Profibus-PA expands its user base
Jan 2000
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Endress & Hauser -
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
Further reading:
EtherCAT interoperability removes industrial networking barriers
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Selecting the right communication technology is one of the most important decisions engineers make, and interoperability helps with that decision. Key development tools and standards ensure interoperability among many EtherCAT devices and manufacturers.
Read more...
Condition monitoring to go
Turck Banner Southern Africa
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Anyone who wants to efficiently monitor the climate in control cabinets will find a comprehensive range of control cabinet monitors for the DIN rail in Turck Banner’s cabinet condition monitoring family.
Read more...
Affordable building management system product range
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Schneider Electric has unveiled its EasyLogic Building Management System range, designed for basic building architectures, to the local marketplace. This is a complete and cost-effective range of field controllers and sensors that are both easy to install and scalable.
Read more...
Flexible EtherCAT communication interface for DALI-2
Beckhoff Automation
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
The EL6821 EtherCAT Terminal from Beckhoff allows up to 64 DALI/DALI-2 slaves and 64 DALI-2 input devices to be connected. The TwinCAT 3 System Manager makes it easy to configure and parameterise DALI devices flexibly.
Read more...
EtherCAT-based control technology for building automation
Beckhoff Automation
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Modern non-residential buildings place many high demands on building automation. This can be optimally implemented with EtherCAT-based control technology from Beckhoff, which provides an efficient central automation architecture thanks to ultra-fast data communication.
Read more...
PC-based control for university studies
Beckhoff Automation
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
The IDEA box developed at Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences is designed to introduce students to the topic of Industry 4.0 in a simple and practical way. At the core of the corresponding demo case is PC-based control from Beckhoff.
Read more...
A new standard in high-speed Ethernet communication
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
The TXMC897 module from TEWS Technologies supports a range of Ethernet standards and speeds, making it suitable for diverse applications, including the defence, industrial, and IIoT markets.
Read more...
Data-driven battery production
Turck Banner Southern Africa
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
The availability of high-performance batteries at moderate prices is one of the most important factors for the success of electromobility. As a long-standing automation partner to the automotive industry, Turck Banner supports the major battery manufacturers with its know-how.
Read more...
Bring critical temperature data to your condition monitoring system
Turck Banner Southern Africa
Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
Data conversion just got easier. Turck Banner converters are compact, simple add-ons that seamlessly fit into your factory applications. You can take various types of signals such as discrete, analogue and many others, and convert them to protocols like IO-link, PICK-IQ, PWM/PFM, and Modbus.
Read more...
Case History 190: Measurement problem ruins level control.
Michael Brown Control Engineering
Editor's Choice Fieldbus & Industrial Networking
The widely held belief in many plants that tuning will solve all base layer control problems is completely fallacious. Bad tuning is generally not the main reason for loops to perform badly. It is important when performing optimisation that all elements in a loop are considered, in addition to the control strategy, before even thinking of tuning.
Read more...
printer friendly version