Emerson Exchange 365

Activity

Adding Wireless Sensors for Health, Safety and Environment

Jim Cahill

Wireless communications have changed everything from the way we listen to music to the way information is collected and disseminated. For process manufacturing and production plants, it means more the process can be sensed beyond traditional monitoring and control applications. In a Control Engineering Asia article, Plant Modernization for Health, Safety and Environment , Emerson’s Jonas Berge shares examples where…
- 25 Aug 2016
Improving Power Plant Operations with Second-Level Automation

Jim Cahill

When many plants were built years ago, they were instrumented to provide what was required for safely manage the process. As time has passed, the requirements are far greater for efficiency, reliability and regulatory demands. In a Power Engineering International article, Modernizing old plants to meet new demands , Emerson’s Jonas Berge describes how power plants are being modernized with a second layer of automation…
- 31 May 2016
Improving Refinery Operations with Wireless Measurements

Jim Cahill

The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers annual meeting took place this past March in San Francisco. In a Hydrocarbon Processing magazine recap of day 3 from the conference, Emerson’s Ed Schodowski shared ways to improve refinery performance in an article, Wireless sensing improves refining operations . Ed opened by noting the difference in performance as measured by operating costs: …associated with equipment…
- 9 May 2016
Putting IIoT into Operation for Business Results

Jim Cahill

I did a quick Google search on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and it yield about 588,000 search results. You can see quite a bit about on the web and across the social networks that discuss process automation-related topics. But what is future and what can be done today? Emerson’s Jonas Berge provided attendees of the IoT Asia 2016 conference in Singapore with some practical ideas of what they could do this…
- 6 Apr 2016
Modernizing Plants with Pervasive Sensing

Jim Cahill

We opened this week with a look at how the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is changing the traditional view of information flow through the process manufacturing and production enterprise as defined by the Purdue Enterprise Reference Architecture developed in the 1990s. Continuing on this theme is a presentation given last year at the Regional IoT Forum in Singapore by Emerson’s Jonas Berge . The one-hour presentation…
- 22 Mar 2016
Industrial Internet of Things and Changing Automation Architectures

Jim Cahill

The Purdue Enterprise Reference Architecture has been a defining architecture for instrumentation, automation, manufacturing operations and business planning and logistics systems since its introduction in the 1990s. In a Plant Services article, What a smart device ecosystem looks like , Emerson’s Mike Boudreaux shares ways that the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is reshaping this model. Mike writes: A new…
- 21 Mar 2016
IIoT in the Process Industries

Jim Cahill

For many of us, purchasing or receiving the gift of a fitness tracker ushered us into the Internet of Things era. These devices not only collect and report on the number of steps we take each day, but also depending on their sophistication, the quality of our sleep, resting heart rates and much more. For the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) , it means moving beyond descriptive analytics that aim to answer the question…
- 14 Mar 2016
Sense More and Solve More with Pervasive Sensing

Jim Cahill

Author: Danny Vandeput Let’s face it, the world has changed in a dramatic way. 10 years ago, people barely knew what “The Cloud” was (except for looking up in the sky and trying to imagine of seeing a sheep, a horse or something else exotic). Today many of us have their documents, pictures, videos up “in the cloud” and it is almost unthinkable to not have somewhere a wireless internet connection. The consumer industry…
- 16 Feb 2016
WirelessHART Security Update

Jim Cahill

In recent weeks, there have been third party reports regarding security vulnerabilities of Wireless HART® systems. Emerson’s security experts have investigated and evaluated these claims. There are no known instances of successful security breaches in a customer setting to date. And Emerson is doing everything possible to ensure that this remains the case. The vulnerabilities involved individuals who had physical access…
- 8 Feb 2016
Technical Guide for IEC 62591 WirelessHART Installations

Jim Cahill

I saw a news alert, New technical guide available for using WirelessHART devices in industrial applications , which pointed to a detailed document, System Engineering Guidelines IEC 62591 WirelessHART . I’ll highlight a few items from this document. Part I from the guide looks at the use of WirelessHART technology in project execution from the Appraise (conceptual design) stage through to the Pre FEED (Front End Engineering…
- 27 Jan 2016
Divided Wall Column MPC Control with Wireless Instrumentation

Jim Cahill

Distillation is an important process from crude oil refining to fine sipping whiskey production. Managing this process safely, efficiently and reliably is the challenge. In a recent Hydrocarbon Processing article, Use model predictive control to achieve real-time management of a DWC , Emerson’s Terry Blevins teamed up with Eastman Chemical Company and the University of Texas here in Austin to study optimum control…
- 11 Jan 2016
Continuing Digital Transformations in Process Automation

Jim Cahill

Happy New Year and I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and are recharged to accomplish even greater heights in 2016! I wanted to share an extremely popular LinkedIn post, 2016: Digital Transformation by Emerson’s Jonas Berge . Posted just a week ago, it currently has over 9,800 views, 442 likes and 20 comments. I’ll share the opening couple of paragraphs and invite you to read the rest and offer your perspectives…
- 4 Jan 2016
ROI by Applying the Industrial Internet of Things

Jim Cahill

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) or Industrie 4.0 depending on where you live remains a lively topic of discussion in our industry. A Control Engineering magazine series of articles, Industrial Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 brought together six articles from experts across the process and industrial automation industries. One of those experts, Emerson’s Bob Karschnia shared his ideas in an article, IIoT…
- 15 Dec 2015
ISA Process Control and Safety Symposium Presentations

Jim Cahill

Last week, the 2015 ISA Process Control and Safety Symposium took place in Houston, Texas. Leading experts from across our world of process instrumentation and control shared their wisdom to help advance the cause of safer, more efficient and more reliable operations. The program included a number of Emerson presenters. Mark Nixon presented Big Data Improves Plant Safety. Willy Wojsznis presented Wireless MPC Application…
- 17 Nov 2015
Industrial Internet of Things Drivers and Investment Priorities

Jim Cahill

As the ubiquity of communications and the underlying hardware and software continue to advance, so do opportunities to apply the Industrial Internet of Things, a.k.a. Industrie 4.0, solutions. In a CIO Review article, IIoT Business Drivers and Investment Priorities , Emerson’s Bob Karschnia highlights opportunities for process manufacturers and producers to improve overall performance. He cites a GE/Accenture white…
- 11 Nov 2015
Solving Power Quality Reliability Problems

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Tinh Phan teamed with Peter Pan from Emerson Climate Technologies on an Emerson Exchange presentation, WirelessHART Power Metering Solving Power Quality Reliability Problems. Their abstract: Having power issues on your critical assets? Emerson robust wired power monitoring capabilities, developed a Power Monitoring wireless device with over 100 plus power parameters to choose from. Monitoring energy usage…
- 13 Oct 2015
Wireless Event-Based Control

Jim Cahill

As wireless communications technology continues to mature, applications have expanded from monitor only to monitor and control. In an earlier post, Event-Based Control in a Wireless World, I mentioned that presentations given by Emerson’s Terry Blevins and Willy Wojsznis and co-authored by Mark Nixon. Here are the recorded presentations: Model Predictive Control With Event Driven Operation (20:10) – Willy Wojsznis…
- 12 Aug 2015
Controlling with Wireless Devices and MPC

Jim Cahill

Wireless standards for instrumentation go back to September 2007 when the HART Communications Foundation (now FieldComm Group ) announced the official release of the HART 7 specification. This specification included the WirelessHART protocol . As we have chronicled in many posts in the Wireless category here on the blog, this technology has opened up many new opportunities for process manufacturers and producers to…
- 7 Aug 2015
Avoiding the Impact of Steam Trap Failures

Jim Cahill

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration , industrial manufacturers are larger energy consumers than the transportation, residential and commercial sectors. The industrial sector accounts for around 30 trillion BTUs of energy consumed annually. Energy-intensive processes are found in many industries including chemicals, refining, mining & metals, pulp & paper to name several. Optimizing steam usage is…
- 21 Jul 2015
Narrated Wireless and Event-Based Control Advancements Presentations

Jim Cahill

Yesterday, we highlighted presentations on wireless and event-based control technology advancements by Emerson’s Terry Blevins , Willy Wojsznis and Mark Nixon . Terry and Willy presented these advancements at the First International Conference on Event-Based Control, Communication, and Signal Processing in Krakow, Poland. Here are narrated YouTube videos of the three presentation: Industrial Advances in Wireless…
- 24 Jun 2015
Event-Based Control in a Wireless World

Jim Cahill

The First International Conference on Event-Based Control, Communication, and Signal Processing was held June 17-19, 2015 in Krakow, Poland and took place on the campus of AGH University of Science and Technology . Some of the world leaders in Event-Based Control attended and talked in the conference. From the US, Professor Cassandras, Boston University , Professor Tsividis, University of Minnesota , Professor Antsaklis…
- 23 Jun 2015
Instrumenting for Increased Performance

Jim Cahill

Yesteryear, energy and water were relatively inexpensive, waste disposal carried little cost, emissions did not incur fines and people willing to work in harsh manufacturing plant and production facility environments were abundant. Today, energy and water costs are high, waste disposal is expensive, emission fines are high, and people with the right skills to work in these facilities are more difficult to find and keep…
- 21 May 2015
Internet of Things in Process Instrumentation and Automation

Jim Cahill

If you subscribe or follow many of the process instrumentation and automation publications, web sites, and/or social channels, you know that the Internet of Things (IoT) , also known as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is a frequent topic of conversation. Microprocessor-embedded sensors and final control elements have a long history in our industry and the Internet opens up even greater possibilities to take advantage…
- 15 Apr 2015
Reducing Relief Valve Emissions via Continuous Monitoring

Jim Cahill

There are many ways to manage pressure in production processes. A common way for handling over-pressure conditions is through the use of relief valves. Wikipedia defines a relief valve as: …a type of valve used to control or limit the pressure in a system or vessel which can build up for a process upset, instrument or equipment failure, or fire. They are designed: …to open at a predetermined set pressure to…
- 7 Apr 2015
Answering Common Questions about Wireless Instrumentation

Jim Cahill

As technologies advance through the adoption phases and into mainstream use, a common set of questions usually emerges. For example, as the IEC 62591 WirelessHART communications standard has moved from its introduction to the market in 2007 to present day, its use has increased widely across industries, geographies and applications. We’ve chronicled many of these stories in the wireless category of this blog. Dale…
- 26 Mar 2015