In 1969, Rosemount Engineering Company (now Emerson) introduced the Rosemount 1151 pressure transmitter to the industrial market. This was a big step for the company, representing its first product outside the aerospace field. The Rosemount 1151, however, proved to be an even bigger milestone for the marketplace, as it was a step change forward in terms of stability, reliability, and accuracy – all in a more rugged yet modular package only one-third the size and weight of competitive offerings. The Rosemount 1151 literally became an icon in pressure measurement advancement and paved the way for Rosemount and Emerson to become global forces in process automation. This milestone and many others are celebrated in an article in Control magazine from August 2018. In the article, Scott Nelson, Vice President and General Manager of Rosemount pressure products at Emerson Automation Solutions, discusses the five decades of innovation that continue to make the company’s pressure instrumentation offering as cutting edge and relevant today as the Rosemount 1151 was in 1969.
Since that time fifty years ago, Emerson has continued to push forward the state of the art in pressure measurement. If the Rosemount 1151 was about building a better analog instrument, the second-generation transmitter, the Rosemount 3051, debuted 20 years later and was firmly rooted in state-of-the-art digital technologies. The third-generation Rosemount 3051S added scalable intelligence and an architectural approach to the industry’s top-performing pressure transmitter. This platform for innovation has enabled many industry firsts since its introduction in 2001. The increased computational horsepower of the Rosemount 3051S, for example, allowed Emerson to pioneer the multivariable transmitter: a single device that brings together static pressure, differential pressure (DP) and process temperature measurements to output real-time mass flow and energy readings.
Anyone interested in the continued innovation in industrial automation will enjoy reading this article, which walks readers not only through the past but also the future of pressure technology. Be sure to check it out here and watch for more events celebrating Emerson’s pressure measurement golden anniversary!