PACE - Process & Control Engineering - May 2013

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MAY 2013 | VOL.66 NO 4

PACE marks 60 years For six decades now, PACE magazine has been an integral part of Australia’s process control and automation community. Tell us your story editor@pacetoday.com.au

INSIDE PACE

Nominations

Energy management

Profile

Check out some of the entries received for the 2013 PACE Zenith Awards.

Simulation studies can streamline the integration of systems into the grid.

Karen Eaton is Principal Control and Instrumentation Engineer at UGL.

Post Print Approved PP255003/00539

A quantum leap in ow rate measurement technology

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Ŷ Full-colour Full-colour graphical graphical user user interface interface Ŷ Long-lasting Long-lasting Lithium-Ion Lithium-Ion power power module module for for days days – not not hours hours – of of battery battery life life ® Ŷ Bluetooth Bluetooth communication communication Ŷ Quick Quick boot boot up up and and fast fast operating operating time t im e ® Ŷ Universal Universal support support for for HART HART , WirelessHART, WirelessHART, and and FOUNDATION OUNDATION™ fieldbus fieldbus devices devices Ŷ ValveLink ValveLink Mobile Mobile for for powerful powerful diagnostics diagnostics on on Fisher Fisher FIELDVUE FIELDVUE digital digital valve valve controllers controllers Ŷ Localised Localised language language user user interfaces interfaces in in English, English, German, German, Russian, Russian, French, French, Portuguese, Portuguese, Japanese, Japanese, and and Chinese Chinese

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CONTENTS

Associate Publisher: Martin Sinclair Email: martin.sinclair@cirrusmedia.com.au Editor: Kevin Gomez Tel: (02) 8484 0976 Fax: (02) 8484 0722 Email: kevin.gomez@cirrusmedia.com.au Deputy Editor: Isaac Leung Tel: (02) 8484 0956 Email: isaac.leung@cirrusmedia.com.au

IN THIS ISSUE

Group Sales Manager: Tim Richards Tel: (02) 8484 0829 Mobile: 0420 550 799 Email: tim.richards@cirrusmedia.com.au QLD Sales Manager: Sharon R. Amos PO Box 3136, Bracken Ridge, QLD 4017 Tel: (07) 3261 8857 Fax: (07) 3261 8347 Mobile: 0417 072 625 Email: sharon.amos@cirrusmedia.com.au

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Graphic Designer: Nicolle Lawson Email: nicolle.lawson@cirrusmedia.com.au Production Co-ordinator: Tracy Engle Tel: (02) 8484 0707 Fax: (02) 8484 0722 Email: tracy.engle@cirrusmedia.com.au

12 SUBSCRIPTION: $99 pa incl GST OVERSEAS SUBSCRIPTIONS: NZ: $A109 pa & OS: $A119 pa CUSTOMER SERVICE: 1300 360 126

OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF:

Average Net Distribution Period ending September ‘12 6,599

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Management 6

Case Study 12

Technology Update 32

Mobile trends The rapid churn in consumer electronics is a barrier to device certification for hazardous service.

Deal with waste A small family-owned business develops environmentallyfriendly commercial process to treat greasy waste.

Distributed safety Automation systems of the future will have fully integrated and networked safety systems

Nominations 17

Then and Now The dramatic progress in instrumentation technology over the years requires engineers to learn new skills and undergo training.

Design 10 Cirrus Media Tower 2, Level 3, 475 Victoria Ave, Chatswood, NSW 2067, Australia Locked Bag 4700 Chatswood Delivery Centre, NSW 2067, Australia Phone: 02 8484 0888 Fax: 02 8484 0633 ABN 80 132 719 861 ISSN 1329-6221 www.cirrusmedia.com.au © Copyright Cirrus Media, 2013

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Source for Speed Life-like virtual product definitions empower people by helping them to work and innovate collaboratively.

PACE Zenith Awards A look at the excellent people and projects entered into this year’s Awards programme.

More online.

IICA Corner 38

ON THE COVER

A quantum leap in flow rate measurement technology.

Introducing ifm efector’s new inline flow sensor for precise measurement of liquids up to 600 l/min.

The sensor can be used for different flow directions and has integrated empty pipe detection and simulation mode.

Electronics and display are integrated into the housing.

Further, this compact, easy to use inline flow sensor monitors flow, total quantity and temperature, all in one unit.

For more information visit www.ifm.com/au/inlineflowsensor or call 1300 365 088

Everything you need... to upgrade your DCS in phases PlantPAx offers a complete process automation solution plus plant-wide control.

You will enhance future productivity–without compromising current production. www.rockwellautomation.com.au

MAY 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 3

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COMMENT

WHAT’S ON

EDITOR’S MESSAGE

Invensys OpsManage 2013 5–8 May 2013, Fremantle, WA events.invensys.com/ opsmanage13ANZ

Engineers are moving swiftly towards ISA-95

National Manufacturing Week (NMW) 2013 7-10 May 2013, Melbourne www.nationalmanufacturingweek. com.au Introduction to Process Safety 14-15 May 2013, Brisbane www.icheme.org/itps

Kevin Gomez Editor

FOUNDATION Fieldbus Seminar 15 May 2013, Perth cameron.dwyer@turck.com IICA Technology Expo 29 May 2013, Woollongong events@iica.org.au For daily updates visit www.pacetoday.com.au

Next Issue • Test & Measurement • SCADA & MES • Water & Wastewater • Instrumentation

ALTHOUGH it was set up in the Netherlands way back in January of 2002, it is only now that ISA-95 is beginning to gain traction.

Key end-users, system integrators and suppliers are co-operating to promote the ISA-95 standard.

In many ways this standard is in step with the growth of Industrial Ethernet which allows users to unify their IT system. The same Ethernet protocol can be used from the enterprise level to the plant floor.

The ISA-95 standard was

developed with the objective to reduce the cost, risk and errors associated with implementing interfaces between enterprise and production control systems.

It is backed by some of the heavy hitters in industry including Honeywell, Foxboro, Fisher Rosemount, Chevron, Dow Chemical and SAP, among others.

These companies have years of experience with integration projects. They have combined their best practices into a consistent set of models and terminology: the ISA-95 standard. And users are being

encouraged to adopt them.

It will be interesting to hear from users in Australia about adoption rates.

This issue is a special one as it celebrates the entrants to the 2013 PACE Zenith Awards.

Not all nominations could be accommodated in these pages but keen readers will find more on our website: www. pacetoday.com.au Check them out and pick your favourites. kevin.gomez@cirrusmedia.com.au

Like us on Facebook and join the conversation facebook.com/PACEtoday

MANUFACTURING

Coming soon: The industrial robotics revolution

BY JIM PINTO IN THE early 1960s when industrial robots were first introduced on assembly lines, they were designed to perform only the most rigidly predetermined set of repetitive movements. That’s how industrial robots still operate today.

But here comes Rodney Brooks again, the MIT Professor of Robotics who helped launch Roomba, the popular home vacuum cleaner robot. Now he has left a tenured position at MIT to focus on his latest company: Heartland

Robotics, now called Rethink Robotics.

Venture capitalists have already gambled US$32 million on the company.

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos was the company’s first investor.

Today’s robotics technology is going to look incredibly primitive in a couple of decades. The company is working on the robotics version of the iPhone.

Robots will be capable of being “trained” to perform repetitive tasks with their moving arms and grippers.

Versatile software will be intuitive to use and will spawn a community

of software “apps” developed by a community of developers to serve a variety of operations. Rethink Robotics’ Baxter is a two-armed robot with a computer-screen face with animated eyes.

Baxter stands about 0.91m and is currently priced at US$22,000, but targeted to eventually sell for about US$5,000. It is designed to do tasks such as loading and unloading, sorting and looking after other machinery, jobs typically done by people.

Most workers can learn to operate Baxter within about a half hour. Workers

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can “teach” it to do tasks by guiding the arms to an object; cameras embedded in the wrists can determine how to grasp the object. Baxter has a puzzled look on its computer-screen face when it is still learning; it nods when it understands.

Most industrial robots are larger, one-armed machines that typically cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The price, ease of use and flexibility of Baxter could put it into lots of small and medium-sized business and rejuvenate conventional manufacturing.

Jim@JimPinto.com

AD_PACEMET1MAR_12.pdf

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Integrating People, Processes and Information • Management • Openness

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OPINION

WIRELESS

Industrial considerations for BYOD Field devices must be certified to operate in industrial environments, writes Harry Forbes.

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ITH the “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) trend beginning to gain a toe-hold in the process industries, plant managers and IT groups are taking note. Not only do they have legitimate security concerns but, in refineries, chemical plants, mines, and other industrial facilities with hazardous areas, the field devices must be certified to operate in those environments; a requirement that excludes most consumer devices.

For industrial service, smartphones, tablets, and other mobility devices require enhanced ruggedness, hazardous location certification, and in some cases, dedicated higher performing interfaces for barcode scanning or other job-specific capabilities.

While ubiquitous connectivity and technological convergence have enabled the BYOD trend, it has been constrained by the limited capability of enterprises to manage the more complex demands represented by mobile consumer devices operating within the enterprise. Like all management, network management involves the

allocation of resources according to policies and rules in pursuit of enterprise objectives. Effective network management balances a number of objectives. One of these is to improve cost behaviour. Enterprise TCO will scale well when network management reduces the labour intensiveness of network operation as the network grows.

But TCO is only one of the attributes of BYOD requiring management attention.

Other major factors are: Policy. Organizations need to make policy decisions at the outset of BYOD. These decisions include a set of supported devices and platforms, (BYOD does not mean the same thing as bring ANY device).

Device Management. Dozens of companies offer solutions for mobile device management. This includes provisioning, configuring, and updating devices, and deactivating devices as they are retired as well as protecting/ destroying (“zapping”) the content on devices that are lost or stolen.

Mobile Application Management.

Effective mobile application management is critical because the

apps come from multiple sources.

Besides managing the set of supported applications, distribution of apps must be managed via the major online stores or other means.

The rapid churn in consumer electronics is a barrier to device certification for hazardous service.

Mobile Identity Management.

For BYOD, identity management requires more rigorous authentication, authorisation and accounting (AAA).

Enterprises need an architecture for distributed systems that enables control over user access to services and resources.

Multifactor user authentication is just the first step.

Mobile Information Management.

The coexistence of enterprise and personal data on the same device is

drawing attention to the concept of managing device data through tracking, sand-boxing, encryption, and automated data time-outs.

Mobile Expense Management. This consideration is non-technical, but nevertheless a pain point for real-world implementations. Enterprises can hardly expect service providers to manage their costs optimally. They have to implement their own policies based on both cost and technical considerations.

One of the biggest challenges with respect to BYOD is that it puts enterprise IT onto the fastest of fastpaced consumer electronics platforms.

The rapid churn in consumer electronics is a barrier to device certification for hazardous service. Due to the platform convergence, industrial versions of smart devices can be developed at more favourable price/volume tradeoffs than was possible with past hand-held platforms. Examples of these new products are reaching the market now.

[Harry Forbes (HForbes@ARCweb. com) is Senior Analyst, ARC Advisory Group.] www.arcweb.com

How do you

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industrial applications? ©2013 TURCK

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OPINION

ENERGY

Manage risk in energy storage Simulation streamlines the integration of systems into the grid, writes Graham Dudgeon.

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NDERSTANDING the uncertainty associated with operating variable generation systems helps manage the level of risk associated with delivering services.

Moreover, appropriate selection of the rating and charge/ discharge characteristics of an energy storage device, coupled with appropriate operational management, can improve the ability of a variable generation system to participate in certain markets.

This article explores the use of simulation and optimisation techniques for investigating the characteristics that a variable generation system with energy storage should have for given operational profiles. Two examples are considered in this article.

In the first, optimisation techniques are used to determine the rating and charge/discharge characteristics of a variable generation system to maximise revenue on the spot market. A study of

explore controlling the operational characteristics of a system that combines variable generation with energy storage, and to evaluate the affect that different energy storage interface configurations will have on grid response. Initially, a high level representation of the energy storage device is used in this type of study.

As the study progresses, more detailed representations of different technologies are included in the simulation framework. Historical data of power output and market prices may be used to determine whether an energy storage device would improve the ability of a variable energy producer to participate in certain markets. In this article, spot market participation is considered, although the techniques discussed are applicable to ancillary markets.

Figure 1 shows a schematic of energy flow considered in the optimisation framework. The optimisation problem is then to determine not only the

FIGURE 1: Schematic of energy flow in a combined variable energy/energy storage system. this type is based on historical data of power output and market price, and does not require detailed consideration of technology selection.

In the second example, simulations are used to

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FIGURE 2: Outcome of optimisation over two day period.

FIGURE 3: Operational profile of the energy storage device.

charge/discharge profile of the energy storage device over a period of time, but also to determine the most appropriate energy mix at any given time for charging the energy storage device and supplying energy to the grid. The optimisation aims to maximise revenue while ensuring that physical constraints associated with operating the energy storage device are not violated.

Figure 2 shows an example of results from an optimisation for a two day period. In line with expectation, these results show that the energy storage device is charged during periods of lower market price and discharged during periods of higher market price.

Note that compared to a real-world scenario, this example is relatively simplistic for illustrative purposes.

Figure 3 shows the operation of the energy storage device. In this example, storage capacity was limited to 1200 kWhr and the charge/discharge rate was limited to 200 kW. As the amount of historic data used in the optimisation formulation increases, the risk associated with the optimisation outcome decreases.

The optimisation may be formulated using linear programming, which is beneficial for reducing the computational time of larger-scale problems.

Once the rating of the energy storage device has been determined, a simulation study may be conducted to inform technology selection and the development of appropriate feedback control and supervisory control subsystems for the combined energy storage / variable

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FIGURE 4: Simulation of the energy storage/wind farm system.

FIGURE 6: Terminal voltage for different converter architectures. energy system. Development of the feedback control and supervisory control systems may proceed on a lower fidelity model of the energy storage device. Lower fidelity models execute faster because they omit detailed representations of power electronic devices, enabling faster simulations and faster iterations during design.

This approach works well because the bandwidth of the feedback control and supervisory control systems will be sufficiently lower than that of the powerelectronic switching algorithms, meaning that inclusion of power electronics will have little effect on the RMS operation in the system simulation.

FIGURE 5: Active power (P) and reactive power (Q).

Figure 4 shows the response of a system designed to provide firm power at the grid point-of-connection (POC). If the energy stored is greater than 10% of capacity, then the feedback control system regulates active power at the grid POC to 0.6 per-unit. Once the energy stored drops below 10% of capacity, then the energy storage system is charged to capacity at a fixed rate, before the POC regulation is re-engaged.

Figure 5 shows active and reactive power output for a simulation study that compares a standard 6-device insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) bridge with a 6-cell and 24-cell (per-phase) IGBT modal multilevel converter (MMC) as an interface to an energy storage system. The system is commanded to move from 0.3 per-unit active power to 1.0 per-unit active power at 0.4 seconds, while regulating reactive power to zero.

The reference tracking capability of the feedback system is not impaired by the inclusion of different power-electronic architectures. Shown in Figure 6 is the THD of the voltage waveform. As expected, the THD decreases as the number of power electronic devices in the bridge architecture increases. Detailed studies help determine the power-electronic architecture, filtering architecture, or combination of the two that is required to meet harmonic distortion requirements.

[Graham Dudgeon is Energy Industry Manager, MathWorks.] www.mathworks.com.au/energy-production/

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Pressure Measurement.

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OPINION

DESIGN

Single Source for Speed Implementing single data source systems is now simpler, writes Christian Ebel.

T

HE industrial equipment industry is fast reaching a position where after-sales services generate more profit than equipment sales.

The industry has been slow to respond and many well-known companies are struggling to satisfy both customer and stakeholder needs.

For industrial equipment companies, significant value comes from overcoming the growing complexity of service provision for custom and other machinery.

Data on many non-modular parts, together with diverse bills of materials are generated but then ‘lost’ and unavailable for collaborative working.

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Customers need to know, and have it proved to them, that their equipment will perform to agreed specification and that efficient servicing and global spares availability will ensure that their investment was a wise one.

Custom and standard machines need to be more economically and effectively made and maintained.

As a result, information about them and their histories, part numbers, service records and engineering changes must be centralised.

A move towards greater modularity is also crucial because without it, businesses suffer both technically and in terms of sales.

Many of the practical problems of

The dream of generating budgets in ten minutes and full quotes in half an hour is a reality for users.

designing and engineering industrial equipment have been solved.

The technology used everyday by engineers is years ahead of what many other businesses dream about.

Where else is 3D simulation so prevalent and well used?

At the high-end, industrial equipment is ‘faultless’ through effective virtual testing.

With up to 50,000 drawings for a single machine and many more design iterations to be considered, a silent revolution in data handling and more specifically in engineering change notification has taken place in the last 10 years.

It is a pity therefore that these

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OPINION

amazing advances in machine engineering have not been mirrored in other areas of the industry.

It still takes weeks to generate a sales quote and very often it will be both technically and financially inaccurate.

Currently, weeks of work are also needed to produce customer equipment configurations and making changes to them often produces confusion and errors both with seller and buyer.

This is because data has been built up in non-connected silos and company knowledge, one of its greatest assets, is often not available.

Given this situation it is not surprising that services are inefficiently delivered. With poor access to ofteninaccurate data, services inevitably suffer with significant negative consequences for brand reputations and profit.

Within this context business expansion and product innovation are jeopardised. The decision to grow a business organically or by acquisition needs to include and assess the data implications of that growth.

Growing a business in a ‘new’ territory without the benefit of a unified engineering backbone involves significant and often unseen and therefore unconsidered risks.

Providing everybody in an organisation with current, accurate data on all products, variations and servicing needs would achieve a revolution in most industrial equipment companies.

Individuals would be able to make better engineering and sourcing decisions by having correct information available within and beyond the enterprise.

This encourages technical and commercial innovation and business expansion as well as providing more information on which to base ‘buy or make’ decisions.

A single source of data and lifelike virtual product definitions empowers people by helping them to communicate and innovate collaboratively.

It also encourages concurrent working practices that accelerate time to market and avoid duplication of effort while reducing business risk

and waste. With one single source, OEM and customer experiences are revolutionised. Total transparency of information means that there is no lost data in hidden local silos.

All information is current accurate and universally available.

3DExperience Platform technologies being developed by Dassault Systèmes R&D teams not only simulate machine tools and the products they make but will soon also animate visualisations of how products are transformed during processing.

This level of advancement is only available to companies that have first unified their data.

Another technological breakthrough available to companies that have achieved a single source of data greatly simplifies mechatronics evolution and documentation. With a large percentage of development in this area it has become crucial to house all engineering disciplines within a single unified system.

When design, electrical systems, motion, multi domains, 3D animation and engineering simulation are seamlessly integrated, mechatronic development immediately benefits.

Many more concept ideas can be quickly tested for validity and their results digitally demonstrated.

This allows customers and stakeholders throughout the extended enterprise to be more fully involved for predictable and therefore better outcomes.

A foundation stone of progress in the industrial equipment industry is unification of engineering, production and after sales services.

This brings immediate technical and commercial benefits and enables companies to rapidly implement future additional developments.

The complexity of implementing single data source systems has been simplified with pre-configured “Single Source for Speed” Industry Solution Experiences.

With multiple links to ERP systems value is also added to transactional backbones by delivering the accurate and up-to-date data that leads to tighter financial control. Cost per component, within a system, is just one of the revelations available.

A single backbone for all

A single source of data and life-like virtual product definitions empowers people by helping them to communicate and innovate collaboratively.

engineering disciplines linked in real-time to ERP systems is an easily configured, practical and currently available solution for industrial equipment companies.

The dream of generating budgets in 10 minutes and full quotes in half an hour is a reality for its users.

Servicing, BOMs and the complete process of conceiving, designing, making and maintaining products within an expanding global market is greatly simplified using a Single Source for Speed.

Implementation frees up time for the whole enterprise to innovate.

That’s good for the enterprise, its customers and the industrial equipment industry as it faces new challenges and turns them into opportunities.

[Christian Ebel is Vice President, Product Lifecycle Management Value Solutions, Dassault Systèmes.] www.3ds.com

MAY 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 11

PA0513_012.pdf

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Treating commercial waste

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A small family-owned business develops environmentally-friendly commercial waste treatment process to treat greasy waste, writes Hartley Henderson.

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IMPLEMENTED: The pilot plant is providing a range of benefits including environmental protection.

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For OEM/Wholesale prices Contact Ocean Controls Ph: (03) 9782 5882 oceancontrols.com.au

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A

S THE volume of greasy waste being produced by a variety of commercial enterprises grows, the environmental impact and cost of dealing with this type of waste in conventional ways continues to escalate.

To assist in addressing this challenge, a pilot plant that utilises new Omron NJ control and EtherCAT technology for processing and treating greasy commercial waste, including from restaurant grease traps, has been built in the Melbourne suburb of Dandenong South by Organic Environmental Solutions (OES), which is part of the K S Environmental Group.

The company collects highly caustic greasy waste from a range of customers and then treats it via an automated process whereby by-products such as soil conditioners, fertilisers and organic lime are produced that can be recycled, thus providing additional income streams.

Final effluent is treated to a standard that is approved by South East Water for discharge to the local sewer main, thus avoiding the high costs of dumping to landfill.

K S Environmental’s engineering services manager, Darren Souter, advises that some 90,000 litres per day of grease trap waste comes into the plant for processing, and that in 2011 around 91,665 tonnes of grease trap waste was produced in Victoria. “We are a small family owned business that is taking on the big multi-nationals in the waste processing industry through a strong focus on cutting edge

technology that could potentially change the way greasy waste is handled in Australia,� he said. “A centrifuge is used to separate out various elements of the waste instead of utilising conventional settlement ponds, thus providing significant environmental and cost benefits. “The building that houses the plant, including 16 large silos, operates on negative air pressure to control odour via a wet scrubber which cleans the air and discharges it to the atmosphere.�

The entire plant is run on EtherCAT, which is supplied by Omron Electronics and provides a control communications platform designed for industrial process plants.

Omron’s Chris Probst says that EtherCAT is mainly used for field networks and is the way of the future for plant and process control. “It is essentially Ethernet for industrial automation control, but it overcomes some of the limitations of Ethernet. A big advantage of EtherCAT is that it can mix star topology with daisy chain topology, which provides a lot of flexibility in plant design and layout, as well as reduced installation time and cost,� Probst said. “EtherCAT provides a fast network that achieves high synchronisation accuracy by using a distributed clock mechanism with standard Ethernet cables and connectors, and automatic address assignment for nodes. “This is an inter-system network that eliminates the barrier between motion networks and field networks, thereby contributing to a reduction in design works and

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BEHIND THE SCENES

a shortening of task times. It is a high-performance field network that is able to connect drive devices, intelligent sensors and I/O devices using Ethernet technologies.

“The OES ground breaking pilot plant needed an industrial FieldBus network that allowed for large expansion, and EtherCAT provides this.

“The company recognised the advantages of EtherCAT over DeviceNet, including the future proofing that would be provided, and that DeviceNet would be 30 percent more costly.

“The main aim was design flexibility to provide a leading edge process with leading edge technology controlling it.”

Probst explains that Omron’s CX-Supervisor SCADA system communicates over the information network to an Omron NJ controller. The NJ is the EtherCAT Master, controlling the process via the various Slaves on the EtherCAT network.

An Omron Sysmac CJ2 PLC controls the centrifuge that is used to separate the raw material, and an Omron NS HMI (human/machine interface) forms part of the PLC control system.

“CX-Supervisor performs monitoring and supervisory tasks of the complete process. It provides powerful functions for a wide range of PC based requirements and offers the ability to create flexible applications and extend functionality. Past data can be overlaid with new data to compare one period with another.

“Machine control is based around the NJ EtherCAT Controller, which is a completely new Sysmac automation platform that can seamlessly integrate up to 64 axes of motion control with the control functionality of a PLC. New Sysmac Studio software integrates configuration, programming and monitoring based on popular programming standards PLCopen and IEC 61131-3.

“EtherCAT uses industrial standard Cat 5 or higher Ethernet cable to connect devices to the field network, which has nodes throughout the plant that interface

MAIN PAGE: The screen in the plant operations room shows all processes that are running in real time.

with tank level sensors and control valves to allow product to flow between process stages.

“There are 10 variable speed drives throughout the plant which can be monitored and controlled by the EtherCAT Controller.”

In the plant operations room a large screen shows all processes that are running in real time. All tank levels, flow rates and set points are displayed as well as the entire SCADA process. Logging, trending and historical reports are provided, and alarms are automatically activated in relation to any issues that need addressing.

Probst says the NS HMI has enhanced graphics capabilities including a large library and high definition TFT colour touch screen. A new gateway function is also included to transfer data between connected devices.

There are also three smaller screens. The first shows the raw material settlement process following intake, and the second shows centrifuge preparation. The third screen provides the office with readings from the PLC on the centrifuge during centrifuge operation.

An iPhone can be used as a modem with a laptop computer to remotely control the plant processes.

According to Souter, the pilot plant is providing a range of significant benefits including both cost control and environmental protection.

“Our customers are recognising the cost benefits of utilising this environmentally friendly commercial waste treatment process compared with sending their greasy commercial waste to landfill,” he said.

“There are also substantial cost benefits for OES through processing efficiencies as well as the benefit of additional income streams from by-product production and recycling.

“Introduction of this new cutting edge technology means that only four-to-five people are required to operate the plant and these people have been involved from the start in helping to design and build the operation.

“Environmental responsibility is central to the company’s operations and is reflected in our triple bottom line approach to accounting practices.”

K S Environmental 03 9551 7833 www.ksenvironmental.com.au

MAY 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 13

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NMW PREVIEW

What to expect at NMW2013 NMW aims to strengthen Australian manufacturing through technology and education.

O

NE of the strong trends emerging for National Manufacturing Week (May 7 – 10, Melbourne) is a greater number of solutions – including process control, instrumentation and automation platforms and products – relevant to the food industry and pharmaceutical sector. Event organiser, Reed Exhibitions comments that this concentration reflects the enormous importance of these sectors to Australian industry.

Paul Baker, Exhibition Director for NMW said, “The food industry is Australia’s largest manufacturing sector, generating more than $108 billion in revenue – while pharmaceutical manufacturing generates more than $9 billion in revenue each year.”

14 www.pacetoday.com.au MAY 2013

“Both industries are also changing in response to new market conditions – creating a climate of opportunity for suppliers who can help food and pharmaceutical companies optimise their processes, adapt and grow,” Baker said.

1. 4D Controls. Through its online store the company supply a variety of control products including PLCs, motor drives, enclosures, switchgear, power cables, sensors and industrial computers. 4D Controls source and carry the brands as Omron, Delta, Lovato and General Cables.

2. Advanced Technology Pneumatics.

They are a supplier of pneumatic and custom made flexible hose, tubing, fittings and couplings for the chemical, food and water industries.

They specialise in polyurethane

tube and hoses. The company will be introducing AIGNEP Fittings and Pneumatic products from Italy.

AIGNEP manufacturers a range of tube and hose fittings in addition to pneumatic valves, actuators and air preparation products.

3. Allied Connectors. The company specialise in a range of military specification connectors, namely the MIL-C 5015 (MS), MIL-C 26483 S1 (62IN), and the VG95234 (MG) series.

These connectors, although based on a military standard, can also be used for commercial/industrial applications, where product integrity and ruggedness is a critical factor. They also market the TRIM TRIO range of plastic connectors, based on the MIL-C 26482 series. These include the UTG/ UTO/ UTP/ SMS/

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NMW PREVIEW

NORD DRIVESYSTEMS Intelligent Drivesystems, Worldwide Services

MBG and the new IP68/ 69K UTS series. This new UTS series are suitable for outdoor applications subject adverse weather conditions.

4. Bosch Rexroth. Known as the drive and control company, they offer complete servo driven linear modules as well as a wide range of components from ballscrews, linear guides, modules, conveyors and aluminium structural framing to servo motors, drives, controllers, PLCs and HMIs. 5. ECi M1 Software. This solution is designed for small to medium manufacturers including job shops, custom and mixed mode manufacturers and make to order manufacturers.

M1 provides total integration and automation from quoting through invoicing. It is flexible and offers fully supported customisation capabilities that ensure unique business processes can be handled. Free support and software updates for 12 months are available for those purchasing M1 at the show.

6. Global Automation Asia-Pacific.

The company imports and distributes factory automation products for purchase by panel builders, machine builders, industrial users, OEMs and contractors. Their philosophy is to provide simple solutions for complex applications. Beijer Electronics and Global Automation will use the show to officially launch the next generation of HMI panels “iX” to the local market.

7. HIWIN Technologies. They company claims to be one of the world’s largest supplier of linear motion products. They offer a full range of product lines in the linear-motion field with major products comprising precision ballscrews, linear guideways and industrial robots.

8. Metal Science Technologies. The company manufactures a range of machines for metal fabricators. They hold 16 patents currently with five pending. The mepBLITz DC-i5 is their latest model mobile electropolisher, which will be launched at the show. This model is inverter driven, which means it is smaller, lighter and three times more powerful than its predecessor. MST will also be launching a range of electro-polishing baths, which can be custom made to suit the end users specifications.

9. Oliver Technologies. The company specialises in project and equipment solutions for dust and fume control, abrasive blasting, bonding and sealing, spray painting and powder coating.

On display will be their core product range featuring a 2K Paint Mechanical

Dosing designed for protective coating and finishing applications, the Sames Nano Bell and Powder Bells for robot operated finishing, Kremlin Thor Bonding and Sealing Applicator, spray booths and solvent recycling.

10. Pneumatics Direct Australia.

The company will present a range of the latest Infinity and Clippard pneumatic equipment. Infinity piping will be a feature at the stand as well as a selection of new products, including filtration, couplings, hoses and reels.

A unique solution to a wide range of pneumatic functions such as control, interface, sensing and actuation, a selection of Minimatic components will also be on show.

11. Testequip and Measure-Tech Australia. Testequip is an supplier of testing equipment to the engineering and manufacturing industry. In 2013 the company began a new arrangement to distribute the TIME brand of test instruments. For the first time they will be on display at the show. The TH-170 Portable Hardness Tester will also be on show. Measure-tech Australia supplies three main product lines: test and tag equipment and supplies; high temperature epoxies and resins; temperature indicating labels. At th show, the company will be promoting their new Thermax range of temperature strips.

12. UV Pacific. The company will introduce their Thinky Planetary Centrifugal Mixer for mixing adhesives, epoxies, silver pastes. This mixing process for multiple liquids and powders is a no-touch, no-blade batch mixing process the employs rotational forces of over 400Gs of acceleration to achieve uniform mixing and degassing. Also at the show will be the Honle bluepoint LED UV Spot Lamps for bonding, fixing or encapsulating in the electronics, optical and medical sectors. They are also used in fluorescence stimulation, high intensive UV irradiation in chemical, biological and pharmaceutical sectors.

The units are Clean Room capable.

This unit takes LED UV light sources into the heart of the UVA range with options for heads with 365, 385 and 405 nm wavelengths all supplied from the same power supply. The Bluepoint unit can run up to four heads with up to four operation switches that can be programmed to control any combination of heads.

National Manufacturing Week www.amtil.com.au www.nationalmanufacturingweek.com.au

Energy-efficient – centralized and decentralized – drive electronics with energy-saving functions from NORD DRIVESYSTEMS - because NORD provides savings up to 40% along with reliability and strength.

NORD Drivesystems (AU) Pty Ltd 18 Stoney Way, Derrimut, Victoria, 3030 Australia Phone: +61 3 9394 0500, Fax: +61 3 9394 1525, www.nord.com.au Melbourne / Sydney / Brisbane National Customer Service 1300 00 NORD (6673) au-sales@nord.com Member of the NORD DRIVESYSTEMS Group

DRIVESYSTEMS MAY 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 15

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be ready

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Experion® PKS is designed to merge traditionally disparate functions and capture the knowledge of plant personnel and their workflows to deliver sustainable efficiencies. Experion® PKS Orion is the newest Experion release and it comes with greater engineering flexibility and efficiency built-in. It will keep your project on schedule despite late-stage design changes with new features such as Universal Channel Technology and complete virtualization solutions.

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©2013 Honeywell International, Inc. All right reserved.

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2013 013 ENTRIES RIES

Project of the Year NOMINATIONS

A big thank you and good luck to all the entrants to the 2013 PACE Zenith Awards. You have done your companies proud and turned the spotlight on the innovative work that is being done right here in this country. This is shaping up to be a very close contest with very little separating the entrants. After the judges have done their work and the scores tallied, there can be only one overall winner. Here, we celebrate our overall project winners from 2011 and 2012.

PACE Zenith Award: Overall Project of 2011

PACE Zenith Award: Overall Project of 2012

Apex Optimisation and Woodside Energy’s Karratha Gas Plant Apex Optimisation and Woodside Energy’s revamp and implementation of the Advanced Process Control (APC) at Karratha Gas Plant won the Project of the Year in 2011. Woodside approached Apex Optimisation early in 2010 to assist with a revamp of the existing APC on LNG Train 4 (LNG4) and the implementation of a new APC on LNG Train 5 (LNG5). In March 2010, after a functional design specification was completed, the project started. In May 2010, the revamped LNG4 APC was commissioned, with the LNG5 APC following in September 2010. The project was successfully concluded with a Site Acceptance Test in October 2010.

The execution of the project was very challenging due to a range of factors because the team pursued a design evolution which widened the scope of the APC significantly beyond the original LNG4 APC implementation with additional handles, limits and configuration challenges. Additionally, the size of the new applications, with each having more than 20 manipulated variables managing in excess of 60 controlled variables, meant some complex interactions had to be modelled.

The non-linear portions of the process required the team to approach the problem with innovative use of transforms, gain scheduling and automatic logic. They had to use dynamic simulation extensively to develop the gain scheduling relationships. As use of the LNG4 APC had lapsed a year prior to the project, there were no APCs operational on this particular DCS panel and the operators had to be trained in the control technology. Mechanical modifications to the LNG5 train during the project meant project engineers had to be flexible in adapting to the changing needs while maintaining an aggressive project schedule.

To ensure that the changes to the process control systems conformed to safety requirements, the designers included constraint variables which allow the desired operating envelope to be specified such that important DCS alarm and safety limits are explicitly honoured by the APC. The designers also applied tuning to cater for the specific process needs with regard to speed of response required for different constraint violations. Finally, automatic logic monitors the status of specific equipment trip signals and, when WINNER 2011: Paul Kjellgren of detected, puts the control system into a Woodside Energy flanked by Apex safe state to allow the operator to manage Optimisation’s Ian Johnston (L) and the process.

Andrew Taylor.

Aurecon Hatch’s NCIG Coal Export Terminal Control System Aurecon Hatch was engaged to provide total engineering design, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services to NCIG for all stages of the Coal Export Terminal Control System.

This included providing entire control systems engineering services, as well as system design, function specification for PLC and SCADA configuration, factory testing, site commissioning, performance testing and operator training.

As part of the EPCM services, Aurecon Hatch project managed 11 different supply contracts, including HV switchgear, transformers, 415V MCCs, HV cables, WINNER 2012: Aurecon Hatch’s power factor correction equipment, wagon Andrew Hepburn (L) receives the vibrator, conveyor drive units, pulleys, Project of the Year award from Martin conveyor belting, vibrating feeders, and Sinclair, Associate Publisher of PACE. sample plant modifications. The project was completed early and under budget. The controls design and controls capital works were also finished under budget.

Andrew Hepburn, Principal Engineer Automation at Aurecon Hatch outlined some of the difficulties involved in the project, specifically when it came to timing.

“We were given an overall schedule for the project and we knew our target dates and our durations. We planned the various steps of the work from design to installation and commissioning to work out and meet the end date of the overall program.”

The NCIG Coal Export Terminal is a plant rated at 66Mtpa and was developed in three stages of 33, 45, and 66 Mtpa. The plant involved a rail receival system, conveyor system, coal stacking, reclaiming and sampling as well as ship-loading.

The expansion to 45Mtpa and 66Mtpa represented a much more challenging task and involved both greenfield and brownfield works. In response to market pressure, NCIG required expansion to 45Mtpa to occur over a period of just two years and to 66Mtpa one year later. “The control system usually comes at the end of the project and we had to almost work from negative program,” said Hepburn.

“We had to design to the best guess of the progress the work. As contracts and plant were selected, we were able to modify the design in accordance with the real information but it was a very tight schedule to get the job done on time,” said Hepburn.

MAY 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 17

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2013 13 ENTRIES ES

Power and Energy Management NOMINATIONS

ICON Technologies

AGL Energy Limited (AGL) and Yokogawa Australia

Curtin University GEEP Laboratory Data Management System ICON Technologies engineered a data acquisition and distribution system for the GEEP Laboratory at the Curtin University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The laboratory is a multi-use facility for graduate, postgraduate and industry researchers, together with undergraduate students and teaching staff. It is used for the research of different renewable energy sources with a commercial scale power management and micro-grid infrastructure.

The operational and technical functions of the facility is managed by the GEEP Laboratory Data Management System. The system needed to provide unrestricted 24/7 access to all real-time and historical data for researchers, and limited but flexible access to real-time and historical data for students. Any researcher sitting at any workstation needed to be access real-time and historical data from any combination of renewable energy sources. The system also needed to provide multiple levels of remote access so that staff could have full operational access to the system from a remote location, while various subsets of data could be made available over the Internet to various industry groups. The solution comprised of a Windows 7 server PC, client PCs as required, three NI CompactRIO PAC Controllers to acquire point and waveform current/voltage data at selected system points, and to handle ancillary IO as required; and a MOXA serial interface to integrate the site weather station.

The custom system application software was developed in LabVIEW 2011. When completed, the GEEP Laboratory Data Management System was capable of handling mixed static and waveform signals at acquisition rates from 1 sample/s to 5,000 samples/s, together with serial and network data, in a single seamless system.

AGL Loy Yang Integrated Control and Monitoring System Upgrade (ICMS) Unit 1 and 2 The project involved the replacement of AGL Loy Yang’s Instrumentation and Control Systems to the Yokogawa’s Distributed Control Systems CS3000, Centum VP and the Safety System, Prosafe. The project involved upgrading the instrumentation and control systems of two turbine/generator units. The transitions of both units were performed during AGL Loy Yang’s Major Outage maintenance periods. With the maintenance outages having a defined period off line, the companies completed the control system upgrades within the set time period, and met all milestones and contractual obligations.

The project started before the commencement of the Outage period, with the team completing the DCS hardware design, manufacture and test. Power and DCS/Prosafe hardware and cables were installed in advance of the changeover, and the software was completed and tested on a simulator. This planning and preparation ahead of the short outage duration helped ensure that the integration to the existing plant and the pre-commissioning period met the contractual obligations of 28 days.

This preparatory work meant that during the Major Maintenance Outage Periods the team met the scheduled milestones for the installation works in changing over the existing plant and equipment to the new DCS system.

The team went on to meet the scheduled milestones were met for the installation and pre-commissioning of the new plant equipment, the removal of the redundant control panels in the Unit Control Room, and installation of new control desks, computers and screens for operation of the Units.

I S Systems

Magellan Power

Joulenergy (Short Term Energy Storage) 150kW 8MJ Demo System I S Systems developed a utility scale short term energy storage system called Joulenergy, which is based on super capacitors. The solution as designed in response to a challenge design and construct mega-joule capacitor banks required for utility scale applications. This involved increasing the system energy storage capacity using a large number of capacitors in a series connection, creating a large medium voltage (kilovolts DC) capacitor with mega-Joules of storage capacity.

The project required the development of power converter modules based on LV IGBTs’ together with the associated controls, monitoring and protection. The inverters are operating at kilovolts above ground potential requiring all interfacing to be via fibre optic cables. The project tasks included designing custom PCBs fitted with DSP microcontrollers and FPGAs. The associated firmware has been designed and developed by I S Systems. The complete system and individual components were designed, analysed and modeled using tools including Matlab, Scilab (open source software like Matlab) and PSIM (power electronics modelling). The control system includes a high speed main controller and a safety PLC. The main controller implements the regulation functions and line or bus synchronising. The PLC system controls the interlocking controls, sequencing functions (startup & shut down), external communications, alarms and warnings. The equipment access is a SIL 3 safety interlocking system. Applications include increasing RE penetration and improving network stability through both active power and reactive power management. The Joulenergy system provides distribution network support with high fault current capacities to ensure protection discrimination operation.

Solar Smoother/Grid Power Support system In communities which use solar power, especially in Western Australia’s north, passing clouds cause unpredictable peak demand on grid systems with heavy solar injection. Recently WA’s Horizon Power stopped installation of all PV power and introduced a new regulation called Generation Management in which it is mandatory to install a smoothing device to cater for the abrupt power fluctuations, which cause damage to Horizon power’s diesel generators. Magellan Power has the solution – it is called a Solar Smoother. The Solar Smoother will enable the grid to cope with the fluctuations caused by the passing clouds and reduce the need for reserve fossil fuel based power generation.

The “Solar Smoother” has been adapted from an existing product, the Grid Power Support System. The GPSS was developed by Magellan Power in 2009 to solve power problems with the Single Wire Earth Return networks in Queensland. The GPSS uses inverter technology to store surplus energy gathered from the SWER network in high quality, industrial-grade lithium batteries, and then feeds it back to the grid during peak load periods. The GPSS has a ramp function and on this model it was used to smooth power disturbances. A similar “smoothing” function would apply to the Solar Smoother.

[Editor’s Note: These are the nominations received at the time of going to press.

Once judging is complete, Finalists will be announced on www.pacetoday.com.au.

They will also be individually notified.]

MAY 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 19

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2013 3 S ENTRIES

Best Fieldbus Implementation NOMINATIONS

Automation IT

Omron Electronics Environmentally-friendly Commercial Waste Treatment Plant Organic Environmental Solutions built a pilot plant in a Melbourne suburb. The facility utilises the new Omron NJ controler and EtherCAT technology for processing and treating greasy commercial waste, including from restaurant grease traps.

Final effluent is treated to a standard that is approved by South East Water for discharge to the local sewer main, thus avoiding the high costs of dumping to landfill.

Some 90,000 litres per day of grease trap waste comes into the plant for processing, and that in 2011 around 91,665t of grease trap waste was produced in Victoria.

EtherCAT was selected as it overcomes some of the limitations of Ethernet.

EtherCAT can mix star topology with daisy chain topology, which provides flexibility in plant design and layout, as well as reduced installation time and cost. EtherCAT provides a fast network that achieves high synchronisation accuracy by using a distributed clock mechanism with standard Ethernet cables and connectors, and automatic address assignment for nodes.

Omron’s CX-Supervisor SCADA system communicates over the information network to an Omron NJ controller. The NJ is the EtherCAT Master, controlling the process via the various Slaves on the EtherCAT network. An Omron Sysmac CJ2 PLC controls the centrifuge that is used to separate the raw material, and an Omron NS HMI forms part of the PLC control system.

Gold Coast University Hospital Network Control System The Gold Coast University Hospital (GCUH) Network Control System (NCS) monitors and controls the electrical network and power supply for the GCUH. The main objective is to provide power across site with minimal downtime. This is achieved using a generator system to supplement the main supply from the power utility.

During the loss of the normal power supply to the GCUH the NCS interfaces with the generators to automatically restore supply power across site. The NCS performs the following functions: Monitoring and control of the 11 kV, 3.3 kV and 415V power; The Interface to the Generator Digital Master Controller (DMC); The Interface to the Building Management System (BMS); The Interface to the Fire System.

Due to the extreme importance of maintaining power to a hospital the site has a redundant GE RX3i PLC solution with a network of distributed, redundant communication adapters at each of the main twenty plus substations. In the result of a network failure, each substation is able to continue processing via a fully redundant communications path. This is the largest dual redundant GE RX3i solution in Australia.

All substation communications are Ethernet based and utilise dual self-healing rings with best in class recover times.

[Editor’s Note: These are the nominations received at the time of going to press.

Once judging is complete, Finalists will be announced on www.pacetoday.com.au.

They will also be individually notified.]

Wide Bay Water Corporation Nikenbah WWTP Nikenbah Waste Water Treatment Plant’s control system utilises a single hot standby Quantum PLC communicating with smart Tesys T starters and Altivar VSDs via Modbus TCPIP on a dual fiber optic ring installed throughout the plant. All instrumentation is connected to the PLC via Profibus PA allowing for easy remote configuration, commissioning and fault diagnosis.

All valves were connected to the PLC via Profibus DP operating at the maximum speed of 1.5MB/s. Two remote Citect clients installed on Magelis IPCs were located at the start of the plant and at the end of the plant to allow for full access to the plant for the Operator.

A third client was located in the Corporation’s control room and connected via a microwave link to the dual redundant Citect Servers located in the plant’s control room.

MAY 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 21

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2013 13 IES ENTRIES

Machine Builder NOMINATIONS

Adelaide Control Engineering

Konecranes

PhosEnergy Pilot Plant The basic requirement was for a pilot uranium processing plant to extract uranium in the form of U3O8 from a phosphate deposit where it constitutes an undesirable impurity when the phosphate is to be processed into fertilizer. The pilot plant was to process the ore using ion exchange methods and have a capacity of 300tpa.

The process for extracting the uranium was developed by Uranium Equities and is a world first.

The plant was modelled and designed using 3D CAD to be built within two 40-foot side-opening containers arranged side by side with a raised access way between them. The first unit contains the reagent storage tanks and transfer pumps while the second contained the ion exchange columns and associated equipment.

Electrical and control switchboards were distributed between both containers and located to minimise field wiring. The 3D modelling enabled the plant to be designed to reduce the number of connections between containers. This enables the containers to be unloaded side by side on any levelled area and interconnected ready for operation in minimum time.

The control system is integrated from the field to the control room, and also allows secure access by engineers in Adelaide wherever in the world the plant may currently be located. The instrumentation in the field can be directly and securely accessed by an engineer by through Allen Bradley Flex I/O, which is connected to a ControlLogix PLC via a redundant ControlNet interface.

Ertech sets benchmarks in maintenance facility safety Civil contractor Ertech recently completed building an equipment maintenance facility that will service about 170 items of major plant, including scrapers, excavators, loaders and bulldozers. Five-tonne and 10-tonne Konecranes have been installed at Ertech’s headquarters in Wangara, WA. The 10-tonne overhead crane has a 20-metre span, while the five-tonne crane, which straddles the automated welding bay, has a span of 9 metres. The cranes employ radio controls with the load display in the handset.

A benefit of the new cranes is the cranes’ travel inverters, a separate control that delivers smooth starts, acceleration and deceleration of the load, minimising load swing and enabling fast and accurate load positioning. Dynafamily inverter controls and pole changing controls are standard options for crane and trolley travelling on Konecranes overhead cranes.

Accurate load positioning with True Lift as standard, which means the hook moves horizontally only 5mm during a one-metre lift. Because of the innovative mechanical design of the CXT hoists, with a large rope drum diameter and a short drum length, the horizontal travel of the hook during lowering is minimal.

T. W. Woods Machinery Automation & Robotics MAR Robotic Idler Replacement System Machinery Automation and Robotics (MAR) engineered a Robotic Idler Replacement system, which provides an innovative method of changing idlers out to reduce the risk of injury to personnel and reduce the conveyor downtime associated with damaged idlers.

The solution can replace idlers on loaded, operational conveyors, providing mine sites with the ability to conduct routine maintenance on conveyors with zero downtime. In addition to increasing conveyor up-time, the solution removes workplace health and safety (WHS) risks currently associated with conveyor servicing, maintenance and breakdowns.

MAR in conjunction with Rio Tinto looked to using robots to perform manual handling tasks associated with changing conveyor idlers. In January 2012, the company trialled its robotic solution on a 6m static section of conveyor structure.

These trials proved MAR’s Robotic Idler Replacement is capable of changing idlers on loaded, fully operational conveyors providing mine sites with the ability to conduct routine maintenance on conveyors without downtime or without the need for direct manual intervention.

For use in mining maintenance operations, the MAR Robotic Idler Replacement system is mounted on a mine specified vehicle for surface and underground operations. It is controlled using a HMI located in the cabin of truck. Safety scanners are attached to the purpose built truck so the operator will not need to exit the cabin. Presenting its manipulator to the conveyor stringer the MAR Robotic Idler Replacement scans the conveyor idler frame, stringer and belt.

Time-saving compact coal transfer chute T. W. Woods Group has manufactured a smooth flowing low-height transfer chute being used at a busy Hunter Vallery colliery. The chute is incorporated into conveyors handling the throughput at the underground coal mine, which produces more than 1.6 million tons of coal a year. According to T.W. Woods, the transfer chute overcomes space, spillage and conveyor bulking problems common in coal mining and coal handling facilities.

The mine team leader responsible for the chute’s use and maintenance noted its advantages: simplicity, ease of installation and robust design. Installation requires four hours over just one shift to complete. The chute is built from tough hardened steel, capable resisting wear and outlasting conventional units. The low-height transfer chute features a conical head developed by mining specialist designers to maintain high volume high flow rates (up to 2000 tons an hour) when conveyors change direction either underground or on the surface.

The simple but tough design allows it to stand up to heavy usage: the customer has produces about 1200 tons an hour, and the throughput contains lumps up to 300-400mm. In underground mines, as conveyors emerge from one shaft and transfer to another within a tight space, the quick 90 degree turns result in spillage and bulking up on the conveyor belts. The chute’s compact design allows it to be fitted into lower overall heights than conventional designs, operating with a separation distance between belts of 1200-1500mm. The conical head provides a smooth transition through the turn for coal moving at typically 3m a second and dropping up to 1500mm onto a belt below. The chute’s capabilities is proving itself in the customer application, where it is used on left and right hand 90-degree turns.

[Editor’s Note: These are the nominations received at the time of going to press.

Once judging is complete, Finalists will be announced on www.pacetoday.com.au.

They will also be individually notified.]

MAY 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 23

PA0513_000_AMS.pdf

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Reduce costs and improve quality of calibration

www.beamex.com info@beamex.com

Beamex® documenting calibrators and software form an automated paperless calibration system.

The new Beamex MC6 - more than a calibrator.

Touch-screen, 5.7” color-display. Light-weight, robust (IP65) and long operating time. A meter, calibrator, data logger and full multi-bus field communicator.

Pressure, electrical, temperature and frequency signals. HART, Profibus PA, Foundation Fieldbus H1. Seamless communication with calibration software for paperless calibration management.

AMS AMS INSTRUMENTATION & CALIBRATION PTY LTD Unit 20, 51 Kalman drive Boronia VIC 3155 AUSTRALIA Phone: +61-3-9017 8225 Fax: +61-3-9729 9604 E-mail: sales@ams-ic.com.au Internet: www.ams-ic.com.au

PA0513_025.pdf

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2013 13 ES ENTRIES

Oil & Gas NOMINATIONS

Hydratight Precision on-site milling services help to overcome downtime risk Even minor misalignments can translate into big trouble. An error of millimetres can – and has – disabled heavy plant equipment such as feedout conveyors by causing premature wear and major production interruptions. Conveyor pulleys are one area where precision machining is critical, because if bearings are not flush, torsional stress can and will cut out bearings and interrupt production.

Hydratight’s three-axis portable milling machine is capable of travelling and machining in all axis. Three-axis is suitable for onsite machining large and small rectangular areas accurately. This portable mill can be clamped or bolted directly onto the part being machined or fabricated. Setup jigs and parallel-mounting fixtures can be used to position it in difficult work area conditions. The tool is designed for rugged onsite machining e.g. milling, drilling and boring applications on jobs previously thought to be impossible without extensive disassembly. The precision ground dovetails with adjustable gibs, to provide accurate travel in all axis.

When used as a facing mill, this milling machine tool will quickly face off pitted or misaligned surfaces, restoring the original condition of the part being machined.

Servo power feeds are available for all axes, allowing the application of smooth and consistent power feed throughout the speed range, going forwards and in reverse.

BOC ICEBITZZZ ICE3 mobile dry ice production The ICEBITZZZ ICE3 was born out of a necessity to provide regional areas, such as expanding mining towns and remote developing communities, with good quality dry ice. Historically, dry ice has been produced in metropolitan areas and shipped out to regional areas. Due to the expanse and geography of Australia, this has meant that by the time the dry ice reached its final destination, the integrity of the product had greatly diminished.

The ICEBITZZZ equipment was originally designed for the Scandinavian blasting market. A major challenge for BOC engineers was to develop the technology to fit in with the harsh environmental conditions of the South Pacific as well as make it work in a multitude of industries, including wine, agricultural, logistics.

The portable design of the ICE3 allowed for speed on installations at remote sites. With ICEBITZZ ICE3, BOC works closely together with leading manufacturers of dry ice equipment, scientific institutions and specialist technicians, enabling the company to deliver uniquely innovative solutions that are tailormade for optimal results.

BOC

Mini Bulk Service Offering, Mix Onsite BOC has redefined the delivery of cutting edge solutions to Australian manufacturing with the roll out of its new Mini Bulk Service Offer and Mix Onsite which is specifically tailored for the welding sector. This technology improves upon the original system of multiple linked cylinders or “manifold packs”, offering economic, production and space-saving advantages. The system also helps to reduce the risk of handling injuries that are often associated with manually changing over cylinder packs.

The Mini Bulk Service Offer makes it easier to manage variable demand and offers significant productivity savings, cost-effective supply, consistent high purity liquid, low filling losses, modest installation costs and increased gas storage in a compact cryogenic liquid vessel.

The Mix Onsite system involves liquid argon and CO2 being delivered by a combination tanker into a range of compact customer argon and CO2 vessels. A mixing panel is then used to blend argon and CO2 to the required shielding gas specification, with the shielding gas then delivered by pipeline to the required points of use.

[Editor’s Note: These are the nominations received at the time of going to press.

Once judging is complete, Finalists will be announced on www.pacetoday.com.au.

They will also be individually notified.]

MAY 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 25

PA0513_000_IFM

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Hygienic point level sensor resistant to build-up.

Default setting at the factory makes adjustment to the medium unnecessary. Hygienic design with maintenance free sealing concept. Robust stainless steel housing.

Resistant to foam and deposits. Orientationindependent installation. www.ifm.com.au/lmt

ifm efector â&#x20AC;&#x201C; close to you!

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Visit www.ifmefector.com.au/eshop

PA0513_027.pdf

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2013 13 ES ENTRIES

Automotive and Manufacturing NOMINATIONS

RPC Technologies

Fluke Australia

Light Weight (Carbon Fibre) Mine Vent Duct Responding to market demand, RPC Technologies has developed a new innovative Fire Retardant and Anti-Static (FRAS) Light Weight Mine Vent Duct (or LWMVD) made out of carbon fiber. This product is a new generation of Mine Vent Duct, which is lighter and stronger than traditional solutions, including fibreglass ducts.

Drawing on its know-how in composites, RPC designed and developed a foam ribbed FRAS mine vent duct using carbon fibres. This new product can withstand a higher vacuum and is half the weight of its fibreglass counterpart.

This reduction in weight decreases WHS risks associated with handling of mine vent ducting during installation (i.e. less back injuries) A particular effort was required in defining and sourcing the right type of carbon fibre fabric, resin and foam for the construction of this innovative product. The selection that was made, allowed RPC to meet its customers’ requirements without compromising on quality.

Moreover, the traditional filament winding method of manufacturing already used

by RPC for the last 30 years for fibreglass pressure pipes and ducting was not suitable for the new materials. RPC developed an alternative method and the necessary equipment to allow the processing of carbon fibre into the filament winding process at the same production rate as its usual production, which was quite an achievement.

Aurora solar cars The Aurora Vehicle Association is a non-profit group of volunteers dedicated to promoting sustainable mobility. Aurora Evolution is the organisation’s main competition and show car. Aurora uses Fluke tools to maintain its fleet of solar cars to help ensure the cars reach peak performance during competitions and demonstrations. Fluke tools are deployed to the development, operation and maintenance of all Aurora solar cars.

Through the daily use of these tools during the 2011 World Solar Challenge, Aurora avoided any major issues and quickly diagnosed an unexpected electrical issue, which could have resulted in the need to withdraw from the race.

Aurora uses several Fluke tools to maintain its fleet of solar cars including: 233A Wireless Remote Display Multimeter; 117 Multimeter; 62 Mini Infrared Thermometer; Clamp Meter; test leads; lead kits.

Brickwood Holdings OFS Implementation Brickwood Holdings (BH) had reached full capacity on many of the production lines in the Cheltenham plant. This created serious challenges meeting growing customer demands, especially during peak supply periods. BH had the option of increasing capacity via capital expenditure – i.e. purchase new equipment, or if possible, to maximise the output of existing equipment through more efficient practices, without the need for additional capital expenditure.

The objective was to produce more output in less time, using existing equipment, thereby satisfying increasing customer demands, conserving capital and maximising returns to shareholders. BH engaged Melbourne based OFS, a supplier of realtime productivity improvement analytics for manufacturing with experience in the packaging sector. BH selected three production lines to be commissioned with OFS Operator Console and OFS Analytics software for an initial three-month evaluation period (to be extended to all 15 production lines upon success). The solution scope included replacing manual worksheets, data collection and processing along with the associated clunky, inaccessible, inaccurate Excel reports. BH desired effortless real time feedback to operators and management, the ability to quickly hone in on recurring problems and something to give the entire operation extra momentum.

The OFS Operator Console is a visual and interactive software enabling operators to track and comment on production performance in real time. The Console directly motivates operators to contribute to improving performance.

[Editor’s Note: These are the nominations received at the time of going to press.

Once judging is complete, Finalists will be announced on www.pacetoday.com.au.

They will also be individually notified.]

ICON Technologies TiRO Pilot-Scale Facility The conventional method of titanium metal production is a batch process that leads to up to 30 percent loss of metal as alloyed byproducts, and delivers a solid ingot product that is difficult to work without further significant metal loss. The resulting high cost of production has prevented titanium from being deployed to mass markets such as automotive engineering and biomedical devices, despite its known and obvious applications in these fields.

The TiRO process addresses many of these issues. It uses a Fluidised Bed Reactor to significantly decrease the unwanted reactions between titanium metal and the materials of the containment vessel. This also allows the reaction to be run as a continuous feed, rather than as a batch process. The end product is a fine titanium powder that is well suited to working through powder metallurgy techniques that significantly reduce the costs and metal losses associated with conventional working.

PTronik PTronik pMC Dust Control Technology At the project site of Impact Fertilisers Manufacturing Plant the existing Dust Collector needed upgrading to meet today’s environmental and OH&S requirements. PTronik’s pMC Process Controller solved their issues with automated monitoring and control solutions to reduce the cost of managing their dust control system. The sensors measured key indicators to determine the state of the air filtration unit’s collection bag.

This information is compared to real time plant performance data, which is used to automatically determine and activate the optimal air pulse cleaning cycle to ensure maximum performance. Systems Control staff can remotely monitor plant performance in real time via their SCADA system, to make any necessary adjustments to meet plant performance criteria and to log performance data for subsequent analysis, including the identification of leaks within the filtration system.

MAY 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 27

PA0513_000_SIC.pdf

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THERE IS NOTHING IN THE AIR TONIGHT.

From power generation and cement production to waste treatment and the distribution of natural gas – the more complex a plant, the greater the demands on systems engineering and services. When it comes to monitoring emissions, evaluating gases for optimal process control and ascertaining custody transfer measurements for pipelines, SICK is a step ahead in every segment of the industry. With complete solutions for gas analysis, dust measurement and flow measurement that are perfectly tailored for each process environment. With superior equipment availability, easy operation, certified explosion protection and robust measurement technology with long maintenance cycles. When it comes to finding a clean solution, the whole world takes measurements with SICK. We think that’s intelligent. For more information please visit www.sick.com.au or call 1300 405 807.

PA0513_029.pdf

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2013 TRIES ENTRIES

Young Achiever NOMINATIONS

Erin McMullen Unilever Erin has recently completed three years as a graduate in the Unilever Future Leaders Programme (UFLP). Throughout the UFLP, Erin was given the opportunity to take on various, challenging roles across different functional and operational areas of the business including Materials Planner, Process Engineer, Production Leader for Deodorants in addition to a 6 month rotation in the Sales and Marketing function.

Following completion of the programme, Erin was promoted to the role of Engineering Manager at North Rocks. In this role, Erin is responsible for all aspects of Engineering activities of the North Rocks factory, including Pillar Leader for Focused Improvement, Planned Maintenance, and Early Equipment Management (Innovations and Capital Expenditure).

As Engineering Manager of North Rocks, Erin has a team of seven Engineering and Maintenance staff reporting to her directly, as well as the responsibility of managing an additional team of nine mechanical fitters and five electricians to support the site.

As Engineering Manager of North Rocks, Erin has a great opportunity to help shape the high performance culture of the site. Through her leadership, and in driving the continuous improvement mindset through Focused Improvement and Planned Maintenance pillars, Erin is helping North Rocks deliver safety excellence (Zero Accident), quality excellence, improved productivity and cost reduction.

In her role as Production Leader for Deodorants, Erin was given a unique opportunity at a young age and very early in her career, to gain leadership experience in a fast-paced and highly-changing manufacturing environment. Erin was responsible for a team of 40 people running production 24 hours per day, six to seven days per week, for one year.

Jacky Lam Honeywell Process Solutions Jacky began his career with Honeywell Process Solutions as a Graduate Project Engineer in June 2011 and has developed and grown to be a key project asset on one of the region’s highest profile control and automation projects. As Systems Engineer, he is responsible for assisting Lead Engineers on the project, with specific responsibility for IT infrastructure and DCS architecture. This work has included the detailed design, delivery and system build of many elements of the base DCS system for three separate plants, ie: Main LNG plant, Hides Gas conditioning Plant, and delivery pipeline. On this project, Jacky has been assigned to the foundation systems scope to facilitate the IT integration of the SIS, DCS and MES systems to form a functional control system solution. This role has necessitated dedication to engineering accuracy and efficient work practices in order to meet challenging timescales and fulfill the high expectations of the end client, ExxonMobil.

In this role, Jacky’s many responsibilities have included deploying automated updates and patches, implementing backup strategies and building workstations and servers to numerous specifications and functional applications. He has also played a key role in the virtualisation of layer 3.5 applications such as domain controllers.

On this project, Jacky’s most notable achievement has been the delivery of the ‘infrastructure’ component of the PNG-LNG project, which he has achieved with minimal assistance and significantly under budget. All aspects of infrastructure delivery have been driven to conclusion by Jacky. Lead engineers have outlined a solution and Jacky has delivered it with minimal supervision, initiative and autonomy. He showed initiative throughout the project, taking ownership of technical issues.

Jason Oliver Black Widow When Jason started as Operations Manager, Black Widow employed 15 staff so the role was very multi-faceted. Jason was responsible for all aspects of production including output, quality and staff management as well as purchasing, new product development, engineering documentation and continual improvement. This has given Jason a very intimate knowledge of the production and engineering process.

Throughout the journey, Jason has been identifying opportunities to streamline processes and procedures and get the company to a position to move from a small business to a medium-sized business. The past seven years has been about getting the company into a position to meet this transition.

In 2011, Jason stepped into the role of CEO and has continued to drive change and introduce systems and procedures into the financial, sales and administration parts of the business.

Introducing a management structure for the past and future growth supported by establishing KPIs to drive resources and accountability has been critical to Jason’s role and daily management duties.

Sales have become a key part of Jason’s role including the appointment of a Sales and Marketing manager and a National Dealer Network Manager in the last six months. Black Widow has also expanded into retail operations adding a 4WD showroom to the head office facilities. This project is a pilot as part of the strategy to launch the commercial product range around Australia. Jason has overseen the establishment of the retail site and implemented the business strategy, processes and management system.

Michael George Peever James Cook University Michael’s responsibility was to work on his final year thesis project, on the project entitled: “Machine Simulation, using EMISA Collision Detection Architecture” in the mining industry. The project was designed to improve the efficiency of an iron ore stockyard, the place where ore is stored on a mine site before being sent offsite via rail transport. Michael has developed the first mining industry-specific stockyard collision detection algorithm, which he called EMISA. This is a dynamic algorithm which adapts to changing simulation requirements and when used, alongside the simulation software package that Michael has developed, generates dynamic machine exclusion zones.

A software package using EMISA algorithm was developed to stop machines crashing into each other when used alongside current stockyard anti-collision systems. Michael has designed a system that is capable of improving the efficiency of an iron ore stockyard.

Michael’s project was the first mining industry-specific stockyard collision detection algorithm. Michael developed a dynamic algorithm which adapts to changing simulation requirements and when used, alongside the simulation software package that Michael has developed, generates dynamic machine exclusion zones, where machines are not allowed to move, essentially stopping them from colliding.

[Editor’s Note: These are the nominations received at the time of going to press.

Once judging is complete, Finalists will be announced on www.pacetoday.com.au.

They will also be individually notified.]

MAY 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 29

PA0513_000_SCH1

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Looking for plant-wide profitability?

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Is your plant operating at its full potential? If you don’t have a collaborative architecture for monitoring and control, this question may be difficult to answer. And yet, quick access to precise information is exactly what you need to achieve optimised business performance.

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The integration of software, hardware, networking and communication forms the backbone of information transparency from field to enterprise.

PlantStruxure provides you with a global view across your entire plant, closing the gap between the field and enterprise, delivering real-time information to users as and when they need it.

Ensuring a safe and sustainable working environment With PlantStruxure architecture, you can finally meet your automation requirements, reduce capital and operating expenses, and optimise energy usage without lowering standards or compromising safety.

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Software: Vijeo Citect and Vijeo Historian deliver critical production related material to those who need it, while dedicated configuration software such as Unity Pro, reduces engineering and maintenance time.

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Learn more about PlantStruxure architecture!

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©2013 Schneider Electric. All Rights Reserved. Schneider Electric and Make the most of your energy are trademarks owned by Schneider Electric Industries SAS or its affiliated companies. www.schneider-electric.com.au

CLIPCOM 26242

Production Manager

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PACE ZENITH AWARDS 2013 013 RIES ENTRIES

Mining, Minerals & Exploration NOMINATIONS

FLSmidth Ludowici

Ausenco

Ludowici Reflux Classifier FLSmidth Ludowici partnered with R&D partner Professor Kevin Galvin of the University of Newcastle to develop the Reflux Classifier, which separates fine particles on the basis of either density or size. Intended for coal and minerals processing, the gravitybased Reflux Classifier technology has been proven with operating units in Africa, Asia, Australia and North America. With a unique tilted design, the Reflux Classifier further improves the efficiency of the recovery process. The technology has succeeded in solving an existing processing problem by achieving the sharp separations essential in the recovery of premium, high grade metallurgical coal.

FLSmidth Ludowici expects the improved particle recovery and energy savings achieved by the Reflux Classifier will save the mining industry billions of dollars. The Reflux Classifier was developed by combing a conventional fluidized bed with a system of inclined channels to achieve enhanced rates of segregation of high density particles, and enhanced conveying of low density particles. The Reflux Classifier can be applied to a relatively broad range of particle sizes, and achieve higher recovery of valuable material than other water-based technologies.

In addition, Reflux Classifiers are more efficient and more compact than competing fine coal and mineral processing equipment. Preliminary tests of the Ludowici laminar high shear rate enhanced reflux classifiers (undertaken at the University of Newcastle’s RC Laboratory) have increased coal yield by up to 80% when using a laminar high shear rate regime in the inclined channels. By increasing the recovery of fine particles, the systems developed by FLSmidth Ludowici and Professor Galvin reduce the rate of increase in energy intensity in mining, helping increase the product yield.

Expand Gold Mine Processing Plant Akara Mining wished to update their SCADA assets at its Chatree Gold Mine site in line with expansion plans, in order to take advantage of rising gold prices. The site has been running Wonderware’s InTouch SCADA system for 11 years. Akara chose Ausenco to implement the expanded system. Ausenco partnered with Wonderware Australia as a consultant on this project. The emphasis was on the communication failover strategy, intuitive operation and easy maintainability. The upgraded system had to be maintainable by local personnel, since most of the mine sites are in remote locations and it takes more than 24 hours to travel to the site.

Another important request was the implementation of Wonderware’s ArchestrA HMI system, which needed to comply with the existing InTouch HMI graphic’s standard, but at the same time use current industry practices and technologies.

Because the legacy system ran on a single communication channel network, Chatree Mining was experiencing some latency as the inter-PLC data exchange and HMI values were not updated rapidly enough. Ausenco upgraded the solution to a redundant GigaBit Ethernet network with redundant I/O servers.

Ausenco applied object oriented programming (OOP) to the PLC program, boosting efficiency for the batch sequences used for the chemical processes involved with leaching gold. According to Ausenco, it designed the control system for future expandability. The control system network backbone is designed to allow future operators to insert additional network nodes and cables without downtime. The communication load capacity allows for a large number of additional PLCs and HMI stations. This expansion has delivered improved production effectiveness.

Major coal mining company in Queensland

Mining company in the Pilbara

Supply Chain Improvement Project A major coal mining company in Queensland was looking to improve its operational effectiveness, and predict the quality of the coal product for profitable marketing.

Destined for deployment at multiple coal mine sites and ports, the solution was based on the combination of two Schneider Electric products: Ampla Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and SolveIT Software (owned by Schneider Electric) Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) system. The customer wanted to improve the visibility of their operations value chain from mine to port, eliminate inefficiencies in their processes and logistics and boost profitability. To achieve this, the customer sought to capture data more accurately from the operations, attain an integrated operational overview and provide decision support for optimising their value chain. In particular, it identified the logistic chain as a bottleneck in the business.

The solution addressed the customer needs by feeding data from the mining operations in real time into Ampla, allowing accurate management and reporting of inventories across the whole pit-to-port supply chain. The solution integrated to SCADA, Truck Haulage, Trains and Port Systems either directly or via exported data. It uses smart rules to cross-check the data from different parts of the system, to prevent data errors from entering the system. The Ampla MES Inventory solution captured all movements of coal through the whole inventory chain. This inventory data is then passed on to SolveIT APS, where it is used to schedule movements from mine to port to optimise operations. According to Schneider, the project is unique because a single company provides the technology suite from the control systems (SCADA) through to the enterprise-level business systems.

Rail Downtime Accounting and Reporting System Schneider Electric worked closely with a mining customer in the Pilbara to deliver a Rail Downtime Accounting System which adapts to the users’ evolving businesses.

The customer, a large iron ore producer, wanted a reliable rail downtime solution, in order to investigate opportunities for productivity improvements across the rail network from mines to port. It wanted to replace a cumbersome and expensive to maintain internal application while retaining and improving the key performance assessment models. The new solution also had to seamlessly integrate with a variety of data gathering interfaces.

Schneider Electric’s Ampla product was chosen as the core of the solution. While Ampla is usually used by miners primarily for fixed plant solutions, the company assembled a team to adapt the solution for rail systems. The project team worked with the customer to help refine the requirements and design an effective yet flexible solution. The team focused on implementing as much functionality as possible using only standard Ampla product features in order to improve the reliability and maintainability of the final system. The customer was able to identify equipment and/or processes that cause sub-optimal materials throughout the network.

[Editor’s Note: These are some of the nominations received at the time of going to press. Visit our website to view all the nominations. Once judging is complete, Finalists will be announced on www.pacetoday.com.au. They will also be individually notified.]

MAY 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 31

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Distributed safety systems Automation systems of the future will have safety fully integrated and networked, writes Harry Mulder.

U

P UNTIL the late 1990s, all safety systems were based on relay logic and had to be hardwired. This was due to the lack of safety standards and regulations that would allow the use of microprocessors and software. Safety relies on trusted technology, material and methods and insufficient confidence in microprocessor-based systems had been gained thus far.

This is why traditional safety systems were implemented separately to the rest of the automation system. They operated independently, often in parallel to the control system, for good reason – safety systems must be highly-available.

A fault or unexpected occurrence in the “normal” operation of the machine must not degrade or compromise protective or safety processes.

It was inevitable that as automation systems became more intelligent then so too must safety systems. Put simply, safety functionality increasingly depended on knowing what the rest of the machine was doing. However, trying to add classical safety to an automation system (which was heavily computerised even then) always led to substantial costs due to the additional wiring and engineering required.

Fortunately, the release of the international safety standard IEC61508 in the late 1990s allowed microprocessors and software to be used in safety systems. This brought many advantages (see Table 1), which in turn led to a proliferation of programmable safety controllers; but at the expense of traditional hardwired systems.

Logic solvers

Safety controllers (also called a ‘logic solvers’) have much in common with standard PLCs. Both have inputs, outputs and programmable memory to hold a program, which is executed cyclically (i.e. scanned). However, safety controllers provide two additional features.

Firstly fault tolerance is the ability to reliably detect faults and raise 32 www.pacetoday.com.au MAY 2013

Device 1

Device 2

Safety Application

Safety Application Standard Application

Standard Application Safety over EtherCAT Protocol

Safety over EtherCAT Protocol EtherCAT Communication Interface

EtherCAT Communication Interface

Safety over EtherCAT EtherCAT DLL and AL

EtherCAT Telegram Ethernet Header

EtherCAT Header

1. Datagram

2. Datagram

FSC

Safety data container (FSoE Frame) CMD

Safe Data

CRC_0

Safe Data

CRC_1

......

Safe Data

CRC_n

Conn ID

FIGURE 1: FSoE (Functional Safety over EtherCAT), shown as black channel. appropriate alarms. Also, a single fault cannot cause erroneous operation, nor shall it prevent the system from functioning as designed. This single fault should be repairable without interrupting operation.

Secondly, safety controllers use a state machine mechanism to select a series of pre-defined states. These ensure correct operation during shutdowns and power cycling. The “fail safe” or reset state is where if a failure does occur; it happens in a predictable way and with all outputs being turned off.

This will deem the protected machinery inoperable and therefore safe.

In order to support these additional features, several techniques are used in the design of safety controllers. They have special hardware and software, specifically designed to self diagnose improper internal operation and ensure reliability. Redundancy is used to maintain operation, even with partial failures. There is also extra security for transfers via the communications port.

Dual processors manufactured by different chip makers are often used

with separate program compilations by different compilers, to alleviate manufacture specific errors from being repeated. The two CPUs constantly monitor each other during runtime and operation is stopped when synchronising discrepancies are detected.

Safety controllers provide special I/O for safety devices, to monitor both the device and its wiring. Devices with mechanical contact outputs like e stops switches need pulsed test outputs. Light curtains use Output Signal Switching Device (OSSD), while other devices

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use a continual small current from the controller. Wiring is sometimes paired to ensure redundancy and concurrent operation and safety rated relays always use dual, forcibly guided contacts to circumvent contact weld.

Finally, a series of internationallyrecognised standards exist, especially for safety controllers and compliance to them requires stringent testing by specialised third-party laboratories. Table 2 shows some of the more commonly quoted safety standards for machinery and process applications. These standards are regularly reviewed, and updated with technology advancements.

Users can therefore be confident that any component meeting the relevant safety standards will work reliably.

While the risk of failure can never be completely eliminated, it can however be managed by the implementation of tried and proven methods and technologies.

Safety networks

Almost immediately after the introduction of safety controllers and

software, the idea of using a network to link safety components that are distributed over some distance was considered. Ideally, existing I/O fieldbus infrastructure could be used as this would present considerable cost savings.

Nearly all safety networks are “single channel”, meaning they use a single cable line only; often that which is already installed. Most networks running safety still achieve a SIL3 rating. For many sites, running redundant or dedicated cabling for safety would be cost prohibitive.

Data in any network is subject to corruption due to noise, cross-talk, network malfunctions, bugs, equipment failures and cable severing. Other issues include traffic overload, latency and even illegitimate packets! These factors may appear to make networks unsuitable for safety applications.

However, like safety controllers, safety networks are heavily regulated by standards; IEC 61805-2 clause 7.4.8 is one example. Generally speaking, safety protocols are required to manage

TABLE 1: SOME OF THE ADVANTAGES OF SAFETY CONTROLLERS OVER DISCRETE COMPONENTS ❏ Flexibility of configuration, allowing for possible future expansion ❏ Ease of modification of program, for future enhancement of system ❏ Reusability of code, including user defined function blocks ❏ Much improved diagnostics for sensors, actuators and their wiring, including possible preventative maintenance ❏ Able to support different I/O types, for different safety devices, like e-stops, safety mats, light curtains ❏ Use of graphical development tools speeds up programming and aids documentation ❏ Program simulation during development, for testing without hardware

the following packet related issues: repetition, loss, insertion, re sequencing, data corruption, delay, masquerading (mimicking of packets) and FIFO errors created in intermediate routers.

To overcome these issues, safety protocols use techniques such as time stamps, sequence numbers, CRCs (cyclic redundancy checks) and connection identifiers in each transmitted packet.

Safety slaves also autonomously detect communication failures including time outs and revert to their fail safe mode if any error occurs.

White and black

There are two approaches to safety in networks. Firstly, “white channel” networks are where all components are designed from the ground up with a minimum safety rating. This includes all networking adapters, switches, couplers and alike, which generally do not carry safety approvals. Using only safety certified components adds significantly to costs and is often unnecessary as most network traffic is unrelated to safety.

MAY 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 33

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FIGURE 2: A truly distributed safety system, including non-safety-rated devices, using EtherCAT. The opposite methodology is “black channel”, where safety communications is treated like a “black box”, and encapsulated inside normal data packets, like PDOs. The underlying network makes no attempt to interpret or modify this data; it merely provides a means to transport process data between safety nodes.

Specific network constraints, such as update rates, aren’t usually a direct consideration as safety systems already require intrinsic watchdog timers to safeguard reaction times.

A black channel can therefore be created within most networks, as has been done in many open vendor networks like DeviceNet and EtherCAT. Safety data can even be routed or ported between networks, as has been implemented by network bridges and gateways.

Most fieldbus systems use only layers 1, 2 and 7 of the ISO Open systems communications model and layers 1 and 2 can’t be affected if compatibility is to be maintained. Black channels require an additional safety layer between the communication stack and application 34 www.pacetoday.com.au MAY 2013

is used, as per IEC 62280 1, originating in railway signalling. Safety is therefore implemented in just the application layer (7); refer to Figure 1.

The black channel approach is far more common than white channel as it utilises existing networks without modification. It can also work concurrently with standard communications and does not denigrate network performance – both of which are very important in industrial networks.

Risk assessment

To ensure a safety system is not compromised by the introduction of a network, a risk assessment needs to be done; as per the principles set out in EN ISO 14121-1. This will evaluate the performance of the overall safety system, with the aim of identifying potential hazards and taking measures to reduce them.

Functional safety standards such as IEC 61508, IEC/EN 62061 and EN ISO 13849-1/-2 are used to satisfy machinery safety legislation (the European “machinery directive”). They analyse safety levels by using data such

One of the biggest advantages of the recent integration of safety with the existing control and motion systems has been the commonality achieved in programming.

as SIL (Safety Integrity Level) ratings, PFHd (Probability of dangerous Failure per Hour) and Performance Level requirements (PLr).

The same standards and methods can also be applied to networks to determine their suitability. For a safety network to comply with SIL3 (equivalent to PLe), a PFHd of between 10-8 and 10-7 must be achieved. The IEC 61784-3 safety standard recommends that safety networks occupy <1% of the available PFHd. Therefore the PFHd (residual error) for safety networks is <10-9; which equates to more than 100,000 years of continuous operation without an undetected error.

To achieve such outstanding data integrity, safety protocols cannot use the error detection mechanisms provided by the underlying network.

They instead include their own CRCs, which are generated by with a carefully chosen polynomial, for a set packet length. Safety standards must use “proper” polynomials as their quality has a major impact on error detection effectiveness, particularly for heavily corrupted data.

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IN FOCUS

In the case of EtherCAT, its black channel appends a two byte CRC to each two bytes of safety data; refer to figure 1. This CRC is constructed so that it also aids in detecting missing, duplicated, repeated or non sequenced packets.

Control in the field

The complete control system is shown in figure 2. It shows a central controller which handles most of the intelligence through its program. It has local I/O and separate communication links to its control and data networks.

A single control network is used to connect a series of distributed nodes, possibly from multiple vendors. It supports the mixing and matching of standard and safety rated devices, but also needs to be high performance so as to allow say coordinated moves between servo systems.

The network master is in the main controller. It is not safety rated as this is unnecessary and would add significantly to its cost. It therefore cannot control safety outputs, only standard outputs. However, its master function means it can monitor the status of all I/O, including safety; which in turn allow them to be used in the program.

Safety functionality is handled by a decentralised safety-rated controller, residing in a node on the network.

It often incorporates local safety I/O for convenience, although its black channel allows additional safety I/O to be distributed across the network.

Modification of the architecture does not require re-certification for safety.

Using a discrete safety controller separate from the main controller also

TABLE 2: A SELECTION OF RELEVANT SAFETY STANDARDS EN ISO 12100-1; EN ISO 12100-2

Safety of machinery – Basic concept, general principles for design Part 1: Basic terminology, methodology; Part 2: Technical principles and specifications

EN ISO 14121

Safety of machinery – Principle of risk assessment

EN IEC 60204-1

Safety of machinery – Electrical equipment of machines. Part 1: General requirements

IEC EN 61508

Functional safety of Electrical/Electronic/Programmable Electronic safety related systems. A basic safety standard applicable to many industries.

EN IEC 62061

Safety of machinery – Functional safety of safety-related Electrical, Electronic and Programmable Electronic Control Systems. (It’s based on EN 61508.)

EN ISO 13849-1; EN ISO 13849-2

Safety of machinery – Safety Related Parts of Control Systems (non-electrical). Part 1: Basic principles; Part 2: Validation. This standard replaced EN954-1, which was withdrawn in December 2009.

IEC 61784-3

Profiles for functional Safety communication in industrial networks – General rules and profile definitions

IEC 62280-1

Railway applications: Communications, Signalling and Processing Systems. Part 1: Safety related communication in closed transmissions.

allows safety to be added to existing networks, where safety may not have been considered. Modern day software tools make programming transparent, meaning the final destination of the safety aspects of a program may not even be known to the programmer.

Synergy in programming

One of the biggest advantages of the recent integration of safety with the existing control (logic) and motion systems has been the commonality achieved in programming. Complete integration means all variables and program structures are accessible, whether it is safe data or not. Also, modern Integrated Development Environments (“IDEs”) allow all programming to done together, in one harmonised software package.

PLCOpen is an international vendor neutral and product independent association, which actively promotes the improvement of software quality in the industrial

Two CPUs constantly monitor each other during runtime and operation is stopped when synchronising discrepancies are detected.

domain. In doing so, they hope higher efficiencies will be achieved and lifecycle costs lowered. They endorse a suite of universally accepted standards, including IEC 61131-3 for logic and their own complimentary standards for motion control and safety.

So the current state of the art automation system has a high performance controller that complies with the three main streams of PLCOpen standards. It utilises the latest programming software to tightly integrate all programming functionality.

It supports both a data network for data communications and a single, open vendor, control network for all remote devices. This network supports standard I/O and distributed safety via a decentralised controller; while still providing the performance needed for high speed devices like servo drives.

[Harry Mulder (hmulder@ap.omron. com) is the Engineering Manager, Omron Electronics Australia]. www.omron.com.au

Essential process safety training from IChemE HAZOP Study for Team Leaders and Team Members 18–20 June, Melbourne www.icheme.org/hazopmel

Particle Technology - The Science of Powder Handling and Processing 23–25 July, Melbourne www.icheme.org/pt

Fundamentals of Process Safety 14–18 October, Brisbane www.icheme.org/fpsbris To register and to find out how these courses can be run in-house, email austcourses@icheme.org or call 03 9642 4494

ADVANCING CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WORLDWIDE

MAY 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 35

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SPOTLIGHT

7best of the

PACE showcase of the best engineering technology releases of the month.

DIN rail mounted power supply

Test and calibration system Beamex’s Modular Calibration System, MCS200 is a test and calibration system for workshops and laboratories. ESD protected, the MCS200 offers a safe and ergonomic solution for the calibration and maintenance of process instruments. The MCS200 Workstation enables calibration of pressure, temperature, electrical signals, frequency and pulses; testing of electrical and electronic devices; soldering and de-soldering of traditional and surface mounted components; as well as testing of electric motors and other electrical devices. As a single calibration workstation or complete workshop, the MCS200 offers time savings: Fully automated pressure calibration (communicates with Beamex POC6 Automatic Pressure Controller); Fully automated temperature calibration (communicates with Beamex FB/MB Temperature Blocks) Fully automated documentation of calibration tasks (seamless integration with Beamex CMX Calibration Software); Calibration and configuring of HART, FOUNDATION Fieldbus and Profibus PA instruments on the workstation without being connected to the bus.

All equipment is panel mounted and ready for use. High pressures can be regulated from the workstation without need to operate with hydraulic hand pumps or DWTs. Fully automated calibration and documentation is possible, both for conventional and for HART and fieldbus instruments. There is no need for separate storage or charging of equipment after use.

AMS Instrumentation & Calibration 1800 804 516 www.ams-ic.com.au

Soanar has released the SDR-960 series of DIN rail mounted power supplies from Meanwell. With built in power factor correction, an input voltage range of 180-264VAC and free air convection cooling, these power supplies boast up to 94% efficiency, delivering full output power up to an ambient temperature of 50°C. The SDR-960 series feature: 110mm slim design; 130% peak load capability for 3 sec; Built in active PFC; Built in parallel function, current share up to 4 units; Front panel DC voltage adjustment; DC OK relay contact; Short circuit, overload, over voltage and over temperature protection; LED power on indicator; Operating temperature range -30 to +70°C. The products are suited

for use in industrial control systems, factory automation and applications where a low noise fanless, slim, high performance DIN rail mount power supply is required.

Soanar 1300 365 551 info@soanar.com

4-20mA output vibration transmitter Model 640B01 from IMI Sensors is a 4-20mA output vibration transmitter for permanent installation. It now comes with a lifetime warranty (conditions apply). It has a measurement range of 0 to 25.4 mm/s pk and a frequency range of 3 to 1000 Hz. The vibration transmitter will interface directly to your PLC, DCS or SCADA control system and operates off standard 24V loop power. It installs quickly and provides a cost effective means of continuous monitoring and protection of critical machinery, reducing downtime. While 4-20 mA sensors cannot perform diagnostic tasks, they provide early warnings that help maintenance technicians avoid catastrophic failure. Raw vibration or temperature output signal options and intrinsically safe options are available.

Some of the typical applications are: critical pumps and motors; cooling towers and fans; slow speed rolls; and rotary and screw compressors.

Thermo Fisher Scientific 03 9757 4486 www.thermofisher.

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Email your product news to editor@pacetoday.com.au

RPM sensing in harsh environments

Non-contact wear-free universal encoder With the RI360P-QR24, Turck is the first manufacturer to offer on the market a non-contact inductive universal encoder with high resolution, wear-free operation, which is at the same time immune to magnetic fields. The sensor and the positioning element of the encoder are fully encapsulated and therefore designed as two independent and fully sealed units that work together without contact. Any vibration or shock from the shaft is not passed on to the sensor, making the RI360P-QR24 a superior sensor compared to both optical and magnetic encoders. With a high degree of protection to IP69K and over 18-bit resolution, machine downtimes and maintenance times resulting from encoder wear are eliminated, even with high-precision and high-speed applications. Turck developed a new parameterisation and mounting concept for the encoder which turns the RI360P-QR24 into a universal encoder for any standard industrial application. Users can parameterise the device either as an incremental, multi-turn or single-turn encoder.

Kaman Precision Product’s Model KD-2446 is a non-contact proximity measuring system. The system makes precision static and dynamic measurements of metal targets. The KD-2446 may be used in a variety of applications sensing target materials such as ferrous steel, stainless steel or aluminium. Applications include displacement, vibration, sorting and event capture. With its sensitivity to small targets and high-speed switching, the KD-2446 is suitable for RPM sending in harsh environments. The opto-isolated switched output makes the KD-2446 suitable for interfacing to PLC inputs, counters, timers or alarm circuits. The KD-2446 system consists of two sub-assemblies: the sensor, with integral cable, and the signal conditioning or electronics module. The KD-2446 electronics is housed in a DIN rail mount enclosure with terminal connections for +12 Vdc to +24 Vdc input power and the variable voltage and switched outputs. The system comes standard with one of two production sensor configurations — the 9C or the 5CM. Both sensors are rated for continuous operation up to 205°C. TRE Measurements www.tremeasurements.com.au 0427 275 327

Gigabit WAN/LAN industrial Ethernet security router Weidmuller’s gigabit WAN/LAN industrial Ethernet router offers several security features. The router translates addresses between different networks using protocols such as port forwarding, 1:1 NAT or masquerading to protect all the Ethernet devices of the hidden network and to ensure safe integration into the network. The router supports up to 10 VPN connections using OpenVPN as well as IPSec technologies.

The model features an inbuilt SPI firewall to prevent unwanted remote network access. The firewall can be configured to meet individual rules for both Layer 2 (Ethernet) and Layer 3 (IP) transport to deliver security. The firewall has an autolearning feature that adapts automatically to the network traffic it sees. This provides inexperienced network users with effective protection. Generated rules can be edited or deleted. The router supports Modbus TCP commands and also features two digital inputs and outputs for functions and alarms. The gigabit WAN/LAN ports enable high-speed throughput of data in corporate networks. The router uses the memory of a SIM card for external backup and for restoring the system’s configuration. Housed in a rugged DIN rail mount case to withstand demanding environments, the router is suitable for use in mining, road and transport, and water industries as well as for remote access for automation companies during commissioning and warranty.

TURCK Australia 1300 132 566 www.turck.com.au

Weidmuller 02 9671 9999 info@weidmuller.com.au

Pressure transmitters for use in hazardous areas Keller AG has introduced a range of pressure transmitters for use in hazardous areas. These intrinsically safe transmitters offer measurement ranges of between 0,2 bar and 1000 bar, so they can be used for measurements of all types in areas subject to explosion hazards in Group II (Gas), and as per the relevant ATEX Directive. Individual types from the product range are also approved for Group I (Mining) and Group II (Dust). Common features of all Y-line pressure transmitters include a very low temperature error, with correspondingly high measurement accuracy. Due to the integrated temperature sensor and an additional digital circuit, the range of envisaged operating temperatures can be divided into as many as 120 sections with a width of 1.5 Kelvin. During factory calibration, a mathematical model is used to

calculate individual compensation values for TK zero point and TK amplification for each of these sections; the values are then stored in the transmitter. During operation, these values are fed into the analog signal path according to the temperature, without reducing the 2 kHz signal processing dynamic. A relevant total error band for measurement purposes of ±0.8%FS can therefore be attained over the typical temperature range of -10°C to +80°C. This includes all error sources, from linearity to range tolerance. As an additional feature, Keller’s X-line pressure transmitters (Series 30) offer microcontroller-based electronic evaluation to ensure maximum accuracy.

Keller info@keller-druck.co www.keller-druck.com MAY 2013 www.pacetoday.com.au 37

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CONNECTIONS

5

minutes with...

As a child I wanted to be an astronaut but quickly realised this would never be.

Karen Eaton, Principal Control & Instrumentation Engineer, UGL How did you come to be in this industry?

I studied Electrical Engineering at UNSW and worked in the prestigious Photovoltaics centre while completing my thesis. I took an interest in the automation of the laboratories at the time.

After graduating, I commenced as a process control system engineer in the water industry, and since then have enjoyed contributing to the successful delivery of many large scale infrastructure projects.

What do you see are the biggest opportunities for our industry?

I am continually inspired by the enthusiasm of the younger members of my team and the innovations they bring to the design and development of automation systems.

With the ever increasing pace of technology it is imperative that these ideas be

translated to the wider team.

As an industry, I think it is important that we continue to see investment in graduate engineers and interns as a great opportunity, and formally develop younger staff member’s competencies.

What’s the best business idea you have that you will never use?

I do a lot of travelling for work, which drives down efficiency, so it would be great to have functioning teleporter!

What’s the greatest challenge in your job?

On large multi-million dollar water infrastructure projects, the automation and control component can sometimes be overlooked as it is only a small part of the overall project budget and schedule With commissioning of the control

system occurring at the critical end phase of any project, the risk to the overall budget and schedule are often high.

It is sometimes a challenge to have this risk acknowledged. I have been fortunate that UGL recognises this, and has developed an in-house system integration department.

This team fully integrates into wider projects teams, allowing easy and early involvement in the design phase, and fostering a cohesive culture with all stakeholders throughout a project’s lifecycle.

If you could be anything else, what would it be and why?

As a child I wanted to be an astronaut, but quickly realised this would never be! I am a good organiser – so maybe event manager? karen.eaton@ugllimited.com (02) 8925 8454 www.ugllimited.com

IICA CORNER

Instrumentation: Then and Now The dramatic change in instrumentation technology requires new skills, writes John Woortman.

IN THE early days of instrumentation, most instruments were totally pneumatic. Exceptions were from the electrically powered recorders for the various inputs used mainly for registration of process variables.

Some of the recorders were for accepting pneumatic signals and registered this on running paper rolls.

The transmitters were mostly of an output range of a pneumatic signal range of 3 to 15 psig.

Practically all control instruments were ranged in the same way. There were simple instruments with one input like pressure, temperature, level and so on. But for control systems, the various pneumatic signals had to be computed and then outputted in a standard range of 3 to 15 psig.

If for instance, for large control 38 www.pacetoday.com.au MAY 2013

valves, a higher signal range was required, a so-called pneumatic booster instrument was used. Depending on the pressure range of the booster, a higher supply pressure was required. Pneumatic control elements had the facility to operate with PID control. The Proportional, Integration and Derivative values could be set by moving levers in the controller.

For the first time, two pneumatic signals could be fed into a controller and the output would then be sent to a controlling instrument like a valve.

Later, and in particular in the steam boiler systems for generator drives, the controllers were equipped to receive up to five variables, i.e. temperature, pressure, level, generator load and generator speed. Famous instruments of this type of control were the “Sorteberg” pneumatic control relay. This was a very

sophisticated piece of pneumatic control equipment and widely used in the steam turbine industries.

Initially, electric control instruments were scarce and very expensive. But in due course a number of companies started to produce various pneumatic-to– electric, and also electric-to-pneumatic instruments. The standard range of most of the electrical transducer instruments was 4 to 20 mA. This range of 4 to 20 mA signals was in those days the standard for control systems.

In the oil refining industries there were so called side stream analysers to determine the values of the various components in the stream. They usually gave their output signals in a voltage range of 0 to 10 Volt DC, which is sometimes created from a 4 to 20 mA signal via a resistor.

In the modern instrumentation industries, most of the signals produced are voltage and current values. For control purposes those signals are then operated on in electronic control components. Those control units can be as sophisticated as, for example, electronic plant computers.

To fault find in these type of systems requires instrument technicians with a good knowledge of electronics. This requires the technicians to be well trained and educated in this sort of equipment.

The Institute of Instrumentation, Control and Automation (IICA) can help and point anyone interested in the right direction to obtain this knowledge.

[John Woortman, F.I.I.C.A.] IICA 03 9036 0166 www.iica.org.au

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