Profibus-PA expands its user base

Jan 2000 Fieldbus & Industrial Networking

United Distillers and Vintners Canada is one of the latest plants to install a Profibus-PA fieldbus system. This brings the total number of plants to more than 90 worldwide to have adopted Profibus-PA as its communications protocol.

The client has deployed two multi-vendor Profibus PA networks as part of its re-instrumentation project for a 19 storage tank application at its Valleyfield, Quebec, distillery with the aim to improve system reliability, increase monitoring accuracy and enhance its overall inventory management. The distillery, which processes more than 230 t of grain per day, sought to reduce production costs while increasing product quality. Says a spokesperson for Endress+Hauser, the instrument supplier for the contract, "The decision to use Profibus PA was made based on cutting the overall project cost for reinstrumen-ting the tanks, including cabling, hardware and software by about 40%."

The Profibus system helps manage the inventory of final products stored in the 19 tanks which are fitted with level transmitters connected via Profibus PA and two Pepperl+Fuchs segment couplers over Profibus DP to a Modicon PLC through an X-Link. A Profibus DP-to-Modbus gateway was provided by a separate supplier while Endress+Hauser's Commuwin II engineering and configuration software, installed on a PC, is utilised for configuring instruments.

Profibus PA is the intrinsically safe IEC 61158-2 compliant version of the Profibus fieldbus protocol, designed to provide power and data over the bus in hazardous areas. At present there are more than two million installed Profibus compliant devices in 200 000 applications throughout the world, worth an estimated $4,5 billion. It has been deployed in a broad spectrum of industries from mining, chemicals, food and brewing to water, wastewater treatment, paper and more. In South Africa, it has already seen its deployment in three major projects.

Endress+Hauser

(011) 444 1386

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