Yokogawa, a supplier of the most advanced industrial solutions, was established in Japan in 1915. Today it has become a $3 bn global operation, with a network that includes 130 companies (60 of these in Japan itself) located in some 28 countries including 18 manufacturing facilities. A leading supplier in test and measurement, industrial automation and information services, its equipment can be found in thousands of advanced production processes worldwide. The company currently has a directly employed staff complement of 19 000 and can effectively offer 'one-stop' turnkey solutions for any sector of the process industry. In its fields of expertise Yokogawa holds literally thousands of patents - and to keep itself ahead of the pack some 10% of turnover is spent on research and development.
The presence of Yokogawa in South Africa can be traced back to 1978 when Delta Controls became the sole distributor. Delta Controls was later sold to Incotech and after acquisition by Babcock in 1994, was merged with Babcock Controls in 1995. The final change came in 1997 when, as part of its globalisation strategy, the local company was acquired by Yokogawa. Since then it has operated as a wholly owned subsidiary, Yokogawa South Africa. The head office of the company is located in spacious premises in Robertsham and there are branches in Vanderbijlpark, Durban and Cape Town. In other parts of South Africa and neighbouring countries Yokogawa operates through qualified distributors. The staff complement of the company currently stands at over 60 people. As Yokogawa carries out system engineering and commissioning, there is a large complement of highly trained and experienced, full time engineers on its staff. On average at any point in time these are supplemented by six contract engineers. Yokogawa SA reports to the European Headquarters, established in The Netherlands in 1982.
Although it is a wholly owned subsidiary, Yokogawa SA has kept the distribution for several complementary product ranges from other manufacturers. These include Barksdale (pressure and level switches), American Meter (gas meters and filters for the gas industry), Dresser (gas meters) and Kinetrol (quarter turn actuators). Just as the recent World Summit was addressing the need to use more environmentally friendly power, Yokogawa SA believes that the natural gas finds off our coast and that of Namibia, as well as the Pande gas field in Mozambique will see a resurgence in the use of gas for industrial and consumer power needs.
Historically Yokogawa had a special focus on the oil and petrochemical industry where safety and reliability are uncompromising. The fact that its control and sensor systems are first choice in this harsh environment confirms their applicability in any other industry. In recent years Yokogawa has been involved in oil and gas projects as widely spread as Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, the North Sea and the Philippines. Vast experience has been built up in the management, monitoring and control of pipelines for gas, oil and even water reticulation.
As a result of this, petrochemicals and gas pipelines are also high on the priority list for Yokogawa SA with Sasol being a major customer. One of the more recent projects carried out for Sasol was the upgrading of the control system for the gasifiers at Sasol Infrachem, where an old but still functional Yokogawa control system was replaced with state-of-the-art equipment. Yokogawa SA is also involved with Natref, having assisted them with phase one of their expansion programme last year and phase two which is in progress this year.
Although Yokogawa SA has a very large installed base in the local chemical and petrochemical industries its products and systems are found in widely diverse industrial areas ranging from mining and pulp and paper, to sugar and the iron and steel industry. In all of these cases the high specifications required for the petrochemical industry have ensured greater reliability and lower life cycle costs. As a recent example of general industrial projects Yokogawa is undertaking a R12m upgrade for Foskor Richards Bay (formerly Indian Ocean Fertilizer) where a competitor's control system is being replaced.
Apart from its activities in South Africa Yokogawa SA is also responsible for the rest of southern Africa. Countries where it has been involved through local distributors include Ghana, Zimbabwe, Angola, Mozambique and Zambia, the latter being an area of particular activity in the mining, smelting and refining industries.
Yokogawa is constantly releasing new products and systems, but in light of the fact that the company produced the first DCS system in 1975, its recent launch of its electronic Realtime Manufacturing (e-RM) system Stardom is significant. Stardom was released in March this year and addresses a new niche identified by the company which is positioned between the traditional distributed control system (DCS) and PLC/scada markets. Stardom is a network-based control system (NCS) that allows users to choose the optimum components for an application based on function (control, operations or monitoring) and links them using cutting-edge network technology. This allows the user to select commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices and to configure an open and efficient industrial automation system with flexible expandability and upgradeability. Stardom is believed to be the first control system to make full use of Internet technologies. Yokogawa SA believes that the new NCS system could be particularly appropriate in the mining industry.
In terms of products Yokogawa provides a full range of measurement devices for flow, pressure, temperature and analytical applications as well as test and measurement equipment. One of its more recent products (late 2001) is the US300 series ultrasonic flowmeters. The US300 makes use of dual microprocessor correlation and has a flow calibrated matched pair of transducers that eliminate offset and guarantee measurement stability. The US300 is a clamp-on device and comes in two versions, one for permanent installation and the other for temporary use in the field. Being external to the fluid makes the US300 particularly suitable for the chemical industry and for plants where corrosive and abrasive fluids are present. Along with a few countries in Europe South Africa was a launch customer for this flowmeter. Note that in addition to its new ultrasonic range, Yokogawa offer Coriolis Mass, Variable Area, Magnetic Inductive, Vortex and Metal Tube Rotameter flowmeters.
Yokogawa have another claim to fame in that it is the only company in the world that offers a truly digital transmitter. Whereas other company's devices take analog measurements that are converted to a digital signal for transmission Yokogawa uses digital sensors. A major benefit is accuracy and immunity to drift with no need to recalibrate. Yokogawa is confident of its technology and offers a five-year unconditional warranty that drift will not occur with its transmitters.
As with most of the I&C industry, Yokogawa SA has experienced a lean couple of years after strong growth in the mid-nineties of more than twice the official inflation rate. As for 2002 the early indications are that industry demand is picking up. For customers, a major benefit of choosing Yokogawa is the fact that it can offer a turnkey solution with a control system using virtually 90% of in-house field instruments and systems.
For more information contact Yokogawa SA, 011 681 2500.
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