In 2008, Yokogawa Electric Corporation launched Centum VP, an integrated production control system and the platform for the Vigilant-Plant (VP) which is an automation concept for safe, reliable, and profitable plant operations.
The launch of CENTUM VP in 2008 took the VigilantPlant initiative to the next level; integrating safety (Prosafe-RS), asset (FieldMate) and production (InsightSuite AE) solutions into one platform for operational excellence.
VigilantPlant is Yokogawa’s commitment to industry: an automation platform that is both scalable and future-proof. This forms the basis of the company’s strategy to become the automation partner of choice by providing support, long term migration policy and multigeneration compatibility.
Yokogawa South Africa’s Paulo De Sousa Gomes, says, “One of the main objectives of VigilantPlant is to increase our customers’ growth potential.
“The challenges facing industry are blind spots, gaps in information and knowledge-silos, these consume a considerable amount of energy and resources while problems are being corrected. VigilantPlant addresses this through operational excellence that keeps personnel well-informed and empowers them to take actions that optimise plant and business performance. This eliminates unplanned downtime, improves asset utilisation and allows businesses to adapt to shifting market conditions quickly and efficiently.”
CENTUM VP is the eighth generation of the CENTUM series; it integrates plant information management, asset management and operation support functions, achieving a unified operating environment and delivering information in context allowing easy role-based access to all key information. It redefines the role of a production control system while retaining backward compatibility with earlier versions. This distributed control system (DCS) is recommended for process control and monitoring of plants in industries such as oil and gas, chemicals, power, pharmaceuticals, sugar, mining, iron and steel, bio-fuels and water treatment.
Unified architecture
Plant operations require various functional components such as production control and monitoring, plant information management, asset management and operations support. Usually these functions are handled by a variety of products from different suppliers resulting in the plant being operated by a patchwork of disparate systems, leaving gaps and barriers that constrain smooth and integrated operations. In contrast, CENTUM VP establishes a single realtime plant database that serves all of these key functions setting the foundation for a unified operating environment. This unified architecture improves information efficiency and enhances the safety and agility of plant operations. Quick and flexible deployment of applications enables the user to improve the safety, availability, and profitability of a plant on an ongoing basis, simplifying change management and minimising total cost of ownership.
Reliability and compatibility
VP utilises Yokogawa’s Pair & Spare reliability technology that leaves no single point of failure and maintains an industry-leading 99,99999% system availability. The processor modules, power supplies, I/O modules and communication bus all support dual redundant configuration, and applications can be modified without any interruption in process control via the online maintenance function.
Intuitive HMI
VP introduces a unified and intuitive operating environment. The new screens are ergonomically designed and arranged to reduce operator fatigue and discomfort. The HMI also facilitates easy access to the right information; the visualisation of operational know-how in consideration with user mental models enables everyone to work smarter. Yokogawa’s consolidated alarm manager system (CAMS) ensures users get prioritised, actionable information and not just a flood of data. This is essential for harnessing the full power of the integrated production control system.
Fast, reliable communications
Yokogawa’sVnet/IP plant control network protocol is based on 1 Gbps high-speed Ethernet and features both the openness of Ethernet and the reliability/real-time capability required in plant control. Vnet/IP has been unanimously accepted by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) as a part of international standard IEC 61784-2 Ed.1.0. An achievement that further increases the company’s visibility in the global plant control systems market.
Third-party cables, switches and other network communication devices can be used with Yokogawa’s Vnet/IP. Plant reliability is in no way compromised as the communication response is guaranteed (deterministic as opposed to probabilistic) thanks to Yokogawa’s renowned reliability, dedicated protocol and redundant configuration.
Functional architecture
VP provides functional blocks for monitoring, control, manipulations, calculations, logic functions and sequences. Not only continuous control but also advanced control, complicated sequence control and batch control are all executed in a redundant, secure, and reliable controller environment. Plant systems, from small to large scale, can be flexibly designed through a combination of these control blocks.
The system also supports a wide variety of communication interfaces and digital field networks such as Foundation Fieldbus, PROFIBUS-DP, Modbus RTU, Modbus TCP/IP, and DeviceNet. It features predefined smart parts and templates, operates on Microsoft XP and VISTA, has no renewable licence fees, and an entry level of 8000 tags expandable to 1 million.
“CENTUM has grown with our customers over the past 30 years and is a clear sign of our focus on maintaining continuity in solutions and services. Look to CENTUM VP for another 30 years of consistency and lasting improvement,” concludes Paulo.
For more information contact Paulo De Sousa Gomes, Yokogawa South Africa, +27 (0)11 831 6300, [email protected], www.yokogawa.com/za
| Tel: | +27 11 831 6300 |
| Fax: | +27 11 86 411 8144 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| www: | www.yokogawa.com/za |
| Articles: | More information and articles about Yokogawa South Africa |
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