Tag Archives: process industry

Process Infrastructure – Ethernet HART Multiplexer

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Process infrastructure is one of the most critical parts of a refinery plant or offshore platform. The topology of modern process infrastructure includes FOUNDATION Fieldbus, Profibus PA, WirelessHart and HART Multiplexer etc.

HART (Highway Addressable Remote Transducer) is the most broadly supported protocol in the world for process industry as there are 40 Million HART devices being installed worldwide. But according to records, only 10% of these HART devices are connect to HART compatible control systems. End user should expand the use of HART devices in order to perform specialized operations like:

  • Asset Management
  • Predictive Maintenance
  • Data Logging
  • Partial-stroke Testing

Benefits of HART

Problems of Conventional Serial HART Multiplexers:

  • Slow scanning time due to large quantities of I/Os in the network
  • Limitation of RS485’s transmission speed
  • Work based on “Master and Slave” principle

Above are some of the challenges faced when using a conventional RS485 Hart Multiplexer and they will become worse if there are more than 1000 devices. Ethernet Multiplexer can solve this problem as featured below.

Fig 1: Ethernet Hart Multiplexer

Fig 1: Ethernet Hart Multiplexer

Ethernet Multiplexer Features and Benefits:

  • Works with existing standard IP infrastructure
  • Supports higher communication speed up to 1GB/s
  • Easy integration into Ethernet based Host system without additional conversion
  • Provides faster start up and device configuration
  • Flexibility in network design like redundant Ethernet
Fig 2: Hart IP Network Overview

Fig 2: Hart IP Network Overview

If you need any technical advice on your current project, feel free to contact us. I believe we can be your trusted partner to provide suitable solutions to fit your applications!

System Cabling Solution for Process Industry

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One of the challenges which panel builders in the process industry face would be space saving on control cabinets. Many Process retrofitting jobs require panel builders to ensure the quantity of cabinets remain even though additional I/O’s are added. System cabling is one of the best solutions to save space in control cabinets.  One of our panel builders solved their problems by replacing terminal blocks with our VARIOFACE Interface Module for the project.

Problems:

  • Additional 150 I/O’s on current system
  • Additional Controller Module
  • Cabinet Quantities need to be remained

After going through the product technical information, panel builder engineers decided to replace most of the signals with our VIP Interface Module due to space constraints. There are a total of 115 units of VIP-3/SC/D37SUB/F installed in this project. Photos of the panel are shown below.

Control Cabinet

Fig 1: Control Cabinet

VIP Interface Board

Fig 2: VIP Interface Board

Features of Interface Module:

  • Compact design of control cabinet space
  • I/O marking for field wiring clearly identified
  • Flexible marking of modules
  • Metal mounting foot allows for easy installation and removal on din-rail
  • Allows flexible module mounting positions

In addition to the space saving advantage, the site engineer shared that it is also time saving and fault free during the wiring termination. When the panels are delivered, the end user saves valuable time when installing and troubleshooting

If you need any technical advice on your current project, feel free to contact us. I believe we can be your trusted partner to provide suitable solution to fit your application!