We’d watch the [Iron Bowl] every year, and I rooted for Alabama and he rooted for Auburn,” Vasser recalls. This was during the period of Bear Bryant and Joe Namath at Alabama and Shug Jordan and Pat Sullivan at Auburn.

Gridiron allegiances aside, the two shared a common interest that would eventually lead to a plot twist on the level of a Chris Davis kick-six play (if you know, you know). Vasser says he got his interest in engineering from his dad, a physicist who practiced engineering, and eventually became engineering manager SANDY VASSER at an International Paper Co. plant.

He and his dad did a lot of Heathkit projects together, and Vasser says it’s where he got interested in electrical engineering. When it came time to pick a college, the lifelong (to that point) ‘Bama fan chose Auburn, of all places.

He knew it would make his dad happy to hear his choice, but still, the rivalry ran deep and he fesses up to having the hardest time telling him where he was going to study.

“I waited until a month before I left for school to tell him,” Vasser says. “I didn’t want to admit I was going to Auburn.”

But he did and earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and now, “I’m the biggest Auburn fan.”

Exxon came out “way ahead.” He cites the career development opportunities abroad and the technical expertise he could acquire as the attractive aspects of the company.

“It seemed to be a perfect match, so I went,” he says.

He started with Exxon Gas System in Houston. The company distributed natural gas from King Ranch to Tyler, Texas.

He recalls nine compressor stations in the control system, which was controlled by a PDP-8 microcomputer. “It was my first experience with automation,” he says.

Vasser’s job was to justify replacing the PDP-8, which was termed a high-speed computer, but it wasn’t very fast by modern standards. He was then given responsibility for the control system in a new compressor station, and he spent time in the field terminating field I/O. He eventually got approval to replace the PDP-8, but was transferred to another division before it could be replaced.

First-of-a-kind FPSO Vasser’s next stop took him to offshore California. Located in 850 feet of water, the single production and oil processing platform vessel, which was an innovative floating plant developed in response to Exxon’s difficulty getting approvals for an onshore plant north of Santa Barbara, Calif. So, Exxon moved it offshore into federal deepwater. “Three miles out to sea, we built what turned out to be the first floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel,” Vasser says.

Vasser oversaw commissioning of the process modules and power plant's electrical and control systems. After startup, he worked for the next few years supporting its operations.

“It was quite unique. We didn’t call them FPSOs back then [in the early 1980s], just offshore storage and treatment facilities (OS&T),” he says.

Following this assignment, Vasser was assigned to a team in Houston that designed the topsides for two more platforms, an onshore oil processing plant, onshore gas plant, cogeneration power plant, and an export terminal, all to replace the offshore processing facility. They were all part of the Santa Ynez Unit in Southern California.

Following completion of the designs, Vasser moved to California to support construction of the new onshore facilities. After startup, he remained in California, supporting the three offshore platforms and the onshore facilities for several years.

Changing automation Striking with oil and gas Vasser spent 39 years with ExxonMobil, though he didn’t have a career in oil and gas in his sights after graduation.

He also interviewed at power companies, a few engineering firms, and like his father, considered a path in the paper industry. Like any good engineer, he made himself a spreadsheet with the benefits and negatives of each company, and www.controlglobal.com

Just before 2000, Vasser found himself back in Houston, working at Exxon Upstream Development Co., which was responsible for all upstream projects worldwide. “We had about 100 projects in our portfolio—all multibillion-dollar projects— and we were set up to execute about 25 at a time,” he recalls.

Exxon wanted an experienced group working on its endeavor, and Vasser was part of a team of experts, who all MAY 2025 • 27

PROCESS AUTOMATION HALL OF FAME

had more than 20 years of experience. Shortly after he began with the development company, Exxon and Mobil merged, and everything moved to a large campus in Spring, Texas, in the Houston suburbs.

Vasser led a team of 125 professional electrical and automation engineers and technicians responsible for the design, construction and startup of the power and automation systems for upstream projects. Considering the large volume of ongoing projects and the limited resources, he knew that different project approaches were necessary to be consistently successful.

Vasser also started an initiative called “It Just Happens” that challenged every historical project practice and procedure in the power and automation disciplines. The idea was to eliminate all unnecessary steps, and simplify and/or automate the remaining steps. Knowing this could require new technologies, Vasser and his team engaged all of the global suppliers of automation and electrical equipment, including, but not limited to, ABB, Emerson, Honeywell, Powell Electric, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric, Siemens and Yokogawa.

The net result of the initiative was the development of universal I/O, virtual factory acceptance tests (FAT), automatic safety instrumented system (SIS) programming and automatic commissioning. To simplify procurement of systems, complete vendor standard solutions were developed to enable procurement with simply completed data sheets and/or part numbers. This all resulted in the reduction of automation and electrical engineering by 30-40%, reduction in the number of automation cabinets by 66%, reduction in terminations by 70%, reduction in construction activities by 20-30%, no hardware FAT by staging the complete system, reduction in costs by 30-40%, and compression of schedules by 25%. I&E that was traditionally always on critical path would no longer be on critical path when implementing the results of this initiative.

This initiative not only simplified the way ExxonMobil delivered projects, but also the way the industry delivered projects.

Travel for fun Vasser also spent his career traveling around the world, just as he intended when he chose Exxon after college. These days he and his wife, who have four children and seven grandchildren, get to travel together and spend a lot more time together.

“Sometimes, I think she wishes I’d go back to work because now we spend so much time together,” he quips.

Vasser concludes he’s very happy to spend more time with his family and appreciates the honor of induction into the Process Automation Hall of Fame. “I look at a lot those already in the Hall of Fame and there's quite a group of technical and professional individuals that I looked up to during my career, so I'm very pleased,” he says.

28 • MAY 2025

JOHN HEDENGREN

Taking his vision and running with it John Hedengren never expected to teach process control.

As an undergraduate in chemical engineering at Brigham Young University (BYU), he wasn’t planning for post-graduate school at all. However, thanks to a textbook he used during a senior-year process control course, his direction quickly changed.

The book, Process Dynamics and Control, by Dale Seborg, Thomas Edgar and Duncan Mellichamp, piqued his interest in control so much that he thought that he’d found his passion.

The book captivated him enough that, noticing Edgar was at the University of Texas-Austin, he proposed that he come to Texas and work with the well-known process modeling expert and 2007 Process Automation Hall of Fame inductee.

“Tom said, ‘I don’t know who you are, but send me your resumé,’” Hedengren recalls. He sent his it, and soon moved to Austin to work with Edgar and pursue a Ph.D. “That’s how I got my start in process control.”

And it led to a career of accomplishments and Hedengren’s own induction as a 2025 Process Automation Hall of Fame member.

Experiential learning Teaching still wasn’t in Hedengren’s sights when he graduated from UT-Austin. Instead, he went to PAS Inc. in Houston, where he developed first-principles models for homopolymer and impact co-polymer polypropylene reactors. He also conducted advanced process control (APC) training for internal and external clients.

From there, he went to work for ExxonMobil in plant automation services, and quickly found himself working in Houston, Europe and Saudi Arabia on advanced controls. “Coming out of school, seeing some of the theoretical, and then shifting quickly to working on commission controllers in large chemical plants shaped my ideas about control and what's useful in practice,” Hedengren says.

While he liked the work and the people at ExxonMobil, he was drawn to his work with graduate interns and engineers www.controlglobal.com

PROCESS AUTOMATION HALL OF FAME

based, not only in Saudi Arabia, but also in Singapore and Europe. He began teaching short courses to other engineers while in the field. It was then that he knew he wanted to return to academia, and what better place than BYU, where he started.

Returning to Provo, Utah, nestled among its scenic Rocky Mountain peaks, Hedengren pondered what type of professor he wanted to be.

His industry experience taught him that hands-on learning is often more productive. “Coming from industry, I wanted my process control class to be based on experiential learning, where students could get their hands on a controller,” he says.

Temperature control lab Hedengren quickly figured out it was hard to schedule 100-120 students to go into a lab to work with the

“ Coming from industry, I wanted my process control class to be based on experiential learning, where students could get their hands on a controller.” equipment. So, he took matters into his own hands—literally. He assembled a small board microcontroller, and had his students build versions of it themselves. But the idea wasn’t sustainable.

“It’s pretty complicated [for the students],” he admits.

Instead, he and a few other process control professors put in a bulk order for microcontrollers to equip their own classes, and reduce costs through volume discounts. The idea took off, and today it’s known as the Temperature Control Lab. “It’s a small temperature control lab device, and we’ve now produced about 12,000 of them,” Hedengren

says. “It’s used by about 100 universities and thousands of industry professionals to learn how to tune a PID controller, how to step test, and how to do system identification.”

The current device is the result of collaboration between professors, researchers and graduate students. He lauds one of his students, Abe Martin, as instrumental in developing and writing the initial software.

Hedengren is also chair of the IEEE Control System Society’s (CSS) Technical Committee on Control Education, and he’s collaborating with researchers there to further develop the devices as a learning tool. The goal is to create modular experiments that can be simply plugged in, and given to every student.

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A former All-American collegiate athlete, Hedengren not only knows his way around a control loop, but also around a track or a cross-country course. He’s passed those running genes and skills down to his children as well. His daughter, Jane, is one of the top high school distance runners in the U.S. She set four national high school records this year, placing her as one of the best in high school history.

While Hedengren is quick to give all the credit to the athletes for their success, he knows that having a basic understanding of data-driven engineering can help athletes improve performance and stay injury-free.

“When my children started running, I was passionate about really helping them stay injury-free and just help them improve,” he said. “You can apply principles like data analysis, visualization, analytics and machine learning to athletics.” www.controlglobal.com

2/13/24 3:03 PM

His passion also became part of the focus of BYU’s Process Research and Intelligent Systems Modeling (PRISM) Group, which Hedengren serves as advisor. It started with a collaboration with some of the collegiate athletic and exercise science departments. Hedengren says the project secured a five-year grant to advance performance analytics for athletes.

There are 13 students and an affiliate professor working in the group. The focus is on data science for athletics, particularly track and field. “It’s been an unexpected but incredibly rewarding project,” adds Hedengren.

Machine learning is the core of research Hedengren says he noticed exercise science labs tend to have very expensive equipment, such as high-end treadmills with camera systems that use motion capture.

PRISM’s idea is to replicate some of their quality analytics with machine learning by using cell phone videos.

They did a yearlong study just to quantify the accuracy of machine learning, and found where it had strengths and limitations. They developed a few apps to get their project into the hands of coaches and athletes around the country.

“Since then, it's really made some good strides,” he says.

Their goal was to make free apps available for athletes to analyze their running forms. Using cell phone video, it picks out some of the weaknesses in an athlete’s running form, 2505CT_Migatron.indd 1 and suggests strengthening exercises they can do to remediate that weakness as a feedback loop.

PRISM isn’t only for athletics. It’s a collaborative research group for applying innovative advanced process control, optimization, cybersecurity, estimation, digital twin modeling, machine learning and data science in several fields, such as hybrid nuclear energy systems.

The group, which includes graduate and undergraduate students, develops novel algorithms and techniques for large-scale and complex systems.

The group continues to make progress. Hedengren knows that there’s a lot of distance to cover, but they’ll keep running, one breakthrough at a time, towards a finish line of smarter, more adaptive systems.

4/28/25 1:40 P

IN THEIR WORDS Listen to the Control Amplified podcast (www.controlglobal. com/podcasts) featuring more from Duncan Schleiss, Sandy Vasser and John Hedengren as they discuss their induction into the hall of fame, their careers, their thoughts on the industry and more.

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www.controlglobal.com 2505CT_LoadControls.indd 1

4/22/25 4:45 P

Streamline maintenance.

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Emerson.com/Trex The Emerson logo is a trademark and a service mark of Emerson Electric Co. © 2025 Emerson Electric Co.

ETHERNET-APL

Suppliers launch switches and products that bring Ethernet’s physical layer safely into hazardous areas

by Jim Montague

TECHNICAL and economic miracles only seem like miracles because we probably weren’t paying attention to all the work going on behind the scenes.

For instance, Ethernet-Advanced Physical Layer (APL) has been progressively developing for close to a decade, but devices that let it extend Ethernet into hazardous areas have only been available for a couple of years. Now, this physical layer’s 10 Mbps speed and 200 meter networking is enabling much faster and more detailed communications, analytics, configuration, data storage and other tasks.

In the installer’s shoes In a recent demonstration at Hannover Fair 2025 in Germany, Pepperl+Fuchs showed how its FieldConnex Ethernet-APL Ex-ia intrinsically safe (IS) rail field switch with eight, 16 or 24 APL ports and its web-based interface work with Endress+Hauser’s Cerabar PMC 71B transmitter and Samson’s Trovis 3797 valve positioner, which both have the interface built in to communicate via EthernetAPL utilizing hardened industrial protocols such as Profinet and Ethernet IP (Figure 1).

Illustration: Hilch / Shutterstock.com

Spreading the word “We’re still at the early adoption phase, but interest in Ethernet-APL is growing. APL isn’t where we want to be with available instruments yet, but it’s gaining traction, and there will be more devices it can connect to soon,” says Bernd Schuessler, global major accounts manager and global APL sales lead at Pepperl+Fuchs (www.pepperl-fuchs. com). “We’re continuing to reach out to end users globally, and collaborate with manufacturers like Endress+Hauser.

This included several recent, well-attended summits with Endress+Hauser and Samsung—some with live demos—in Houston, Italy, Australia and Belgium. They’re continuing this year with a October event in the Carolinas, which we’re hosting with our distributor Carotek, and will continue with a September summit in Calgary. We’re also planning similar events in Europe and South America.”

For instance, Pepperl+Fuchs’ Ethernet-APL field switch features a built-in PA proxy to help Profibus-PA instruments like communicate with Profinet protocol control systems. “APL is already available for Profibus-PA and Profinet. In fact, our APL switch features a built-in PA Proxy to allow connecting excisting Profibus-PA devices, and some end users are deploying it,” says Schuessler. “We don’t have EtherNet/IP instruments with APL yet, but they’ll probably be available in 12-18 months.” www.controlglobal.com

Figure 1: In a recent demonstration at Hannover Fair 2025 in Germany, Pepperl+Fuchs showed how its FieldConnex EthernetAPL Ex-ia intrinsically safe (IS) rail field switch with eight, 16 or 24 APL ports and its web-based interface work with Endress+Hauser’s Cerabar PMC 71B transmitter and Samson’s Trovis 3797 valve positioner, which both have the interface built in to communicate via Ethernet-APL with the communication protocol of any switch or controller that supports it. Source: Pepperl+Fuchs and Jim Montague MAY 2025 • 33

ETHERNET-APL

“We put ourselves in the installer’s shoes, who connects remote I/O and DCS. Our APL field switch and web interface means no DCS or configuration is required to perform preliminary field testing,” says Andreas Hennecke, product marketing management head in Pepperl+Fuchs’ process automation division. “Other installation tasks are still needed, but what’s new is this switch and interface work like an app on a smart phone, and use standard Ethernet techniques to identify the other APL devices they’re working with no matter which supplier they’re from. In this case, we’re using linked layer discovery protocol (LLDP), which queries any transmitter or other field components to deliver their electronic identity.”

Because Ethernet-APL complies with IEEE 802.3 standard Ethernet, users can now choose Ethernet from the control room all the way to the field, including in hazardous areas. Switches and installation provide a seamless infrastructure. “Having a built-in APL interface gives users Ethernet all the way from field devices to controllers and asset management systems, which creates a seamless network infrastructure that can just use a switch, and doesn’t need a gateway to translate protocols. Ethernet is like having a common road to drive on,” explains Hennecke. “The highway doesn’t care what cars, trucks or other

vehicle travel on it, so we suppliers can still compete car-to-car, each with our own field devices and features, but they can all use the same path. Ethernet-APL is the asphalt that gets that common road into hazardous areas.”

Hennecke reports Ethernet-APLs also makes it easier for installers to check their work, document at shift change what the network is showing about what’s connected where, and provide snapshots and reports their bosses can sign off on. “And all of this can now happen during the installation phase where the DCS and other tools are not present yet. The end user is ensured, that signals are stable and the installation is of good quality,” explains Hennecke.

“This lets remote I/O and switches connect any type of digital communications from the field to control systems and asset management systems, which we couldn’t do before with the detail that’s possible now. Conversely, APL also lets the IT level back into even old, as-built processes and facilities, and allows software to ask any device linked to the network about its status, performance and needed changes. Where this used to require configurating, programming and connecting devices in the field, APL makes this seamless because instruments can deploy updated configurations residing in the asset

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ETHERNET-APL

management system, and even perform configuration automatically, which saves time and labor, and reduces human error.”

Plus, where 4-20 mA’s single analog signal can indicate little more than a wire break or short-circuit situation, Ethernet-APL’s bandwidth can relay all of an instrument’s internal diagnostics. “A vibration sensor may know when something happens, but traditionally there was no way for it to tell what it knows,” adds Hennecke. “APL gives sensors a communication channel for subsequent diagnostics and possible alarms, and even let devices generate notifications when they need adjustments or repairs.”

Easier configuration, safer power “Now that device manufacturers and some end users are setting up, trying out, and starting to get their hands dirty with Ethernet-APL field switches and other devices, they’re getting to experience the benefits of its greater bandwidth, cable length, and the richness of Ethernet in general,” says Michael Bowne, executive director of PI North America (us. profinet.com). “They’re also discovering that device configuration is orders of magnitude easier with APL, and can go from hours to minutes.”

Underlying the benefits of its 10 Mbps speed and bandwidth, and its 200 m cabling distance, Ethernet-APL’s main attraction is that it runs at safe voltage levels that can’t ignite fires or explosions in hazardous areas. The four power classes defined in its 120-page “Ethernet-APL Engineering Guide” (www. ethernet-apl.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/APLEngineeringGuidelineV111_1.11.pdf) include: • Power Class A source ports have a maximum voltage of 15 VDC and minimum output power of 0.54 W, with an S-spur permitted segment class, and permitted Power Class A for load ports; • Power Class C source ports have a maximum voltage of 15 VDC and minimum output power of 1.1 W, with an S-spur permitted segment class, and permitted Power Class A and C for load ports; • Power Class 3 source ports have a maximum voltage of 50 VDC and minimum output power of 57.5 W, with a T-trunk permitted segment class, and permitted Power Class 3 for load ports; and • Power Class 4 source ports have a maximum voltage of 50 VDC and minimum output power of 92 W, with an T-trunk permitted segment class, and permitted Power Class 3 and 4 for load ports.

“By the time it reaches 200 meters, Power Class A is only 540 milliwatts, or about half a watt. This is part of EthernetAPL’s section of the two-wire IEC 60079-47 technical document published in February 2021, while Power Class B is expected to be added soon,” says Arnold Offner, strategic marketing manager for process automation at Phoenix Contact (www.phoenixcontact.com/ethernet-apl). “It’s also OK if only www.controlglobal.com

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one APL device is running because each has to operate within its own envelope, so users don’t have to worry about inductance or resistance.”

Because these and other upcoming power classes are part of Ethernet-APL’s operating profiles, Offner reports that devices connected to a Power Class A switch must fulfill the same requirements, just as the point and end devices in an Ex-ia system must also be certified as intrinsically safe.

“Besides running at reduced voltages and currents, Ethernet-APL also relies on ‘engineered power,’ which requires that all the electricity used by each network and its devices always stay within a diligence-designed range or envelope.

It also makes sure that no port operations go outside the perimeter of the same operating range,” explains Offner.

“Range A is 0.5 W or less, and is a subset of the larger Range B that’s 0.5 W to 1.17 W, with both in Zone 1. Meanwhile, Range C is up to 1.1 W in Zone 2. Reducing APL’s distance compared to regular Ethernet is what allowed is what allows it to run at reduced and safer power levels.”

Same old demand—more data, faster

“In my mind, Ethernet-APL is what allows SPE to be deployed in hazardous environments, but it must be clearly understood that they’re very different,” says Dr. Vivek Hajarnavis, technology manager at Rockwell Automation (www.rockwellautomation.com) and chair of the market T_PepperlFuchs.indd 1 4/22/25 1:18 PM advisory committee at ODVA (www.odva.org). “It helps that APL’s standards are complete, and that two of Ethernet-APL group’s four standards development organizations (SDO)—ODVA and PNO—are ready to conduct conformance testing. This allows anyone to develop APL products, and they’re doing it.”

For instance, ODVA’s exhibit at Hannover Fair 2025 included a demonstration of five present or prototype Ethernet-APL devices, including Vegapuls 80 GHz radar level transmitter from VEGA, and StoneL Axiom position indicator from Valmet. They were joined or accompanied by two APL field switches from Phoenix Contact and Pepperl+Fuchs, and two programmable automation controllers (PAC) from Rockwell Automation and Schneider Electric (Figure 2).

Because Ethernet-APL lets instruments, remote I/O and field switches run on its common, 10 Mbps physical layer, it frees their capabilities from prior restrictions. Components with onboard computations power now have a reason to analyze multiple process variables because their results have With 70,000 certified Continuous Emissions someplace to go.

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Hajarnavis. “APL can enable all of these by allowing Ethernet abb.com/measurement connectivity and performance in the hazardous environments

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ETHERNET-APL

where they couldn’t go previously. It also makes technical transitions easier by allowing users to reuse existing Profibus-PA, Foundation Fieldbus (FF) and Modbus wiring, such as FF Type A fieldbus cable. A DCS such as PlantPAX now has access to data that it never had before.”

Hajarnavis reports that, in the past, a simple optical sensor might only be able to report if it was running high or low via a single digital input. “This situation improved when the DeviceNet protocol enabled sensors to indicate if its lens was dirty,” he adds. “Now, EtherNet/IP lets devices and their users analyze multiple process values at high speeds, perform additional configuration tasks, and improve their security—and these are just some of the capabilities that APL is bringing to hazardous settings.”

Security needed, too Ethernet-APL is proving that its physical layer is Ex-ai intrinsically safe (IS), runs much faster at 10 Mbps compared to digital fieldbuses at 31.4 kbps or analog signals with HART at 1.2 kbps, and is increasingly and trusted and accepted by users, according to Christoph Adam, head of product management at Softing Industrial (industrial.softing.com). However, he adds it’s also a two-wire, Ethernet network that must address network vulnerabilities, and prevent cyber-probes, -intrusions and -attacks from reaching its field devices.

“It seems like everyone is integrating the ISA/IEC 62443 cybersecurity standard because the European Union’s (EU) Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) is about to go live in 2027,” says Adam.

“Suppliers and users are getting their processes and products certified, looking at their network topologies, doing threat modeling, making sure their ports are locked, and establishing firewalls around their subnetwork zones and devices. The good news is Ethernet-APL, single-pair Ethernet (SPE), Profinet and other Ethernet-based protocols can use their connectivity and capabilities to help with cybersecurity issues, so we’re looking at integrating more cybersecurity in our solutions as well.“ Just as effective cybersecurity requires site and risk assessments, Adam reports that implementing Ethernet-APL also needs users to examine their network topologies and evaluate which new designs and tools will be the most suitable for their processes and facilities. “Switching from pointto-point analog to digital fieldbuses were big changes, and added some complexity for users due to breaks in physical networks and the need to integrate gateways or proxies in their topologies with additional set up effort,” adds Adam.

“Likewise, our PA Gate switch has been converting ProfibusPA protocols communications to Profinet for 15 years, and while it means less wiring complexity in the long run, it also requires users to learn how to do their diagnostics differently, so they can get more than just one or two values.

“Implementing Ethernet-APL is simpler, but it’s a change, too, and all of these changes require learning some new tasks www.controlglobal.com

Figure 2: ODVA’s exhibit at Hannover Fair 2025 included a demonstration of five present or prototype Ethernet-APL devices, including Vegapuls 80 GHz radar level transmitter from VEGA, and StoneL Axiom position indicator from Valmet. They were joined or accompanied by two APL field switches from Phoenix Contact and Pepperl+Fuchs, and two PACs from Rockwell Automation and Schneider Electric. Source: ODVA and Jim Montague

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APL PRODUCTS SPRING UP LIKE DANDELIONS It might seem like not many Ethernet-APL products have arrived yet, but that idea was quickly refuted by the 14 different present, upcoming and prototype products showcased at the Profibus Nutzerorganisation’s (PNO, www.profibus.com) recent exhibit at Hannover Fair 2025.

Its booth featured five APL switches: • ELX 6233 remote I/O from Beckhoff that works like a switch • aplSwitch Field PA from Softing • FieldConnex APL rail field switch from Pepperl+Fuchs • APL field switch from Phoenix Contact • Ethernet-APL field switch from R. Stahl

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ETHERNET-APL

and tools. Now, APL is going to make a lot more data types available. One of the benefits is, where traditional parameterization with HART during setup and configuration took 10-15 minutes, APL will only take 10-15 seconds.”

Promulgating protocols Schuessler reports that Ethernet-APL has already been deployed in several process industry applications.

“Ethernet-APL’s organizers have been working on it behind the scenes for about eight years. However, our APL switch is only three years old, and it needs other devices to connect to, so we can prove that it and Ethernet-APL’s physical layer can run multiple protocols safely and successfully in hazardous areas,” he explains. “This will let users deploy EtherNet/IP protocol for their drives, for example, run Profinet somewhere else, and generally run whichever protocol they prefer.”

Whatever protocols they decide to run on APL, users will gain Ethernet-APL’s big speed advantage of 10 Mbps that can accommodate the data streams from more and smarter instruments, and seamlessly transport all that information from the field via APL switches to control systems and cloud-computing services.

“Ethernet-APL also makes it much easier for users to replace instruments in the field than it is with traditional fieldbuses,” says Schuessler. “While working with fieldbuses requires users to discover and add drivers and configuration files for instruments, Ethernet-APL doesn’t require them to look elsewhere because the devices themselves have the latest documentation, and can make configuration much easier.”

Even though different protocols run on the same the same physical space layer on Ethernet and Ethernet-APL, devices using those protocols can’t directly interoperate, but they may be able to find some better ways to communicate.

“If data is brought to a controller, it doesn’t necessarily care if it’s delivered via 4-20 mA or one of the fieldbus protocols. A controller could receive inputs via Profinet, and use its network interface card (NIC) to send it out using a different protocol,” says Schuessler. “For example, APL could be used to plug into field devices running HART-IP, Profinet, EtherNet/IP—and soon Foundation Fieldbus—and their backends could relay information to a controller via Profinet, EtherNet/IP or Modbus TCP/IP. In addition, a controller that can talk to field devices using different Ethernet protocols also lets users coordinate them more easily, and gain more and better diagnostics, analytics and performance."

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EVEN the premium gas detector field has been in a rut— with the same technologies operating in the same ways with the same limitations for many years.

To break out and provide plug-and-play, set-and-forget detection, Emerson has launched the Rosemount 625IR fixed gas detector. It’s designed to deliver greater reliability with less required maintenance, and employs advanced, temperature-compensated, optical-absorption detection for faster detection of methane, propane and other hydrocarbon gases without false alarms, even in hazardous environments and all weather conditions.

“One of the traditional limits for gas detectors was the amount of maintenance they required, such as optical drift that led to frequent visits and calibrations,” says Paul Tillyer, global product manager for flame and gas at Emerson. “So, we integrated multiple hardware and software revisions in a new gas-detector design that could address these issues, and remove the need for onsite calibration.”

For instance, Rosemount 625IR uses specialized, solidstate, dual infrared (IR) sources and dual IR receivers, and transmits through a sapphire lens. IR sources and receivers are monitored in real time to perform continual cross-checks and internal adjustments, which enables the detector’s factory-set calibration to be maintained throughout its life. Heaters on its optical surfaces dissipate moisture, while multiple, optical-protection accessories provide continuous detection without causing unplanned downtime.

Rosemount 625IR is also simpler to install and maintain because it retains its initial factory calibration for life thanks to its advanced, drift-monitoring capability and health-monitoring diagnostics. When retrofitting 625IR to replace another manufacturer’s detector, you can internally configure the 0-4 mA warning and fault levels, which means no changes are needed to the control system. Multiple accessories also make function testing fast and easy using test gas or a gas-free test filter that greatly reduces maintenance time and expense.

“Gas function tests typically require real gas, which usually means bringing a compressed-gas cylinder to the site,” explains Tillyer. “To solve this difficulty, we developed a plugin, gas-free test filter for 625IR for required gases, which can simulate the presence of hydrocarbons. It attenuates the measurement wavelength of the gas being tested for, but not the reference wavelength, which indicates the actual gas presence. This turns a 30- to 90-minute visit into a 5-minute visit.” www.controlglobal.com

Rosemount 625IR fixed gas detector. Source: Emerson

Rosemount 625IR has a standard operating range of -40 °F to 167 °F (-40 °C to +75 °C), while its ingress protection levels are IP66/67 and NEMA 4X. At 77 °F (25 °C), its accuracy is ±2% of full scale (FS), while its repeatability is ±1% of FS. The detector is rated for use in hazardous areas, including North America Class 1, Division 1, Groups B, C and D, as well as Inmetro/ATEX/IECEx - Ex db ib IIC T5 Gb. It’s also certified for marine applications, SIL 2 rated in accordance with IEC61508, and SIL 3 rated when used in a 1oo2 voting configuration. It also has a five-year, proof-test interval that lets users confidently reduce scheduled maintenance visits.

“While most detectors have a 9- or 10-second response time with a splashguard fitted, Rosemount 625IR is less than 2 seconds with its splashguard fitted. This means faster detection and less risk of a shutdown,” adds Tillyer. “It can presently detect hydrocarbons like methane, propane, ethylene and many others, but more hydrocarbon gases and CO2 detection will be added in the future.”

Other accessories, such as an environmental shield, mosquito net and adaptor plate, further simplify installing Rosemount 625IR in applications and settings, making it usable in extractive, gas-detection applications. Duct-mounted, extended-probe versions are also available in 15 cm (5.9 inch) and 35 cm (13.8 inch) lengths to provide fast, accurate and representative detection across ducts or voids.

For more information, visit www.emerson.com/Rosemount625IR MAY 2025 • 41

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* Tadiran LiSOCl2 batteries feature the lowest annual self-discharge rate of any competitive battery, less than 1% per year, enabling these batteries to operate over 40 years depending on device operating usage. However, this is not an expressed or implied warranty, as each application differs in terms of annual energy consumption and/or operating environment.

Tadiran Batteries 2001 Marcus Ave. Suite 125E Lake Success, NY 11042 1-800-537-1368 516-621-4980 www.tadiranbat.com

RESOURCES

Cables and connectors underpin everything Control’s monthly resources guide 15 CONNECTOR ARTICLES This web-based guide, “Fundamentals of connectors,” includes 15 articles in four sections: basics, technology, applications and standards. Basics covers definitions, types and classifications, and structures and principles.

Technology covers ratings, and electrical, mechanical characteristics. Applications covers precautions, failures and lifecycles. Standards covers safety and requirements. They’re at components.omron.com/us-en/products/ basic-knowledge/connectors OMRON components.omron.com

FIELD TO CONTROL ROOM This 3.5-minute video, “DCS wiring connections from field to control room,” covers analog I/O and processor cards, and traces the basic route from field junction boxes, through marshaling and system cabinets, and onward to workstations. It’s at www. youtube.com/watch?v=wZzOxDJHW14 UNIQUE INSTRUMENTATION www.youtube.com/@Instrumentation27

FIVE BASICS PIECES This collection of five online articles, “Connector basics you’ll want to know,” includes roles and designs, interconnection points, board mounting, contact portions and materials.

They’re at www.hirose.com/en/product/pr/Connector_Basic_knowledge# HIROSE ELECTRIC www.hirose.com

switched-mode power supplies (SMPS), analog I/O, digital I/O and terminal boards. It also shows how to read diagrams, including Profibus-toPLC communications, PLC analog I/O cards and PLC digital I/O cards. It’s at www.iipdglobal.com/blog/how-to-readplc-wiring-diagrams INSTITUTE OF INNOVATION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT www.iipdglobal.com

TYPES AND APPLICATIONS This online article, “What are the different types of connectors? Their uses and applications,” covers types, contacts, terminations, requirements and specs, insertion force, pin pitch, ingress protection ratings, and industry applications. It’s at www.norcomp.net/ connector-types-and-applications NORCOMP www.norcomp.net

WIRING PLC PANELS, ETC This nine-minute video, “How to wire a PLC control panel like a pro” by Chris Guyatt, covers communications, inputs and outputs for Zennio PLCs, used mostly in HVAC applications. This video is linked to others on “Reducing control panel wiring by 31%," “Fastest way to learn automation,” and ‘How to read electrical diagrams.” They're at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=tSIH4dOYF0c BEE AUTOMATION beeautomation.co.uk

GOING IN CIRCULAR READING PLC DIAGRAMS This lengthy, online article, “How to read PLC wiring diagrams for industrial automation” by Fathima Sadina, covers hardware, such as breaker switches, busbars, circuit breakers,

www.controlglobal.com

This blog post, “The basics of circular connectors and cables” by Jeff Smoot, covers their characteristics, uses, M5, M8 and M12 designations and codes, applicable standards, selection criteria and application examples. It’s at www.

sameskydevices.com/blog/the-basicsof-circular-connectors-and-cables SAME SKY www.sameskydevices.com

RESISTANT MATERIALS; CODES FOR POWER The first of two short, online articles, “Choosing the right cables for enhanced industrial automation” by Jack Crider, covers types, jacket materials, and the best materials for resisting different conditions. It’s at www.balluff. com/en-us/blog/choosing-the-rightcables-for-enhanced-industrial-automation. The second, “Understanding power cable options for industrial automation” by Adis Halimic, covers the basic types, characteristics and applications of power cabling in industrial automation, including A-coded M12, T-coded M12, L-coded M12, and 7/8 inch. It’s at www.balluff.com/en-us/ blog/understanding-power-cable-options-for-industrial-automation BALLUFF www.balluff.com

LOAD-BEARING CAPACITY The online article, “Cable basics: understanding dynamic, load-bearing capacity” by Lucas Kehl, includes application details for specifying the right cables, It, and covers push and pull, bending and torsion loads, selecting insulators, jacketing materials, bending radius and stranding techniques, and developing specifications for highacceleration power and control cables.

It’s at www.machinedesign.com/ automation-iiot/cables-connectorsenclosures/article/21834432/cablebasics-understanding-dynamic-loadbearing-capacity MACHINE DESIGN www.machinedesign.com

MAY 2025 • 43

ASK THE EXPERTS

Selecting flowmeters for custody transfers Guided-wave radar interface sensors, eight-path ultrasonic meters with orthogonal planes, and Coriolis flowmeters are best choices This column is moderated

by Béla Lipták, who also edits the Instrument and Automation Engineers’ Handbook, 5th edition, and authored the recently published textbook, Controlling the Future,

Q: I’m interested to know why orifice differential pressure (DP) flowmeters aren’t used in liquid metering systems for custody transfer purposes, while they’re widely used in gas metering systems? What makes an orifice flowmeter a viable, cost-effective choice for gas metering systems.

which focuses on controlling

A. RAHIM instrument engineer

of AI and climate processes.

rahim1356@gmail.com

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

When you send a question, please include your full name, job title and company or organization affiliation.

44 • MAY 2025

A1: An important goal of the hydrocarbon industry is reducing custody transfer costs.

Accurate flow measurement is a tool for achieving that goal, but overall optimization requires more. So, I’ll start by discussing the process before focusing on the proper selection of the flow sensors.

Global per capita oil consumption is about five barrels per year (0.5 gallons per day).

Known oil reserves can meet that rate of consumption for about 50 years (Figure 1), which is enough time to switch from fossil energy sources to a clean and inexhaustible solarhydrogen-based energy economy, if the cost of conversion is provided.

During the 20th century, global expenditures for all primary energy was about 4% of the global GDP. Today, oil alone costs about 3% of the global GDP, which at a yearly consumption of nearly 40 billion barrels at $75 per barrel comes to about $3 trillion. That’s about the same as global military expenditures, which are mostly spent on competing for the control of the planet’s remaining fossil and mineral reserves.

Converting to the future (green) energy economy requires a yearly investment of about $20 per ton of greenhouse gas (GHG) emitted for 20 years. Since yearly emissions are 40 billion tons, this total investment is also about $3 trillion or about the same that we spend on oil. If this calculation is correct, what we’re doing today makes no sense,

particularly if we also consider the damage that climate inaction causes.

Oil losses in custody transfers are the difference between the sending and receiving amount in a mixing tank. Measurement is needed at every point where ownership changes, while oil losses usually amount to 5-10%. Such losses can be cut in half by using the best flow and level detectors, and better monitoring practices.

"Best" is a relative term, but to me it means I don’t use devices that have moving parts or DP detectors to measure flow or level. In case of transfer to or from calibrated tanks, I use guided wave radar (GWR) interface sensors. When volumetric pipeline flow must be detected, I use eight-path, ultrasonic meters with orthogonal planes. When high-rangeability mass flow measurement is required, I use Coriolis flowmeters.

BÉLA LIPTÁK liptakbela@aol.com

A2: Orifice meters are widely used for liquid measurements and have been for many years.

Their poor accuracy can usually be explained by poor installation.

Available technologies have changed; Coriolis meters matured and competition drove down prices. It’s clear that meter selection is affected by pipe size. I find it hard to imagine a Coriolis meter in a 1-m diameter pipeline.

National and international standards also impact meter selection for custody contracts and may have statements limiting options.

I have the impression that salespeople often tend to suggest using more expensive choices than needed. On the other hand, it’s common to underestimate the costss and details of installing various flowmeters. Accuracy is expensive.

I once developed a program to aid in flowmeter selection. Users entered information about their fluids and flows. The program www.controlglobal.com

ASK THE EXPERTS

HISTORICAL PETROLEUM CONSUMPTION AND IEA FORECAST, 1990-2028 World petroleum consumption (million barrels per day) 110

100

90

80

70

60 1990

1994

1998

2002

2006

2010

2014

2018

2022

2026

Figure 1: International Energy Agency’s global consumption forecast. Source: IEA

displayed a list of possible meter types with cost, accuracy and permanent pressure loss. It generated interesting comments challenging estimated costs and accuracy. Support for developing such reliable data is always justified.

CULLEN LANGFORD control consultant CullenL@aol.com

A3: Orifice flow measurement is ±4% accurate at best. In spite of this, it was used for liquid custody transfers for many years, until more accurate instruments became available.

Today, Coriolis flowmeters are standard for liquid flow custody transfer due to high accuracy, and because they directly measure mass flow instead of volumetric flow. However, they’re expensive, so sometimes if liquid is transferred from tank to tank, the before-and-after tank level measurements are used, requiring very accurate tank level measurements.

Measuring gas flows with an orifice flowmeter with compensation for temperature and pressure is typical for natural gas transmission, but that still doesn’t make it accurate. In most cases, the lesser value of natural gas makes it costly for more accurate gas-flow measurement. For high-value gases, it’s possible to use Coriolis flowmeters or a high-accuracy, positive-displacement meter. Sometimes, custody transfer of gases is calculated from a change in pressure of the gas’s source, such as a cylinder.

Orifice flow measurements depend on Bernoulli’s principle relating pressure drop thorough a sharp-edge orifice to volumetric flow rate. The pressure drop is between the upstream pressure (before the orifice) and the pressure www.controlglobal.com

at the vena contracta, formed by the increased velocity of the liquid or gas as it passes through the orifice. Unfortunately, the location of the vena contracta varies with flow rate, so there isn’t a practical way to measure pressure drop. We usually measure the pressure drop at the flanges that hold the orifice plate in place, and rely on a correlation to estimate the pressure drop at the vena contracta, or assume that the pressure drop at the orifice is the same as that of the vena contracta.

RICHARD H. CARO CEO, CMC Associates, ISA Life Fellow RCaro@CMC.us

A4: Orifice plates aren’t used for liquid custody metering because: • During startup, while the flow stabilizes, the error in measurment is generally unacceptable. The same happens during shut down; • It’s difficult to guarantee custody transfer precision requirements becasue not every company can achieve the needed orifice or fabricate to extreme tolerances; and • The turndown ratio for liquid orifice plates requires too many orifice plates in parallel to cover the flow range needed.

Though custody transfer can be performed with orifice plates, it’s not recommended due to instability, and because fabricating required orifice quality is expensive. If the flow varies during custody transfer, then multiple orifices are needed.

ALEX (ALEJANDRO) VARGA control engineer vargaalex@yahoo.com MAY 2025 • 45

ROUNDUP

Level shrinks down and powers up Compact, non-contact, ultrasonics and submersible designs allow level sensing in difficult settings PRESSURE, CONTINUOUS AND POINT LEVEL

RADAR WITH 10- OR 15-M RANGES

Three compact sensors use three different principles to measure pressure, and continuous and point levels.

Their small process connections let them serve in small vessels and pipes, while their 360°, hygienic design and IP69 ingress protection enable efficient cleaning. They include Cerabar PMP43 for pressure measurement; Liquiphant FTL43 with vibronic technology to detect point levels; and Micropilot FMR43 free-space radar sensor for continuous, contactless level measurement.

Optiwave 1520 and 1540 radar level transmitters are designed to fulfill various industrial and municipal requirements. Optiwave 1520 is suitable for standard applications, featuring 80 GHz radar with a 10-meter range and IP68 durability. Optiwave 1540 provides advanced solutions for demanding applications, with a 15-meter range and totalizer functionality. Both models provide reliable, non-contact measurements with user-friendly Bluetooth or HART commissioning.

ENDRESS+HAUSER www.us.endress.com

KROHNE 800-FLOWING; tinyurl.com/mzps2ya3 or tinyurl.com/44wy3yjd

SUBMERSIBLE AND INTRINISICALLY SAFE

NON-CONTACT, ULTRASONIC, RESISTANT

PBLTX-10-40 submersible, intrinsically safe (IS) level transmitter from Dwyer Instruments runs at 30 VDC, 10 psi and up to 93 °C in a 316 stainless-steel (SS) housing with a 40-ft, ETFE cable. It measures the height of liquids using a piezoresistive sensing element, encased in its 316 SS housing with a cage and large-diameter, 316 SS, diaphragm seal. PBLTX is UL-approved for hazardous locations when used with a barrier.

ToughSonic TC-100 and TC-200 non-contact, ultrasonic sensors are suitable for measuring distances up to 50 feet.

TS-100 offers stainlesssteel construction with heavy-duty electronics epoxy potted into 316 stainless-steel housings. TS-100 features ruggedized piezoelectric transducers, and is offered in 14-, 30- and 50-ft ranges. TS-200 is made of chemical-resistant polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) plastic to resist deterioration from chemical exposure.

NEWARK www.newark.com/dwyer/pbltx-10-40/leveltransmitter-submersible/dp/82AK4823

BINMASTER www.binmaster.com

LESS-COSTLY, MECHANICAL POINT-LEVEL

ULTRASONIC SENSING AT 50 CM TO 2 M

1500 Series mechanical level switches are a less costly alternative than chambered switches.

They’re suitable for most point-level applications, and feature stainless-steel construction. They offer models for side or top mounting, pneumatic or electronic switching, manual check accessory, interface detection and isolate processes due to no o-rings or seals. The 1500 Series is also certified to IEC 61508 for non-redundant use in SIL1 and SIL2 safety instrumented systems (SIS) for most models.

XX ultrasonic sensors from Telemechanique provide non-contact level monitoring with sensing distances from 50 cm to 2 m, adjustable via teach mode.

Available in Ø18 mm and Ø30 mm cylindrical housings, they feature diffuse, reflex and thru-beam detection modes, high electromagnetic interference immunity (E2-certified), synchronization to prevent cross-talk, detection of small or curved targets, and easy setup with Ultrasonic XX configuration software.

SOR MEASUREMENT AND CONTROL 913-888-2630; www.sorinc.com

GALCO www.galco.com

46 • MAY 2025

www.controlglobal.com

ROUNDUP

INTRINSICALLY SAFE AND ULTRASONIC

SIMPLER SET UP, INTERFACE, MENU, DISPLAY

RPS-429AA-40P-IS2 intrinsically safe (IS), ultrasonic sensor achieves accuracy in distance measurement and object detection applications. With ATEX, IECEx and C-UL-US certifications, this twowire, 4-20 mA sensor meets global and North American IS standards for intrinsic safety, and also delivers accurate distance measurements in explosive atmospheres and hazardous settings. RPS429AA-40P-IS2 also has a robust design, including an IP66/ IP67-rated enclosure.

Rosemount 3490 controller for level and flow measurement reduces complexity, optimizes processes, enhances sustainability, and maximizes ease-of-use. It provides control for 4-20 mA or HART-compatible transmitters, and is reported to be the first controller featuring simple-to-program configuration Wizard guides to simplify set up and save time. It also has an intuitive, graphical interface, easy-to-navigate menu structure, and backlit 4.3-inch color LCD display.

MIGATRON CORP. www.migatron.com/product/rps-429a-is

EMERSON www.emerson.com/Rosemount3490

TRANSMITTERS, SENSORS ARE SUBMERSIBLE

TUNING FORK LETS AMPLIFIER SERVE AS ALARM

AchieVe ELT submersible level transmitters have 11.5 to 115.5 ft WC sensing ranges, 4-20 mA output, 316L SS, 8 to 32 VDC voltage, and IP68 protection. Similarly, ProSense GPLT submersible level sensors feature 11.5 to 115.5 ft WC ranges, 4-20 mA output, 316L SS, 0.825 in. housing, 11-30 VDC voltage and IP68 protection. Finally, ProSense NFLT non-fouling, submersible level sensors have a 1.26 in. housing and a Kynar sensing membrane with abrasion and puncture resistance.

Vibracon LVL-A7 is a trip amplifier that uses a tuning fork that's brought to a resonance frequency by a piezoelectric drive. When covered with liquid, the fork's frequency changes, and the amplifier produces an output. Vibracon LVL-A7 requires little maintenance, and can tolerate wide temperature fluctuations and high-pressure cleaning, sterilization and disinfection processes. It also resists deposits, abrasion and turbulence, and can serve as a reliable point-level alarm.

AUTOMATIONDIRECT tinyurl.com/536kw35v

PEPPERL+FUCHS www.pepperl-fuchs.com/en-us/products-gp25581/71220

COMPENSATING, CAPILLARY TYPE DIAPHRAGM

LASER FOR NON-CONTACT LEVEL

VEJXC80A with compensation capillary type diaphragm seal is the latest design in the EJX differential pressure level series. Its compensating capillary balances volume and temperature of fill fluids between high- and low-pressure side capillaries. EJXC80A reduces the influence of ambient temperature drifts. Combined with DPharp sensor, this solution provides stability for all DP level measurements.

Laser Level Transmitter (LLT) 100 provides non-contact level measurement over long and short ranges, and at low cost due to not requiring maintenance or calibration. It uses an eye-safe, Class 1 laser beam to measure surfaces; provides accurate readings for positioning purposes up to 200 m away, for solids up to 100 m and liquids up to 30 m; and requires no echo mapping or calibration.

YOKOGAWA www.yokogawa.com/us/solutions/products-platforms/field-instru-

ABB 800-435-7365; new.abb.com/products/measurement-products/

ments/pressure-transmitters/diaphragm-seal-system

level/laser-level-transmitters/llt100

www.controlglobal.com

MAY 2025 • 47

CONTROL TALK

Smart manufacturing for excellence in process plants—Part 1 A ‘clean dozen’ tools and techniques for process plant automation

GREG: This year, I’m helping us laugh, and possibly learn, by making one of my humorous books available for free download at www. controlglobal.com during the first six months of the year. The fifth book is The Life and Times of an Automation Professional – An Illustrated Guide.

In this month’s column, Houston, Texasbased Umesh Mathur, P.E., offers practical guidance and explains how to achieve excellence in process plant automation.

GREG: What are the main ingredients?

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

48 • MAY 2025

UMESH: Thanks, Greg, for initiating this discussion. My list of the “clean dozen” is: 1. Sensor validation/smart sensors are essential tools for screening online data, and computing critical performance parameters that make sense to operators.

2. S ample time recording is important because there are instances where lab sampling time isn’t recorded, so results in data historians are from the time the results were returned by the lab, rather than at the time of sampling. It’s then impossible to build reliable, online inferential calculations, for example, for product quality.

3. Inferential calculations are built using validated online data and synchronized lab results. They can be valuable for minimizing product quality giveaway.

4. Regulatory control configuration minimizes poorly designed, or illogical, control loops in the basic (regulatory) control system (BCS). They pose a challenge to ensuring reliable plant operations, and are often found in manual mode.

5. Online calculations (DCS) include other calculations, such as heat exchanger duty or fouling resistance, which can help optimize exchanger cleaning cycles. Furnace efficiencies can pinpoint fuel-firing problems with burners or excessive air leaks.

6. R egulatory control tuning is important because I continue to find many instances of poorly tuned BCS loops, which come from not understanding process dynamics and/or PID control logic. This is inexcusable.

7. E quipment health monitoring accompanies online calculations, and can help keep track of equipment reliability, such as mean time between failures (MTBF).

8. Intelligent alarming comes into play because accidents can be aggravated by alarm floods, in which low-level alarms cause multiple higher-level alarms to go off, hindering operator response to underlying problems. Intelligent alarm management systems eliminate alarm floods by focusing on the true, underlying problems. Emergency shutdown (ESD) systems must have redundant instrumentation (not used for process control) and an independent control logic execution capability, such as PLCs. Instruments and DCS control loops used for normal operations shouldn’t be used for ESDs. 9. M ultivariable, model-predictive control (MPC) is field-proven in refinery and petrochemical applications. It enables effective decoupling of multivariable interactions inherent in most chemical processes. It also enables implementing of local economic optimization in these applications to ensure the unit is driven, minute by minute, to the most profitable constraint limits.

10. R igorous reactor modeling. Economically optimal operation of chemical reactors represents a huge opportunity to maximize operating profit. First-principles, reaction kinetic models calibrated against plant data can then run under a nonlinear economic optimizer (with constraints) to ensure proper setpoints for the BCS (e.g., feed rate, reactor pressure and temperature). www.controlglobal.com

CONTROL TALK

11. Closed-loop, real-time optimization (CLRTO) involves steady-state, plantwide optimizers designed to maximize profit, while respecting safety, environmental, process and equipment constraints. Dozens of applications were implemented successfully since the early 1990s.

12. P lanning and scheduling optimization focuses on complex-wide, economic optimization (e.g., for entire refineries or petrochemical complexes). Mixed-integer, nonlinear programming (MILNP) software is used most often for these purposes. Optimization questions such as feedstock selection, responses to seasonal marketing demands or feedstock availability, and decisions about using alternate processing plants can be made using simplified models.

GREG: What are the primary economic benefits?

UMESH: The strategies outlined above improve profitability, while ensuring that plant operations run safely and observe environmental, process and equipment constraints. Left to their own devices, operators often depart from economically optimal conditions. We see significant performance variations from one shift to the next. Ensuring the best results requires a coordinated campaign to assemble the proper teams from the technology, engineering and operations groups that work in concert with equipment and software vendors. Payback is usually within two to three years.

UMESH: Properly implemented sensor validation techniques can prevent needless shutdowns of BCS loops and higher-level applications, such as MPC and CLRTO. They're valuable to refineries as diverse as fuel blending and storage tank emissions control.

GREG: What’s some key guidance on practices of process samples?

UMESH: Online analyzers are always preferred over laboratory sampling for critical applications. For properties not measurable online (e.g., kerosine or jet fuel smoke point, or diesel cetane number) inferential calculations or soft sensors can be developed that provide good estimates of instantaneous online product quality. Data from laboratory samples is used to provide feedback updates for ensuring the reliability of inferential calculations.

GREG: What are some improvements in regulatory control configuration?

UMESH: There are countless situations where dynamic simulation can help devise more effective control strategies.

In distillation columns with a high reflux ratio (ethylene or propylene superfractionators, deisobutanizers or styrene fractionators), the reboil ratio is high.

I’ve witnessed instances where column bottom level was controlled using the bottom flow. By changing the logic to place the bottoms product on flow control, and managing level using the reboiler duty, I enabled these applications to reduce product quality fluctuations dramatically, while also improving the disturbance rejection capability (changes in feed rate or composition or effects of rainstorm deluges).

In fired heaters, instead of adjusting fuel firing to maintain a heater outlet temperature, I switched to a strategy of maximum fuel firing (within firebox draft constraints), and adjusting feed rate to manage heater outlet temperature. This improved fuel burner management, while eliminating issues with rapid changes in furnace fuel firing and damper positioner controls.

Making such changes requires deep process knowledge, coupled with experience in basic and advanced (model-predictive) control project implementation.

GREG: What are the value and methods of sensor validation?

UMESH: They add economic value by maximizing unit availability and operational reliability with remarkably high return on investment (ROI).

GREG: What are the benefits of smart sensors? www.controlglobal.com

For the Top 10 reasons to download The Life and Times of an Automation Professional, visit www.controlglobal.com MAY 2025 • 49

CONTROL REPORT

Up for an end run?

Could Ethernet-APL help bring O-PAS into hazardous areas?

JIM MONTAGUE Executive Editor jmontague@endeavorb2b.com

“ The faster EthernetAPL gets tasks done, the more similar to interoperability they’ll probably appear.”

50 • MAY 2025

WE presented Control’s cover article on the Open Process Automation Standard (O-PAS) in March, but its quest for plug-and-play interoperability got tattooed on my brain. So, I kept asking about it when interviewing for this month’s “Ethernet-Advanced Physical Layer (APL) bears fruit” feature article (p. 33).

To their credit, most sources acknowledge that being on the same Ethernet or APL physical layer won’t allow direct interoperability by devices running different fieldbus protocols, such as Profinet, EtherNet/IP, HART-IP, Foundation Fieldbus HSE, Modbus TCP/IP and several others.

This is more honest than some former sources, who used to claim or strongly imply that just being on Ethernet conferred interoperability on all participants. This isn’t true because simply getting some devices on the same wire doesn’t mean the protocols they’re using can talk to each other, just as getting everyone on the same telephone line doesn’t suddenly guarantee they can all speak the same language.

Now that’s cleared up again, Ethernet-APL’s primary goal is to get faster, Ethernet-based, IT-style communications and capabilities safely into hazardous environments, and APL moves extremely fast compared to traditional 4-20 mA or fieldbus communications. Ethernet-APL runs at 10 Mbps, which is 320 times faster than protocols like Foundation Fieldbus or Profibus PA that operate at 31.25 kbps or HART that runs at 1,200 bps.

APL’s speed and bandwidth are already turning up multiple expected benefits, such as handling greater volumes and varieties of data from more diverse types of sensors and instruments, where information used to be stranded because it had no place to go. However, APL is also assisting in several unanticipated areas, such as simplifying and speeding up formerly time-consuming configuration and other tasks.

One source reported that APL field switches can take in data using one protocol, and use their internal data processing to send out contents or analyses using another protocol. Many gateways and switches already perform similar data conversions or protocol translations, so maybe APL can take over some of these jobs?

I remember arguing against allowing Blue Bunny’s use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on two-gallon packages of ice cream into a long-ago wireless article because I thought they were just doing documentation.

They weren’t directly measuring or transmitting temperatures, but the time and location confirmed by those RFID tags was an indirect but sufficient guarantee that the ice cream in those buckets was flash frozen.

This is why I believe when the entrance to an innovation or other endeavor is blocked, pressure builds on other metaphorical access points until one bursts, entry is gained, and the goal is achieved indirectly. It's just like in the Sound of Music, when Julie Andrews says, “When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window.”

I think APL may doing something similar.

While it doesn’t achieve actual interoperability, it’s speed and bandwidth may get many sought-after jobs done anyway. And, the faster it gets tasks done, the more similar to interoperability they’ll probably appear.

Of course, APL also leans heavily on the OPC UA information sharing strategy, and the OPC Foundation is one of APL’s four founding, standards development organizations.

Likewise, OPC UA is also the networking cornerstone of the O-PAS connectivity framework (OCF). So, isn’t it conceivable that APL could help O-PAS get into hazardous areas?

If I’m full of it and completely clueless, please let me know. Unlike many in this modern age, I’d welcome evidence to the contrary because it would likely be a good story. www.controlglobal.com

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