Sequence of event recorders (SER) or sequence of event monitors (SOE) play a significant role in monitoring and maintaining critical infrastructure. By logging alarms and events in real time and in chronological order, they provide visibility to users and help identify the root cause of problems that may occur. Gary Bradshaw, director at remote monitoring equipment specialist, Omniflex, outlines the applicable industries and reasons for use.
The early SER products would provide 1 millisecond time stamps of the alarm and events they were monitoring, and the results would have been printed via an inbuilt printer so that the alarm or events list could be printed on paper for analysis. The logging of alarms and events has since progressed with SOE monitoring being done to sub-millisecond time stamps and the results being logged to a local or remote scada or distributed control system (DCS). These systems are applicable to all critical infrastructure industries, including oil and gas, nuclear, energy and utilities, manufacturing, data centres and healthcare.
All of these critical industries could have situations where one alarm or event could trigger a series of others extremely quickly afterwards. This technology allows users to identify the possible cause of the problem very quickly. This would usually be at the first alarm and not the subsequent ones, helping to diagnose any issues in a timely manner.
SOE provides better forensics to users and the ability to audit data properly afterwards. By addressing the main cause, this not only prevents catastrophic failures associated with hazardous industries, but also provides the ability to pinpoint a problem at the earliest stage. This allows repairs and preventative maintenance to be conducted before any major damage occurs, and also reduces troubleshooting and downtime, improving safety and providing major savings. This is especially useful for any operation that requires power distribution management – such as national infrastructure projects or data centres.
Omniflex has been a world leader is supplying SER and SOE systems
The Maxiflex 32SOE Digital Input Module provides a timestamp within 200 microseconds of the alarm event happening, which is far quicker than older SER systems. This allows for much better accuracy in locating the first alarm if multiple alarm events occur in quick succession.
The Maxiflex 32SOE is an intelligent module equipped with a spike filter to prevent noise from generating false alarm events on the input, and a debounce filter for inputs that have contact bounce problems. Using multiple 32SOE modules can allow SOE systems to be constructed with up to 480 time-stamped inputs per node with no limit on the number of nodes, providing very large distributed systems. Multiple nodes can be GPS time synchronised, such as the larger distributed systems like the ones Omniflex has provided on offshore gas platforms in the North Sea. Over 3500 distributed alarms and events associated with the generators and compressors were all individually monitored in the local scada system and all timestamped to 200 microseconds resolution.
Comprehensive solutions for the food and beverage sector RS South Africa
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
RS South Africa is reinforcing its commitment to the country’s dynamic food and beverage sector, backed by a comprehensive portfolio of over 800 000 products, extensive technical expertise and end-to-end service capabilities.
Read more...Case History 198: Cascade control overcomes valve problems Michael Brown Control Engineering
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
A large petrochemical refinery asked me to perform an audit on several critical base layer control loops. This article deals with a problem found on a valve controlling the flow of fuel to a heat exchanger.
Read more...Improved networking technology for fire and gas detection Omniflex Remote Monitoring Specialists
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Critical alarm and event management technology supplier, Omniflex has worked with the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation to upgrade equipment providing digital and analogue signals for its safety critical fire and gas alarm systems.
Read more...PC-based control for fertiliser Beckhoff Automation
Editor's Choice Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
On a farm in the USA, valuable ammonia is extracted from slurry and processed into ammonium sulphate. NSI Byosis has transformed this complex process into a flexible modular system. This modular approach requires an automation solution with flexible scalability in both hardware and software, which this Dutch company has found in PC-based control from Beckhoff.
Read more...Loop signature 28: Things to consider when tuning. Michael Brown Control Engineering
Editor's Choice Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
I was giving a course at a remote mine in the middle of the Namibian desert. We were discussing tuning responses, and as I always do on my courses, I mentioned that in my opinion ¼ amplitude damped tuning is not desirable, and is in fact not good.
Read more...Novel closed-loop CP technology for corrosion control Omniflex Remote Monitoring Specialists
Industrial Wireless
Cathodic protection specialist, Omniflex has collaborated with researchers at Deakin University to develop corrosion monitoring electronics for a novel closed-loop cathodic protection system for localised corrosion control in challenging industrial environments.
Read more...How industrial network design impacts ESG commitments Omniflex Remote Monitoring Specialists
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
In safety-critical industries like nuclear, petrochemical and oil and gas, installing a new industrial cable network is an extremely complicated task. Gary Bradshaw, a director of industrial network specialist, Omniflex explains why this is often unnecessary as plants are likely to have existing cabling capable of being used to create new industrial networks.
Read more...How CP system design can support ESG commitments Omniflex Remote Monitoring Specialists
Industrial Wireless
Major infrastructure like wharves, bridges, pipelines and tanks are under constant threat of corrosion, which can render them unsafe. David Celine, managing director of cathodic protection specialist, Omniflex explains how CP system design can support ESG commitments while simultaneously lowering costs and improving maintenance capabilities.
Read more...Minelert industrial solutions
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Profitek provides cutting-edge industrial networking, automation and IoT solutions for harsh environments.
Read more...The ultimate industrial LoRaWAN gateway
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
The GW-101-LORA-4AO is the ultimate industrial LoRaWAN gateway, combining advanced IoT connectivity with expandable I/O.
printer friendly version