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Emerson Marks 10 Years of Wireless Innovation

"Over the past 10 years, industrial wireless combined with smart sensors have provided the foundation that will support cloud-based applications, remote monitoring and other industrial IIoT over the next decade." Emerson’s Bob Karschnia on the 10-year anniversary of its wireless instrumentation offering.Emerson Automation Solutions is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of its first wireless transmitters. After a decade of pioneering wireless technologies for industrial companies, Emerson predicts the next 10 years will see exponential growth in the adoption of wireless and Pervasive Sensing applications that help companies maximize safety and reliability, optimize production and enable Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) strategies.

Industrial wireless and Pervasive Sensing are providing manufacturers the digital technology to access essential data to make better decisions and improve operational performance and safety.
"Wireless is arguably the most impactful technology for industrial manufacturers since the introduction of digital instrumentation more than three decades ago," said Bob Karschnia, vice president and general manager, wireless, Emerson Automation Solutions. "Over the past 10 years, industrial wireless combined with smart sensors have provided the foundation that will support cloud-based applications, remote monitoring and other industrial IIoT over the next decade."

By collaborating with customers on early installations, Emerson helped to introduce the world's first industrial wireless automation standard in 2007. Since then, Emerson has surpassed 10 billion hours of wireless operations across more than 32,000 networks, providing its reliability, robustness and security.

While initial adoption focused on harsh, remote and difficult-to-reach environments, wireless has expanded customers' automation ecosystems from core functions to new applications, such as acoustic monitoring, corrosion detection and power consumption monitoring. New plant construction is leveraging wireless technology for enterprise-wide applications, such as equipment-health monitoring and energy management, with upwards of 20% wireless infrastructure."Given the new normal for oil prices and the intense focus on getting more value from existing assets, companies are increasingly turning to wireless as a cost-effective and highly efficient technology for fleet-wide performance optimization," said Karschnia. "In the next 15 years, there could be 100% wireless plants; just as many homes today have cut the cord on wired telephone service."

Over the past 10 years, Emerson has introduced a broad portfolio of sensors, said Peter Zornio, chief technology officer at Emerson Automation Solutions, during his presentation at Emerson Global Users Exchange 2017 in Minneapolis. "Wireless is a very key part of Pervasive Sensing, because, fundamentally, pervasive sensors are easy to deploy and support and easy to connect and communicate to," he explained. "Wireless enables these easy-to-connect sensors and eliminates the wires."

Zornio described the concept of Pervasive Sensing as a whole generation of sensors that's targeted not just at the traditional process measurements used to control the plant. These are measurements that can directly support applications in other areas such as safety, environmental, energy and reliability. This increasingly robust network of sensing and automation technologies features more than 50 wireless devices and wireless measurement capabilities that include temperature, pressure, corrosion and power.

Emerson’s expanding portfolio of Pervasive Sensing technologies includes capabilities in hazardous gas sensing, ability to extend wired data to a wireless network and level sensing.
Emerson recently introduced a new Rosemount 928 wireless toxic gas monitor. "This wireless gas sensor can monitor toxic hydrogen sulfide gas in wellheads, tank farms and other remote locations," said Zornio. "It helps eliminate personnel in hazardous areas. The old way, a worker needed to enter an area to determine if toxic gas is present. A permanently installed network of sensors monitoring for toxic gas is a better way to improve the overall safety of a facility in applications previously considered too expensive and difficult to monitor."

Another enhancement to Emerson's Pervasive Sensing is the explosion-proof certification in the United States and Canada of the Wireless THUM adapter. The THUM is a device that can be attached to any existing two-, three- or four-wire HART devices and turn them into wireless devices. It siphons a small amount of loop power from the device, enabling it to be mounted anywhere in the facility to allow operations and maintenance a better view in hazardous areas.

Emerson also released the Rosemount 3308 Wireless Guided Wave Radar (GWR) transmitter for continuous level and interface monitoring, redesigned for +/- 3 mm accuracy. "This GWR keeps people off tanks," said Zornio. "There are many areas in the oil and gas industry where they go out and manually measure tanks. It's not a very safe operation when climbing up and down tanks or working near hazardous gas. This accurate and reliable level instrumentation helps to eliminate these hazards associated with tank measurement.”

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