Plants in the process industry have to satisfy increasingly tougher demands in terms of flexibility, scalability, availability and security, while still offering sustainability and protection of the investment. Digitalisation is opening up entirely new perspectives within these complicated and competing demands.
Step by step, Simatic PCS 7 V9.0 is paving the way toward digital transformation for the process industry. With its hardware and software innovations, the new version of the proven process control system is making it safer and easier to plan the path to digitalisation.
Delegates at the PCS 7 V9.0 launch at Irene Country Lodge.
At the recent African product launch in Pretoria, head of Siemens Process Automation Mikhail Vakhutinskiy explained; “With Version 9 of its Simatic PCS 7 process control system, Siemens is opening up scope for new perspectives to plant operators in the process industries. This represents another important step forward by Siemens towards digitalisation. In addition, Version 9 of the process control system Simatic PCS 7 supports the leading industrial Ethernet standard Profinet with two new distributed I/O lines for greater digitalisation down to the field level and a range of software innovations.
Despite its space-saving design – the width of the new module has been reduced by almost half – it allows the operation of up to 16 channels. The number of modules per head assembly or per station has been increased from 12 to 56, corresponding to just under 900 I/O signals instead of the previous 96 (when using 8-channel modules).
Another benefit is its consistently modular and flexible structure, which allows modules to be conveniently hot swapped while running in operational mode. The Simatic ET 200SP HA stations can be easily extended as requirements change, since the permanent wiring and use of uniform terminal blocks enable control cabinets with a standardised structure.
The Simatic Compact Field Unit (CFU) opens up new scope for the integration of field devices since the field distributor connected over Profinet is able to overcome the restrictions of conventional I/O concepts, providing consistent decentralisation coupled with flexible structures.
“This version significantly enhances the performance of the Simatic PCS 7 process control system in order to fulfil the continuously increasing demands of the process industry,” concludes Vakhutinskiy. “Thanks to its new hardware and improved software features, PCS 7 can now be used for an even larger spectrum of applications. It simplifies processes and saves costs as well as space and time. Plants thus become more flexible, more efficient and easier to modernise.”
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