Always on target
Joint developments make it easier for users to embrace wireless technology

Numerous users in the process industry world-wide have discovered wireless communications for themselves over the past year, and are looking to invest in this technology over the next two to three years. This will happen all the more rapidly as wireless technology is made simpler. In this context, Emerson is again driving wireless technology forward with new products and components. The co-operation with Cisco is set to accelerate the process.
Even if some users have reservations about the practical suitability of wireless technologies, the product developers at Emerson Process Management are doing everything they can to dispel such doubts. Accordingly, 2008 has begun with a whole raft of technological advances for smart wireless solutions, and some users will be surprised by their simplicity. “Plug and Play”, which is often called for, is also becoming the standard on wireless metering devices. At the heart of wireless communication is a self-organizing network which uses wire-free field devices as an alternative communications path. This provides the user with a redundant network, thereby also solving one of the key problems in chemicals plants — the screening by the
metal.

Emerson Smart Wireless solutions employ the Time Synchronised Mesh Protocol IEEE 802.15.4 (TSMP for short) with channel hopping. The networks are scaleable for use with between five and 100,000 devices, and are resistant to practically all kinds of interference. This means that they can also be used alongside other wireless networks which the customer may already be using at the plant.

If a self-organizing network is expanded, then new devices are automatically connected. If a new device is not within range of a gateway, then its messages are directed via other devices until they reach their destination address. Installation is therefore staggeringly easy — a fact stressed not just by the developers, but also discovered by various astonished test users. “No elaborate site surveys are required, and as soon as a device is installed, it is ready to operate. That was something we hadn’t expected,” explains Anders RØyrØy, who tested this technology on a Norwegian drilling rig with 22 pressure transmitters employed in various areas, as Project Manager at Statoil Hydro.

If communication between the devices is interrupted, the self-organizing network recognizes the problem and channels the messages automatically via the next-best path. This results in over 99.99 per cent reliability.

To date, Emerson’s wireless offer comprised transmitters fill, level, flow, pressure and temperature measurement. The range has now been extended to include a vibration meter and gateways for transmitting wireless data to a host and for transfer-free integration of data in a process control system, using a range of current protocols including OPC, Ethernet and Modbus. To make it easier for users to take their first steps in using the new technology, a SmartPack Starter Kit is available. This allows users to become experienced in using wireless systems, without defining their infrastructure. The SmartPack is preconfigured, so that it can immediately establish a secure and robust self-organizing wireless network.

Integrating the self-organizing wireless Smart Wireless network into the digital PlantWeb architecture is set to become even easier in 2008. In Version 10.3 of the DeltaV digital automation system, the 1420 gateway will be a node in the DeltaV automation network and thus automatically be recognized and configured. In addition to this, Hart alarm messages will be channeled from WirelessHart field devices directly to the AMS Device Manager. This dispenses with the need for an additional Ethernet network. The AMS Device Manager then supplies information about the device status directly to the measuring station and to the servicing and maintenance department.

Creative collaboration

The user is also surely going to benefit from the announced collaboration between Emerson and Cisco, the global market leader for IT networks. The aim of the partnership is to develop and bring to market open-standard solutions for wireless applications in process and plant management. The instruments and applications should be easy to install and work reliably in tough industrial operating environments. Cisco wireless plant networks offer applications for mobility of plant personnel, for voice-over-IP communications, for tracking personnel and equipment in areas of the plant, and video-systems. This collaboration sees Emerson expanding its existing offer in the area of control and plant networks. A further benefit is that many Emerson customers are already using Cisco wired plant networks, and can expand these to applications which are now wireless. These networks should then use Cisco’s Unified Wireless architecture, including the industrial-performance wireless access points, controllers and network management software, applications for use in plants such as communications or track and trace, and mobile working devices. Stuart Robinson, responsible for the Industrial Applications Business Unit at Cisco (Europe), also emphasizes the strategic aspect of this collaboration for his company: “We want to strengthen within the process industry market, and view the cooperation with Emerson as the ideal entry.”

For secure operation

A further result of a joint development, which should be available on the market by summer 2008, is the RCS Microcor Wireless Transmitter for rapid transmission of corrosion data. This was developed together with Rohrback Cosasco Systems (RCS) from Santa Fe Springs, California. The wireless corrosion metering transmitter builds on Mircroror RCE technology and provides corrosion rates in any process medium, practically in real time. The information about corrosion is transmitted by Microror to the control system, where it can be recorded, shown in trend form and analyzed together with other data from the process. This means that the operator can identify corrosion peaks, introduce an inhibitor and use the data in combination with other process data for a root analysis. Operating costs can be reduced as a result, with the lifetime of plant assets and the times between shut-downs being extended. A particularly attractive application for wireless corrosion monitoring is in the oil and gas industry, which involves a large proportion of water and other corrosive components being transported from older fields. The assets which these liquids flow through are often similarly aging, sensitive to corrosion and not always suitable for wired online systems. For that reason, wireless corrosion monitoring is an ideal solution for transferring and processing data reliably in this environment.

The CSI 9420 Machinery Health Transmitter, a wireless vibration metering transmitter, released to market in the first half-year of 2008, aims at smooth and safe operations. Its use is in monitoring mechanical equipment, such as pumps, drives or fans, providing predictive diagnostic data for greater plant availability and safety.

As a constituent part in Smart Wireless solutions, the robust industrial measuring transmitter can be connected quickly, easily and cost-effectively to any machine. The device provides vibration data to operating and maintenance personnel via the self-organizing communications network. Configuration diagnostics and fault reporting are carried out using the predictive maintenance software found in the AMS suite. The vibration data is also available in Histo-
rian software or in any control system, and can be stored long-term and analyzed together with other process parameters. Peter Zornio, Chief Strategist with Emerson Process Management, is also announcing further product developments for 2008, including for instance wireless position controllers and a Hart upgrade module for digital reading of Hart devices, of which around 20 million are installed world-wide.

In most production plants, there continue to be hundreds of digital measurement points which have not been connected to the control system due to the costs of cabling, and which therefore need to be read manually.

The consequence of this is that the operating personnel are not in the position of having permanent access to key data about plant performance and safety. The new, digital Rosemount 702 Discrete Wireless Transmitter can be rapidly installed and offers the user a cost-effective option for accessing this information. Applications include level measurement and overflow safety, safety of operating personnel and the status monitoring for production equipment. The transmitter supports a variety of non powered switches with individual or dual-channel function and is licensed for use in ex areas.

Conclusion: The focus of the new product developments is above all to make it easier for users to adopt wireless. In addition to this, wireless communications makes operations in process plants significantly safer and more efficient. It is not just in plant monitoring, for example for corrosion of components, which is made easier, but the wireless transmitters also communicate data from remote parts of the plant, in order to use this for efficient operational management.