News

Compressor Controls LLC (CCC) and Yokogawa have announced that they have concluded a commercial agreement for the sale of a jointly developed solution, CCC Inside for Yokogawa CENTUM VP, that integrates Yokogawa’s process control technology and CCC’s turbomachinery control technology. It is being released on November 30. Process control and turbomachinery control can be performed with the same system, which contributes to efficient staffing, engineering, procurement, and maintenance in plant operations.

Development Background

Until now, plants have typically relied on separate systems with different logic for the control of processes and the control of turbomachinery. While purpose-built hardware provides best performance and diagnostics for the turbomachinery, it requires the management and operation of multiple systems, resulting in additional complexity. To support diverse end user needs, CCC, the number one company in the turbomachinery control market, and Yokogawa, a leader in the process control market that has delivered process control systems for more than 30,000 projects globally, have jointly developed CCC Inside for Yokogawa CENTUM VP, which integrates process and turbomachinery control in a single system.

In preparation for the release of this product, the two companies have concluded a commercial agreement under which Yokogawa will supply the hardware and software for the CENTUM VP integrated production control system, one of Yokogawa’s core products in its OpreX Control and Safety lineup, and CCC will provide the CCC Inside for Yokogawa CENTUM VP software by leveraging its control algorithms, global engineering and technical support for turbomachinery controls. In addition, the two companies will cooperate in global marketing and maintenance.

Main Features

The CCC Inside for Yokogawa CENTUM VP software enables the CENTUM VP to execute CCC’s control logic for controlling compressors, which are the most commonly used types of turbomachinery found in plants. By equipping CENTUM VP with a dedicated compressor control interface (faceplate), both process control and compressor control can be done from the same human machine interface (HMI). And by enabling the use of the same hardware, this solution reduces spare parts inventory and maintenance costs, and allows for more efficient maintenance planning.

Major Target Markets

Oil and gas, petrochemicals, chemicals, electric power, etc.

About CCC Inside

CCC Inside was developed to deploy CCC control algorithms and expertise into DCS platforms. The control algorithms are based on the same code structure of CCC Pro Built platforms, maintaining consistency and reliability. CCC Inside is delivered with native human machine interfaces for the DCS operator station and direct integration with the alarm system. CCC Engineering Utilities further facilitate configuration and tuning, with high-resolution recording capabilities. CCC Inside is engineered and commissioned by CCC global project and field service teams.

About the CENTUM series

Yokogawa released its CENTUM distributed control system (DCS) in 1975, a world first. CENTUM VP is the ninth generation in the CENTUM series. Known for their rugged performance, CENTUM systems set high standards for engineering and technology excellence while ensuring backwards compatibility with previous system versions and support of the latest technology applications. Knowledge-driven engineering lies at the heart of CENTUM, a Yokogawa flagship product that has been proudly serving the process industry over the past 40+ years.

Powelectrics technology allows you to identify issues remotely, protecting your livestock, crops and assets, optimising maintenance, cutting costs and freeing up human resource.

Powelectrics offers over 30 years of expertise and practical experience in instrumentation and digitalisation. Please click here to see the brochure, which describes the company’s range of solutions and details real application cases.

Powelectrics IIoT solutions can be battery and solar-powered, making them ideal in remote and rural environments.

The company’s sensor expertise encompasses level, temperature, flow, pressure, vibration, humidity, CO2 and many more. Please talk to us about:

• Tank & silo level monitoring (fuel, fertiliser, feed, waste, milk) to understand usage, recognise anomalies & avoid run-outs or overfills.
• Water level monitoring & management for livestock & crop protection.
• Condition monitoring of plant & processes to perform maintenance before a breakdown occurs
• Supply chain management & Vendor Managed Inventory
• Metering & energy management to identify inefficiencies & as part of ISO 50001.
• Pumping station monitoring & control
• Monitoring gas emissions & effluent to protect people & environment & comply with industry legislation. 

Whether you need to know your chickens are warm, your cows have water, your generator has fuel, your waste needs collection or your plant needs maintenance, Powelectrics can help you!

More:  Powelectrics Remote Monitoring IIoT Kit For Agricultural Applications

Powelectrics’ well-proven, versatile MetronView cloud collects data from a vast array of sensors, machines and IIoT devices. It gets your data flowing … fast … from your first step towards digital transformation to an international estate of connected assets!

What can Powelectrics do for you?

Please browse the Powelectrics website and get in touch with any queries you have or applications you would like to discuss. Call +44 1827 310 666, email sales@powelectrics.co.uk or use this contact form.

RS Components (RS) has invested in a major expansion of its Molex interconnect product range. RS can now offer designers, installers and maintenance engineers over 1,000 additional Molex products, ranging from state-of-the-art antennas and harsh-environment industrial connectors to an enhanced range of D-subs and cable connectors.

Significant introductions include antennas for applications across a wide range of industries, including automotive, industrial connectivity, infotainment systems, smart meters, wearables and telecommunications.

Newly introduced Molex Brad industrial connectors include key products from the Micro-Change M12, Nano-Change M8 and Ultra-Lock ranges. Designed to withstand harsh industrial environments and weather conditions, Micro-Change M12 connectors provide reliable connections and allow fast, simple replacement of sensors, encoders, switches and other I/O devices in industrial machinery.

RS now offers an expanded range of Molex FCT standard, mixed-layout and high-density D-sub connectors, including hoods and cable assemblies for multiple applications. Also, available is an expanded range of Molex’s versatile Easy-On FFC and FPC connectors, with terminal pitches ranging from 0.20mm to 2.00mm for use in everything from medical to automotive applications.

Additionally, the RS range of Molex Premo-Flex cable jumper products has increased to 200 products, ranging from standard products with various pitches, cable lengths, thicknesses and formats to custom assemblies with multiple capabilities.

The extended Molex range is shipping now from RS in the EMEA region.

As the UK hosts the UN Conference on Climate Change, Titan Enterprises determines it a fitting time to report on the success of its long-term OEM customer, Green Fuels Limited.

With decarbonisation, circular economy and sustainability hitting the top of the agenda around the world, Green Fuels advances biofuel technologies and joint ventures to achieve its contribution to the global net zero target.

For over 13 years, Titan’s Oval Gear (OG) flow meters have been an intrinsic component within Green Fuels’ biodiesel plants converting bio waste into sustainable biofuels.  Green Fuels’ award-winning research and pioneering process plants have powered buildings with sustainable fuel from used cooking oil, and most recently developed a process to convert fish oil and sewage sludge to biofuel.

Jason Askey-Wood, Green Fuels’ UK Managing Director, commented: “Accuracy of measurement in our chemical processes is critical and Titan’s range of oval gear flowmeters provide just that. Simple, accurate and chemically resistant, Titan’s OG flow meters, with the addition of the Namur switch, were the ideal solution for precise batch dosing within a potentially hazardous environment.”

Titan’s OG Series flow meters are designed to give reliable, high performance across a wide range of applications. Almost immune from the effects of varying liquid viscosity, density and temperature, the measurement performance of oval gear flowmeters improves as liquid viscosity increases.

Titan offers intrinsically safe options for its Oval Gear measurement devices to ensure safe operation in potentially explosive atmospheres, such as those encountered in the chemical, biofuel and petrochemical industry. As well as being constructed from durable materials including Stainless Steel, Hastelloy and PEEK, a fully certified NAMUR Proximity Switch can be installed into the Oval Gear flow meters. The NAMUR Proximity Switch is an intrinsically safe sensor specially designed for use in hazardous locations, enabling the OG series flow meters to deliver highly accurate flow measurement in explosive atmospheres.

Jeremy Thorne, Titan Enterprises’ Operations Manager said: “Titan is privileged to play a cameo role in the technological advancements that Green Fuels is achieving within the sustainable fuels market. The OG flow measurement devices are ideal for use with aggressive chemicals, combining durable materials, robust design and proven technology to ensure they will have a long product life with reliable, accurate operation throughout.”

Jason adds: “It’s an exciting time for Green Fuels with carbon reduction and climate change at the top of the worlds’ agenda. We have seen a shift in our business in developing joint ventures with both advanced economies such as Oman and developing countries, working together to find sustainable fuel solutions for the Transport and Energy sectors as they look to decarbonise and reduce harmful emissions.”

For further information on Titan’s oval gear flowmeters please visit  https://flowmeters.co.uk/oval-gear-swept-volume-positive-displacement-flow-meters-overview/. To discuss an optimised flow measurement device for your OEM application please contact Titan Enterprises on +44 (0)1935 812790 or email sales@flowmeters.co.uk.

For information about Green Fuels visit www.greenfuels.co.uk.

Silicon Designs, Inc. today announced the global market launch of its Model 1525 Low-G Series of MEMS DC accelerometer chips, with stock quantities now available for immediate customer shipment.

The Silicon Designs Model 1525 Low-G Series is designed to offer reliable, accurate, and repeatable low-frequency (including seismic) vibration and acceleration measurements within a variety of inertial- and industrial-grade applications, and particularly so, where high-repeatability, premium performance, ultra-low noise, and maximum stability are required.

The key distinguishing features of the Model 1525 Low-G Series, among comparable industry models, include its highly favorable price-for-performance ratio, excellent in-run bias stability, zero cross-coupling by design, and Allan Variances from 5 µg. With availability in five unique full-scale ranges, each MEMS DC accelerometer chip within the Model 1525 Low-G Series incorporates one of Silicon Designs’ own high-performance sense elements, together with a ±4.0V differential analog output stage, internal temperature sensor, and integral sense amplifier. The MEMS DC sense element and internal components of the Model 1525 Low-G Series are housed together within a hermetically sealed, Nitrogen damped, 20-pin JLCC surface mount package (U.S. Export Classification ECCN 7A994) which measures just 0.35 square inches.

Each Model 1525 Low-G Series MEMS DC accelerometer chip is designed to be relatively insensitive to wide temperature changes and gradients, including over its standard operating temperature range of -40° C to +85° C. Each device is further marked on its top and bottom surfaces with a serial number for traceability. A calibration test sheet is also supplied with each unit, showing the MEMS DC accelerometer chip’s measured bias, scale factor, linearity, operating current, and frequency response performance values.

Since 1983, Silicon Designs has been recognized as industry experts in the design, development and manufacture of highly rugged MEMS DC accelerometers and chips with integrated amplification. All products are designed, developed, and manufactured in-house at the company’s own state-of-the-art facility located just outside of Seattle, Washington. In addition, as the OEM of its own MEMS DC accelerometer chips and modules, including in-house wafer production, Silicon Designs can ensure that each accelerometer within a particular series is made to be virtually identical, thereby allowing for seamless performance upgrades. The company’s fully U.S.-based manufacturing operations, including with ISO9001:2015 certified quality management systems, further allow Silicon Designs to ensure that its products remain of consistently high-quality, are easily customisable to customer exacting standards, and can be offered with some of the industry’s most competitive pricing and lead times.

 For additional information on the Model 1525 Low-G Series, or other MEMS DC accelerometer technologies offered by Silicon Designs, please visit www.silicondesigns.com.

Click here to download the Model 1525 Low-G Series product datasheet.

Advertising & Editorial Contact:
Molly Bakewell Chamberlin
President & Sensors Industry Subject Matter Expert
Embassy Global, LLC

Tel: +1-716-646-0927
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Embassy Global, LLC is a WBENC-certified strategic technical marketing, PR and business development consultancy, proudly serving the B2B high-tech components manufacturing and engineering communities since 2008. 

Teledyne FLIR preparation course for a qualification as a category 1 certified thermographer explains the basics of infrared, how to operate an infrared camera under different conditions and for various purposes, how to appropriately judge a measurement situation in the field and how to identify potential error sources to enable participants to undertake infrared inspections following written guidelines and report the inspection results.

In this course covers:

• Introduction to thermography
• Camera operation
• Basic physics of heat
• Basics of infrared physics
• Thermal pattern recognition and infrared applications
• Infrared temperature measurement techniques
• Qualitative and quantitative thermography
• Inspection routines and reporting
• Hands-on laboratory sessions
• Examination

A complex cross-border quality inspection by leading quality management provider has involved visiting five countries and inspecting 44 cars with potential mechanical issues.

Not only this, the project was completed in just 3.5 days by two of G&P’s highly-skilled vehicle technicians using an electrical measuring device to inspect the potentially faulty component.

Thankfully, all the components passed the test. However, had the tests on the potentially faulty components not taken place then there was a risk of vehicle noise and drive failure.

The manufacturer could not take the risk of any damage to their reputation by allowing the deliveries to go ahead without the additional quality checks.

Geoff Cousins, chairman at G&P, said: “This particular project required a very tight schedule for a round trip to Belgium, Germany, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland to plan the appointments in each country so that deadlines could be met.

“Added to the mix was that the cars had already been built and were distributed in these countries ready to go to market. It needed, and had, military style precision planning.”

Even before the project started, G&P only had 24 hours to plan for the challenge which involved specialist training for the two vehicle technicians.

Geoff added: “The importance of the project was that it protected the brand reputation of the car manufacturer as it had the reassurance that all of its vehicles had passed the test and, subsequently, that no faulty vehicles were released for sale.

“It also clearly demonstrated G&P’s capabilities of being able to react quickly and efficiently to resolve potential quality issues, no matter where they are.”

Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) has introduced the ADI EagleEye ADSW4000 PeopleCount algorithm for people detection and count in indoor spaces such as meeting rooms or office cubicles.

The ADSW4000 is the first in a series of application-level software algorithms forming part of the ADI EagleEye platform that includes a hardware subsystem based on ADI’s Blackfin embedded digital signal processor (DSP) and a set of application-level software building blocks enabling users to quickly develop their own people counting system. The ADSW4000 algorithm provides system edge node analytics that unlock insights to improve space utilisation, people safety through distance monitoring, and energy efficiency of spaces within intelligent buildings.

• Watch a video about the ADSW4000 algorithm: https://www.analog.com/en/education/education-library/videos/6277728474001.html
• Learn about more ADI intelligent building solutions: Intelligent Building Systems and Technologies | Analog Devices
• Connect with engineers and ADI product experts on EngineerZone™, an online technical support community: http://ez.analog.com

By Mark Guest – Product Manager for Power Distribution Systems

When NU-Design Limited, a marine electrical services business based in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland needed help in the designing of a very specific control centre specification, the company’s engineers contacted Rittal UK to design a marine switchboard for a distribution and motor control centre (MCC) to be installed in a new Scottish trawler, the Endeavour V.

The Challenge:

The Endeavor V is a Bureau Veritas +1A1 fishing vessel, she was designed by Macduff Shipyards Ltd. While the hull of the boat was built at Finomar shipyard, Szczecin, Poland. The MCC panels feed-out to all the electric motors onboard the vessel, the main switchboard feeds-out to both the 415V distribution boards and the 415/230V transformers, which in turn feeds into the applications on board the commercial vessel.

For this project, the requirements were very specific, in terms of the control centre specifications and operation. They had to be fully compliant with marine regulations, as well as sized and configured to fit within a small, onboard switch room.

Another added pressure was that the project needed to be completed within a very specific timeframe, because the switchboard could only be installed while the Endeavour V was being built on land. Once the build was completed, that window of opportunity for the switchboard to be installed would be closed.

The Solution:

After receiving the brief, Rittal’s engineering team created an initial design for the switchboard, using Rittal’s own configuration software. After an initial review with the client, the design was then reconfigured into an L-shape, so that it could be positioned into a tight corner in the Endeavour V’s switch room.

To achieve the full build within the project time frame, the installation and commissioning were completed by specialist electricians from R.D. Downies Ltd, a marine electrical and engineering company based in Fraserburgh, Scotland.

Rittal is proud to be a long-time, specialist supplier to the maritime industry. Due to its longstanding relationship with the maritime industry, Both the Ri4Power and the RiLine60 busbar systems, have been benchmarked against the latest requirements from the marine specification authorities, including Lloyds and DNV. However for this project Rittal’s engineers, needed to abide by further rules for the busbar’s design. Including fault-rating certification and ensuring the copper busbar met a minimum cross-sectional area. In addition the power distribution and motor-control sections needed to be separated within the L-shaped switchboard, to provide clarity for the operator and for easier routine maintenance.

Maritime switchboards are different from land-based switchgear, the main difference being that they are powered by generators. This particular trawlers switchboard required two generators as well as an onshore mains supply connection, to be used at full capacity of power usage of circa 500 amps.

Once the busbar system had being installed, with a bus-coupler and a special connection for the on-shore mains connection. Rittal’s engineering team had to develop a system, that would accommodate the out-going cable connections, given that space was at such a premium in the switchboard, It had to be methodically thought through with precision.

Once the final design was completed, it included the capability for close power monitoring of the generators, a set of synchronising controls and other highly specific, marine options requirements, such as clear labelling of controls, circuit feeders, interlocking of components, handrails, high IP-ratings, and an easy-to-follow maintenance guide.

Pete Buchan, Electrical Design Engineer at NU-Design comments, “Rittal was selected because of the marine-type approval, availability of stock, and the ease of construction for the modular assembly.”

After the success of the Endeavour V, a second switchboard is now under construction for another fishing trawler for NU-Design, which was due for completion during the summer of 2021.

AVEVA, a global leader in industrial software, driving digital transformation and sustainability, today launched Vision AI Assistant 2021 – an image classification-based analytics tool. The artificial intelligence (AI) solution, which can be integrated into AVEVA System Platform and Operations Management Interface and AVEVA Insight, enables customers to use video and images from existing general-purpose cameras and convert them into user-friendly information and timely alerts.

Designed for low latency industrial environments, Vision AI Assistant leverages deep learning to train and deploy 24×7 artificial intelligence models to enhance situational awareness to help operators focus on the task at hand without continuously monitoring live camera feeds.

Vision AI Assistant enables organisations to improve operations, quality, and maintenance capabilities across industrial enterprises by using cameras to determine visual anomalies, assess quality, and vigorously monitor production, optimising efficiencies and improving sustainability in the process. Product applications include:

Standard digital cameras can be used with Vision AI Assistant to ensure quality control, such as by analysing the quality of water treatment fluids, by gauging if a hopper is full or empty, or by identifying defective products on a production line.

Vision AI Assistant can also scan thermal or infrared camera feeds so operations teams can uncover visual inconsistencies. For example, by locating compressed air or fluid leaks, it can reduce failure and efficiency loss, and by spotting hot-spots in a data centre, it can prevent overheating of critical equipment.

The AI solution assists maintenance efforts through continuous monitoring of plants and machinery and diagnosis of equipment issues weeks, or months before failure.

Kenneth Labhart, Innovation Leader – Global Supply Chain North America, Schneider Electric said: “AVEVA’s Vision AI is monitoring and analysing the 1.5 km main drive chain for our Lexington, Kentucky, smart factory which manufactures electric breaker panels. If that chain goes down, our entire factory comes to a halt, which typically happens a few times per year. Vision AI has already provided early detection of issues with parts of this chain on two occasions, giving us the ability to take proactive action. By doing this, we avoid revenue-impacting, unplanned downtime. We’re looking forward to expanding our usage of this AI system.”

Jim Chappell, Global Head of AI and Advanced Analytics at AVEVA said: “This breakthrough technology represents a game changer that transforms factory operations through the power of AI. The Vision AI Assistant enables enhanced process optimisation, thereby reducing time, wastage, and costs. Cameras can also be used in areas that are not suitable for humans for security or safety concerns, freeing up workers to focus on high-value tasks instead of continuously monitoring live camera feeds.”

Vision AI Assistant is offered as an exclusive extension for AVEVA System Platform purchases through the AVEVA Flex subscription initiative. The flexible payment and usage program spans any mix of cloud, hybrid, and on-premises solutions across AVEVA’s portfolio – enabling simple license purchasing, usage and management.