Monitoring plantwide with scada is common but this has extended to larger geographic areas and even to countrywide applications. Omniflex has been involved with telemetry and data acquisition since the company started more than 35 years ago. Over this time a considerable amount of expertise has been developed to overcome the technological challenges of implementing these systems.
Maxiflex has developed networking hierarchies to accommodate telemetry and data acquisition at any level - from the plant floor or those hard to reach areas - to the plant backbone running Ethernet. Communication options like wireless in some applications, cable based in others or a mixture of the two needs to be accommodated. The ability to seamlessly integrate between the options was of prime importance. In addition, response time of the system has become a crucial component in some applications. The simple poll response mechanism proves to be inadequate for response time critical applications. Unsolicited message transmission from outstations means the network is used more efficiently, however, even this can be compromised by outstations with faulty inputs ie, a chattering relay. Multiple channel processing to data concentrators provide superior performance and increased availability of outstation information due to its architecture.
Overview of the structure from fieldbus level through to main backbone
The Data Concentrator allows multiple sub networks to be supported in concurrent mode to a higher-level network. In addition it supervises the activities on the sub networks gathering data for the supervisory systems at the highest levels above. The Maxiflex data concentrator can be configured without writing any programs or can have application software running for each sub network. Where this proves useful is where large amounts of data require collection from different register locations or many different devices on the network. To make the network more efficient, these registers or data can be compacted into contiguous registers for the supervisory system to read. This makes the network more efficient. The Data Concentrator can also store configuration data for outstations and update them automatically if the outstation CPU or I/O is changed.
Maxiflex data concentrator
The integration of many different outstation and front-end devices can be accommodated into a single system with very little effort. The system is thus suitable for many utilities industries from electrical through to water.
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Industrial Wireless
Researchers at Deakin University have won the Corrosion Innovation of the Year Award at this year’s AMPP Annual Conference and Expo in Nashville, USA. The award recognised the development of a novel closed-loop cathodic protection system for localised corrosion control in challenging industrial environments, which Omniflex helped with as a technology partner.
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Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
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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.
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Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
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Industrial Wireless
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Data Acquisition & Telemetry
Turck Banner’s new UHF-SYS-TUNNEL RFID tunnel offers a ready-to-use, flexible detection solution for the automation of intralogistics processes.
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Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Sequence of event recorders or sequence of event monitors play a significant role in monitoring and maintaining critical infrastructure. Gary Bradshaw, director at remote monitoring equipment specialist, Omniflex, outlines the applicable industries and reasons for use.
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Data Acquisition & Telemetry
Most companies focus on their production operations as a pain point. This is a mistake, as scheduling, moving, tracking and reporting on inventory at the operational level can have a major impact on production efficiency and profitability.
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Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
In mining applications globally, conveyor belts of up to 20 km are used to transport ore. Damage to conveyors often causes cargo spillage and creates major safety risks. Ian Loudon, international sales manager at remote monitoring specialist, Omniflex explains how these challenges can be combatted using bidirectional fibre optic modules.
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Industrial Computer Hardware
Wireless telemetry systems are a critical tool in the mining industry as they facilitate automation, data collection, communication and remote monitoring and control in challenging environments. Ian Loudon, international marketing manager at wireless telemetry specialist, Omniflex explains how wireless telemetry systems can automate water pump monitoring and control in the mining sector.