December 2017Maintenance, Test & Measurement, Calibration
Valve positioners are increasingly becoming an important diagnostic tool that can be used for predictive analysis of both valves and process equipment. The diagnostic data that can now be extracted, allows maintenance engineers and technicians to determine valve health and performance of process equipment such as pumps, heat exchangers and burners.
Diagnostics can be defined as the act of diagnosing a given symptom, issue or problem. The subject can be colocated with the person or system doing the diagnostics, or remotely diagnosed if the subjects are separated by physical distance, e.g. a remote pump station. Important information is exchanged either through wired or wireless communication protocols.
When applied to systems, a generally accepted definition of maintenance is “to improve the reliability of vital installations and reduce operating costs through avoiding unplanned maintenance by continuously monitoring the condition of the system.”
The benefits of intelligent instrumentation
Intelligent instrumentation allows the following additions to the predictive maintenance equation:
• Real-time process information.
• Self diagnosis.
• Process algorithms and control optimisation.
• Alignment of process information to online condition monitoring.
• Process variation feedback.
• Data integration with respect to exception algorithms.
The role of intelligent instrumentation is critical to providing accurate real-time feedback in terms of process performance and equipment condition.
Intelligent positioners are ideally suited to providing feedback on valve performance in real-time. For example, a history of position over time can be used to predict valve replacement based on the plug wear. Additional benefits of intelligent positioners include:
• Reduced installation and commissioning time.
• Improved valve control accuracy.
• Easier calibration and troubleshooting.
• Character tags for seamless reference configuration.
• All positioner variables directly accessible by the DCS/PLC.
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