The old cliché, “time flies when you’re having fun” applies to the many Emerson folks who had a hand in the development, launch, and widespread use of the Rosemount 3051S Series of pressure, DP [differential pressure] level, and DP flow transmitters. Congratulations on this milestone!
The continued advance of technology as predicted by Moore’s Law has also applied to instrumentation. In the years leading up to the initial 3051S Series launch, the development team wanted a platform that could solve problems well beyond configuration, calibration, control, and basic diagnostics that came along with digital communications protocols such as HART and Foundation fieldbus. The idea was build a scalable, modular platform to be able to add advanced capabilities and solve problems that could not be solved within the existing, fixed platforms of the era.
Some of the flexibility designed into the 3051S SuperModule platform includes process signals that can be characterized as a HART or digital bus output signal, hermetic glass seals to improve safety and reliability, welded hermetic 316L stainless steel housing to provide 10-year stability and a 12-year warranty, 0.025% accuracy and 200-to-1 rangedown. This means that these transmitters can be applied to a much wider range of applications.
Here are a few examples where these design parameters translate into some of the types of advanced technologies and applications not possible prior to the release of the 3051S Series transmitters. In a post, A High-Speed, Statistical View for Better Decision Making, I shared how the higher resolution data collection within the transmitter means that Statistical Process Monitoring (SPM)-based diagnostics could be performed to spot process problems including plugged impulse lines and:
…furnace flame instability, DP level agitation loss, pump / valve cavitation, turbine blade wear, pressure transient detection, and distillation column flooding.
The post, Avoiding Flameout and Shutdown in Burner Management Applications, describes how 3051S SPM-based diagnostics provide early warning of flame flicker conditions to help avoid unplanned shutdowns.
More recent 3051S Advanced Diagnostics can monitor the integrity of the electrical loop, including detecting water in the housing, ground loop issues, or an unstable power supply.
From a process safety perspective, the post Complying with International Safety Standard IEC 61511, shares how the 3051S Series transmitters are part of the safety-certified devices for safety instrumented functions to help process manufacturers with their process safety efforts. 3051S transmitters combined advanced diagnostics with safety certification for the highest safe failure fraction and broadest diagnostic coverage available with 10-year proof test intervals.
3051S MultiVariable transmitter capabilities include differential pressure, static pressure, and process temperature measurements along with advanced compensation techniques to provide fully compensated mass and energy flow outputs.
The scalability of the platform opened up a new way to measure differential pressure to avoid some of the problems with existing methods. In a post, Eliminating the Capillary Tubes in DP Level Measurement, Rosemount 3015S Electronic Remote Sensors (ERS) has two:
…3051S pressure transmitters… mounted on the high and low side of the tank avoiding the need for capillary tubing. The pressure sensors are linked together with an electrical cable and synchronized to create a single 3051S ERS system, calculating the differential pressure electronically.
Finally, from a wireless perspective, the ability to locate the 3051S transmitters without the need to tether to wires opens up a great number of new applications. In a post, Steam Injection Well Wireless Flow Rate Measurement, the amount of steam injected into the reservoir was critical:
Too much steam and the reservoir can be damaged causing a loss of production and expensive rework. Reworking onshore wells can cost $200,000 USD and up depending upon the extent of the damage.
If you’re at the Emerson Exchange in Nashville this week, join the celebrations that will be happening to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the 3051S Series platform of transmitters.
The post Celebrating 10 Years of the Rosemount 3051S in Action appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.